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What to listen to · QO-100: the Es’hail-2 satellite

QO-100: the CW segment on 10489.520 MHz, Morse through a geostationary satellite

The telegraphy segment of the QO-100 transponder, 10489.505 to 10489.540 MHz, just above the lower beacon: Morse contacts with no fading and no Doppler, read by ear or by the program's CW decoder.

Frequency10489.520 MHz
ModeCW

What you hear

Morse, clean and steady, from stations across the footprint of the satellite described in the main article. The segment runs from 10489.505 to 10489.540 MHz, the first 35 kHz above the lower CW beacon, and the catalogue entry puts you in the middle of it. Signals through the geostationary transponder do not flutter or fade, so even a weak station keeps a constant tone, and the only variation is the operator's hand. Contacts are short exchanges of callsigns and reports, with some longer ragchews from regulars who prefer the key.

Who transmits and why

Radio amateurs within the footprint, uplinking on 2.4 GHz. CW needs the least power of any mode, so this segment is where small stations with a bare dish and a few watts make their first satellite contact; the beacon just below gives everyone a frequency reference to tune against.

When and where to listen

Around the clock, busiest in the European evening and during contests. Activity is thinner than on SSB, and an empty minute does not mean an empty band; wait or tune along the segment.

In ShackDeck

Station catalogue → QO-100: the Es’hail-2 satellite → QO-100: CW 10489.520. The program picks a public receiver with a dish on the satellite, does the converter arithmetic and sets CW with a passband of 300 to 900 Hz; its CW decoder turns the Morse into text on screen. No dish, receiver or account of your own is needed.

More stations

QO-100: FT8 on 10489.540 MHz, decodes from the whole footprint every fifteen seconds

10489.540 MHz · FT8

The FT8 spot of the QO-100 transponder at 10489.540 MHz: digital contacts through the geostationary satellite, decoded every fifteen seconds into callsigns and locators from Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India.

QO-100: SSB contacts on 10489.700 MHz, voices from the whole footprint

10489.700 MHz · USB

The SSB segments of the QO-100 transponder, 10489.650 to 10489.740 and 10489.755 to 10489.850 MHz: voice contacts around the clock between amateurs of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India.

QO-100: the lower CW beacon on 10489.500 MHz, the bottom edge of the transponder

10489.500 MHz · CW

The Morse beacon at the lower edge of the QO-100 transponder, sent up from the AMSAT-DL ground station in Bochum: an endless CW text that marks where the band begins and gives everyone a frequency and level reference.

QO-100: the PSK beacon on 10489.750 MHz, the heartbeat of the geostationary transponder

10489.750 MHz · USB

The telemetry beacon at the centre of the QO-100 narrowband transponder: 400 baud BPSK via the Es’hail-2 satellite, heard day and night from Brazil to Thailand. The first thing to check when tuning the satellite.

HFGCS on 8992 kHz: the second main frequency

8992 kHz · USB

The evening frequency of the US Air Force HF network: the same radio checks and EAM letter strings as on 11175 kHz, sent simultaneously, on the band that opens in Europe when the higher one closes.

Polish Radio 1 on 225 kHz: long wave from Solec Kujawski

225 kHz · AM

Polskie Radio Jedynka on long wave, 1000 kW from Solec Kujawski in central Poland. A stable signal that covers most of Europe day and night, and the easiest way to hear a long-wave broadcaster through a public receiver.