Is it possible to detect the presence of a satellite ground station in my area?
Also can I detect the uplink using a simple Software-Defined Radio (SDR)?
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1I hope this is is not as related as it seems to be to me How to reduce/mitigate the degree to which a Starlink terminal user in a war zone is giving their position in real time? – uhoh Aug 17 '23 at 21:10
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Some information here https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/25951/do-satellite-uplink-downlink-signals-spread-or-leak-into-space?rq=1 – Uwe Aug 18 '23 at 03:42
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To detect a satellite ground station by detecting the uplink radio signal is not that easy. A satellite ground station is build usually with a high gain narrow beam directional antenna. To detect the emission of such an antenna you need either a detector very close to the narrow beam or very close to the satellite ground station antenna. A detector at other places might not get enough radiated power of the signal in question.
A simple SDR (software-defined radio) with a frequency range well below 8 GHz might be too slow for a uplink signal using the X-band in the range 7.25 GHz to 7.75 GHz (Space to Earth) and 7.9 GHz to 8.4 GHz (Earth to Space).
If the Ka, K and Ku bands are used in the range between 12 and 40 GHz, a SDR with only 8 GHz is not useful.
Uwe
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