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News

British Columbia Radio Amateur Copies Signal from Mars-Orbiting Satellite

   02/17/2021

   As reported on [18]Spaceweather.com, Canadian radio amateur Scott
   Tilley, VE7TIL, has snagged another signal from deep space. His latest
   conquest has been to copy the signal from China’s [19]Tianwen-1
   (pronounced “tee-EN-ven”) probe, which went into orbit around Mars on
   February 10. Tilley told Spaceweather.com that the probe’s X-band
   signal was “loud and audible.”

   “It was a treasure hunt,” Tilley told Spaceweather.com. He explained
   that while the spacecraft did post its frequency with the International
   Telecommunication Union (ITU), it was too vague for precise tuning (X
   band is between 8 GHz and 12 GHz).

   Launched last July, Tianwen-1 represents China’s first Mars mission. It
   consists of an orbiter and a rover, which will land on the Martian
   surface in May or June 2021. It is able to photograph the planet’s
   surface while in orbit.

   Finding signals from deep space is a sub-hobby for Tilley, who seeks
   what he calls “zombie satellites” among other signal sources. In 2020,
   he tracked and identified signals from the experimental UHF military
   communication satellite LES-5. Tilley said he found the satellite in
   what he called a geostationary “graveyard” orbit after noting a
   modulated carrier on 236.7487 MHz. Launched in 1967, LES-5 was supposed
   to shut down in 1972, but it continues to operate as long as its solar
   panels are facing the sun, Tilley explained.

   In 2018, while hunting for an undisclosed US government spacecraft lost
   in a launch mishap, he spotted the signature of IMAGE (Imager for
   Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration), a NASA spacecraft believed
   to have died in December 2005. The [20]discovery delighted space
   scientists.

   Tilley has also picked up signals from NASA's [21]Mars Reconnaissance
   Orbiter, and the United Arab Emirates Hope probe, both orbiting Mars
   some 124 million miles away. He uses a homemade 60-centimeter dish and
   relies on software-defined radios (SDRs) to accomplish the task.

   Radio amateurs have been listening for signals from space since the
   1957 launch of Sputnik 1, which transmitted at around 20 MHz.

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