I see we have VHF and UHF, but I have not found what frequencies we should be designing for.
Looking at the ARRL Band plan for VHF looks like 144.3-144.5 MHz and 145.5-145.8 MHz
So when we are designing for VHF those are the target frequencies, or is it more? What is the high and low VHF frequencies we should be expecting?
Similarly with UHF 435.00-438.00 MHz is the satellite part of the band plan. Is that where we expect all of the UHF satellite reception? If not then what is the minimum and maximum UHF frequencies we should be designing for?
The reason for the question is I have been looking at filters and LNA.
AR2 ( P28VD ) has some Amateur Satellite receive only LNA with Filters for 136-138 MHz and another one for 144-148 MHz and another one for 420-450 MHz. What should I be getting? I am planning to have separate VHF and UHF systems. Or is there a better way to do it?
I could not find anything more specific in the Wiki other than UHF and VHF.
Why not look at some existing satellite observations and see where these satellites are transmitting. Find out what it is you are interested in and focus on those frequencies. I found and got started by watching the weather satellites before I joined SATNOGS. You will find the 2m band just below 146MHz is very congested with satellites.
Bob - VK2BYF’s advice is spot on. Start with something simple. I found that the NOAA weather satellites down at 137MHz were the easiest to receive. They transmit higher power than most of the amateur band satellites and they transmit 100% of the time so if there is a pass going over you can be pretty certain it will be there. The amateur band sats don’t always transmit It may be there but not receiving it may not mean your kit is not working. There are some sats in they amateur bands that transmit most of the time like Saral and the FalconSat sats up in 435MHz band. Out of interest I found with a RTL-SDR on my TV antenna I could easily get pretty good signals and images from the NOAA sats but when I moved to the amateur bands I really needed a LNA up near the antenna because of the satellites transmit lower powers. My advice is start simple and work your way up.
This is the number of transmitters in the Satnogs DB, per frequency in MHz. You can use the table to see what frequencies would catch most transmitters, or what frequencies the network lacks stations for.
mfalkvidd that is exactly what I was looking for. I do not yet know how to query the database for that info, but that is perfect.
I did not know there were satellites above 148 MHz and below 400 MHz.
As a result of your table I can see the difference between a band pass filter for 144-148 MHz versus one for 130 - 150 MHz. That is what I was trying to figure out. The answer is 184 Satellites versus 230 Satellites or 25% more for the wider coverage.
I am planning to put a station in my summer home SW of Traverse City, Michigan. (Does not seem like any stations in that area.) I am buying parts, and testing at my winter home in Texas, before I head up there in May.
The LNA and filtering is what has been giving me problems. Some LNA include filtering, while others work from 30MHz to 6GHz, so I have to buy or make a filter. Trying to understand the tradeoffs is what I am trying to do.