Using C band kit to monitor Inmarsat Aero H/H+

[gsmforensics]

A bit off topic , but as we are talking about inclined satellites ....the video above is from 2004.
I created it using telescope and webcam to demonstrate to Eutelsat what happened to their 13 east fleet during eclipse .
This happened during the Sun Outage period , when the shadow of the earth passed in front of the satellites, so for a short period they lost
solar power.
More important though is the fact they they are moving around.
Just before going into eclipse the satellites flare as the sunlight reflects off their solar panels...then they disappear for a few minutes until they acquire the Sun again.

We tend to think of Geosats as just that...geostationary...however even though they are closely controlled , they meander in space within a 100km control cube.
The Hotbirds were not inclined at the time of the capture , so , you can imagine how much the 1 or 2 degree inclined birds
move around....!

The streaks in the video are star trails created by the spin of the earth.

Best wishes

John

 

[N6BY]

This evening I tracked a small airplane for a couple of hours and plotted its path (below). It looks like the pilot started at a former Air Force base near North Highlands, looped around Sacramento International Airport multiple times, and did various loops all over the place. Eventually the plane went beyond my rooftop antennas tracking range south of Elk Grove. The altitude was around 6500 feet most of the time.

Anyway, sorry for being a bit off-topic but I thought it would be interesting to share this.

Meanwhile -- I am still working on improving circular polarity reception for Inmarsat C-Band at 3.6 GHz.

EDIT: I looked up the aircraft's callsign and it belongs to the California Highway Patrol.

 

[gsmforensics]

PlanePlotter version 6.4.5.1 is on the web site now.
http://www.planeplotter.com#download

It includes the global rendered view as displayed above.


Regards

John

 

[gsmforensics]

Apologies , previous animation was too large to load....here's a slimmed down version.

 

[gsmforensics]

Another from the archives.
Inmarsat 4F2 is located at 63 degs east....it was launched back in 2005 and the video above shows it moving through space just after launch towards its test location.

 

[N6BY]

Apologies , previous animation was too large to load....here's a slimmed down version.

Wow, that florescent earth really glows! Too bright for my tastes but maybe others like it.

I tried the software and the 'setup wizard' asked me questions for which I had no idea what the correct answers were. Its quite complicated, even for this geek. Maybe I'm getting too old for this.

 

[mr3p]

Somewhat parallel related to this project, a friend just sent me a link to Planefinder

 

[SV2HWM]

Hello! This is a very interesting project.

I am a newbie in satellite reception on the C-Band but I intend to give it a try with a 90 cm offset dish and a Titanium C1W PLL LNBF + Conical scalar feedhorn, which I have just ordered. Given my location in Thessaloniki, Greece, I hope that the 90 cm dish will prove to be adequate for the reception of the C-Band Alphasat signal.

What is the voltage I must feed the LNBF (via bias tee) to get the correct circular polarization; 13 V or 18 V? I am a little bit confused because I have read at the JAERO website that both RHCP and LHCP are used.

 

[N6BY]

...
What is the voltage I must feed the LNBF (via bias tee) to get the correct circular polarization; 13 V or 18 V? I am a little bit confused because I have read at the JAERO website that both RHCP and LHCP are used.

Welcome to Satellite Guys!

The signal from the satellite is RHCP. But after it reflects off of the dish it's LHCP.

I bought a C2WPLL and used one of its outputs for power, and the other went direct to my SDRPlay. I powered it using an FTA receiver. With the dielectric plate inserted, I remember trying both 13V and 18V and looking at the signal in HDSDR. As I recall, it didn't seem to matter which voltage I used -- the signal to noise ratio was nearly the same. SO..... the best answer I can give you to your question is to try both 13V and 18V while looking at the signal in HDSDR or SDR#.

The main problem I had was dealing with the Inmarsat's satellite inclined orbit. This makes the satellite's elevation a slowly moving target.

JAERO was easy to use, but I never was able to figure out how to use PlanePlotter and gave up.

 

[gsmforensics]

Hello! This is a very interesting project.

I am a newbie in satellite reception on the C-Band but I intend to give it a try with a 90 cm offset dish and a Titanium C1W PLL LNBF + Conical scalar feedhorn, which I have just ordered. Given my location in Thessaloniki, Greece, I hope that the 90 cm dish will prove to be adequate for the reception of the C-Band Alphasat signal.

What is the voltage I must feed the LNBF (via bias tee) to get the correct circular polarization; 13 V or 18 V? I am a little bit confused because I have read at the JAERO website that both RHCP and LHCP are used.

Hi, a word of warning about Alphasat...its not as strong as some of the other satellites so a 90cm dish may not be big enough.
63 east might be a better option.
Its always best to try both polarities and experiment with the position of the dielectric plate to get the best signal.

Planeplotter is easy to set up for Inmarsat.....you simple select the Inmarsat input option in I/O settings and get Jaero to send UDP packets out on port 8765.
you should then start to see the a/c appear.

If you have any problems drop me a line....I can always hook up on Teamviewer to set things up for you.

 

[gsmforensics]

During the Christmas and New Year period , to celebrate over ten years of PlanePlotter , COAA is offering the software at a reduced registration fee of just 15 Euros plus tax [ normally 25 Euros pt ]

PlanePlotter offers not just ADS-B tracking but much , much more.
It can be configured to be as simple , or complex as you wish and comes with full support via the built in "Wizard" the Yahoo Group...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planeplotter/

...the dedicated wiki...

http://planeplotter.pbworks.com/...

... and Nic Storey's excellent tutorials at..

http://www.nicstorey.co.uk/planeplotter/Home

As many group members will be aware PlanePlotter is used by amateurs and professionals alike and is the only software to offer ADS-B tracking , ADS Oceanic tracking , Mode A/C
[ Beamfinder ] Multilateration* , Direction Finding [DF] ACARS , HFDL, VDL2 and HF Selcal , all in one package.
You will be connected to the PlanePlotter network via the software on your own PC , not a web page and become part of an extensive aviation community.

PlanePlotter can be configured to work with all the mainstream Mode-S/ADS-B receivers including Kinetic products , "BEAST" and derivatives , RTL Dongles plus FlightAware , PlaneFinder and most other badged devices.



To download the latest version head over to http://www.coaa.co.uk/planeplotter.htm#download.

After downloading the software be sure to run the "Wizard" to complete initial set up then register and authorise your own personal copy to see network data.

Best wishes

John

PP Support

* A small annual fee of 12 Euros pt applicable if not supplying "raw" data to the network