Sounds from Space

 

Sounds from Scientific, Meteorological and Commercial Satellites 1996-2005

This part of my audio collection is dedicated to commercial and scientific satellites. I started this separate section when Greg Roberts, ZS1BI in Cape Town, started to convert some of his old recordings from a tape recorder with elastic belt drives to electronic format. Greg is a retired professional astronomer and since 1957 has been actively involved in the tracking of artificial satellites, both by optical and radio means. Click on his picture to the right to get more information about him and his activities.

Greg Roberts ZS1BI

Many thanks to Greg Roberts ZS1BI for getting this section started and to all the other people who kindly contributed: Alois Ochojski DL3PD/SK, Roy Welch W0SL, Sven Grahn, Kurt Ringel DF7FU, Chris Gross, Mike D. Kenny, Brian Hougesen OZ1SKY, Michael Fletcher OH2AUE, Dale Ireland, Alan Banks, Paul Marsh M0EYT, Patrick DK193WN, Mike Rupprecht DK3WN, Loren Moline WA7SKT, Maik Hermenau, Jean-Louis Rault F6AGR, Dick Flagg AH6NM, Don P. Mitchell, Bill Chaikin KA8VIT, Dick Daniels W4PUJ/SK, Patrick Hajagos, Henk Hamoen PA3GUO, Thomas Koziel DG3IX, Tobias Lindemann, Josef Huber, Tetsu-san JA0CAW, Jan PE0SAT, Nils von Storch, Darko 9A3LI, Federico Manzini, Phil Williams, Jos Heymann, Roland Proesch DF3LZ, Davide D'Aliesio IW0HLG, Giulio Manzoni IV3DTB/9V1FC, Fer Paglia IW1DTU, Enrico Gobbetti IW2AGJ, Raydel Abreu Espinet CM2ESP, Flavio PY2ZX, Frederick W. Krappe, Colin Mackellar, Aitor Conde, Davide D'Aliesio IW0HLG, Jean-Pierre Godet F5YG, Milen Rangelov, Francisco EA7ADI, Luc VE2FXL, Roland PY4ZBZ, Rob PA0RWE, Edgar J. Kaiser DF2MZ, Egor UB1QBJ, Graham Leighton G8FXB and Luciano PY5LF.

Picture

Object name
#NORAD

Description

Launch
Date

Weight

INMARSAT 3F1
I3F1
IOR
#23839
(1996-020A)

Inmarsat I-3 F1 was the first of the third generation Inmarsat satellites. It was launched in 1996 on an Atlas-2A rocket to cover the Indian Ocean Region. It was finally placed in a geostationary orbit at 64° East. Its communication system include 22(+11) L-band transponders (22W power amplifiers) and a C-band uplink.

April 3rd 1996

2068 kg

Enclosed audio signal was received on April 30th 2011 at 13:52 UTC on 1547.730 MHz. Many thanks to Greg Roberts for kindly providing this recording.

Enclosed audio signal was received on April 30th 2011 at 13:56 UTC on 1547.550 MHz. Many thanks to Greg Roberts for kindly providing this recording.

Enclosed audio signal was received on April 30th 2011 at 14:00 UTC on 1545.900 MHz. Many thanks to Greg Roberts for kindly providing this recording.

Enclosed audio signal was received on April 30th 2011 at 14:12 UTC on 1540.900 MHz. Many thanks to Greg Roberts for kindly providing this recording.

Enclosed audio signal was received on April 30th 2011 at 14:17 UTC on 1539.390 MHz. Many thanks to Greg Roberts for kindly providing this recording.

Enclosed audio signal was received on April 30th 2011 at 14:26 UTC on 1537.500 MHz. Many thanks to Greg Roberts for kindly providing this recording.

Enclosed audio signal was received on April 30th 2011 at 14:31 UTC on 1533.730 MHz. Many thanks to Greg Roberts for kindly providing this recording.

Its is amazing, how different the various signals on the Inmarsat 3F1 transponders are. Enclosed please find some more spectrum plots taken on April 30th 2011 by Greg Roberts.
 

UFO 7
UHF-FO 7
USA 127
#23967
(1996-042A)

UFO 7 (Ultra High Frequency Follow On) is a geostationary (25°W) military communications satellite. It carries 39 UHF channels with a total bandwidth of 555 kHz, a SHF subsystem, 20 EHF channels. Recorded on Jan 5th 2008 on 249.125 MHz in LSB by Chris Gross in Pennsylvania using a Yupiteru MVT-7100.

Jul 25th 1996

3015 kg

Recorded on Jan 5th 2008 on 267.035 MHz in LSB by Chris Gross in Pennsylvania using a Yupiteru MVT-7100.

