Monday, February 22, 2016

Geostationary AMSAT Satellite (Phase 4) Spacecraft Covering the whole of Africa and Europe. (P4B) Es'hail-2

I think this Satellite will open up one of the most exiting telecommunication capabilities for Africa and Europe.(P4A/B) Es'hail-2 OS-100

Coverage map

Phase 4 AMSAT-DL planed

Qatar Satellite Company’s second satellite, Es’hailSat-2 (OS-100), will be placed in a geostationary orbit by a Space-X Falcon-9 rocket in November 2018. It will carry an AMSAT linear transponder as a secondary payload, giving Radio Amateurs access to a geostationary satellite for the first time.

Es’hailSat-2 will be “parked” 35 786 km above the equator at 25.5°East, nearly due North from Pretoria and Johannesburg (which are at 28°E).

Planned Frequency.

This satellite will have two linear transponders. (250 Khz and 8Mhz wide)
Narrow band transponder:
Up-links: 2400.050 - 2400.300 MHz modes SSB and CW. 5 Watt up link power,
Down links: 10489.550 - 10489.800 center 10 489.675 MHz. Vertical polarization.

Wide band transponder:
Up-links: 2401.500 - 2409.500 MHz
Down-links: 10491.000 -10499.000 MHz 

It will be so nice to have fixed antennas mounted on mast pointing to the satellite having continuous communication to any where in Africa and Europe. HI ;-) ;-)

Will have to start looking for some equipment and antennas for this one.

Link to Live websdr http://zr6aic.giga.co.za:8902

Live SDR of Es'hail 2 OS-100

Here is a list of Equipment that should work for the P4A satellite.

X-Band 10 GHz Down link:



HailSat-2 Down link configuration.

Please note Some LNB's is using a 22khz tone to switch Polarization.

Only the Generic LNB work with voltage switching.

Click to enlarge Satellite Systems



Here is how I inject my power. The black typed lead has an short peas of coaxle cable with an Inductor on Center peas going to a 13V Power supply.
Power DC blocker and Power injection

Top coax go to LNB
Left Bottom go to SDR and has build in Cap to isolate dc from SDR
Right Bottom has inductor on center going to 13V Power supply
Power Injection and DC isolation to SDR

I have change the LNB  to new one here is the LO details


LO 9.75 for 13V
I  had to do some calculations

Satellite frequency  For now is 10.706 - 9.75 = 0.956Mhz


For Narrow 250Khz Band Polarization is 0 deg V
Add caption 0 Deg V Polarization
Here is my 2.4Ghz Transmitting Antenna
2.4Ghz Tx Grid



Dish 60deg Elevation about 0 Deg Azimuth




2.4Ghz Transmitting Grid
View from back of two Antennas
Grid Mobile configuration

15db Grid antenna. just made it into satellite with ssb. CW was fine.


LNB (14 - 18V Polarization switching) 10.7Ghz

Generic one Port LNB Available from Giga Technology
Video of my first test on Eshail-2 using  Hackrf and preamp with and 2W PA and 2.4Ghz 15db Grid Antenna


Link to Live websdr http://zr6aic.giga.co.za:8902/
Websdr http://zr6aic.giga.co.za:8902


I think the signal must look lie this



Linear transponder 2400.050 - 2400.300 MHz Up-link 10489.550 - 10489.800 MHz Down link
Wide band digital transponder 2401.500 - 2409.500 MHz Up-link 10491.000 - 10499.000 MHz Down link

My RTL dongle needs to listen on the following frequency

LO with 12V injection = lo - 10.489500Ghz + 1M to get center of bottom of the Spectrum on websdr
=9.75Ghz - 10.489500Ghz + 1Mhz = 7395Mhz (this is still debatable )
  • 89 cm dishes in rainy areas at EOC like Brazil or Thailand.
  • 60 cm around coverage peak,
  • 75 cm dishes at peak -2dB.
Narrow Band : linear vertical polarization.
Wide Band: linear horizontal polarization.

S-Band 2.4 GHz Narrow Band-Uplink:
    • Narrow band modes like SSB, CW
    • 5W nominal Uplink power (22.5 dBi antenna gain, 75cm dish)
    • RHCP polarization

S-Band 2.4 GHz Wide Band-Uplink (DATV):

    • Wide band modes, DVB-S2
    • Peak EIRP of 53 dBW (2.4m dish and 100W) required
    • RHCP polarization


Azimuth and Elevation details for Johannesburg South Africa.
(For now the Elevation is 59.17 and Azimuth 350.43)

Azimuth and Elevation from Johannesburg
 Setting up elevation the simple way.


Paper with a piece of string at back of Dish

 Here is the Paper details


Gpredict tracking details.

Catalog number of Satellite is 43700

It seems that the satellite is still rotating around the equator

With the new TLE the Satellite has stabilized. at 59.17 Elevation and 350.43 Azimuth

Elevation is now 59.17 and Azimuth 350.43

2.4GHZ Transmitter.


The plan is to use my LimeSDR or hackrf for transmitter with low pass filter and a Power AMP. Details to follow

2.4Ghz Transmitter Diagram

Gnuradio Block diagram for Hackrf SSB


SSB Transmitter for Eshail2

Antenna setup

15db 2.4Ghz wifi Grid Antenna
I would recommend the 24db Grid or rather use 8 watt amp in 15db Grid.
Here is my presentation at the SARL on QO-100

My new transceiver setup.

  • 1) Raspberry Pi 3B +
  • Hackrf.
  • MSI SDR dongle 10Mhz Bandwith 12bit. RX.
  • 8W RF Amp.
  • 40db Pre-Amp
My Eshail-2 QO-100 transceiver setup.
Software on Raspberry Pi
Connect remotely via Wifi



Now start testing my Horizontal DBV-S2 Reception.

Video of DBV-S2 reception.



DBV-S2 decoding using leansdr (leandbv)



I will add more details soon.


https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/195l60I4IvKEl59Dl87AVFxjkrKzAcY5ZyUXNKXBXBcs/edit?usp=sharing


You can generate your own elevation and azimuth here http://www.satlex.us/en/azel_calc-params.html?satlo=&user_satlo=25.5&user_satlo_dir=E&location=-26.16%2C28.03&la=-26.16&lo=28.03&country_code=za&diam_w=75&diam_h=80

 REF:
Information http://amsat-uk.org/2015/07/03/phase-4-spacecraft-frequencies/
and here http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/space/workshops/2015-prague-small-sat/Presentations/Eshail-2.pdf
Spectrum Analizer for RTL https://github.com/pavels/spektrum/releases

Frequency list  http://frequencyplansatellites.altervista.org/Beacon-Telemetry_Europe-Africa-MiddleEast.html

Azimuth direction finding  http://www.satsig.net/ssazelm.htm