Radio Mars (30w)

[Adam792]

Had the 4th stream on 401 scanned in as 'HIT WEST DE LA ROCHELLE' for some time now, I presume it's still the same station but I suppose it could have changed by now.

It seemed to have no audio at all (the 128kbps AAC stream is silent) when I tried it an hour or so ago, but that might be that I've got the settings wrong.

 

[Lexzie]

Took a while to get signal/lock but after that I could easily scan the station and listen to it without interruptions (120cm Channel Master, Black Ultra LN.

 

[Channel Hopper]

it appears I have lost this transponder.

Similarly the web audio shows 'not available in your region' .

 

[Llew]

Has Radio Mars flipped polarity recently?

It shows as horizontal for me now - the usual sat list sites still give it as vertical.

neumodvb with TBS6903X and Inverto Premium PLL LNB on Triax 88, no lock with that dish.

 

[SatSearcher]

Still get it on vertical here.

 

[rodscha]

Just one question:what is so special about Radio Mars?
Little green men's music?

 

[Channel Hopper]

Just one question:what is so special about Radio Mars?
Little green men's music?

That, plus it is a good test of a satellite systems performance and stability at low symbol rate reception.

 

[rodscha]

Just a choice of a certain radio station as a beacon?
Like Radio Caroline from Carcassonne for good receiver sensitivity?

 

[Llew]

Mine could have been Hispasat's 30W-5 beacon at 11699H. If so, the TBS6903X spectral resolution capability is very good to be able to chart it.

 

[Adam792]

I tried this with my HackRF One SDR today, it will just about lock. It seems extremely difficult to get uncorrupted MPEG-TS frames using the leandvb software in DVB-S mode (its error correction works very well with DVB-S2), with lots of adjustment of the gain on the HackRF only getting me some valid data, enough to see the service info in VLC though.

I accidentally called the files 11696h, but it is definitely vertical. Centre frequency is around 11695.85MHz.

 

[Adam792]

...It also turns out it will lock with the TBS6905, just not in TVHeadend which has a timeout if tune takes too long. Using tune-s2 and the frequency of 11695.85, it locks after around 20 seconds. I can get a full, uncorrupted MPEG-TS in this way too. 160kbps quite ropey sounding stereo MP2.

 

[Adam792]

There's another very narrow one, right in between 12519V SR 1489 DVB-S (RDP Portuguese stations) and 12520.8V SR 512 DVB-S2 (RR/RFM/Mega Hits in DVB-IP), at pretty much bang on 12520V. Can anyone lock this or work out the symbol rate? It seems around half the bandwidth of the SR 512 one just above, so somewhere around SR 250 possibly. I've not had any success locking it yet.

 

[EnoSat]

have you tried saving the stream with gqrx ?

 

[SimonE]

Here's the view at my place centered on 12620V and 2mhz per vertical division. This ties up with Flysat as far as I can see.

 

[Satfaca]

Maybe this one?

 

[Adam792]

Thanks all. It looks like there actually could be two very narrow transponders in the gap - around SR 100 each!

12520V and 12520.13V

12519 (1919) = The RTP transponder with Antena 1 etc.
12520.5 (1920.5) = the Portuguese commercial radio IP transponder.

I'm struggling to decode anything that's not the DVB-GSE TP on 23.5°E with this set-up, so I haven't been able to decode these.



Maybe @FC GD can help?

 

[Satfaca]

Note that above one is Horizontal, not Vertical.

 

[Satfaca]

I now see that this is listed on Flysat as normal radio channels but they are IP as well.

 

[satesco]

Thanks all. It looks like there actually could be two very narrow transponders in the gap - around SR 100 each!

12520V and 12520.13V

12519 (1919) = The RTP transponder with Antena 1 etc.
12520.5 (1920.5) = the Portuguese commercial radio IP transponder.

I'm struggling to decode anything that's not the DVB-GSE TP on 23.5°E with this set-up, so I haven't been able to decode these.
...
Maybe @FC GD can help?

Hopefully, @FC GD will find what you are looking for, but I searched very carefully for such frequency and found nothing of interest. Only 12514 H,1208,1/2 is what I saw, and that is not listed on any site.
I'm not sure it will work for you because this mux has a generic stream, and on the other hand, the signal is very weak, at least in my area.

 

[EnoSat]