The SARC 10 GHz Beacon

To many, amateur radio is just pushing buttons on a radio built by someone else. To others, the hobby offers numerous technical challenges in venturing beyond conventional limits, without any idea of where it may lead.

That is the proud tradition of ham radio, and it was in this spirit that Dino VE7NX and Scott VA7SC decided to collaborate on construction of a 10 GHz beacon—something that only a handful of enterprising hams have done in Canada.

Communicating on 10 GHz is certainly no longer "frontier," but it is a new experience for us here at SARC. We hope that the success of this project will inspire others to take an interest in the super-high frequencies (microwave) and construct their own devices, then attempt line-of-sight communication, rain scatter, or even moonbounce.

The 10 GHz, or 3 cm, amateur band extends from 10.0 to 10.50 GHz, with the 10.45–10.50 GHz portion allocated to amateur satellite and the remainder for other modes.

The beacon constructed by Dino and Scott transmits the following CW sequence at 10,368.225 MHz:

VE7SAR/B CN89NE [grid square] followed by a short tone, then repeats.

The beacon and antenna are mounted on a pole at the top of Concord Tower (One Park Place), located at 100th Ave and King George Blvd in Surrey. Running initially at 1 mW, the beacon could be heard throughout the Lower Mainland of BC where line-of-sight to the antenna—or a suitably reflecting surface—exists.

Let's look at the construction of the beacon as it will be when complete with amplifier.

The local oscillator, operating at 1152.025 MHz, uses an ADF4351 chip controlled by Arduino, driving a W1GHZ 9× multiplier and filters to achieve the output frequency of 10,368.225 MHz.

A 10 MHz oven-controlled crystal oscillator provides the reference to ensure frequency stability. Keying is controlled by a second Arduino chip, programmed with the CW callsign and grid square.

The JCA 250 mW amplifier runs at 150mW output to provide reliable service without overheating. The amplifier connects to a 12-slot 10 GHz antenna for omnidirectional propagation covering the Greater Vancouver area. The box runs on 13.8V obtained from the repeater room below the roof level.

Full credit to Scott and Dino for this great accomplishment, which was completed and in operation (absent the amplifier) before the MUD (Microwave Update 2024) conference on October 3–4, 2025 in Delta.