The frequencies are around 1520 to 1540 MHz depending on which bird you tune to, Well, that might be sensitive enough to use for reception rather than the dongle. If you are a radio amateur you may well have a high quality wideband scanner, which is sitting there out of use. Connect the power-pass leg to the satellite receiver, and the other to your dongle etc.
#JAERO AND PLANEPLOTTER PLUS#
That dish will need a C band LNB which costs around £25, plus a scalar mount.so in total about £40.Ī bit of DIY (do it yourself) to fix the LNB on the dish and then a dongle, old sat receiver with loop through, and some software: SDR# and JAERO.ĭJT: Alternatively, any satellite receiver, with a 2-way splitter, power in just one leg. So if you have a Sky dish, then the direction of Inmarsat 25 east is just to the right of where your Sky dish points when you stand behind that dish and look up into the sky. However, Emmanuel in France has been getting excellent results from a small 90cm dish. It now looks like you need a 1.2 m satellite dish which can point at the Inmarsats group]. By doing this, you can determine during which time period there is a minimum of lateral movement in the satellite position, minimizing one of the variables influencing correct dish alignment. Although Plane Plotter will track these satellites in real time you might consider when initially aligning your dish, to use David Taylor's WXtrack program, which allows you to enter the time manually. There is not a lot of variation in longitude. There is a time period of between 4-5 hours when the satellite approaches the 0.0° latitude point, that there is very little variation in elevation. Similarly Inmarsat 3F5 also varies to roughly the same extent. Inmarsat 4F3 varies in latitude between 3.0° N to 3.0° S - i.e. This makes dish positioning in terms of Azimuth and Elevation rather critical. You are probably aware that a 1.8m dish is required to have enough gain to get reliable decodes, but it also has a comparatively narrow beam-width. Receiving and decoding multiple C-band Inmarsat transmissions - anther first-class Chris van Lint article.
#JAERO AND PLANEPLOTTER PDF#
It's in PDF format.Ĭhris has also written a note about adding a TCXO to the LNB to improve the temperature stability. Here is a link to an article written by Chris van Lint which you will find very helpful.
(Overview image being updated following INMARSAT satellite changes)įor a taster of what can be achieved at minimum cost, please take a look at John Locker's guide to "Inmarsat L-band on a shoestring".