Navigation Related Activities, using land based radio beacons
Scouts may already be familiar with using two or more landmarks to fix their position by using triangulation.
A similar technique can be used by taking bearings from radio transmitters.
An ordinary medium wave (MW) broadcast receiver has a directional ferrite antenna inside. It will be found that reception is weak, usually disappearing at two points if the receiver is rotated. These null's are pointing either towards or away from the transmitter.
Reciprocal bearings from different transmitters can be plotted on a map with the intersection indicating the receivers position.
Be careful when using a compass as the radio receiver components can affect the earths magnetic field as seen by the compass.
Useful Radio Transmitters, frequencies, service and OS grid reference
1566 kHz Somerset Sound ST237253 located near the car dealers in Taunton, opposite Asda
882 kHz Radio Wales ST058410 The two tall masts at Washford, on the way to Minehead
1089 kHz Talk Sport ST058410 Washford
1215 kHz Virgin AM ST058410 Washford
666 kHz Classic Gold SX931881 Exeter
909 kHz Radio 5 Live SX931881 Exeter
990 kHz Radio Devon SX931881 Exeter
Information obtained from: http://www.mediumwaveradio.com/uk.php
Some of these services broadcast from multiple sites using the same program content and frequency. This may result in poor nulls and any activity should be checked in the intended location before use.
Those with a receiver covering the navigation bands can also take bearings from aeronautical beacons. These beacons can also be used for morse code practice as they use a two or three letter morse code identification. Local beacons include:
337 kHz Bristol Airport N 51:22:83 W 002:42:97 Callsign BRI
388.5 kHz Cardiff Airport N 51:23:60 W 003:20:30 Callsign CDF
414 kHz Exeter Airport N 50:45:13 W 003:17:70 Callsign EX
A listing of all UK non-directional beacons can be found at: http://www.pilotfriend.com/flightplanning/flight%20planning/uk_navaids1.htm (4 pages)
Receiving radio beacons and decoding the morse code identification signals can contribute to the Scout Communicator badge and also the Air Activities Staged Activity Badge, stage 6.