Geosynchronous satellites registered
Allen Thomson (thomsona@netcom.com)
Sun, 25 Feb 1996 06:58:39 -0800
John Pike has posted the following message on a number of newsgroups.
It's interesting that the two "unidentified" geosynchronous satellites
found by Rainer Kracht are near the locations of US CSID-E2 and E3/E4.
(Although the message is dated 16 February, it just appeared on my
server.)
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From: John Pike <johnpike@fas.org>
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy,sci.astro.amateur,alt.politics.org.cia,alt.politics.org.nsa,rec.radio.amateur.space
Subject: GEO Orbital Locations of US SIGINT Satellites [check them out!!]
Date: 16 Feb 1996 00:29:59 GMT
Organization: Federation of American Scientists
At the 1995 World Radio Conference, the US registered the following
satellites as operating in the 17.8-21.2 GHz downlink and 30-31 GHz
uplink bands.
station longitude
US CSID-A1 E 000
US CSID-A2 E 044
US CSID-A3 E 075
US CSID-A4 E 082
US CSID-A5 E 092
US CSID-A6 E 110
US CSID-E1 W 010
US CSID-E2 W 013
US CSID-E3 W 024
US CSID-E4 W 030
US CSID-W1 W 141
US CSID-W2 W 144
The US also registered
US CSID-P non-GSO [63 degrees, 39400-1000 km, 8 satellites]
[source: WRC-95 Document 235(Rev.2)-E 14 November 1995]
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It is to be expected that geostationary SIGINT [VORTEX, MAGNUM, etc]
birds will be found occupying some [but perhaps not all] of the
registered orbital locations, and that the HEO registrations cover
JUMPSEAT/TRUMPET spacecraft.
These systems have been operating at these locations since the 1970s, and
their spectrum/orbit allocations were grandfathered to protect them from
potential interferrence from new KA-band applicants, such as Teledesic.
These systems are associated with two ground stations, one in the
Washington area, and the other at Castle Rock near Denver. These ground
stations have a 200 dbi gain.
--
John Pike
Federation of American Scientists http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/
CyberStrategy Project http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/cp/
Intelligence Reform Project http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/irp/
Military Analysis Network http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/man/
Space Policy Project http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/spp/