STEREO-A on X band

[s-band]

STEREO - Science Center - Where is STEREO?
STEREO

1st (almost) deep space capture on X band, 8443.555MHz (approximately). Using a plumbing component feed with the 7.5GHz LNA on a 1.2m dish. It's not a great system with a sky/ground noise figure of ~3dB. About 10dB S/N in 0.5Hz. 9125MHz LO inverts the spectrum so the doppler change is downwards.
Airspy SDR 2.5Ms/s, decimated by 64, 131k FFT

 

[Channel Hopper]

STEREO - Science Center - Where is STEREO?
STEREO

1st (almost) deep space capture on X band, 8443.555MHz (approximately). Using a plumbing component feed with the 7.5GHz LNA on a 1.2m dish. It's not a great system with a sky/ground noise figure of ~3dB. About 10dB S/N in 0.5Hz. 9125MHz LO inverts the spectrum so the doppler change is downwards.
Airspy SDR 2.5Ms/s, decimated by 64, 131k FFT

View attachment 118416

It is deep space capture, each Stereo craft is approximately 140 million miles from the earth, slightly more than the usual 22,000 miles most are tracking.
You also have the earth rotation to take into account, plus its tilt from the solar orbit.

 

[s-band]

It is deep space capture, each Stereo craft is approximately 140 million miles from the earth, slightly more than the usual 22,000 miles most are tracking.
You also have the earth rotation to take into account, plus its tilt from the solar orbit.

Yesterday's tracking info for the time of capture:

********************************************************************************
Date__(UT)__HR:MN     Azi_(a-appr)_Elev      delta          deldot          1-way_LT
********************************************************************************
2018-Jun-23 16:52 *m  236.5890    46.0978 1.65372421771461  -1.1717490  13.753605
2018-Jun-23 16:53 *m  236.8730    45.9675 1.65372374791546  -1.1708158  13.753601
2018-Jun-23 16:54 *m  237.1559    45.8368 1.65372327848997  -1.1698858  13.753597
2018-Jun-23 16:55 *m  237.4378    45.7056 1.65372280943685  -1.1689591  13.753593
2018-Jun-23 16:56 *m  237.7186    45.5741 1.65372234075479  -1.1680356  13.753589
2018-Jun-23 16:57 *m  237.9984    45.4421 1.65372187244250  -1.1671153  13.753585
2018-Jun-23 16:58 *m  238.2771    45.3097 1.65372140449869  -1.1661983  13.753582

Range ("delta") and range-rate ("delta-dot") of target center with respect
to the observer at the instant light seen by the observer at print-time would
have left the target center (print-time minus down-leg light-time); the
distance traveled by a light ray emanating from the center of the target and
recorded by the observer at print-time. "deldot" is a projection of the
velocity vector along this ray, the light-time-corrected line-of-sight from the
coordinate center, and indicates relative motion. A positive "deldot" means the
target center is moving away from the observer (coordinate center). A negative
"deldot" means the target center is moving toward the observer.
Units: AU and KM/S
1-way_LT = 1 way light time (minutes)
HORIZONS Web-Interface

LNA & Feed for 1.2m Offset

 

[Channel Hopper]

One day they will train the Stereo cameras onto the other planet on this orbit.

 

[s-band]

Stereo-A at about 194 million km vs. 247 above. Still on the 1.2m but with a modified Prodelin feed. 9GHz LO.

At the time of the latest plot, below, the signal level was -118.5dBm on DSS63, Madrid (70m). (cf. NHCP -148dBm on DSS63 before the Sun got in the way)