MUSAT-1
MO30
Microsat
#24291
(1996-050A)

MuSat - 1 "Victor" was developed and built by a 25-person team at the Instituto Universitario Aeronautico, under the Sponsorship of the government of the province of Cordoba. MuSat-1 was launched together with Magion-5 and Prognoz M-2 by a Molniya-M rocket from Plesetsk cosmodrome. It was the first satellite made in Argentina and the 340x340x450mm Microsat was reported to be functional. "Victor " is an experimental vehicle, intended to evaluate in-orbit behavior of low-cost space technologies. It carries two video cameras, oriented for earth-imaging, as well as transceivers in both UHF and S bands. Electrical power is provided by four 88-Si cells solar panels, with an end-of-life electrical power of 8W. It finally decayed on the November 12th 1999.
The recorded beacon, which can be heard every 90 seconds on 137.95 MHz as a brief burst of CW "Hi hi de MUSAT", was provided by Dale Ireland.

Aug 29th 1996

32 kg

MUSAT-1 transmits a  tone-modulated Morse-code signal which is a burst of CW code of approx. 7 seconds in duration, repeated every 90 seconds. It starts with: "HI HI DE MUSAT....". This signal was received on 137.95 MHz on Jan 12th 1997 around 14:45 UTC by Sven Grahn.

INMARSAT 3F2
I3F2
AOR-E
#24307
(1996-053A)

Inmarsat 3F2 was built by Lockheed Martin and is based on their GE-4000 platform. It was launched without a apogee kick motor from Baykonur on a Proton-K/DM-1 launcher (#243) and was thus directly injected into a GSO. It geostationary orbit position was finally at 15.5° West.

Inmarsat 3-F2’s primary mission is to supply voice and data communications services worldwide to mobile terminals such as small as pocket-size messaging units on ships, air-crafts and vehicles. It can dynamically reallocate both RF power and bandwidth among a global beam and seven spot-beams, allowing greater reuse of the available spectrums. The spot-beams are directed as required to make extra communications capacity available in areas where demand from users is high. Its main transponder is an L-Band transponder (1.6/1.5 GHz) using two 2m big dish based circular polarized antennas for up- and down-link. You can see the 2 dishes in the lower left picture. EIRP on L-Band is up to 48dBW. Its forward bandwidth is 29 MHz, its return bandwidth is 39 MHz. In addition it features a C-Band transponder (6.4/3.6 GHz) also using circular polarized antennas Its bandwidth
there is 39 MHz.

Furthermore I3F2 is also part of the EGNOS satellite based augmentation system (SBAS). Its carries a navigation transponder designed to enhance the accuracy, availability and integrity of the GNSS (GPS and Glonass) global navigation satellite systems.

Sept 6th 1996

1150 kg

Enclosed audio signal was received on April 7th 2011 at 13:55 UTC from one of the paging channels of Inmarsat 3F2. It is a slow MFSK signal. Many thanks to Greg Roberts for kindly providing this recording.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was recorded by Greg Roberts on May 1st 2011 at 11:12 UTC on 1537.630 MHz.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was recorded by Greg Roberts on May 1st 2011 at 11:24 UTC on 1537.932 MHz.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was recorded by Greg Roberts on May 1st 2011 at 11:34 UTC on 1539.650 MHz.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was recorded by Greg Roberts on May 1st 2011 at 12:00 UTC on 1575.420 MHz.

Its is amazing, how different the various signals on the Inmarsat 3F2 transponders are. Enclosed please find some spectrum plots each of them being 190kHz wide and taken all by Greg Roberts on May 1st 2011.
 

Iridium 8
 
#24792
(1997-020A)

The IRIDIUM satellite system provides worldwide voice and data coverage including remote areas. When a subscriber is in a remote area his handset will operate through the satellite network whereas it will use terrestrial networks wherever available. The satellite system is based on 66 active satellites in low Earth circular orbits with an altitude of 780km and an inclination of 86.4°. Originally the constellation should have consisted of 77 active satellites and thus the name of the 77th element in the periodic table "Iridium" was chosen. The communication system uses a combined FDMA/TDMA approach. The communication to the terminals is in the frequency range of 1616-1626,5 MHz. Up- and Downlinks to the basestations and gateways as well as inter-satellite links operate in the frequency ranges 19,4-19,6 GHz and 29,1-29,3 GHz. The special shape of the antennae and solar panels can create strong reflections of the sunlight known as Iridium flares. You can calculate possible visible flares by clicking on the picture to the right.

May 5th 1997

689 kg

Enclosed IRIDIUM signal was received on April 22nd 2011 at 15:32 UTC around 1,6 GHz in SSB by Greg Roberts.

