What is Reverse Beacon Network in Amateur Radio?

What is Reverse Beacon Network in Amateur Radio?

I came across Reverse Beacon Network in a discussion with AA5ET on 80 m propagation during the October 14, 2023 solar eclipse at a QRZ forum. RBN is an internet based network of dedicated wide band receivers globally, which can decode CW signals in real time. They generate “spots” containing frequency, signal strength, CW speed, signal to noise ratio etc and display it on a map as well. It is the reverse of listening to a beacon to check propagation. You can call a CQ while connected to RBN to see which of the global network of receivers are receiving your signal. I felt that this will be a great tool to assess propagation as well as to know the performance of your radio.

On the RBN main page, there is option to select between 630 m, 160 m, 80 m, 60 m, 40 m, 30 m, 20 m, 17 m, 15 m, 12 m, 10 m, 6 m, 4 m and 2 m amateur radio bands. I could not see 70 cm and above on the main page. While spotter location is displayed in red colour, spotted location is displayed in blue colour. Though RBN has in been existence for the past 15 years, I am hearing about it for the first time, mainly because of my long hiatus in amateur radio over the past decade! RBN website is hosted by DXWatch.com by PY1NB. This is just an introductory note on RBN. Hope to post more information when I actually start using it when I acquire an HF radio, presumably in 2024!