Hi Eric, That's a bit less signal than I'd expect if you have a line-of-sight to the satellites and a low local noise floor in that band (the likely culprit). OTOH, if you're getting any signal at all with a discone, you should be in great shape with a proper satcom antenna.
I've managed to see the transponders with a discone (with good LOS and in a low noise environment) with the R&S PR-100, which is a somewhat above average sensitivity receiver in that band, but not extraordinarily so. -matt > On Mar 5, 2018, at 2:15 PM, Eric A. Cottrell <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hello, > > I thought I would give listening to the UHF Milsat listening a shot with the > R8600 and old discone. I had to turn on the preamp in the R8600, but I was > able to hear the Brazilian pirates on 255.550 MHz FM. The signals are not > quite full-quieting with some not that strong. The signals are barely showing > up on the waterfall and a really small peak on the spectrum display. I cannot > see the transponder noise floor. > > I tried the SDRPlay RSP2Pro and got similar results with the LNA Gain of 0 > and Gain Control of 49. I can adjust the Spectrum Controls in HDSDR to see > the signal peak, but it is still a weak signal. > > This is the link Matt gave at his talk. http://www.crypto.com/misc/uhf-sats/ > > 73 Eric > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > _______________________________________________ > Swlfest mailing list > [email protected] > http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swlfest > > To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to > [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown > above. > > For more information on the Fest, visit: > > http://www.swlfest.com > http://swlfest.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ Swlfest mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swlfest To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above. For more information on the Fest, visit: http://www.swlfest.com http://swlfest.blogspot.com
