Analysing the RBN

Background

The Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) is a network of receivers, listening, decoding and providing information on received amateur radio signals.

Watching RBN spots

In order to watch data from the RBN, assuming that a connect is already made, ensure that debug is set to progress from the console:

set/deb progress

At the command prompt use the following to watch RBN spots flow:

./watchdbg 'progress' 'RBN: SPOT'

or the following to search for a specific aspect such as the callsign G3MD

./grepdbg 'progress' 'RBN: SPOT' 'G3MD'

Example data

15:59:41 (progress) RBN: SPOT key: 'G3MD|101220' = G3MD on 10121.9 by SQ5J @ 1559Z Q:9* route: SK0MMR dwell: 7s QRGScore: 17 Deviants: 1/9 (SQ5J:+0.1)
15:59:41 (progress) RBN: SPOT key: 'VE1VDM/B|281741' = VE1VDM/B on 28174.1 by NU4F @ 1555Z Q:2+ route: SK0MMR dwell: 3m 54s QRGScore: 10 Deviants: 0/2
15:59:41 (progress) RBN: SPOT key: 'VP2VI|248950' = VP2VI on 24895 by NN3RP @ 1559Z Q:9*+ route: SK0MMR dwell: 10s QRGScore: 5 Deviants: 1/5 (W3OA:+0.1)
15:59:42 (progress) RBN: SPOT key: 'DL4HG|70291' = DL4HG on 7029.1 by HB9BXE @ 1559Z Q:9* route: SK0MMR dwell: 9s QRGScore: 39 Deviants: 1/9 (DL0PF:+0.1)
15:59:45 (progress) RBN: SPOT key: 'AO100IAR|140850' = AO100IAR on 14085 by VE3EID @ 1556Z Q:2 route: SK0MMR dwell: 3m 5s QRGScore: 9 Deviants: 0/2

Decoding the data

• Q is quality, and is the number of skimmers that have received the signal Q:8 would mean that the signal has been heard by 8 receivers. If they did not agree on a frequency this is indicated by a '*'. The frequency shown is the majority decision. If this station has been active for for a while and they are still calling CQ after some time (configurable, but nominally 60 minutes), then a '+' character will be added. If Q:1 is seen on a CW spot, then only one skimmer has seen that spot and the callsign *could* be wrong, But if Q is Q:2 and above, then the callsign is much more likely to be correct.
• Dwell - needs describing
• QRGScore - needs describing
• Deviants - needs describing