Enclosed IRIDIUM signal was received on April 22nd 2011 at 15:35 UTC around 1,6 GHz in SSB by Greg Roberts.

INMARSAT 3F4
I3F4
AOR-W
#24819
(1997-027A)

Inmarsat I-3 F4 was the fourth of the third generation Inmarsat satellites. It was launched in 1997 from Kourou on an Ariane rocket (V97) to cover the Western Atlantic Ocean Region. It was finally placed in a geostationary orbit at 54° West. Its communication system include 22(+11) L-band transponders (22W power amplifiers) and a C-band uplink.

June 2nd 1997

2400 kg

Enclosed audio signal was received on April 30th 2011 at 15:13 UTC on 1540.66 MHz by Greg Roberts. It sounds like noise but at the end of the recording you can hear it change pitch as the signal shifts. Many thanks to Greg Roberts for kindly providing this recording.

Also on Inmarsat 3F4 many different signals can be found on its transponders are. Enclosed please find some spectrum plots each of them being 190kHz wide and taken all by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 around 15:00 UTC.
 

METEOSAT-7
#24932
(1997-049B)

METEOSAT-7, a European meteorological satellite, was launched from the Kourou space center in French Guiana aboard an Ariane 44LP rocket. It was the last member of the 1st generation of METEOSAT satellites and was first placed in a geosynchronous orbit at 10.2 deg W. Later Eumetsat moved METEOSAT-7 to 0° E longitude. The standard mode of operation was full-disk imagery in 3 channels every half-hour. The 1691 MHz downlink signal was recorded by Michael Fletcher OH2AUE on April 12th 2006 at 19:45UTC.

Sep 2nd 1997

3455 kg

In April 2006 METEOSAT-7 was out of inclination-keeping fuel and thus it was de-commissioned on June 14th 2006. This marked also the end of almost a quarter of a century of Meteosat's 1st generation transmissions. This is the very last transmission from Meteosat-7 on June 14th 2006 before it was finally shut off. The recording was kindly provided by Paul Marsh M0EYT.

Some time later it turned out, that the APT transmissions of Meteosat-7 were not completely stopped. After the satellite had been moved East to 53°E it continued to transmit APT pictures on 1691,007 MHz in FM modulation. Enclosed audio file was recorded as well as the associated picture was decoded and kindly provided on April 25th 2009 by Nils.

Iridium 43
 
#25039
(1997-069A)

The IRIDIUM satellite system provides worldwide voice and data coverage including remote areas. It consists of 66 active satellites in low Earth circular orbits with an altitude of 780km and an inclination of 86.4°. The communication system uses a combined FDMA/TDMA approach. The communication to the terminals is in the frequency range of 1616-1626.5 MHz. Up- and Downlinks to the basestations and gateways as well as inter-satellite links operate in the frequency ranges 19.4-19.6 GHz and 29.1-29.3 GHz. Iridium 43 was part of a strong rocket launch campaign which lasted a year and a half and had followed a decade of planning the system. Finally on November 1st 1998 Iridium began commercial operation and was thus the first global satellite-based personal communication system supporting handheld devices.

Nov 9th 1997

689 kg

Enclosed IRIDIUM signal was received on May 1st 2011 at 13:51 UTC on 1624.880 MHz in SSB by Greg Roberts.

ORBCOMM FM-08 (A4)
#25112
(1997-084A)

ORBCOMM FM-8 is part of a commercial venture to provide global messaging services using a constellation of 26 low-Earth orbiting satellites. The spacecraft was a circular shaped disk. Circular panels hinged from each side after launch to expose solar cells. These panels tilted  in one axis to track the sun and provide 160W electrical power. FM-08 was launched in a stack of 8 Microstar / Orbcomm satellites with a Peagasus rocket which was dropped my an airplane. The deployed spacecraft measured 3.6 m from end to end with 2.3 m span across the circular disks. VHF telemetry was at 57.6 kbps. The spacecraft carried 17 data processors and 7 antennas and was designed to handle 50,000 messages per hour. The long boom was a 2.6 meter VHF/UHF gateway antenna. Receive: 2400 bps at 148 - 149.9 MHz. Transmit: 4800 bps at 137 - 138 MHz and 400.05 to 400.15 MHz. The system used X.400 (CCITT 1988) addressing. Message size was 6 to 250 bytes typical (no maximum).

Enclosed signal from ORBCOMM FM-08 was received on February 15th 2014 at 13:00 UTC on 137.800 MHz in FM by DD1US.

