All Inmarsat satellites though the F-3 series have been in inclined orbits since beginning of life. This gives them extended on orbit lifetime. The beamwidth of the Inmarsat L band ground terminals is large enough that tracking isn't required. The gateway stations operate at C band with large antennas that require continuous step tracking. I don't know for sure if the F-4 satellites are inclined or not. This was a very clever use of available data for an unintended purpose.
On 03/26/2014 12:28 PM, Howie DeFelice wrote:
All Inmarsat satellites though the F-3 series have been in inclined orbits since beginning of life.
Ah so, I was wondering if that might be the case because the user antennas are mobile and have broad patterns to begin with. What is their nominal inclination?
On 3/26/2014 3:28 PM, Howie DeFelice wrote:
This was a very clever use of available data for an unintended purpose.
I am a little surprised that they retained enough data to do the doppler analysis. For example, once I successfully download a telemetry frame from AO-73, the demodulated and decoded data is sent off to the Funcube warehouse. I sure don't save all the audio to disk!
-Joe KM1P
participants (3)
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Howie DeFelice
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Joe Fitzgerald
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Phil Karn