Es'hail 2 (a.k.a. Qatar-OSCAR 100 or QO-100[4]) is a Qatari satellite, launched aboard a SpaceXFalcon 9 rocket on November 15, 2018.[5][6] Es'hail 2 was built by Japan's Mitsubishi Electric company, and operates at 26° East longitude along a geostationary orbit to provide direct-to-home television services in the Middle East and North Africa region.[7]
The satellite features 24 Ku-band and 11 Ka-band transponders to provide direct broadcasting services for television, government and commercial content distribution.[8] In addition to commercial services, the payload of Es'hail 2 includes a linear transponder with a bandwidth of 500 kHz and 8 MHz for the amateur radio satellite service, with uplink on 2.4 GHz (13-cm band) and downlink on 10.45 GHz (3-cm band).[9]
Linear Transponder for low power narrow bandwidth voice, morse and digital communication
preferred modes: narrow band modes like SSB and CW, PSK
500 kHz allocated bandwidth
non-inverting bent-pipe transponder
Assumes 50 simultaneous 2-way carriers to serve 100 users
X-Band Downlink (SAT-TV dish):
90 cm dishes in rainy areas at EOC like Brazil or Thailand
60 cm around coverage peak
75 cm dishes at peak -2 dB
Downlink polarisation on X-Band is vertical
Uplink polarisation on S-Band is RHCP
Uplink transmitter 5-10W PEP (22.5 dBi antenna gain, 75 cm dish)
The narrowband transponder is intended for conventional analogue and narrowband digital signals.
No transmissions should be made beyond the nominal edges of the transponder passbands. In particular, no operation should take place below the lower beacon nor above the upper beacon.
No uplinks should result in downlink signals that are stronger than these beacons. In the event that such signals are detected, they will be marked by a “LEILA” (LEIstungs Limit Anzeige, English: power level indicator) siren. When they have been marked by “LEILA”, operators should immediately reduce their uplink power (ERP).
No FM transmissions should be made to Es’hail-2 as these would use excessive power and bandwidth.
Uplink [MHz]
Downlink [MHz]
Available bandwidth [kHz]
Notes
do not transmit
10489,500 – 10489,505
5
Lower CW beacon
2400,005 – 2400,040
10489,505 – 10489,540
35
CW only
2400,040 – 2400,080
10489,540 – 10489,580
40
Narrowband digimodes (500 Hz max. BW)
2400,080 – 2400,150
10489,580 – 10489,650
70
Digimodes (2700 Hz max. BW)
2400,150 – 2400,245
10489,650 – 10489,745
95
SSB only (2700 Hz max. BW)
do not transmit
10489,745 – 10489,755
10
Middle beacon, 400 Bit/s BPSK
2400,255 – 2400,350
10489,755 – 10489,850
95
SSB only (2700 Hz max. BW)
2400,350 – 2400,495
10489,850 – 10489,995
145
Mixed modes (2700 Hz max. BW) & special purpose
do not transmit
10489,995 – 10490,000
5
Experimental beacon, CW and other modulations
"WB" Transponder (wide band)
Linear Transponder for Digital Amateur Television (DATV) and other highspeed data transmissions. First DATV transponder in space.
8 MHz bandwidth (1.5 MHz used by beacon)
Uplink polarisation on S-Band is RHCP
Downlink polarisation on X-Band is horizontal
Beacon sending video from launch at 10491.500 MHz DVB-S2 QPSK 1.5MS FEC 4/5
DVB-S2 is used as standard in most amateur transmissions
3 channels for wide (1000/1500 kS) transmissions, 14 channels for narrow (333 kS) transmissions, and 27 channels for very narrow (125/66/33 kS) transmissions
Typical amateur data streams are between 400 and 1200 kbit
Internet spectrum monitor and chat for transmission coordination
Receive equipment on downlink:
90 cm offset dish
standard Ku-band LNB
F6DZP MiniTiouner, Octagon SF4008 or SDR software decoders
Uplink equipment:
120 cm dish (preferably larger)
Minimum 30W of output power
SDR (Adalm-Pluto, LimeSDR, BladeRF)
All uplink transmissions should use the minimum power possible. QPSK transmissions should have a downlink signal with at least 1 dB lower power density than the Beacon – the web-based spectrum monitor enables users to set their uplink power to achieve this. Transmissions with symbol rates of less than 333 kS using 8PSK, 16 APSK or 32 APSK should use the minimum power density required to achieve successful reception.
Amateur Radio Operators
Well over 130+ amateur radio operators have used the amateur radio transponder in the first few weeks of operation.[11]
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
.jpg)
