SATCOM 250 MHz Pirates 17 Jun 2018

[ChrisSmolinski]

I decided to check out the 250 MHz SATCOM band with the AirSpy and discone antenna. More than sensitive enough to hear the pirates:
252.150 Weak
253.750 Very strong and clear
253.850 Somewhat weaker
260.480 Also very strong
261.290 Strong
261.630 Fair signal
262.075 Weak
263.580 Fair signal

[Josh]

Very nice! This should prompt others, even with much less capable rigs, to attempt copying the satellite pirates.

[ChrisSmolinski]

Some more activity, circa 2030 UTC 18 June 2018:

253.850
255.250
255.440
255.550
257.060
258.560
260.425
260.480
262.075
262.420
263.580
263.680

Years ago I built a nice helical antenna for SATCOM, but it was destroyed one winter: http://www.radiohobbyist.org/blog/?p=933

[Josh]

Nice antenna, that one should have decent gain. This one is a bit more easy to build and isn't as narrow beamed;
https://forums.radioreference.com/satcom-space-satellite-monitoring-forum/181378-mt-magazine-uhf-satcom-antenna-project.html

[ChrisSmolinski]

I suspect a QFH would do well on the SATCOM band. I am tempted to build one for the 401 MHz radosonde band as well. One issue I have now is that after 20 years, the trees have grown very tall. This is great for HF antennas, lot of places to hang wire. But it means incredible amounts of attenuation at VHF and UHF.  There's very few directions from the ground where I can "see" much of the sky. Even the location where that SATCOM helical was would probably not work as well today, the trees probably block the view to most of the Clarke Belt (although at 250 MHz it won't be as bad as the higher frequencies).  That's why I ended up hoisting the discone and ADS-B antennas to the top of  a tree.  I could do that with others I guess, but it's a lot of effort to keep them separated from each other, and a lot of coax.

[skeezix]

19-Jun-2018

2311Z 258.650 Moderately decent. Not entirely full quieting, but good enough.