Dec 23rd 1997

24 kg

COSMOS 2349
Kometa
#25167
(
1998-009A)

Cosmos 2349 was a Russian military photographic satellite and part of the Yantar program. More precisely  Cosmos 2349 was part of the Kometa series and was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
It provided topographical maps of the US with a resolution of 2m in accordance with a Russian-American project called SPIN-2. The pictures were brought back to ground by a return capsule (see picure to the right).
The PCM/FM telemetry signal ( 1 sec frame) was  received on 150.3 MHz on March 18
th 1998 by Sven Grahn.

Feb 17th 1998

6600 kg

NOAA 15
#25338
(1998-030A)

NOAA-15 was the first in a series of five satellites called POES with improved imaging and sounding capabilities. The audio file was recorded on 137.500 MHz on July 16th 1998 by DD1US.

May 13th 1998

1475 kg

During the year 1998 and then again in summer 2011 I received a number of APT pictures from NOAA-15. Click on the picture on the right to have a look at this collection.

NOAA-15 was still active 10 years later as the recording from Patrick DK193WN on June 26th 2008 shows. His R2FX receiver was tuned to 137.500 MHz.

The S-Band downlink at 1544.500 MHz was received and recorded as a spectrum plot by Paul M0YET on October 13th 2007.

On May 8th 2009 Nils received enclosed APT picture from NOAA-15, which shows nicely the ash-cloud coming from a volcano on Iceland. The picture on the right shows the details of the cloud based on another source. The pictures were kindly provided by Nils.

Also in 2012 NOAA-15 was still transmitting excellent pictures like the one enclosed. NOAA-15 was received on 137.620 MHz in FM on May 6th 2012 at 15:16 UTC by DD1US.

On April 26th 2018 NOAA-15 had a malfunction which resulted in a distorted APT transmission on 137.620 MHz. The satellite was recovered later. The audio recording and image was kindly provided by Egor UB1QBJ.

On July 23rd 2019 NOAA-15 had another malfunction. Apparently it was switching between channels which resulted in a distorted APT transmission on 137.620 MHz. The satellite was recovered later. The audio recording and images were kindly provided by Egor UB1QBJ.

RESURS O1-N4
RESURS-O1 #4
#25394
(1998-043A)

RESURS O1-N4 is a Russian natural resources sensing satellite that was launched from Baykonur using a Zenit 2 rocket to perform ecological and meteorological monitoring. The transmitted APT picture and the audio file were received on 137.850 MHz on February 28th 1999 at 10:30 UTC by Mike DK3WN.

July 10th 1998

1250 kg

Afristar
AfriStar 1
#25515
(1998-063A)

AfriSta was launched with Ariane 44L from Kourou. It was the first Worldspace satellite. It was placed into a geostationary orbit at 21° East. Its mission is to provide digital audio and multimedia services to emerging and under-served markets of the world. Its uplink is in X-band and the downlink is in L-band (1453.384 – 1490.644 MHz). Its 3 L-band transponders feature 53 dBW ERIP.

October 28th 1998

1205 kg

The TTC beacon of Afristar-1 is at 1491.7030 MHz. On April 30th 2011 at 16:40 UTC Greg Roberts received one of its sidebands in USB at 1491.7429 MHz.

This pulsing carrier of Afristar-1 was found on 1487.884 MHz on April 30th 2011 at 10:28 UTC by Greg Roberts.

On February 5th 2012 Matthias DD1US verified, that Afristar can sill be received in Central Europe. He received 6 audio cannels. Click on the receiver picture to the right to get a more detailed report.

DLR-TUBSAT
TUBSAT-C
#25757
(1999
-029B)

DLR-TUBSAT was built by TU-Berlini and transmitted telemetry as well as command data in 1200bd FFSK ASCII on 143.075 MHZ and on 436.075 MHz.

Enclosed signal was received on 436.075 MHz by Maik Hermenau. Recording kindly provided by Maik.

May 27th 1999

45 kg

XMM-Newton
Newton
#25889
(1999-066A)

XMM (X-ray Multimirror Mission) is a an x-ray telescope containing three mirror modules each consisting of 58 nested mirrors. The effective area of the three modules combined is about 6500 sq cm between 0.1 and 1 keV and about 2000 sq cm at 10 keV. The spatial resolution is about 30 arc-seconds. The instruments consist of the European (x-ray) Photon Imaging Cameras (EPIC), the Reflection Grating Spectrometers (RGS), and the Optical Monitor. Among the goals for the 10 year lifetime of XMM are: understanding the diffuse x-ray background, mapping the x-ray emitting gas in clusters of galaxies, unbiased surveys of galaxies and of stars, diagnostic studies of accreting binary stars, temporal spectroscopic studies of AGN's and spectral studies of supernove remnants in nearby galaxies.

Dec 10th 1999

3800 kg

The S-Band downlink on 2224,92 MHz of XMM-Newton was received and enclosed FFT plot was generated in May 2014 by Milen Rangelov.

