October 13, 2012
23:59
by: trango

Operation Deep Freeze Activity Ramps Up

Operation Deep Freeze became really active as of today (10.13.12). In the recording below you can hear ICE 10, ICE 11, Deep Freeze Ops, Mac Center and Charleston Roth. Discussion of various weather situations, Iridium texts, Microwave Landing System (MLS) and thermal blankets (brr, sounds cold!).

POR 263.6250 on 10-13-12:

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Posted in SATCOM Tagged

October 11, 2012
15:04
by: trango

TerreStar-1 on S-Band

While doing some calibration on the smaller dish I ran across a really nice collection of voice/data signals from the TerreStar-1 satellite. TerreStar-1 is in geosynchronous orbit in the 111W slot. It has an 18-meter antenna and so has some pretty strong signal capability.

Modulation is Pi/4 QPSK GMR-1.

Here is a wide view of a control signal and many voice/data channels.

Wide view of signals from TerreStar-1 at 111W.

Here is a closer look at some of the voice/data signals.

Voice/Data signals from TerreStar-1 at 111W.

Posted in SATCOM Tagged

October 11, 2012
14:46
by: trango

Space-X Dragon Telemetry Reception

Here are a couple of recent signals from Space-X Dragon while on it’s way to dock with the ISS.

First is a nice strong narrow band signal from Dragon capsule just before tethering with ISS. You can see the impact of having doppler correction disabled.

Dragon narrow band signal on 2216 MHz.

And finally, a weaker wide band signal on a low elevation pass over the western coast of USA.

Weak wide band telemetry from Dragon on 2216 MHz.

Posted in Spacecraft Tagged

October 11, 2012
14:31
by: trango

Landsat-5 S-Band Reception

Just killing time waiting for ISS / Dragon to come into view. Decided to take a listen to Landsat-5 and was surprised with a really nice wide signal on 2287.5 MHz. Was able to see it lock up with the Alaska ground station. Nice steady signal with doppler.

Landsat-5 talking to Alaska ground station.

Landsat-5 talking to Alaska ground station.

Posted in SATCOM Tagged

October 7, 2012
19:46
by: trango

L-Band Downconverter for Inmarsat Operation

USA-Satcom has a shortage of communication receivers due to all the interesting things to monitor. In an effort to free up one of the communication receivers used for Inmarsat monitoring, a new L-Band downconverter has been designed and installed.

Click the image below for more details.

L-Band Downconverter for Inmarsat.

Posted in Projects Tagged , ,

October 7, 2012
19:19
by: trango

L-Band Feed Optimization and Weatherproofing

The ground mounted 1.2m dish is currently dedicated to Inmarsat 3F3 POR at 178E. Winter is coming and so it was time to weatherproof and paint the 5-turn helical feed. The feed was also phase center optimized during dish calibration. The LNA is a Kuhne Electronic KU LNA 152 (but with a custom weatherproof milled case, with bias-T) and has a NF of 0.4 dB and 33dB gain.

Freshly waterproofed 5-turn Helical feed.

The LNA is weatherproof by design but it never hurts to have a little extra protection. Here we have a nice half-pipe cover to keep water from hitting the LNA directly. The design was suggested by UHF-Satcom.

Integrated half-pipe LNA cover.

Side view showing LNA stand-offs holding half-pipe cover.

And here is an updated profile of the the ground mounted 1.2m dish.

1.2m “Inmarsat” dish with new 5-turn L-Band feed.

Posted in Projects Tagged , ,

September 21, 2012
19:37
by: trango

Shuttle Endeavour Ferry Flight

The shuttle Endeavour made a historic ferry flight to Northern California today. Endeavour performed low level flyovers in the Bay Area and Sacramento before making it’s way to it’s final destination in Los Angeles. After the low pass over the state capitol, Endeavor flew north and then turned southwest near Roseville. Here is a short video of the flight as seen from a rooftop in Roseville, CA.

The Ferry was a Boeing 747 with the Mode-S ID of ADFEF4. As with most military flights position was not transmitted, just altitude.

Posted in Spacecraft Tagged ,

September 10, 2012
15:45
by: trango

X-Band System is Operational

After a few months of pulling together some key surplus X-Band equipment, USA-Satcom is happy to report successful first signals from both WGS-1 and DSCS-3 satellites.

Here are a couple of screenshots of X-Band waveforms from WGS-1 and DSCS-3.

WGS-1 (175E) Several wide-band signals shown. Some with visible periodic synchronization.

DSCS-3 (135W) Wide-band Signal.

Additional X-Band waveforms can be viewed here.

Here is the newly added Vertex RSI X-Band LNA and the very cool rectangular to circular waveguide transition with squeeze tube de-polarization provided by UHF-Satcom.com

Vertex RSI X-Band LNA. 50 dB of gain! 500 MHz of bandwidth centered at 7500 MHz. NF of 0.7 dB. Rectangular to circular waveguide with squeeze tube de-polarization is complements of UHF-Satcom.com.

Posted in Projects, SATCOM Tagged , ,

September 9, 2012
16:44
by: trango

AT-197A/GR Military Air Discone

Installed this nice RAMI AT-197A/GR Military Discone today. It’s a great broad band omni-directional antenna optimized for 225-400 MHz. Along with the antenna I am using a custom Angle Linear LNA with a NF of 0.7 and a gain of 20dB for the Military Air band 225-400 MHz.

225-400 MHz Omnidirectional Discone Antenna.

Custom Angle Linear Military Air LNA.

Here is a sample of the audio from a recent intercept from some T38 jets on a training mission that didn’t go as planned.

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Posted in Milair Tagged ,

September 7, 2012
11:07
by: trango

Operation Deep Freeze

Operation Deep Freeze seems to be active again. These recordings are from end of August but I am just getting around to posting them. From the recordings it sounds like they are just getting Satcom setup and are doing some testing. Stations calling or being called are as follows: Mac Center, Deep Freeze Ops, ICE 02/03/04, Charleston Roth.

POR 260.4250 on 08-26-12:

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POR 260.4250 on 08-27-12:

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POR 260.4250 on 08-28-12:

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Posted in SATCOM Tagged