4 hours ago
Today's 'start track' of Parker Solar Probe, currently receiving on 8430.954MHz, low elevation with probably 50-60% of antenna obstructed. https://t.co/ZJGTadSf18
1 day ago
This is a photo of my old, long gone, Inmarsat system built back in 1991 just before Desert Storm #1 - antenna was pointing at 64E Inmarsat IOR used by the CNN crew for live reporting from Baghdad. Tin can feed and FET LNA with 2 MMIC's after for line driver, AOR3000 RX. https://t.co/PIawDxz0Tl
1 day ago
Parker Solar Probe X-Band downlink, huge signal as expected on 8430.952MHz, dish 25% obscured by local obstructions and elevation currently 11.28 degrees. https://t.co/RSSUqomPDo
Category Archives: Projects
Heat sink and shielding for HackRF One
The HackRF one PCB is manufactured with an option for a shield. This shield is available from NooElec. It’s a simple and quick addition, just some easy soldering. The hardest part is just removing the HackRF one from it’s plastic … Continue reading
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
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
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
AERO-I 600 Baud GMSK
Currently there are 9 AERO-I 600 Baud GMSK channels on POR. Quite a bit of ACARS and CPDLC traffic along with the usual Call Management signaling units. These signals are huge as you can see from the “tightness” of the … Continue reading
