SDR-14 Used to copy Mars Phoenix Lander

[Tom Azlin, N4ZPT]

Hi Frank,

Pat can attest to my reaction when I saw that screen shot.  I sort of 
said that I had that software and they much have an SDR-14. This was 
quickly confirmed on the SDR reflectors.

So just how much path margin would one have with a 12 ft diameter C band 
dish and a downconverter if we tried to see that 401 MHz signal coming 
from Mars? That feed was coming from the Green Bank system!

Fun!

73, Tom n4zpt

fgentges at mindspring.com wrote:
> tacoistas,
> 
> An RFSpace SDR-14 was used on the Green Bank 100 meter Radio Telescope 
> to copy the Mars Phoenix Lander during its descent.  The transmission 
> copied was on 401.585825 MHz.  The software used was SpectraVue that was 
> written by Moetronix and supplied by RFSpace.  Details at
> 
> http://www.rfspace.com/Blog/Entries/2008/5/25_Day_of_longboarding.html
> 
> This suggests that if you have an old large C band dish sitting around, 
> you can attach a good RF front end and follow up with something like the 
> SDR-14 or SDR-IQ you too can copy interesting stuff from space.
> 
> Frank K0BRA