REALLY new to SATCOM. Looking for the most active frequencies for casual listening.

[Mike445]

Hey y'all! I'm brand new to SATCOM. I've been scanning for 35 years...since I was 11. Yesterday evening before bed I decided to plug in a few SATCOM frequencies and I heard some really cool comms! Many not English (Russian and Portugese) but there were several that were. I heard radio checks and amateurs. I bought a BCT15 off Ebay for $40 to add to my collection (BCD435+536, SDS100, TRX-1, SONY SC-1, ICOM R-10 and Alinco DJ-X3).

If anyone can add to this list that that would be awesome!! I've seen lists with hundreds of frequencies but I only want about 25-50 of the most active. That's why I'm asking here. I've seen the information I just want to narrow it down a bit.

Amateur
ISS 145.800 (of course!! heard some cool stuff on here. Its the ONLY Sat frequency I had programmed before yesterday.
A0-92 FOX-1D 145.880
FUNcube on ESEO 145.895
PO-101 145.900
AO-91 FOX-1B 145.960
AO-85 FOX-1A 145.980
IO-86 435.880
CAS-3H 437.200

MILSAT
CONR-1 NORAD 260.475
CONR-2 EADS 260.725
C-SARSAT/SOCOMM 261.575
JIATF 262.250
CON-3 WADS 263.925
DOD VIP 309.15

Thanks in advance y'all!!
Mike C.

 

[spacellamaman]

i was going to make a snarky comment, but if you caught all that just before going to bed, i think ill keep that comment to myself.

143.625 FM had an odd transmission of a russian reading a narrative about life in space, in english, the other day, which was different.

121.75fm and 130.167 fm have both been active in the past 12mos.

as to your milcom freqs, i would be interested to know which ones the russian comms were on

 

[Mike445]

Thank you. I’ll plug those in. The Russian and Portuguese were on some of the HamSat frequencies. I heard early morning radio checks on CONR-1 and 2. Since that night I’ve heard mostly amateur operators. They fade in and out. Kind of cool though.

 

[Ubbe]

The portuguese being spoken are the brazilian version. I don't know what type of antennes the satellites use but they cover europe as I can easily hear the brazilian guys talking to each other on almost any outside antenna I have. Are different satellites interlinked and relay the transmissions between each other to get global coverage? The most used frequencies, that then might be only for europe that I can hear, are these:

253.750
255.550
257.500
257.900
258.650
265.350

/Ubbe

 

[Mike445]

121.75fm and 130.167 fm have both been active in the past 12mos.

I found this online. Pretty cool.
ISS UTILITY Frequencies:

121.100 Orlan-M Phonie “Korona-M” FM Low-Power
121.125 FM => Trasmissione dalle tute Orlan usate durante le passeggiate spaziali.
121.750 FM => Trasmissione dalle tute Orlan usate durante le passeggiate spaziali.
121.750 FM => Telemetria dei moduli Progress e Soyuz.
130.1675 FM => Trasmissione dalla ISS verso le tute Orlan, durante le passeggiate spaziali.
130.1675 AM => Usato anche come canale secondario per la comunicazione con i centri di controllo.
143.625 FM => Canale primario di comunicazione con i centri di controllo, Mosca in particolare.
166.000 AM => Soyuz-TM and Progress M-1 telemetry
263.200 Phone Space-to-Space FM
291.500 Telemetry “BR-9ZU-3” PCM-FM –
400.500 Inter-Satellite-Link “CUCU” PCM-FM 1,45 / 2,5 Watt
414.200 Phone “SSCS/ SSER” [primario] PM 0,25 / 5 Watt
417.100 Phone “SSCS/ SSER” [secondario]
463.000 Video “Klest-M” FM 10 Watt
628.000 Telemetry “BITS2-12” [secondario] PCM-FM 7 / 14 Watt
630.000 Telemetry “BITS2-12” [primario]
632.000 Telemetry “BR-9ZU-8” [secondario]
634.000 Telemetry “BR-9ZU-8” [primario]
924.600 “Regul-OS”

 

[Mike445]

The portuguese being spoken are the brazilian version. I don't know what type of antennes the satellites use but they cover europe as I can easily hear the brazilian guys talking to each other on almost any outside antenna I have. Are different satellites interlinked and relay the transmissions between each other to get global coverage? The most used frequencies, that then might be only for europe that I can hear, are these:

253.750
255.550
257.500
257.900
258.650
265.350

/Ubbe

Thank you Ubbe! I'll let you know if I hear anything here on those frequencies here in SW Arkansas USA!
Mike

 

[Mike445]

The portuguese being spoken are the brazilian version. I don't know what type of antennes the satellites use but they cover europe as I can easily hear the brazilian guys talking to each other on almost any outside antenna I have. Are different satellites interlinked and relay the transmissions between each other to get global coverage? The most used frequencies, that then might be only for europe that I can hear, are these:

253.750
255.550
257.500
257.900
258.650
265.350

/Ubbe

255.550 was active here in SW Arkansas this morning. Brazilian Portugese. 263.925 CONR-3 WADS was also booming in here is SW Arkansas!!

Brazilian pirates on SATCOM by Mike Michael, on Flickr

 

[JATO757]

Lets keep this thread going! This is great info for those of us new to satellite listening.

 

[prcguy]

I was visiting in Sao Paulo, Brazil and while going to lunch with an amateur radio friend there he announced he listens to Brazilian pirates on UHF satcom while driving to and from work. He fired up 255.550Mhz on our lunch trip and sure enough there they were coming through his VHF/UHF amateur radio with small dual band antenna on the trunk. It was fantastic being in Brazil and listening to Brazilian pirates live while someone translates.

