Below you will find a number of useful files related to Beacon Dxing, which you can download for free. This is by no means an exhaustive collection, and I am always more than pleased to include any new material here, or place links to the work of other beacon enthusiasts, so if you have a file of your own that you would like to see included here please do contact me with the details, and I would be more than happy to display your work. You can contact me at the following address:

webmaster at beaconworld.org.uk (you'll need to replace the 'at' with an @ symbol)

Many of these files are available in .pdf format, and you will need an Adobe Acrobat reader to open them, these can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website, or from various other sources. "The Beacon Hunter's Handbook" is designed to to help any newcomers to the hobby of beacon Dxing, and is intended to provide a lot of the basic information required to help you get started. This publication also includes much of the information included in the Beaconworld 'Datafile' page, and includes many of the sources of information that are helpful to the (budding) beacon enthusiast. A brand new 2009 edition has been produced, and this new version now contains 173 pages of useful information, including many colour graphics.

SOME OF THE PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE HERE:

"LW Dxing Starts at 1,500 miles" is an excellent article written by the late Arthur Owen G2FUD, a very experienced T/A dxer, and gives lots of essential information for the European dxer who wishes to try and hear some of the beacons from Canada, the USA and other parts of North America. This is also available in both zipped and unzipped formats.

"The NDB Abbreviations List" It can be very frustrating when you are bombarded with jargon, or acronyms which don't mean a thing to you, the "NDB Abbreviations List" is an attempt to make life easier for beacon enthusiasts by providing an explanation in simple english about what some of these terms mean. This list grows bigger by the week, so keep a look out for updates!

"DGPS Beacons of the World" As someone who likes to receive DGPS beacons over long distances, I thought it was about time we had a few listings here to help newcomers to this aspect of the hobby. Further down this page you will find my "DGPS Beacons of the World" database" in .pdf format, and also "DGPS Stations in North America, by Andy Robins. Many more DGPS articles can be found in the DGPS Section of this website.

"NAVTEX Stations of the World" This new NAVTEX Database is now presented in a similar format to the World DGPS Database, and will hopefully prove to be as useful. You will find a printable .pdf copy further down the page, along with the newer "NAVTEX Scheduled Broadcasts" database. Many more articles related to this subject can also be found in the Navtex Section of this website

"Roelof's NDB Offsets" - First introduced in December 2005, Roelof, PA0RDT, has kindly allowed his unique database of NDB Offset measurements to be included here, and this should prove to be very useful to anyone NDB enthusiast working with very narrow audio or IF filters, who will be only too aware how difficult it can be to find NDBs when working at these sorts of bandwidths.

Also included are files covering NDB Country Codes, ICAO Codes, Oil Platform Beacons, VLF/LF Guides etc. Look for more being added here soon. As always, a reminder that these files are produced purely for hobbyists, and should never be used for navigation purposes.

If you enjoyed reading Andy and Russell Robins' article "NDB Tour Around Michigan", you'll love their new article, "AN INFORMAL GUIDE TO NDB HUNTING". I'm pleased to announce that this excellent article is now available here for download in .pdf format, and if you are thinking of planning, or oragising an NDB tour of your own you'll definitely want to read this first! **BE WARNED** - with the current international situation it may not be advisable to go wandering around airfields without first getting the permission of the owners. What may seem innocent to us hobbyists could be viewed with suspicion if you were to be found wandering around an airport perimeter with a camera and scanner. Due care and common sense should used at all times until things settle down once again.

Some of the articles in the above sections can also be found on this page, but many are 'original', and purely related to the particular subject (e.g. the DGPS & Navtex Sections only contains articles related to DGPS and Navtex Dxing). Articles included on this page are considered to be of a more general interest, and possibly also of interest to a wider audience.