Astra 2E: Transit to 28.2E

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cazhh said:
No, and you don't know which one is which. It has 4 reflectors in total.

http://www.ses.com/8812020/0_ASTRA_2E_Model_L_80b7387f0a897e37de395bf334f3027c759f5db7.jpg
Click to expand...

The two pictures show the two reflectors in the top of your photo, the smaller one on the left of you picture is folded underneath the bigger one on the right. Of the other two reflectors, one fold to the top and the other on the far side. Now interestingly enough when I look at the two photos I referenced again the bigger reflector on 2E is on the left, 2F is on the right, so there is a slight difference in reflector configuration between the 2 satellites. Also the 3rd reflector on the top is on the opposite side as well wonder if they could be for Africa (2F) and Middle East (2E) the final 4th reflector underneath on your picture could be KU band and is not visible in either of the photos I referenced.

Anyone else got any views?
 
I have Astra 2E at 40E now. maybe a fraction of a degree more west. 39E transponders well to the fore now. 12493H beacon at centre of the spectrum, a 39E beacon on the left.

13:38 17/01/2014.
 

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The bigger ones are most likely Tx, while the smaller ones are Rx. The steerable one is Ka Band I think, considering how the Ka footprints look like...simple reflector, while the big ones are surpface shaped.
 
Waveguide said:
I increase the bid to 5 reflectors, two on each side and another on the side facing earth.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PaWyV3AkUAI/UknDMhn2POI/AAAAAAAAWU0/X9vLViJfCP8/s640/Astra 2E.jpg

The link above shows an artists interpretaion of 2E but 2B looks similar to me.
http://www.astrium.eads.net/en/programme/astra-2b-72v.html

Which one is the uplink? The one on the side facing earth perhaps.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, that makes sense, knew I was missing something.

Also looking at your photo, it could be we are looking at different sides of the 2 birds, now that would also make sense.
 
No Ka beacons visible here, must be on the ME beam.
 
Schroeder said:
Also looking at your photo, it could be we are looking at different sides of the 2 birds, now that would also make sense.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is what I found after searching for 2E-photos in general. Of the dozen or
so I downloaded most were from one side or the other. They probably chose to
publish photos that shows a side view to get an idea of the size of the entire satellite.
(just like portrait photography where you sometimes only see one ear)
 
i've loaded the file into an analysis software. It looks like this:



There seem to be constant carriers every 100hz, while between them there are short pulses. I think this might be some binary data encoded there. Is there any software to decode it ?
 
I pushed the bacon through another food processor and got this:
Bacon.webp

The pulse repetition frequency is 500 Hz and with fairly short pulses
(higher overtones have same amplitude as the lowest)

Edit - could not upload bmp file.
 
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Waveguide said:
I pushed the bacon through another food processor and got this:
Click to expand...

Nothing ? ;)

It's definetely possible to write software: http://www.dk3wn.info/software.shtml (sorry, in german). But probably the protocol isn't public, so this would require some reverse engineering.

But might be quite useful depending on the data sent there. (I hope at least the position should be there).
 
i've created a movie. Let's see if attaching it works.
I've slowed it down and had to compress it dramatically to attach it here. But you'll get the idea.
 

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@cazhh
The "nothing" was replaced by what was supposed to be there!
Ze Rechnermaschinesteurungtastengerät hat ein Fehler gemacht!

The bandwidth of the scanner can be seen in the spectrum as the yellow curve.
(Wideband noise on the input is filtered to the actual bandwidth of the scanner.)
Probably the beacon is more wideband than the scanner, there are spectral lines
to the right where the scanner limits the bandwidth, green marking.

Looking at the signal doesn't reveal any modulation that changes over time.
The spectral lines from 500 Hz and overtones are to narrow I think.

Nevertheless I think it's an interesting way to track and identify satellites.

Bacon II.webp
 
As far as I understand, 11707 is just an identification beacon. 11707.5 and 12493 have the TT&C satellite telemetry stuff.
 
Astra 2E Low Band TT&C telemetry carrier at ~39.1E.

08:19 18/01/2014
 

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I think you're right solly. Must be the 39E 11495 beacon, although 2E has an 11495.50 beacon allocated. May be switched off as it's so close to 39E?

However, other 2E beacons are coming in strong at this longitude.
 
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