There are three ways to determine which beacons are being heard in various parts of the world. You can check for reception reports (spots) made manually by amateurs who have heard the beacons and have posted a spot on a local DX Cluster or directly to DX Summit. Or, you can check with web pages showing automated reception reports of the beacons by Faros software or the Reverse Beacon Network.
On August 20, 2017 at 1941 UTC, the CS3B beacon from Madeira began transmitting with the new version 2 beacon hardware. For the first time ever, all 18 beacons in the International Beacon Project are operating at the same time on all 5 bands.
The opportunity to hear all 18 beacons in one day has never occurred before. Now is your chance. Before lightning strikes a beacon station, or a hurricane knocks down an antenna, or a component fails, or the rig is stolen, as has happened before every time we were close to 100%. Many of the beacons are in remote locations on mountain tops or subject to the corrosion of salt air by the sea shore. We try to keep them all on the air, but you can never tell when one will go down for some time.
On August 27, OH6BG's skimmer picked up VK6RBP and JA2IGY making him the first RBN-op to report all 18 beacons. Over the 3 day period from August 25 to 27 he heard them all. Congratulations!
Jari tells me that they run a QS1R, a 10dB preamp and a TH7DXX at 40m ASL (by the sea) plus a multiband vertical in an extremely quiet QTH on an island south of Vaasa. They turned the antenna on Sunday to pick up the missing beacons. Jari's propagation tools probably helped.
On November 7, 2017, with few hours of daylight in Finland and despite an active G2 level geomagnetic storm spreading a broad aurora, OH6BG managed to hear all 18 beacons in one UTC day. Solar flux was 68, the estimated A-index was 36 and K was 6. These were not the conditions in which we would expect this to happen.
On April 26, 2018, WZ7I unblocked spots of 4U1UN, and became the second spotter to have reported all 18 beacons. Locals had requested he not spot 4U1UN.
On April 27, 2018, DJ9IE joined the elite club of spotters to report all 18 beacons.
On June 10, 2018, GW8IZR joined the elite club of spotters to report all 18 beacons.
On May 9, 2019, ON5KQ reported hearing KH6RS to reach the 18 beacon total.
On May 13, 2019, CT1BOH reported hearing KH6RS to reach the 18 beacon total.
On May 18, 2020, DL9GTB reported hearing KH6RS to reach the 18 beacon total.
On September 7, 2020, CX6VM reported hearing VK6RBP to reach the 18 beacon total.
On September 12, 2020, EA8/DF4UE heard 10 beacons and reached the 18 beacon total.
On November 12, 2020, KM3T heard 10 beacons and reached the 18 beacon total.
On November 28, 2020, ES5PC included LU4AA in his 120 reports to reach 18 beacons.
On March 16, 2021, DL3DTH spotted VE8AT, finishing the 18 beacon challenge.
On May 5, 2021, VE2WU finally heard JA2IGY, completing the 18 beacon challenge.
On May 19, 2021, DL8LAS heard JA2IGY, completing the 18 beacon challenge. On August 25, 2024, his Faros monitor showed reception of all 18 beacons in a single day. In fact most were received on 5 bands and all were received on 3 bands or more!
On May 24, 2021, HA6PX heard W6WX transmitting on the new DBD antenna, completing his 18 beacon challenge.
On September 7, 2021, W1NT heard VK6RBP on 20 meters, the last one he needed.
5Z4B is back after a year off the air. It was the only beacon OE9GHV needed to complete 18 on November 25, 2021.
SK6KU was able to show reception of all 18 beacons in a single day, February 9, 2022, with his FAROS monitoring setup.
February 10, 2022. F4FPR did it! With the return of 4S7B to the air, Benjamin has now reported all 18 beacons.
Propagation from Hawaii to Europe opened on March 10, 2022 and DF2CK finally heard it for the 18 beacon RBN award.
On March 11, 2022, SE5E snagged 4S7B to complete the 18 beacon RBN Challenge.
On March 30, 2022, G4ZFE heard ZL6B on 15m. Finally completing the 18 beacon RBN Challenge.
On April 10, 2022, KP2RUM finally heard VK6RBP on 20m, achieving the 18 beacon RBN Challenge.
On April 20, 2022, DJ9IE spotted all 18 beacons in one UTC day. This is the first time since 2017 that anyone else has accomplished the feat.
On April 24, 2022, DM5GG heard KH6RS on 20 meters, completing the 18 beacon challenge. Propagation is looking up!
Congratulations to Milen, LZ5DB, who spotted 2 more stations on April 26, 2020 to reach 18 beacons.
Peter, EA8BHK, heard KH6RS on 17 meters on May 6, 2022, to complete his 18 beacon target.
Saki, DD5XX heard KH6RS on 20 meters on June 5, 2022, to complete the 18 beacon challenge.
On June 28, 2022, W6YX heard 4S7B for the first time to complete the 18 beacon challenge.
