Douglas,

The satellite El Suhail 2, or short Es'hail 2, will be launched by a Falcon 9 into a GTO. When the satellite reaches its first apogee, some 6 hours after launch, it wil perform the first of a long series of maneuvers with the goal to increase the orbit's perigee and decrease its inclination. The satellite's propulsion system is fully, or at least mostly, electric, meaning that it will use ion thrusters to carry out most, if not all, the maneuvers. Therefore it will take a long time, many days if not weeks, for the satellite to reach its planned operational orbit slot at 26 E. So you may indeed expect to get a number of opportunities to receive downlink signals in the USA. Shortly after launch the TLEs will be available, so you can then determine if and when there will be available passes.

Es'hail 2 will use dozens of downlink frequencies in the C band, X band, Ku band and Ka band. But there will also be S band beacons on 2165, 2185 and 2491.75 MHz. Of course it is not certain that any of these will be switched on in the early operations phase. I assume the 10 GHz amateur payload will not be switched on until the commissioning starts after the satellite has reached its final orbit slot. No doubt AMSAT-DL will inform us about all operations of the amateur payload.

Although one web site published an estimated launch date for Es'hail 2 of March 28, there is currently no official plan date for this launch. Maybe the launch will be in Q2, but it could well shift into Q3 2018.

73, Nico PA0DLO

On 22-02-18 04:36, Douglas Quagliana wrote:

Friends,

I know that Es'hail-2 will be positioned at 25.5 degrees, which means that once it is parked there it will not be visible from North America.

But, it is launching from Cape Canaveral and I would imagine that it has to make at least a couple of orbits, while still in the geosynchronous transfer orbit, before the burn(s) to position it at 25.5 degrees. And, that's a couple of orbits that might take it over some part of North America (exactly where and who might be in the footprint for those few passes depends on where the GTO perigee is, I think).

What I would like to know is if there will be any transmissions or any telemetry beacons from Es'hail-2 (probably on a NON-amateur frequency from NON-amateur equipment) that might be heard from North America during those few GTO orbits before the final burn. Perhaps, is there an engineering beacon that might be heard during one of those passes over North America? Anybody know?

Bonus points awarded if you know when, where, and how many burns are taking place. Someone with a telescope (or someone with access to a remotely operated telescope) might be able to detect something.

73, Douglas KA2UPW/5 Just trying to earn the absurd but true "I heard Es'hail-2 from North America" T-shirt :-) _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb