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AMSAT-DL Operators Track Mars Probes

03/03/2021

Members of Germany’s AMSAT organization, AMSAT-DL, in cooperation with the Sternwarte Bochum Institute in Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, have been using the institute’s 20-meter (65.6-foot) diameter dish antenna to listen directly to signals from probes in Mars orbit.

Signals have been copied from the Chinese Tianwen-1 and the Hope Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) spacecraft now orbiting Mars and transmitting in the 8.4 GHz band.

Recordings of the signals can be heard on YouTube with regular updates by following @amsatdl on Twitter.

In 2003, radio amateurs added phase-locked receivers in the 2.3, 5.8, and 10.4 GHz amateur bands, as well as an 8.4 GHz receiver. There is also an S-band 2.4 GHz amateur transmitter running 250 W PEP (peak envelope power). In 2006, the dish was used to copy signals from Voyager 1 at a distance of nearly 15 billion kilometers (9.3 billion miles). — Thanks to AMSAT News Service 



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