SatSig topic:

Any known S band beacons on European Geosats?

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Jul 22^nd, 2014 at 8:19am

For receiver/downconverter testing, I need to find a beacon in the S-band. Maybe some geosats over my head have something to offer?

I kindly ask the VSAT pros to come forward..

Jul 22^nd, 2014 at 11:12am

Have a look through this list:
https://www.zarya.info/Frequencies/FrequenciesSband.php

Many of the satellites are now powered off or failed. The older 'geostationary' ones may be significantly inclined.

Point at the geo orbit and, assuming 90cm dish, move along the orbit in 10 deg increments and keep trying.

Suggest you start by looking with a waterfall 50 kHz wide centred on 2227.5 MHz.

If necessary, use the above list of frequencies as a guide to other likely narrow bands where something may be seen.

Hopefully you will find something to test your equipment before trying for ISEE-3. Good luck..

Jul 23^rd, 2014 at 9:55am

Thanks! the guy running the uhf-satcom site pointed me to Sicral-1 on 13E. the beacon is weak, though he says.

At least I could validate that my downconverter still works fine on 2400 MHz. The mods will need some more patience; I only have a sweep generator up to 1200MHz, (I used it's harmonics), and a 3GHz frequency counter, plus a satfinder with spectrum display (don't call this an analyzer!), but it could help.

Wink