IMAGE
NASA ID 166
#26113
(
2000-017A)

IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration) is a MIDEX class mission, selected by NASA in 1996, to study the global response of the Earth's magnetosphere to changes in the solar wind.

On December 18th 2005, after 5.8 years of successful operations, IMAGE's telemetry signals were not received during a routine pass. In the next years NASA did not receive any signals and gave up this mission.

On January 20th 2018 a Radio Amateur, Scott Tilley VE7TIl, rediscovered the signal of the lost satellite after more than 12 years. Based on his input NASA confirmed that the satellite is back in good health is now trying to reestablish the communication IMAGE.

Mar. 25th 2000

536 kg

The S-Band downlink on 2272,50 MHz of IMAGE was received on February 13th 2018 at 11:15 UTC by DD1US. Modulation sidebands can be seen on enclosed FFT plots. 

On May 26th 2018 Edgar DF2MZ observed the signal from IMAGE when it suddenly appeared after the satellite came out of a longer eclipse. Recording and spectrum plot kindly provided by Edgar Kaiser DF2MZ.

ZY-2A
ZY 2A
PRC 44
#26481
(
2000-050A)

Zhangguo Ziyuan 2 (China Resource 2), also known as PRC 44 and as ZY 2 is a Chinese remote sensing spacecraft that was launched by a Long March 4B rocket from Taiyuan launch center into a sun synchronous orbit. Transmissions were on 179.951 MHz and a CW signal on 479.869 MHz.
Enclosed 3.3 sec telemetry frame was received on 179.971 MHz on September 24th 2000 at 10:10 UTC by Sven Grahn. He also provided enclosed analysis of this signal.

Sept. 1st 2000

? kg

MEGSAT-1
#26545
(2000-057A)

Megsat-1 is an Italian environment monitoring satellite and was launched by a Dnepr rocket from Baikonur into a circular orbit with 64.6° inclination and about 642km height. Megsat-1 was launched together with 4 other microsatellites which were Tiungsat-1, Unisat, Saudisat-1A and Saudisat-1B. Megsat-1 followed Megsat-0 which had been launched on April 28th 1999 in order to offer 64kbps Store and Forward communications with a downlink at 137.905 MHz. It carries two scientific payloads to measure UV emissions from the aurora borealis to determine their correlation with solar activity in oxygen lines and to measure near-UV night sky background emissions.

Sept 26th 2000

56 kg

The audio file enclosed was received on 137.905 MHz in FM on April 13th 2009 around 07:43 UTC by Sven Grahn.

The audio file enclosed was received on 137.905 MHz on April 14th 2009 around 13:00 UTC by Nils.

Megsat-1 was still active after 10 years of operation. Enclosed weak but discernable signal was received on October 15th 2010 at 07:37 UTC on 137.904 MHz in FM by Patrick DK193WN. Recording kindly provided by Patrick.

EROS-A1
#26631
(2000-079A)

EROS A1 (Earth Resources Observation Satellite) is an Israeli photo-reconnaissance satellite that was launched by a START 1 rocket from the new launch site at Svobodni in Siberia. It was the third launch from that site. The START 1 rocket is a modified SS-25. The satellite is 3-axis stabilized and carries a black and white high resolution (1.8 m) CCD camera, to obtain images (with terrain width of 12.6 km) of locations chosen by Israeli military or world-wide commercial clients, and downlink them to one of the 14 ground stations.

Dec 5th 2000

250 kg

The S-Band downlink on 2295 MHz of EROS-A1 was received and enclosed FFT plot was generated in April 2014 by Milen Rangelov.

PROBA
PROBA 1
#26598
(
2001-049B)

PROBA 1 (PRoject for On-Board Autonomy, 1) is a Belgian minisatellite that was launched by a PSLV-C3 rocket by ISRO in India into a 553 km × 677 km orbit with 98° inclination. It is operated by ESA and carries a radiation detector, a debris impact monitoring instrument, and a remote sensing camera for performance assessment (resolution 18m).

Nov 22nd 2001

94 kg

PROBA has an S-Band downlink at 2235 MHz which was received by Paul Marsh on May 10th 2013 at 17:54 UTC. Audio recording and spectrum plots kindly provided by Paul Marsh M0EYT.

The S-Band downlink on 2235 MHz of Proba-1 was received and enclosed FFT plot was generated in May 2014 by Milen Rangelov.

MAROC-TUBSAT
#26704
(
2001-056D)

 

Maroc-Tubsat is a Moroccan microsatellite which was launched by a Zenit rocket from Baikonur. Its primary mission was the test of a 3D attitude control system.
Enclosed morse-code signal was received on 144.1 MHz on January 23
rd 2002 by Sven Grahn.