BTW my friend says the typical pirate conversations are about traveling on the road since many of them are long haul truckers and they discuss their radios and general life situations. He says its pretty boring and many of them have a Sao Paulo accent and are probably from that area.

Here is a quick cell phone video of the encounter.

 

[spongella]

Haven't tried satcomms before other than the NOAA sats just below the 2m ham band. But these posts have got my interest. Thanks.

 

[Mike445]

Haven't tried satcomms before other than the NOAA sats just below the 2m ham band. But these posts have got my interest. Thanks.

I’ve been listening all day and all I have heard is Brazilian pirates.
Mike

 

[bpittman]

Good stuff. But, what antennas are you guys using?

Bill

 

[Mike445]

Good stuff. But, what antennas are you guys using?

Bill

I am using a centerfire deluxe discone. It’s a really good all around antenna.
Mike

 

[eorange]

I use a trivec avant av2055-3 or a whip for quick listening. A couple years ago I heard a radio station being rebroadcast on 268.450. I couldn't understand the language, but I heard a DJ and dance/house music. This went on for a couple months.

 

[prcguy]

99.99% of US military traffic will be encrypted. The game is to find that rare in the clear transmission or the guy that thought his radio encryption was turned on but wasn't. That is very elusive but I've heard it.

I’ve been listening all day and all I have heard is Brazilian pirates.
Mike

 

[reconrider8]

Yea I've never heard anything but Brazilian

 

[prcguy]

To catch everything that's up there you need a proper circular pol antenna with a little gain. I have a garage full of military surplus UHF satcom antennas and you can also home brew one from the article and instructions in post 11 here: MT magazine UHF Satcom antenna project

The X-wing antenna project sits on the ground and is right hand circular pol with an upward facing omni directional lobe that favors 20 to 60deg elevation for optimal reception in the US.

Good stuff. But, what antennas are you guys using?

Bill

 

[eorange]

I know you've probably explained this before, so apologies, but...I've never understood the relationship between the exact length of the phasing harness and resultant impedance, and how that actually enables the proper RH polarization.

 

[Mike445]

To catch everything that's up there you need a proper circular pol antenna with a little gain. I have a garage full of military surplus UHF satcom antennas and you can also home brew one from the article and instructions in post 11 here: MT magazine UHF Satcom antenna project

The X-wing antenna project sits on the ground and is right hand circular pol with an upward facing omni directional lobe that favors 20 to 60deg elevation for optimal reception in the US.

You’re lucky!! I’ve been trying to source a surplus Satcom U antenna and it’s surprisingly difficult down here in Arkansas. I might have to build one!
Mike

 

[prcguy]

There are several ways to make circular polarity. You can take two resonant dipoles crossed at a 90 deg angle then use a 50 ohm power splitter and feed them with different lengths of coax so one is fed exactly 90deg out of phase. That would be roughly 1/4 wavelength of coax including velocity factor for that coax. Or you could use a 0 and 90 deg output power divider and use exact equal length cables to the antennas and the power divider would cause the 90 deg phase shift to one dipole.

Or you can take the same two dipoles and separate them 1/4 wavelength apart along the axis to the receiving station and feed them with a power divider and two lengths of coax the exact same length. In both cases the receiving station will see a signal from one antenna 90 deg later than the other and this will impart a circular polarization or a rotating vector over varying distances from the antenna.

Since equal power is fed to both elements of the circular pol antenna a linear pol antenna will pick up the signal at the same level no matter what orientation it has, vertical, horizontal, angled, etc, but it will only see half the power since the power is split between to antennas and half the power reaching the linear pol antenna will be considered cross pol and nulled out.

Depending on which dipole in the cross pol antenna gets the in phase signal it can create right hand or left hand circular pol. You would swap the cables from the power divider or different length feeder cables to change polarity. Cross pol between opposite circular pol antennas will vary depending on the quality of the antenna but is usually at least 20dB and can reach 40dB on a really well designed antenna.

The MT X-wing had a few hurdles with the dipoles being closer to 70-75 ohms because they sit about 1/2 wavelength above a ground plane where other similar antennas sit about 1/4 wavelength above the ground plane pulling their impedance down closer to 50 ohms. In that case a phasing harness made of 75 ohm coax can be used without a power divider and the phasing harness will help match the two 50 ohm dipoles connected to a common 50 ohm point. The X-wing phasing harness is 75 ohm TV coax to keep cost down and its lengths are not the typical 1/4 wavelength with velocity factor different because its a custom length to help match two 70 ish ohm dipoles to a 50 ohm common point and also providing a 90 deg phase shift between the dipoles. There were many hours spend on a vector network analyzer to get the magic lengths right on that one.

The reason the X-wing dipoles sit about 1/2 wavelength above the ground plane is to provide a main lobe that sees most satellites from the US when placed on the ground and that turns out to be about 20 to 60 deg elevation. Other military X wing antennas have dipoles sitting about 1/4 wave above the ground plane and they simply point straight up. That's fine if your on the equator directly below the satellite, but not good for most of the earth. That's why my X-wing works better than a $7k+ military X-wing for what we use them for.

Any other questions?

I know you've probably explained this before, so apologies, but...I've never understood the relationship between the exact length of the phasing harness and resultant impedance, and how that actually enables the proper RH polarization.