Welcome to Satellite Manual’s documentation!
Warning
If you are starting your journey playing with Amateur Radio Satellites then please keep in mind that you would need an Amateur Radio license to proceed. The good news is that it is easy to obtain your own license. Contact your local Radio Amateur club for more information or contact the radio league for your country:
Country |
Radio League |
|---|---|
South Africa |
|
Great Britain |
|
USA |
Introduction
The concept of a satellite is not new to anyone, but unless you work for a space agency or a huge company the idea of being able to interact and make use of satellites in space is unbelievable to most. The truth is that due to amateur radio clubs and organizations around the world there are hundreds of satellites that we can play with. Anything from a small cubesat all the way to a large geosynchronous satellite.
While access to amateur radio satellites have been around for many years many hams are still unsure on how to get on the air and use these satellites. I’m still very much a newbie when it comes to amateur radio but I have a stong interest in playing with these satellites. This manual is a compilation of my own notes and information in the hope that it might be helpfull for other hams to get on the air with satellites. This manual is still very much a work in progress and will be updated over time, but the idea is to focus more on the practical side of setting up your own station rather than going to deep into the theory. If you find any errors then please feel free to let me know.
73 Tom - ZR6TG
Note
Did you know, The first amateur radio satellite was launched in 1961. It only had a simple morse code beacon that transmitted “Hi” for three weeks before it re-entered and burnt up in the atmosphere. You can find more information about it here
Contributors
ZR6TG, ZS6BD, ZS2BK
Updates
2022/04/16 |
Satellite Telemetry Tutorial |
2022/04/13 |
ISS Information + SSTV/Satellite Telemetry Decoding, Misc Errors, typos |
2022/01/28 |
Initial Layout - Basic Eshail and Leo Info |