Monitoring above 1 ghz

[Kennrth]

Can't imagine why I would want to buy a receiver/scanner that goes to 3Ghz. I guess I could listen to my digitalized cordless phone noise or router noise. Seems absurd to me. What are you listening to above 1 GHz. Good hardline/wave giudes- costs more than radio - to listen to data?

 

[joneil2000]

Can't imagine why I would want to buy a receiver/scanner that goes to 3Ghz. I guess I could listen to my digitalized cordless phone noise or router noise. Seems absurd to me. What are you listening to above 1 GHz. Good hardline/wave giudes- costs more than radio - to listen to data?

Satellite monitoring. Here's a web page with some frequencies you might like to look at:
Satellite and Spacecraft Radio Transmission Frequencies
Satellite Radio Frequencies - comprehensive list

Scroll down the list and you will see the frequencies above 1 ghz, most of them are 2,200 to 2,300 mhz range on that list. A lot of guys track satellites, both visually and with radio. There are several computer programs that will allow you to track satellites, even iPhone apps. Some guys who do it picked up the hobby from their father and/or grandfather, going back to Spuntnik.

joe

 

[fineshot1]

hi ken - being a ham i would think you are familar with the repeater coordinating
org in your area. you might want to look over the 1.2ghz ham repeater list below.
you would of course need the appropriate antenna/feedline combo to be able to
receive anything but if your game give it a try.

1240MHz.

 

[brandon]

Here are a few things off the top of my head above 1GHz to monitor, but most require something other than just a scanner.

Inmarsat - Inmarsat std-C decoder
Other satellite stuff - http://www.uhf-satcom.com/
Mode-S / ADS-B - AirNav RadarBox - The World's Best selling Mode-s ADS-B Virtual Radar and SBS-1 - - Kinetic Avionic Products
Ku and C-Band satellites - North & South America - LyngSat - feeds: Ricks Satellite Wildfeed and Backhaul Forum
Wireless video cameras - Video Signal Scanner | Wireless video scanner

Also FLEX paging in the 900 Mhz range that can be decoded.

 

[k9rzz]

+1 but for some guys, that's where the thrill is. There's a bunch of hams here in the midwest that are all gung-ho on 10Ghz and up. Just a different kind of challenge I guess.

 

[benbenrf]

Loads to listen to in the microwave range of freq's i.e. above the usual 1.3 - 1.5 Ghz that most scanning takes place up to.

The "problems" are that once you start taking an interest in freq's between 1.3 and 3Ghz (and higher) you start encountering digital modulation techniques, multiplexing, bandwidths, error corrections and a bunch of other tech aspects to these transmissions that to enable full exploitation/monitoring and listening, you start needing receiver capability that the average consumer type scanner/receiver just doesn't offer, or if it does, is usualy in a very limited form.

Propagation and therefore antenna type used for reception also starts to become more critical than it is with VHF and UHF frequency monitoring, as many (but not all) of the transmissions encountered in this range are not only directional (terrestrial tower) type and/or satellite based, but are often very limited in power output. Gain and S/N (signal to noise ratio) becomes much more relivant than they are in general VHF/UHF scanning.

Still, don't shy away from taking an interest - digital signal processing nowadays puts the ability to process these transmissions both technicly, and cost wise, within the scope of amatures. Demodulating some of the more exotic modulation techniques used, and attempting to recover the signal content (audio/visual or data) can be great fun(!!)

It's amazing what can be done with the IF output of a decent receiver input into a PC with an A/D card, suitable software and the time and determination to learn how to process the received signals.