Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

[Fizbi]

I need transponder/pid info to lock onto the HiRISE on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter with my FTA dish.

Can anyone help?

 

[Anole]

I think we'll need to put your dish on steroids before it's likely to hear that.
Or maybe, Viagra! -

Also, don't they super-cool their front ends?
I know I get upset when I pour a Coke in my lap, so that doesn't sound like fun. -

 

[Fizbi]

I know I get upset when I pour a Coke in my lap, so that doesn't sound like fun. -

I hope it's diet Coke. Sugar sure is sticky when it dries up!

 

[Steveo]

That's a big ask Fizbi. Even out of my league
Did catch it on NASA Tv though, they did all the hard work for me

 

[GrumpyGuy]

The MRO transmits on DSN channel 32 which is 8439.444444 MHz, but I suppose the received frequency will be higher or lower depending on speed and direction of MRO relative to the earth station.

Seems these boys got a lock on it using a homemade 1 meter dish!
UHF-Satcom.com - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter monitoring

 

[Smith P.]

Nay - it have twice diameter - 1.8M .

 

[GrumpyGuy]

Nay - it need twice reading - 1.0M .

 

[Smith P.]

Well, then here is the my reading: "This is the dish being used to track Mars and the MRO Orbiter - its an old 1.8m 'NEC' antenna with a home-made adapter plate to allow it to be used with the AZ/EL tripod. On the table is the dual band down converter and associated 24v PSU."
UHF-Satcom.com - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter monitoring

 

[Anole]

None of the info on that web site seems to be current (so far as I noticed)
So it's possible that through improvements they moved from a 1.8m to a 1.0m dish, or NOT.
Perhaps the larger dish is partly responsible for the improved signal.

Update 7-January-2006
Received MRO again this evening, signals were about 4 to 5dB above the noise, and copyable in SSB. The MRO was 69593573 miles away which is 25 million miles further away than when I first copied a signal from it! The photos below show some close-ups of the LHC feed horn with depolarising screws, and the feed horn mounted on the feed arm of the 1m dish.

Still, I found this to be the most amusing:

The MRO has a 3 meter diameter dish antenna driven by a 100 Watt TWTA to transmit signals to Earth - this means that the signal coming in our direction is of the order of 4.2 mega watts of RF.

 

[GrumpyGuy]

The 4.2 mega watts of ERP caught my attention too, Anole. That is one heck of a spot beam! Guess this would explain why NASA refers to it as the High Gain.

Since the UK hams were getting 6-8dB of usable signal with a 1 meter dish, seems to me that with a bit of tweaking, we should be able to get better than 0dB with a pizza pan ... right?

Found some interesting stuff regarding the MRO's communications systems in Lunar and Planetary Science XXXVIII (warning, .pfd format)

Smith, you are linking to and quoting from a different page than the one I cited in my original post ... but you already know that, don't ya?

 

[Smith P.]

Sure, I just can't imagine how 1m dish is sufficient for the task.