satcom?

Location : northolt Spotter Watch Member : no

what is satcom?
how do you listen to it?

thanks
james

Admin Location : Bristol, UK

SatCom stands for satellite communications and allows aircraft (as well as alot of other things) to use a satellite network to communicate with stations that aren't in range of VHF/UHF/HF etc. However, alot of SatCom is encrypted ('secure'), but I believe there is still some clear voice SatCom.

As well as voice via SatCom it is also often used to stream video data (from aircraft such as the U2) to ground stations, as Satellite has a very good simplex bandwidth (hence why it's in use with Sky etc.).

Over to Rich (Razor61) on the listening in side though.

Cheers,
Mike

Subject: Re: satcom? 2009-08-25, 06:20

There are a lot of very competent Satcom monitors on this forum (i have only dabbled in it some time ago and no longer monitor it).

I think perhaps talking to John Locker is a good place to start, he is on this forum and is probably the most competent person to talk to about listening to Satcom or making antennas on here.

although most is indeed secure, it's perhaps worth getting set up for because every large type of aircraft in the US forces uses it now including all the transports.
And going by what some people have heard recently on Satcom, well i wish i still had the capability.

You can also follow the Ramstein based C130s on the Shuttle Support missions going to and from the TAL sites etc.

Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : no

Rather than go into too much detail , can I suggest looking at :

http://www.uhf-satcom.com/uhf/

This is run by Paul Marsh.
Pauls definitive guide covers all aspects and is probably the best "one stop" site on the web Clap

As regards the video side of things , the commercail satellite at 15 degrees west still handles US video downlinks from AirScan [ Balkans ] although it is , quite rightly , encrypted [ Some clear windows are occassionally seen , the last a few weeks ago ]

The ageing UFO fleet of satellites owned by the US also carries UAV video links.
These birds operate in the 20 ghz satellite band .
The new satellites , the Broadband Gap Fillers , are also operating in the 20 ghz band...most of the video is now over IP

The halcyon days of Satcom are over I'm afraid....the digital age is upon us.
No longer can we tune Inmarsat and listen to the pre launch shuttle nets Mad

However , if you check Pauls pages on inmarsat you will see that there is software being developed to
decode Inmarsat C transmissions , so the position could improve...in due course.