Dec 10th 2001

47 kg

GONETS D1-7
GONETS 12
#27058
(
2001-058D)

Gonets (Messenger) 12 is a Russian civilian communications spacecraft that was launched by a Tsiklon 3 rocket from Plesetsk at 04:09 UT on 28 December 2001. Gonets satellites were the civilian derivate of the military Strela-3 satellite system. Their purpose is to locate and report natural and man-made environmental disasters around the world, and to relay messages from/to mobile telephones. The Gonets satellites were capable of store-dump communications on 2-3 channels in the 2004-400 MHz band with a transmitter output power of 10 W. Data transmission rates available include 2.4 kbits/s, 9.6 kbit/s, and 64 kbit/s with an onboard storage capacity of 8 Mbytes.

Dec 28th 2001

233 kg

GONETS D1-7 was received by Roland Proesch DF3LZ on January 2nd 2014 on 263.080 MHz in USB.
The spectrogam shows the multitone sigal. Sound file kindly provided by Roland Proesch DF3LZ. 

NOAA 17
NOAA M
#27453
(2002-032A)

One of the fourth-generation of operational, polar orbiting, meteorological satellites. Enclosed audio file was recorded on March 19th 2008 at 11:45UTC in FM on 137.620 MHz by DD1US.

Jun 24th 2002

1457 kg

The APT picture to the right from Noaa 17 was received on October 20th 2002 on 137.620 MHz in FM by DD1US.

This sound file and the corresponding APT picture were received by Patrick DK193WN on Sept 14th 2008 on 137.620 MHz from NOAA-17.

On October 22nd 2010 Patrick received enclosed signal from NOAA-17 which contains only half a picture and the rest looks like a barcode. This is due to a degradation of the AVHRR scan motor in Noaa 17 which became critical February 19th 2010. Recording was kindly provided by Patrick Hajagos.

Mid of 2011 NOAA 17 was still exhibiting the same problem as can be seen in the picture enclosed. Recorded on August 16th 2011 at 09:59 UTC by DD1US.

NOAA-17 was decommissioned on April 10th 2013 at 12:17 UTC.

COSMOS 2391
KOSMOS 2391
Strela-3 #132
#27465
(2002-036B)

Cosmos 2391 was launched together with Cosmos 2390 by a Cosmos-3M rocket from Plesetsk at 06:36 UT on July 8th2002. COSMOS 2391 is used for store-dump communications by Russian government and military.

Jul 8th 2002

200 kg

COSMOS 2391 was received by Roland Proesch DF3LZ on December 26th 2013 at 15:30 UTC on 244.5125 MHz in USB. The spectrogam shows the ID of the satellite. Sound file kindly provided by Roland Proesch DF3LZ.

CORIOLIS
#27640
(2003-001A)

Coriolis is an American (DOD) spacecraft that was launched by a Titan 2 rocket from Vandenberg AF. The 395 kg, 1,174 W, 3.0 m diameter, 6.9 m high, triaxially-stabilized spacecraft carried 82 kg of fuel and 340 kg of instruments. The two instruments are WindSat to monitor ocean surface wind speed and direction from space, and SMEI (solar mass ejection imager) to to detect disturbances in the solar wind by means of imaging scattered light from the free electrons in the plasma of the solar wind. To do this three CCD cameras observe sections of the sky of size 60 by 3 degree. Data will be stored onboard and downlinked to dedicated ground stations in x-band. Reported downlink frequencies in S-band are 2215.5 MHz, 2221.5 MHz and 2242.5 MHz.

Jan 6th 2003

395 kg

The S-Band downlink on 2215.5 MHz of CORIOLIS was received and enclosed FFT plot was generated in May 2014 by Milen Rangelov.

SORCE
#27651
(2003-004A)

SORCE (SOlar Radiation and Climate Experiment) is an American (NASA) Sun-Earth Connection satellite that was launched on January 25th 2003 at 20:13 UTC by a Pegasus XL rocket released from a L-1011 cargo aircraft flying out of Cape Canaveral. It is to measure solar irradiance in a number of wavelength-bands through three spectrometers and a photometer.

Jan 25th 2003

315 kg

The S-Band downlink on 2273.5 MHz of SORCE was received and enclosed FFT plot was generated in May 2014 by Milen Rangelov.

MIMOSA
#27841
(2003-031B)

MIMOSA (MIcroMeasurements Of Satellite Accelerations) is a Czech minisatellite which is nearly spherical with 28 sides and carries a microaccelerometer to monitor the atmospheric density profile by sensing the atmospheric drag. CW transmission was recorded on 137.143 MHz by Mike D. Kenny.

