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Author Topic: UFO SATCOM  (Read 3711 times)

Offline nickcarr3151

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UFO SATCOM
« on: February 27, 2020, 1251 UTC »
Finally I find some success monitoring UHF SATCOM.  Still trying to figure out why but for whatever reason, a lot of UHF SATCOM transponders showed up plain as day on my SDR early this AM.  From 243.5 - 270 Mhz it was chock full of transponders.  I even had some voice traffic.

Can someone please ID the language from these two recordings? Translation would be wonderful too, if possible.

263.580 --> https://www.dropbox.com/s/7txppjnxjtr3up6/263580.mp3?raw=1
261.770 --> https://www.dropbox.com/s/tn459juggd5uxd2/261770.mp3?raw=1



Thanks!
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Offline sat_dxer

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Re: UFO SATCOM
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2020, 1320 UTC »
What time of day/night are these recordings?

What part of the sky is the antennae pointed at?
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Offline nickcarr3151

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Re: UFO SATCOM
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2020, 1326 UTC »
Quote from: sat_dxer on February 27, 2020, 1320 UTC
What time of day/night are these recordings?

In the last 2 hours. (So around 4AM local.)


Quote from: sat_dxer on February 27, 2020, 1320 UTC
What part of the sky is the antennae pointed at?

It's a Diamond D3000N discone.  It's pointed up!  :P
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Perseus SDR + Wellbrook ALA100LN (60m loop), Wellbrook 1530S+
ICOM 7000 + Zero-Five 10/40 GP Vertical
Xiegu G90
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Offline sat_dxer

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Re: UFO SATCOM
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2020, 1350 UTC »
How long did it last and is it still going?

Which "UFO" satellite is this?
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Wishing the 1980's PopComm was still around.

Offline nickcarr3151

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Re: UFO SATCOM
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2020, 1355 UTC »
Quote from: sat_dxer on February 27, 2020, 1350 UTC
How long did it last and is it still going? Which "UFO" satellite is this?

Those conversations lasted a while.  I signed off for the night but don't think they were still going.  I picked up a few other weaker signals though.

UFO sats are geosynchronous so I guess it has to be UFO 4 & 8 over Pacific ocean.  Per the sat footprint though I'd be at the very edge of reception.  This is why I always believed I had poor chances of catching any traffic.

Perhaps the conditions across Pacific are helping UHF signals...
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Perseus SDR + Wellbrook ALA100LN (60m loop), Wellbrook 1530S+
ICOM 7000 + Zero-Five 10/40 GP Vertical
Xiegu G90
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Offline sat_dxer

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Re: UFO SATCOM
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2020, 1518 UTC »
What other frequencies other than the ones listed above were noted?
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Wishing the 1980's PopComm was still around.

Offline nickcarr3151

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Re: UFO SATCOM
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2020, 1716 UTC »
Quote from: sat_dxer on February 27, 2020, 1518 UTC
What other frequencies other than the ones listed above were noted?

Don't recall off-hand.
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Perseus SDR + Wellbrook ALA100LN (60m loop), Wellbrook 1530S+
ICOM 7000 + Zero-Five 10/40 GP Vertical
Xiegu G90
Motorola XPR/XTS Portables, Uniden scanners, Whistler Scanners
Airspy Mini SDR + DSDPlus + Diamond D3000N Discone

Offline Josh

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Re: UFO SATCOM
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2020, 2028 UTC »
With a disconey for ant, I suspect the closest bird is who you heard.
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Offline solarix

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Re: UFO SATCOM
« Reply #8 on: February 28, 2020, 1145 UTC »
Hey Nick

That language is Brazilian Portuguese. Those are coming from CONUS transponders.
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Offline ChrisSmolinski

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Re: UFO SATCOM
« Reply #9 on: February 28, 2020, 1717 UTC »
They are fairly strong signals, I get them with just a discone as well. Years ago I had a large helical antenna on a rotor, but sadly a winter storm destroyed it.
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Chris Smolinski
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Offline nickcarr3151

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Re: UFO SATCOM
« Reply #10 on: February 28, 2020, 1909 UTC »
Quote from: solarix on February 28, 2020, 1145 UTC
That language is Brazilian Portuguese. Those are coming from CONUS transponders.

Thanks. Yeah I listened for quite a while last night and the language is starting to sound more familiar.  I finally figured out which sats that are within my footprint.  Looks like I have UFO 3, 4, 6, 8 and FLTSATCOM 7.  I didn't realize they do move slightly and it looks like they start coming really alive around 11PM local.
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Perseus SDR + Wellbrook ALA100LN (60m loop), Wellbrook 1530S+
ICOM 7000 + Zero-Five 10/40 GP Vertical
Xiegu G90
Motorola XPR/XTS Portables, Uniden scanners, Whistler Scanners
Airspy Mini SDR + DSDPlus + Diamond D3000N Discone

Offline nickcarr3151

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Re: UFO SATCOM
« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2020, 1915 UTC »
Quote from: ChrisSmolinski on February 28, 2020, 1717 UTC
They are fairly strong signals, I get them with just a discone as well.

Hehe, I feel a little stupid.  I purchased a BHP-150+ from M/C a while back.  About a week ago, I put it back into my discone's receive chain, which normally just monitors local federal activity.

I removed it last night as a test and sure enough, the signals (while still there) are much weaker.  Without tweaking the SDR waterfall + gain settings, it'd be easy to miss.  I've never had much luck with SATCOM in the past so I never gave it much thought.

Looks like I have a new interest to dabble in!  :)
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Perseus SDR + Wellbrook ALA100LN (60m loop), Wellbrook 1530S+
ICOM 7000 + Zero-Five 10/40 GP Vertical
Xiegu G90
Motorola XPR/XTS Portables, Uniden scanners, Whistler Scanners
Airspy Mini SDR + DSDPlus + Diamond D3000N Discone
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