HamTV Reception Reports

[nils]

This is a photo of the equipment I used. The circular piece of cardboard in the center was there temporarily, to check how well it tracked the Sun.

bafkreifr2ioqwfqyzerzrggkwtuba6n5eozhw42zncw6pw4o2cvfyvir4e.jpg

Good luck with your project.

Nick
G4IMO

Nice setup! What controller do you use, LVB-Tracker?

[G4IMO-TV]

Home made simple controller using Arduino UNO. I use Orbitron to send serial data to the UNO.
See 3 Part video on youtube by YO3YAK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlOZKF5xgn0

Nick.

[g4hiz]

Hi all,
If you want to test your receive system, why not try the 'Transit' method in which no positioner is required ?
Just point your dish straight up and wait for the ISS to pass. Suitable passes (80-90 degrees-ish) can be found using a website such as 'Heavens Above' with your location entered (nearest town good enough). Tick 'All Passes' not just visible ones.
Caveat: your Latitude needs to be </= 51.6 degrees in order to get an elevation up to 90 degrees, due to the orbital inclination of the ISS. However, do check for your location as Latitudes slightly above will still be usable with this method.
I got good reception on an old 90cm prime focus dish using a POTY and an S-Band LNB, which was marked NF 0.4dB, with a measured gain of about 55dB and an LO of 3950MHz. The LNB box was marked 'Primesat'.
Note that the dish was part of a re-purposed QO-100 system. The Ku-band LNB didn't add anything in this case, but I didn't want to remove it.
I received two sequential passes (85 and 89 degrees resp.) with good S/N and video decoded on the second pass, possibly due to a small frequency offset having been removed.

Have a go!

73
Jen G4HIZ

[IU2KAC]

Hi all,
If you want to test your receive system, why not try the 'Transit' method in which no positioner is required ?
Just point your dish straight up and wait for the ISS to pass. Suitable passes (80-90 degrees-ish) can be found using a website such as 'Heavens Above' with your location entered (nearest town good enough). Tick 'All Passes' not just visible ones.
Caveat: your Latitude needs to be </= 51.6 degrees in order to get an elevation up to 90 degrees, due to the orbital inclination of the ISS.
I got good reception on an old 90cm prime focus dish using a POTY and an S-Band LNB, which was marked NF 0.4dB, with a measured gain of about 55dB and an LO of 3950MHz. The LNB box was marked 'Primesat'.
Note that the dish was part of a re-purposed QO-100 system. The Ku-band LNB didn't add anything in this case, but I didn't want to remove it.
I received two sequential passes (85 and 89 degrees resp.) with good S/N and video decoded on the second pass, possibly due to a small frequency offset having been removed.

Have a go!

73
Jen G4HIZ

Congratulations, you did a great job!

[IU2KAC]

Hi all,
If you want to test your receive system, why not try the 'Transit' method in which no positioner is required ?
Just point your dish straight up and wait for the ISS to pass. Suitable passes (80-90 degrees-ish) can be found using a website such as 'Heavens Above' with your location entered (nearest town good enough). Tick 'All Passes' not just visible ones.
Caveat: your Latitude needs to be </= 51.6 degrees in order to get an elevation up to 90 degrees, due to the orbital inclination of the ISS.
I got good reception on an old 90cm prime focus dish using a POTY and an S-Band LNB, which was marked NF 0.4dB, with a measured gain of about 55dB and an LO of 3950MHz. The LNB box was marked 'Primesat'.
Note that the dish was part of a re-purposed QO-100 system. The Ku-band LNB didn't add anything in this case, but I didn't want to remove it.
I received two sequential passes (85 and 89 degrees resp.) with good S/N and video decoded on the second pass, possibly due to a small frequency offset having been removed.

Have a go!

73
Jen G4HIZ

Congratulations, you did a great job!

Where did you purchase the S-band LNB?
Thanks.

[g4hiz]

Unfortunately, I bought the LNB a few years ago from a UK supplier.

However, Googling 'PrimeSat S-Band LNB' brought up one supplier of a similar looking unit, eg AliExpress for about £75 plus postage, from 'Bowei Electronics'.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001 ... ElAeSNEGoX

73

[IU2KAC]

Unfortunately, I bought the LNB a few years ago from a UK supplier.

However, Googling 'PrimeSat S-Band LNB' brought up one supplier of a similar looking unit, eg AliExpress for about £75 plus postage, from 'Bowei Electronics'.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001 ... ElAeSNEGoX

73

Very similar to yours.
Thank you so much!

[EA6WQ]

Good reception in EA6 Mallorca Island - 5 Aug 2025 17:50 - 18:01 locat time max elev 59º

120 cm dish, Spid Ras /HD 0.1 º rotator , Helix feed, DG0VE preamp, 35 mts Sat Coax , Minitonuer Rx, peak MER 12 - Black picture


Tom, EA6WQ / KE0KQT

PHOTO-2025-08-06-17-14-59.jpg (336.63 KiB) Viewed 256 times

[IU2KAC]

Hi all,
If you want to test your receive system, why not try the 'Transit' method in which no positioner is required ?
Just point your dish straight up and wait for the ISS to pass. Suitable passes (80-90 degrees-ish) can be found using a website such as 'Heavens Above' with your location entered (nearest town good enough). Tick 'All Passes' not just visible ones.
Caveat: your Latitude needs to be </= 51.6 degrees in order to get an elevation up to 90 degrees, due to the orbital inclination of the ISS. However, do check for your location as Latitudes slightly above will still be usable with this method.
I got good reception on an old 90cm prime focus dish using a POTY and an S-Band LNB, which was marked NF 0.4dB, with a measured gain of about 55dB and an LO of 3950MHz. The LNB box was marked 'Primesat'.
Note that the dish was part of a re-purposed QO-100 system. The Ku-band LNB didn't add anything in this case, but I didn't want to remove it.
I received two sequential passes (85 and 89 degrees resp.) with good S/N and video decoded on the second pass, possibly due to a small frequency offset having been removed.

Have a go!

73
Jen G4HIZ

Oh, I forgot to ask you, but with your setup (fixed pointing), for how many seconds or minutes were you able to receive the ISS?
Thanks for the reply.

Liborio, IU2KAC

[g4hiz]

Hi Liborio,

on a test today with the 90cm dish static pointed for an 83 degree elevation pass, the time for the ISS signal to emerge and then disappear back into the spectrum analyser noise floor was about 24 seconds. There was about 20s above the threshold for demodulation, with the receiver taking about 5s to lock, giving up to about 15s of video, with a peak of D14. There was sufficient viewing angle and signal strength to see pickup on the first side-lobe of the antenna.

The antenna was aligned with very simple tools. Although for any particular location, one should take into account the local variation of Magnetic North versus True North.

Jen G4HIZ

Edited to add 2 photos and a bit more explanation