PI4 – PharusIgnis4 is a digital modulation (MGM) for beacon purposes.
It is an ideal digital modulation that is compliant with the IARU Region 1 VHF Committee accepted 1 minute mixed mode beacon sequence.
The name PharusIgnis4 comes from the ancient words for beacon, lighthouse and fire – Pharos (from Greek to Latin pharus and coming from the Lighthouse of Alexandria on the island of Pharos), Ignis (Latin: fire) and 4 for the four FSK tones.
Decoding PI4
The OZ7IGY Next Generation Beacons transmit in a 1 minute cycle starting at the full minute. The colored line below illustrates the mixed mode sequence where P indicate pauses. The CW is sent at 60 LPM/12 WPM.
| PI4 | P | CW ID | P | Carrier | P |
First it sends PI4 (call sign), that last 24 1/3 s, a subsequent pause of 2/3 s, then at the 25 s sending CW identification (call sign and locator), followed by a 500 ms pause and carrier until the 59,5 s followed by a 500 ms pause until the end of the cycle. The resulting waterfall and decoding in PI-RX will look like the screen dump below. To decode a PI4 signal you will have to set your receiver to the same frequency as of you would do to receive a beacon with an 800 Hz carrier. The receiver bandwidth should not be less than 1 kHz. On most receivers you will have to set your USB dial 800 Hz lower than the nominal frequency, e.g. OZ7IGY is assigned to transmit on 50,471 MHz thus the receiver must be tuned to 50.470.200 to show a 0 Hz frequency deviation. When you receive the carrier at exactly 800 Hz then you know how accurate your station is.
To decode PI4 you can use
- PI-RX by Poul-Erik, OZ1CKG, Windows
- MSHV by Christo, LZ2HV, Linux and Windows
- Michael, DG0OPK, running MSHV on a Cubieboard2
- SparkSDR by Alan, M0NNB Linux, Mac and Windows
PI4 decoding of OZ7IGY and carrier measurement using PI-RX by Poul-Erik, OZ1CKG.
Why PI4
The reason for using PI4 + CW + carrier for the OZ7IGY beacons is:
- The analog part of the identification must be frequent both to identify the beacon but also to “handle” QSB
- The beacon, must be readable even when the path is distorted i.e. by rain scatter, aurora etc. Who says we have finished detecting new propagation techniques? So the beacon must also be “forward compatible”
- It must be possible to decode the MGM part even if the receiver is not frequency locked
- Today most beacons identify themselves every 30-45 seconds. But waiting for the identification “always” seems to long. Like waiting in a telephone queue always seems to long. The perceived time when waiting always seems to be to long
- A 2 min sequence is to long and the shorter the better
- Identical sequence every minute
- It should be possible to calibrate to the beacon. Thus a carrier is needed to zero-beat on. Today this is specified to be about 20-30 seconds
- The analog identification should be readable by “all of us” not just the very high speed CW operators. Thus 12 WPM/60 LPM as already specified seems to make sense
- Must fit into the current 1 kHz beacon to beacon spacing structure
- The MGM must be transmittable via a class C amplifier to save power
PI4 is specifically designed with beacons and VUSHF propagations in mind. It is far more robust to path irregularities and equipment inaccuracies than e.g. WSPR and JT9 that both also would require a long sequence. JT65 modes are in-between WSPR/JT9 and PI4, and JT4, when it comes to robustness but cannot fulfil an identical sequence every minute without other sacrifices unless using the JT65B2/C2 submodes. The JT4 submode JT4G has better path robustness than PI4 but takes about twice as long to transmit thus it will not fulfil the sequence requirements. PSK2k, FSK441, JT6M, JT9-fast, MSK144 and ISCAT are all “fast modes” but are not as sensitive as the other modes. Because of this is PI4 the MGM used by the OZ7IGY Next Generation Beacons.
The PI4 + CW + carrier sequence has also been chosen as the sequence for the IARU 50 MHz Synchronized Beacon Project.
PI4 + CW + carrier/Next Generation Beacons platforms
Click here for VUSHF beacon lists in general.
| Beacon | Locator | Frequency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4O0BCG | JP92PK | 70,048 MHz | |
| DB0HRF | JO40FF | 144,475 MHz and 3400,975 MHz | |
| DB0IH | JN39HJ | 432,447 MHz | |
| DB0JG | JO31HS | 432,412 MHz | |
| DB0LTG | JO31TB | 1296,7435 MHz | |
| DB0MMO | JN49RV | 144,455 MHz, 432,425 MHz, 10 368,840 MHz and 24 048,825 MHz | |
| EI0SIX | IO63VE | 50,005 MHz | SBP 5/0 |
| EI1KNH | IO63VE | 60,013 MHz | SBP timeslot 0, 1 and 2 |
| GB3CFG | IO74CR | 70,027 MHz and 1296,905 MHz | |
| GB3FNM | IO91OF | 2320,920 MHz | |
| GB3GCT | IO91IJ | 10368,935 MHz | |
| GB3MCB | IO70OJ | 50,005 MHz and 50,443 MHz | SBP 5/1 and 3 |
| GB3MHZ | JO02PB | 2320,830 MHz and 10 368,830 MHz | |
| GB3NGI | IO65VB | 50,006 MHz and 50,462 MHz 144,482 MHz, 432,482 MHz and 1296,905 MHz | SBP 6/2 and 4 |
| GB3SEV | IO82UI | 144,432 MHz | |
| GB3UHF | JO01EH | 432,430 MHz | |
| HB9F | JN37RA | 50,420 MHz | |
| IW9GDC/B | JM78SD | 50,006 MHz | SBP 6/0, 1 and 3 |
| KG4BYN | EM75RV | 28,2368 MHz | |
| OH7VHF | KP52HL | 144,433 MHz | |
| ON0EME | JO21JG | 10 368,875 MHz and 24 048,875 MHz | |
| ON0SNW | JO21BE | 10 368,965 MHz | |
| OX4M | HQ90AL | 70,047 MHz | |
| OX6M | HQ90AL | 50,047 MHz | |
| OZ7IGY | JO55WM | 28 MHz to 24 GHz | |
| PA0AG | JO32GH | 70,095 MHz | Personal beacon, 07-21 UTC |
| PI7SIX | JO21FV | 50,005 MHz and 50,425 MHz | SBP 5/2 |
| SK3SIX | JP73HC | 50,468 MHz | |
| SK4MPI | JP70NJ | 144,412 MHz | |
| SK3VHF | JP73HC | 144,421 MHz | |
| SR9RMF | KN09GL | 70,060 MHz | |
| SV3BSF/B | KM08VA | 50,450 MHz | |
| TF1VHF | HP84WL | 50,457 MHz and 70,057 MHz | |
| UA1ZFG/B | KP69AK | 144,425 MHz | |
| UT4UWJ/B | KO50FK | 144,482 MHz | |
| VA2NQ | FN35NL | 50,295 MHz, 144,491 MHz, 222,295 MHz and 432,302 MHz | |
| YM4SIX | KM66AO | 50,003 MHz and 50,403 MHz | SBP 3/2 |
| ZS0BET | KG41DS | 144,425 MHz |
In the pipeline: GB3ANG (144 MHz and 1,3 GHz), OH1DB (10 GHz), PI7RTD (1,3 GHz and 2,3 GHz), TF1VHF (144 MHz), WA1ZMS/4 (70 MHz and 144 MHz) and YM4 (28 MHz and 144 MHz).