Jun 30th 2003

66 kg

IRS-P6
Resourcesat 1
#28051
(2003-046A)

IRS P6, also known as Resourcesat 1, is an Indian remote sensing and photo-imaging spacecraft that was launched by a PSLV-C5 rocket from Sriharikota in southeast India into a 817km polar sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite carries high resolution imaging instruments to monitor agricultural, land, and water resources.

Oct 17th 2003

1360 kg

The S-Band downlink on 2250 MHz of IRS-P6 was received and enclosed FFT plot was generated between March and May 2014 by Milen Rangelov.

DMSP F-16
DMSP 5D3-F16
USA172
#28054
(2003-048A)

DMSP F16 (USA 172) was launched by a Titan 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) is a Department of Defense (DoD) program run by the Air Force Space and Missle Systems Center (SMC). The program designs, builds, launches, and maintains satellites monitoring the meteorological, oceanographic, and solar-terrestrial physics environments. Each DMSP satellite has a 101 minute, sun-synchronous near-polar orbit at an altitude of 830km above the surface of the earth.

Oct 18th 2003

1200 kg

The S-Band downlink on 2222.5 MHz of DMSP F-16 was received and enclosed FFT plot was generated in May 2014 by Milen Rangelov.

Molniya 1-93
Molniya 1-T
#28163
2004-005A

Russian Military Communications satellite. Highly elliptical Molniya orbit.
Enclosed signal of its sweeping carrier was received on 1000.44 MHz on July 26
th 2006 by Sven Grahn.

Feb 18th 2004

2000 kg

UNISAT-3
#28373
(2004-025H)

UNISAT-3 is an Italian, scientific microsatellite designed to test solar cells in the space environment, to measure magnetic fields to compute the satellite altitude and to test radio communications. 9600 Baud GMSK signal recorded on 435.230 MHz during its first days after launch by Brian Hougesen OZ1SKY.

Jun 29th 2004

12 kg

 

SICH-1M
OKEAN-O1 #9)
#28505
(2004-052A)

Sich 1M is a Russo-Ukrainian Earth surveying mini-satellite that was launched by a Tsyklon 3 rocket from Plesetsk at 11:20 UT on December 24th 2004. Unfortunately SICH-1M did not reach the final orbit due to a malfunction of the 3rd stage of the rocket. It carried imaging instruments to survey the surface environment and locate natural disasters. Sich is the Ukrainian name for owl. Downlinks were at 137.400 MHz, 466.5 MHz and 460.03 MHz. SICH-1M stopped operations on August 8th 2005 and re-entered.

Dec 24th 2004

2223 kg

This sound file and the corresponding APT picture were received by Alex in Zwickau on March 3rd 2005 on 137.400 MHz from SICH-1M. Alex used a R2FX receiver and a turnstile antenna.  

IRS-P5
Cartosat-1
#25758
(2005-017A)

CartoSat-1 or IRS P5 (Indian Remote Sensing Satellite) was built by ISRO and is mainly intended for cartographic applications. It is the eleventh satellite built in the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite series and was launched into a 618 km high polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) by PSLV-C6. It carries two Panchromatic (PAN) cameras that take black and white stereoscopic pictures of the earth in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The swath covered by these high resolution PAN cameras is 30 km and their spatial resolution is 2.5 meters. It facilitates the generation of accurate three-dimensional maps. The images taken by CartoSat-1 cameras are compressed, encrypted, formatted and transmitted to the ground stations where the images are reconstructed from the data received.

May 5th 2005

1560 kg

The S-Band downlink on 2245.7 MHz of IRS-P5 was received and enclosed FFT plot was generated between March and May 2014 by Milen Rangelov.

HAMSAT
VUSat
OSCAR-52
#28650
(2005-017B)

HAMSAT is an Indian (ISRO) microsatellite. It relays amateur VHF radio communications. You can find more information on the Ham Radio experiments in the respective section. There seems to be also a non-amateur-radio PCM/BPSK transmission which was recorded on 137.175 MHz by Mike D. Kenny.

May 5th 2005

42.5 kg

HAMSAT was not received for quite some time until Mike D. Kenny identified the satellite again in October 2017 with an unmodulated carrier (sometimes pulses at about 4 times a second) on 137.149 MHz.

NOAA 18
NOAA N
#28654
(2005-18A)

The APT downlink frequencies are VTX-1: 137.100 MHz and VTX-2: 137.9125 MHz. Noaa-18 switched from VTX-2 to VTX-1 on January 4th 2006 and back from VTX-1 to VTX-2 on July 20th 2006 at 13:20 UTC. Later, on Thursday, August 16th 2007 at 14:46 UTC it was again switched back to VTX-1 and since then transmits on 137.100 MHz. The beacon frequency is 137.350 MHz. Enclosed audio file was recorded on March 19th 2008 at 10:40UTC in FM (BW only 15 kHz) by DD1US.

