20 Jan
2019
20 Jan
'19
6:35 p.m.
On 01/20/19 12:07, Nico Janssen wrote:
A Chinese CZ-4B rocket booster or, more likely, some payload attached to it, appears to have a telemetry downlink on 432.0836 MHz. It is object 43656, 2018-081B.
Illegal? Depends on the ITU region it is flying over.
U.S. 47 CFR 97.207(c)(1) defines 435-438 MHz as the allowable transmit frequencies for space stations. However, the ITU just marks 432-438 as AMATEUR (primary region 1) or Amateur (secondary regions 2&3). No distinction is made for amateur-satellite stations.
The ITU does allocate this swath of spectrum to "Earth exploration-satellite (active)". I haven't dug into that.
Unfriendly and uncoordinated? Definitely.
IANAL
--- Zach N0ZGO