3 hours ago
The brackets for the adjustable feed brackets on 3m dish - hopefully will add some fractional dBs to the signal by more precisely aligning feed point. https://t.co/jI2xkLcmtd
5 hours ago
Last night's tracking session with CE5. Automatic tracking and screen grabs as i slept! During my tracking session there were two lock/unlocks events. #1 at UTC 2022.11.27 072109 and #2 at UTC 2022.11.27 074939.
Frequency/peak levels and pointing all logged for @coastal8049 https://t.co/y8X810QpJR
19 hours ago
Update #7 4m dish build. Just a quick look see! It's really taking shape and more fun now all the messy cutting and drilling is done.. #Ghz_bands #eme #hamradio https://t.co/aGn3UajP55
19 hours ago
16 ribs ready for the 4m dish. Lots more to do now the Aluminium has arrived. Outer and inner rings next.
#eme #Ghz_bands #hamradio https://t.co/I2ykN7rrbQ
19 hours ago
I thought i would add RA and DEC output to my DSN Tracker. What a rabbit hole. Soon was knee keep in LST and GST and Hour-Angle. Took way too long to get this going. But it's done (i hope).
Now am thinking sidereal tracking would be a nice addition too... https://t.co/22LhQXYQJB
Author Archives: trango
AirSpy working with Inmarsat Decoder
My new AirSpy SDR arrived last week. The goal this weekend was to make a small application to stream the IQ over Ethernet and then test it with one of the Inmarsat decoders that I have previously developed. The API … Continue reading
RF Selection for AOR AR2300
In an serious effort to reduce patch panel management, another Mini-Circuits USB 4SPDT-A18 RF Switch has been added. Now, along with the original RF Switch, selections can be made from up to 10 different RF sources, including various dishes, yagis, … Continue reading
Posted in Projects
Blue Force Tracking on Inmarsat
Blue Force Tracking is a GPS-enabled system that give US Military the location of “friendly” military forces. You can read more about it on Wikipedia. Inmarsat is one of the commercial satellite providers that has a contract with the the … Continue reading
Inmarsat Antenna Distribution
Inmarsat L-Band signals from both CONUS and POR need to be routed to various receivers and SDRs, this distribution system is a pretty simple solution (as shown below). It’s based on taking an L-Band signals from a dish, where pre-amplification … Continue reading
XM-1 S-Band Signal
Need to check dish alignment on S-Band? The 12.5MHz XM-1 signal is a great test signal. XM-1 is a much more interesting signal to look at than Sirius. The signal below is using a 1.8m dish.
Chang’e 5-T1 and new 1.8m dish online
New spacecraft and new dish were tested this weekend. The spacecraft is the Chinese Chang’e 5-T1, an experimental unmanned lunar mission that was recently launched by the CNSA. The dish is a 1.8m Prodelin offset and is inverted for ease … Continue reading
Posted in Projects, Spacecraft
Tagged S-Band
Aero Decoding and Full Support for HackRF One
After some work it is now possible to fully support HackRF One with my Inmarsat Aero decoder. In the past, the Inmarsat Aero decoder used two SDRs (each covering 2MHz) to cover up to 4MHz of L-Band spectrum as well … Continue reading
Adding External Reference to HackRF One SDR
The HackRF One SDR is a great value but it’s frequency stability leaves something to be desired. Using the Si5338 clock generator from Silicon Laboratories is an easy way to address the problem (if it’s really a problem for your … Continue reading
HackRF One and Decoders
I’m always looking for opportunities to reduce the costs associated with high quality decoding tasks. The HackRF One is intriguing because it’s not very expensive, has a wide band receiver (10MHz – 6GHz) and an SDR that is capable of … Continue reading
Aero Coverage of POR and CONUS
The diagram below illustrates the current Aero coverage that is possible here at USA-Satcom. As you can see there is quite a bit of IQ bandwidth to deal with and consequently at least two i7 hex core machines are needed … Continue reading