Jun 24th 2005

1457 kg

This APT signal was received with less noise by Alan Banks.

This sound file and the corresponding APT picture were received by Patrick DK193WN on May 3rd 2008 on 137.100 MHz from NOAA-18.

During my summer vacation 2011 I received NOAA 18 multiple times. You can find a number of pictures following the link associated with the picture to the right. Here is a sound file recorded on 137.9125 MHz on August 19th 2011 at 13:09 UTC by DD1US.

Also in 2012 NOAA-18 was still transmitting excellent pictures like the one enclosed. NOAA-18 was received on 137.9125 MHz in FM on May 5th 2012 at 14:44 UTC by DD1US.

Mozhayets 5
Sinah-1
Roskosmos
RS-25
#28898
(2005-043G)

Mozhayets 5 = Sinah-1 is an educational technology satellite carrying a laser communications experiment. It is based on the Strela 1M2 platform. It is reported that Mozhayets 5 failed to detach from the upper stage of the Kosmos 3M launcher. Therefore its NORAD number is identical to the launcher (and thus RUBIN-5 see below).

Oct 27th 2005

160 kg

Sinah-1 includes a russian CW beacon transmitting on 435.325 MHz with the callsign RS-25. This beacon was recorded by Mike DK3WN on Oct. 29th 2005 at 23:22 UTC.

Sinah-1 is also transmitting digital data in FM on 435.325 MHz. Recorded by Maik Hermenau.

RUBIN-5
SAFIR-S
#28898
(2005-043G)

The launch of Mozhayets 5 also includes 2 experiments from Germany. Rubin-5 is a technology/communications payload using the ORBCOMM system. It remained intentionally attached to the rocket final stage (it is part of the adapter used to deploy the other satellites). It included the AATiS SAFIR-S amateur transponder and the ESA ASOLANT solar-powered GPS antenna experiment. SAFIR-S transmitted on 2401.9 MHz.

Oct 27th 2005

64 kg

INMARSAT 4F2
I4F2
#28899
(2005-044A)

Inmarsat I-4 F2 was the second of the fourth generation Inmarsat satellites built by Astrium. It was launched in 2005 on a Zenit 3SL rocket to cover the Indian Ocean Region. It was finally placed in a geostationary orbit at 25.3° East. The total power of the satellite is 13 kWatts and it uses 200 spot beams to provide video, data, video-conference and internet services. It supports the Broadband Global Area Network (B-GAN).

Nov 8th 2005

5958 kg

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was received on 1530.390 MHz in USB and recorded by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 at 11:13 UTC.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was received on 1532.0375 MHz in USB and recorded by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 at 11:18 UTC.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was received on 1532.660 MHz in USB and recorded by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 at 11:29 UTC.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was received on 1534.060 MHz in USB and recorded by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 at 11:35 UTC.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was received on 1535.865 MHz in USB and recorded by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 at 11:44 UTC.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was received on 1541.700 MHz in USB and recorded by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 at 12:01 UTC.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was received on 1545.085 MHz in USB and recorded by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 at 12:41 UTC.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was received on 1546.465 MHz in USB and recorded by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 at 12:46 UTC.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was received on 1547.860 MHz in USB and recorded by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 at 12:49 UTC.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was received on 1551.465 MHz in USB and recorded by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 at 12:54 UTC.

Enclosed audio signal and associated spectrum plot was received on 1575.440 MHz in USB and recorded by Greg Roberts on April 30th 2011 at 12:54 UTC.

MSG 2
METEOSAT-9
#28912
(2005-049B)

MSG 2 (Meteosat Second Generation 2) is a European (ESA) geostationary weather satellite, with operational control by the EUMETSAT organization. The craft was renamed Meteosat 9 after it was moved to is geostationary final position at 0.0° longitude . It is spin-stabilized and carries two main instruments. SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager) will provide images taken in four visible and eight infrared channels every 15 minutes, at a resolution of 1 km in visible light and 3 km in infrared. The false colour picture enclosed shows the full Earth disk and was recorded on May 31st 2008 at 12:00 UTC. Copyright MSG_Data@2008_Eumetsat. Thanks to Alan Banks for kindly providing the picture.

Dec 21st 2005

2000 kg

Picture

Object name
#NORAD

Description

Launch
Date

Weight

If you have further sound tracks from space objects please let me know. I will be happy to post them here on my homepage. Many thanks in advance.

Vy 55 & 73 de Matthias DD1US               


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