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

QO-100: the upper CW beacon on 10490.000 MHz, the top edge of the transponder

The Morse beacon that marks the upper limit of the QO-100 narrowband transponder at 10490.000 MHz. Above it the satellite relays nothing; below it, the last SSB and mixed-mode channels of the band.

Frequency10490.000 MHz
ModeCW

What you hear

A steady Morse signal on exactly 10490.000 MHz, the twin of the lower beacon: a looping text with the AMSAT-DL identification, at a comfortable speed, with no fading at all. It is the last signal of the transponder described in the main article. Tune higher and the waterfall goes blank, because the transponder's passband ends here; tune lower and you drop into the upper SSB and mixed-mode channels and, a little further down, the emergency frequency at 10489.860.

Who transmits and why

Like the lower beacon, it is sent up from AMSAT-DL's ground station in Bochum and relayed by the satellite. The two edge beacons, 500 kHz apart, define the usable band for everyone: operators tune between them and nobody transmits above the upper one, because the transponder would not pass it anyway. For a receiver the pair is a built-in ruler; the distance between the two lines on the waterfall should be exactly 500 kHz, and if it is not, the converter's oscillator is off.

When and where to listen

Always, from any receiver with a dish on the satellite.

In ShackDeck

Station catalogue → QO-100: the Es’hail-2 satellite → QO-100: the upper CW beacon 10490.000. The program picks a public receiver with a dish on the satellite, does the converter arithmetic, sets CW with a passband of 300 to 900 Hz and shows the waterfall; no dish, receiver or account of your own is needed.

More stations

QO-100: the emergency frequency on 10489.860 MHz, kept clear for a reason

10489.860 MHz · USB

The emergency frequency of the QO-100 transponder at 10489.860 MHz: silent on an ordinary day, used by amateur emergency groups in exercises and real disasters, when the satellite is the link that still works.

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: SSTV on 10489.620 MHz, pictures through a geostationary satellite

10489.620 MHz · SSTV

Slow-scan television in the mixed-mode segment of the QO-100 transponder, 10489.580 to 10489.650 MHz, most often near 10489.620: pictures from across the footprint, built line by line by the program's SSTV decoder.

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.

CW on 80 metres: 3530 kHz, Morse after dark

3530 kHz · CW

The 80 m CW segment wakes up at sunset: 3530 kHz sits in the middle of it, with slow and fast Morse from across Europe through the night and, on winter nights, from the other side of the Atlantic.

Radio Thailand on 9390 kHz: English from Udon Thani for Europe at 19:00 UTC

9390 kHz · AM

Radio Thailand World Service in English for Europe at 19:00 UTC on 9390 kHz, from the Udon Thani station in north-east Thailand. News from Bangkok, tourism and culture, in a slot that has stayed put for years.