On July 1, 2022, AA4VV heard 4S7B and completed his 18 beacon challenge.
On July 25, 2022, KO7SS reported 4S7B on 17m to complete the 18 beacon challenge.
On October 13, 2022, W3UA finally heard VK6RBP on 17m to complete the 18 beacon challenge.
On December 14, 2022, HB9DCO finally heard VK6RBP on 20m to complete the 18 beacon challenge.
On April 7, 2023, G0KTN heard KH6RS on 20m to complete the 18 beacon challenge using only a Wellbrook 1530LN loop mounted 1m above ground in a small back garden in the middle of an RF noisy housing estate.
On August 19, 2023, K1TTT heard VR2B on 17m, completing his 18 beacon challenge.
LZ4UX had not reported hearing W6WX until December 1, 2023 when it came through on 15m.
9M2CNC heard 4U1UN for the first time on January 15, 2023, completing the 18 beacon challenge.
On March 8, 2024, MM0ZBH finally heard KH6RS on 20 meters to complete the challenge.
The KH6LC contest station finally heard OH2B on 15 meters to complete the RBN Challenge on March 10, 2024.
IK4VET heard KH6RS on 15 meters on April 13, 2024 to complete his 18 beacon challenge.
3D2AG heard RR9O on 20 meters on June 17, 2024 to complete his 18 beacon challenge.
G4IRN heard 5Z4B for the first time on August 29, 2024, completing the 18 beacon challenge.
G4IRN and DF2CK both heard all 18 beacons in a single UTC day on August 29, 2024!
LZ5DI heard KH6RS for the first time on December 24, 2024, completing his 18 beacon challenge.
On February 21, 2025, KH6RS signals were reported by DC8YZ, completing the 18 beacon challenge.
| 2025-05-17 | ||
|---|---|---|
| RBN-Op | Reports | Beacons |
| DF2CK | 563 | 13 |
| LZ4AE | 221 | 10 |
| KP2RUM | 420 | 10 |
| DD5XX | 219 | 10 |
| WA7LNW | 61 | 8 |
| W6YX | 82 | 8 |
| ES5PC | 186 | 8 |
| VU2TUM | 91 | 7 |
| VK2GEL | 131 | 7 |
| VE6JY | 62 | 7 |
| TI7W | 9 | 7 |
| LZ5DI | 145 | 7 |
| ZL4YL | 44 | 6 |
| VU2PTT | 25 | 6 |
| N6TV | 218 | 6 |
| LZ4UX | 93 | 6 |
| HA8TKS | 112 | 6 |
| G4ZFE | 158 | 6 |
| W3OA | 49 | 5 |
| MM0ZBH | 107 | 5 |
| KM3T-3 | 107 | 5 |
| KH6LC | 73 | 5 |
| G4IRN | 80 | 5 |
| DL9GTB | 29 | 5 |
| 3D2AG | 89 | 5 |
| VE7CC | 82 | 4 |
| VE3EID | 14 | 4 |
| OH6BG | 22 | 4 |
| NU4F | 12 | 4 |
| YO2MAX | 9 | 3 |
| WZ7I | 43 | 3 |
| VE6WZ | 76 | 3 |
| OE9GHV | 27 | 3 |
| OE6ADD | 10 | 3 |
| OE3KLU | 3 | 3 |
| KM3T-5 | 6 | 3 |
| K9LC | 4 | 3 |
| JI1HFJ | 6 | 3 |
| HB9DCO | 40 | 3 |
| HA6PX | 7 | 3 |
| DM5GG | 58 | 3 |
| DL0PF | 5 | 3 |
| W3RGA | 6 | 2 |
| W2NAF | 2 | 2 |
| W1NT-6 | 6 | 2 |
| VK2RH | 57 | 2 |
| NG7M | 3 | 2 |
| MM0GPZ | 7 | 2 |
| LU8XW | 24 | 2 |
| KM3T-2 | 12 | 2 |
| KD7EFG | 3 | 2 |
| G0KTN | 79 | 2 |
| DL1HWS | 10 | 2 |
| BH4RRG | 11 | 2 |
| WC2L | 1 | 1 |
| WB6BEE | 1 | 1 |
| K7EK | 5 | 1 |
| K7CO | 2 | 1 |
| K2PO/7 | 1 | 1 |
| DF7GB | 3 | 1 |
The Reverse Beacon Network involves hundreds of volunteer monitoring stations using CW Skimmer to monitor for CW callsigns and report them via the RBN web site. If you operate a skimmer, please adjust the settings and add the beacons to Watch.lst to optimize reception of IBP Beacons.
The Reverse Beacon Network can be used to show reception reports of the beacons by users who have added the beacon callsigns to their watch list. N4ZR explains how to do that in his NCDXF Beacon Spotting Redux blog post. If you have not changed the KH6 beacon to KH6RS in your Watch.lst file, and downloaded the latest version of Aggregator, please do so now.
