Satellites on HF ?

[gabrielbr]

Hi guys,

hope i posted in the right section.

I'm not licensed yet and pretty new to the ham world but i have a big interest in radio comms for as long as i remember. I mostly done some scanning ( portable ) until now but that's about it...

Recently i wanted to expand my hobby and went to buy a Yaesu FT-450D and a dipole ( and a power supply of course ) but the package didn't arrive yet. The reason i went for HF ( though the FT-450D has 6 m also ) is i am generally more interested in DX-ing and i thought some listening and getting accustomed with those bands and general radio operation is a good thing until i'll be ready to get a license. The thing is i realised that a big part of my hobby is space comms and satellites , so now i'm afraid having a HF radio is going to hinder that...

My question is , is there any satellite activity that i could listen to on HF ? Things like beacons or downlinks for example...I'm not very familiar with sat frequencies but from what i've read , the majority use VHF or UHF.

Of course , a VHF/UHF radio/antenna would be better but for now sadly i don't have a budget for that anymore.

Thanks, 73's !

 

[N3VEM]

I've only been a ham for s couple years, but as far as know all satellites are vhf and higher in frequency - no HF. The ionosphere has such an impact on HF propagation, that HF frequencies aren't very practical for earth to space communications.


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[Thunderknight]

There used to be some satellites that used 10M or 15M for half of the link. E.g. mode A, mode K, mode T. (satellite uplink/downlink bands are referred to as "modes")

AO-7, which came to life again on solar only (it was launched in the 70s!), has a mode A transponder (10M downlink).

AFAIK, all of the recent birds have been VHF/UHF with some talk of some higher bands in the works again.

 

[gabrielbr]

Thanks guys, that's all very cool info !

 

[PrimeNumber]

Recently i wanted to expand my hobby and went to buy a Yaesu FT-450D and a dipole ( and a power supply of course ) but the package didn't arrive yet. The reason i went for HF ( though the FT-450D has 6 m also ) is i am generally more interested in DX-ing and i thought some listening and getting accustomed with those bands and general radio operation is a good thing until i'll be ready to get a license.

Also congrats on the 450D. In addition to talking on the ham bands, I do a fair amount of SWLing. Most of the time I use a Tecsun 660 for that – it has a great scan feature – but when the bands get tough I turn to my 450D. I think you'll like yours a lot.

 

[gabrielbr]

Also congrats on the 450D. In addition to talking on the ham bands, I do a fair amount of SWLing. Most of the time I use a Tecsun 660 for that – it has a great scan feature – but when the bands get tough I turn to my 450D. I think you'll like yours a lot.

Thanks PrimeNumber , i hope and think so ! I was a bit unsure whether to get this or the IC-718 tbh...

I've read that some people don't like the looks of it but i think it looks great, compact and it seems to pack a punch in that price-range...

Also i have a bit of regret for maybe not getting something like the FT-897D for having all bands from the start and having access to my "space comms hobby" , but it was over my budget and for the money difference i got the antenna,etc.

 

[KC5AKB]

Hi here are some links you may have looked at before but have some
Good info as far as ham radio.

Cool link VK5SW - Ham Radio Website
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[gabrielbr]

Hi KC5AKB, thanks , great site that of VK5SW indeed, lots of interesting info there and nice to see that remote controlled 450D in action

73

 

[Pete_uk]

It would be interesting if the ISS were to have LF and HF beacons on just to see what the proppergation would be like from up there.

Providing the signals didn't bounce off the ionosphere back out to space

 

[Token]

It would be interesting if the ISS were to have LF and HF beacons on just to see what the proppergation would be like from up there.

Providing the signals didn't bounce off the ionosphere back out to space

Mode A (2 meters up, 10 meters down), mode K (15 meters up, 10 meters down), and mode T (15 meters up, 2 meters down) are all past used modes, they worked just fine. There were many with beacons on HF.

To the OPs original question, are there any sats still on HF, even with just the beacon? Yes, there is still at least one that can be heard on HF. The RS-15 beacon (29352 kHz) can still be heard, at least the last time I went looking for it.

T!

 

[gabrielbr]

Mode A (2 meters up, 10 meters down), mode K (15 meters up, 10 meters down), and mode T (15 meters up, 2 meters down) are all past used modes, they worked just fine. There were many with beacons on HF.

To the OPs original question, are there any sats still on HF, even with just the beacon? Yes, there is still at least one that can be heard on HF. The RS-15 beacon (29352 kHz) can still be heard, at least the last time I went looking for it.

T!

Thanks a lot Token, that is some great info, i'll be on the lookout for RS-15 !

73

 

[Kb2Jpd]

Sputnik was originally HF, and people noted the polarization of the signal changed as the signal went thru the atmosphere. That's why you see large aerials on the photos of Sputnik.
That ended up why we don't use HF, and the signal ended up being very noisy.


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[K5MPH]

If you need more info check out amsat.org you should find a lot of info on their web site.....