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This week, visit a Web site where you will find a new propagation tool that will run on just about anything computer-wise.

Mark Petrovic, AE6RT, has a gem for us this week called Beacon. It is a fully distributed peer-to-peer radio beacon network implementation written in cross-platform Java. Beacon's role is to collect from the user "band open" observations and make them available to other users running the application. It is sort of like a DX cluster, but only distributes propagation information and does not seek to provide any information about specifics of contacts, such as precise operating frequency or DX call sign. Simply stated, Beacon puts propagation condition information above all else.

The AE6RT Beacon Web page is a one-stop shop for support of a new multi-platform propagation tool.

Being a cross-platform Java application, Beacon can run unmodified and without recompilation on Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, and Microsoft Windows. To run this cross-platform application, you need a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) that you can download for free from the Sun Developers Network Download Java 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 Web page.

You can download Beacon itself from Mark's AE6RT Beacon Web page, where you can also read the Beacon user's guide and FAQ, as well as join the Beacon mailing list where you can ask questions and discuss the software.

When you run Beacon, its main window displays band opening events or "advertisements" that are published by you and other users. The main window also contains an input panel for publishing band opening advertisements whenever you make a contact to a distant station.

Every 60 seconds, the network is automatically queried for new band opening advertisements. New ones are displayed in Beacon's main window and are good for about an hour, and then expire. You can also clear them manually.

Until next week, keep on surfin'.

Editor' note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, collects tools; his wife wants to know when he plans to use them. To contact Stan, send e-mail or visit his Web site where you can leave him a note.

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Next: The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler