Absolutely Rob, the whole P4-A team is very excited and can't wait to see the first "real signals" coming down 
But we have still a lot of work ahead to install and test all our ground-station equipment for and with the AMSAT P4-A Transponders in the Es'hailSat Satellite Control Center in Qatar...
Regarding the downlink, the DTH will have a completly different Antenna coverage than our AMSAT transponders.
Thanks Allessio, well I think they share our enthusiasm and understand it very well.. but they also have their stakeholders which they have to serve first
pe1chl Well, I believe the engineers (we meet them) are also very excited to turn the dials.. but the characterization of all parameters during the IOT Phase is very important for them too, also a mater of insurance and other things related to the commercial contract and agreed specification with the satellite manufacturer. One of the time consuming things they do is to make a full roll in both axes to measure the complete antenna pattern and so on.. calibrating thrusters for station keeping, etc.. so, they have a lot of work, not just simple "selftest" 
But certainly different from how we do it after launch..
Forgive me, Space-Track is the origin, the primary source of the Keplerian elements.
But, then, what do you need to know exactly where is the satellite if the transponders are off?
73, Lucio IØLYL
in addition, Es'hail-2 is at a temporary position for the IOT Phase.. it shall move/drift than to the final position before the AMSAT transponders will be activated... so still plenty of time.. enjoy the Christmas season!
Directly after the launch, which put Es'hail-2 in a highly elliptical orbit, the manufacturer MELCO in Japan made several orbit raising maneuvers to quickly bring the perigee out of earth atmosphere drag, than to further circularize the orbit and also reduce inclination. This took several days followed by unfolding of the solar panels, antennas and so on. Meanwhile Es'hail-2 should be close to a temporary parking position in GEO from where the In-Orbit-Testing will be performed. The IOT testing will be performed from the new Es'hailSat Teleport in Qatar.
Try-out and opening of both AMSAT transponders is planned after the IOT phase is finished, we currently expect that this will not happen before January/February next year.
Please understand that this is a multi-million commercial satellite and we are only a small part of it. As AMSAT we are not in a position to confirm any non-official in information as above. But obviously the new bird seems to be in good healthy
As soon as we get information, we will publish this on our website.
73s Peter
The Falcon 9 rocket which will launch Es'hail-2 with the AMSAT P4-A payload on it was rolled out of SpaceX's hangar and up the ramp at pad 39A yesterday (Sunday).
If the Static Test fire goes as planned today (Monday), the rocket will be rolled back to the hangar, with installation of the Es'hail-2 satellite, and returned to pad 39A in time for a launch window opening at 2046 UTC on Thursday.
Live coverage is available from Spaceflight Now:
This Online Calculator will help you to calculate some AZ, EL and LNB tilt (skew) for your satellite dish.
For aligning your receive system you can already use BADR 4/5/6 which is located at the same 26°E position as allocated for P4-A / Es'hail-2.
I'm using a DiSEqC motor, which makes it even easier... Uplink antenna will be installed later..
Here some examples from BADR 4/5/6
Hi Rob,
fully agreed !!
Full Duplex operation should be mandatory when working satellites...
Otherwise you will never be able to adapt your uplink power accordingly and you would not hear LEILA... I would even not have thought that someone would really consider simplex operation..
Thanks for pointing this out, I will add this to the guidelines..
73s Peter
Welcome Peter!
Nice to have you here...
73s Peter DB2OS
Hi Thomas,
genau aus diesem Grunde hatte uns Es'hailSat damals gebeten diese Erläuterung weiterzugeben.. Da es ein kommerzieller Satellit ist, legt man dort natürlich besonderen Wert auf die richtige Schreibweise...
73s Peter
traditionally we always used the Downlink frequency on OSCAR's for such reports. That's where we hear the others and where we hear ourself, or the beacon.
Operating via Es'hail-2 / P4-A will be very similar to operating OSCAR-10/13 or OSCAR-40 in apogee and there will be no Doppler shift on P4-A.
However, if you have an unmodified LNB (without TCXO or external GPS reference) there might be large offsets in your received IF frequency... So others might not find you, unless users will "calibrate" the receive frequency using the actual upper/lower beacon frequency. Perhaps someone will write an SDR code which will automatically track the beacon while receiving other signals
Hello together,
a first version of the NB bandplan and operating guidelines is now available on our website.
24/7 steht im Allgemeinen für die Verfügbarkeit:
24/7 generally stands for availability:
Dear All,
Just as a reminder:
** We will not publish or discuss any launch dates for P4-A / Es'hail-2 in this in this AMSAT forum, unless the information is provided by an official source (directly from SpaceX or Es'hailSat) including a link to the original information **
We also expect that it might take minimum 1-2 month after the launch, before the amateur radio transponders will be activated and available. Certainly other payloads on the spacecraft have higher priorities.
Thanks for your understanding.
Here some guidelines from Es'hailSat on how to correctly spell the company name and satellite names in articles and other publications.
The owner and company name is: Qatar Satellite Company
The brand name is: Es’hailSat
Satellite names are Es’hail-1 and the soon to be launched Es’hail-2
The brand and satellites names are to be written the way it is written above, i.e.
- brand name - capital E, apostrophe after the first ‘s’ and second ‘S’ in capital
- satellite name - capital E, apostrophe after ‘s’ and hyphen before the number
(no other alphabet in caps, no gaps between alphabets and/or punctuation and definitely not in all caps)
Hallo,
hat jemand bereits praktische Erfahrungen mit 2m-Rundstrahlantennen für OSCAR's, ISS und/oder Wettersatelliten?
Von Quadrifilar (QFH), über Kreuzdipol (Turnstile) bis Eggbeater gibt es ja verschiedene Antennenbauformen für tieffliegende Satelliten.
Allerdings sind die Erfahrungsberichte teilweise sehr unterschiedlich, so schnitt z.B. die bei Wettersatelliten beliebte QFH-Antenne gegenüber einer Turnstile-Antenna in einem UKW-Berichte Artikel eher durchweg mit 10dB schlechterem Empfang ab.
QFH Antenne 2m Winkler-Spezialantennen
http://www.winklerantennenbau.de/qfh_137.htm
QFH KE-137 Zirkularantenne für NOAA Wettersatelliten und ACARS
https://www.wimo.com/empfangs-antennen_d.html#18355
Kreuzdipol
http://www.winklerantennenbau.de/kreuz137.htm
Turnstile TA-1
https://www.wimo.com/empfangs-antennen_d.html#18355
Hier ein interessanter Testbericht zur TA-1 Antenne von Alexandru, OZ9AEC (Autor von GQRX und Gpredict) http://oz9aec.net/antennas/air…mo-ta-1-turnstile-antenna (in Englisch)
Eggbeater
http://www.m2inc.com/FGEB144RK2M
Vermutlich hängt es auch ein bischen von den lokalen Bedingungen ab. So haben einige Antennen zwar geringen Gewinn am Horizont, aber dadurch dann auch weniger Störungen. Andererseits möchte man natürlich eher mehr Gewinn am Horizont als Überkopf haben, weil hier ja die Streckendämpfung auch deutlich niedriger ist und kompensiert werden kann..
Falls jemand Vergleichsmöglichkeiten und ausgiebig Erfahrungen gesammelt hat, bin ich (und sicher auch andere Leser) daran sehr interessiert..
73s Peter
Please note that the "all-in-one" solution MKU LNC 10 OSCAR P4-A from DB6NT had a fundamental design change.
According to the manufacturer, a version with IF at 432 MHz was originally planned, but due to component availability, especially the corresponding TCXOs, there is now only one version with IF at 1129 MHz.
| Frequency range (RF) | 10489.. 10500 MHz |
| Frequency range (IF) | 1129..1140 MHz |
| LO frequency | 9360 MHz |
This is also not compatible with the external downconverter from from Achim, DH2VA. So you will need an SDR...
Here some additional links for modifying Octagon OTLSO for TCXO...
http://www.dg0opk.darc.de/Octagon_LNB_mod_March2017.html
Ahhhh, that's true.. I forgot about the 22 kHz DISEQ signal.. so it should work perfectly..
BTW: Nice to see you here.. I'm really thankfull for your expertise in the initial telecons with Es'hailSat.. Hopefully we will be soon able to enjoy the results..
73s Peter
Hi Michael !
this is a pretty cool concept, I really like it. In particular to use the Triplexer for L-Band IF, 27 MHz Reference and Power supply. I was thinking to modify my Octagon TWIN LNB for TCXO, but your concept makes *much* more sense.
Actually I want to use the TWIN-LNB to be able to receive the NB and WB in parallel. I have mounted it using a DISEQ motor, so that I can also receive normal DTV and point to Es'hail-2 before it's moved to its final position. I guess the motor will not let the 27MHz signal pass, but I could still use the other cable to connect directly using the Triplexer.
What do you think?
I opened my LNB, never did this before, and it was much easier than I thought. As you mentioned, only a T-8 Torx is required... Anyway it's fun to look inside the LNB.
73s Peter
