Dozing on a red eye flight and woke to the Cresent Moon and Mercury rising.
Scott Tilley
@coastal8049.bsky.social
Guests do not get to rearrange the furniture and then act shocked when shown the door.
A few years ago I noticed an ~800-baud BPSK signal from WGS-6 and filed it away as “interesting.” Today I finally chased it down. Something very familiar is hiding in that signal, and the trail leads straight back to DSCS-III.🧵⬇️
Even with the thick forest fire haze some interesting near Earth asteroids are easily tracked. Lots of angular motion of a hour or two of tracking. 2000 VY137 (mag 14.7) from 2026-08-05 and 2004 OT11 (mag 13.8) from 2025-08-06.
NROL-95's payload appears to be NOSS related. Monitoring 2277.5MHz for reasons other than this, I noted a strong NOSS like emission pass through the beam. Earlier hits confirm. New NOSS use a different channel than the operational NOSS, either 2222.5, 2232.5 & 2277.5Mhz.
Some more fun with USA 134 (DSCS III B-13) beacon applying Viterbi corrections. The spacecraft dips behind a cedar tree for testing purposes. 😎 @ea4gpz came up with a convolutional encoder.🧵⬇️ destevez.net/2020/06/reve...
What exactly is still coming out of a 30-year-old military communications satellite? A 1992 AFIT thesis documents the DSCS III-B beacon telemetry. Bits 49–100 the general configuration of the spacecraft's communications payload including a classified telemetry option...🧵⬇️
A mount-control torture test turned into a spacecraft telemetry investigation. Tracking two DSCS III satellites at X-band, I found USA 134 still sending clean telemetry, while USA 167 appears to transmit the beacon framework without encoded telemetry reaching channel 7. 🧵⬇️
Ryan Lebois of @SEE_Aerospace presents our ghost tracking results of Blue Ghost at the 2026 Astrodynamics Specialist Conference in Whistler, BC. Thanks to @amsat-dl.org for their contribution.
MERIDIAN 11 [68571, 2026-071A] has replaced in the same constellation slot as MERIDIAN 7 which is now inoperative. Decoded the TTY beacon sequence and it shares a similar linage to MERIDIAN 10.
I updated a local fork of Cees Bassa's STRF today to work with Alpha-5 as space-track.org is now actively using this for catalogue IDs. github.com/ScottTilley/...
GitHub - ScottTilley/strf: Radio Frequency Satellite Tracking
Radio Frequency Satellite Tracking. Contribute to ScottTilley/strf development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
I'll be attending 2026 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference at Whistler, BC. Presenting a paper on the tracking of Blue Ghost where @amsat-dl.org, SEE_Aerospace and I 'ghost' tracked it to inform the utility of 3-way Doppler augmentation. Hoping to see many friends there.
I spoke with Gadi Schwartz of NBC News NOW about the oldest known zombie satellite TRANSIT 5B-5 and, hopefully, helped clear up the record on this story and a few related topics. You can watch the interview at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern on NBC News NOW on, YouTube, or NBC . com. Credit: APL
Ironically, the oldest NAVSTAR satellite in operation is the last to be detected in my audit of GPS L1. NAVSTAR 48 (USA 151), [26407, 2000-040A]. It turns 26 on July 16th. Sense where I'm going with this?
Something is interfering with GPS, but “we found you” is not earned yet. EKS is plausible, but active classified NRO HEO/SDS objects occupy similar geometry and appear omitted. The NRO is not above spectrum abuse. Without direct RF custody, this remains theory, not attribution.
Veritasium@veritasium.bsky.social · 2mo agoSomething is jamming GPS over Europe. Here's what we found Our latest video, out now on YouTube! youtu.be/tz23G_UXCGA
I'm glad to see the astronauts safely home! I hope the world finds the focus and real reasons to continue manned space exploration for the benefit of all mankind. Onto the next tracking mission...
Oh my! The latest of the Chinese LEO weather satellites are capable of detecting ships at sea. One of the BC Ferries is in the middle of the Salish Sea and underway. See her specs below for reference. AIS plot from a few 10s of minutes after the pass also provided.
Almost sunset and FENGYUN-3G (the low flying weather sat) shows us the Cascade volcano shadows nicely. I miss NOAA 15 for these types of images as its aesthetic was the best.
The most profound thing I've heard from Artemis II thus far. "You're go to go" (audio on)
History made! 🚀 🇨🇦 Jeremy Hansen and the #ArtemisII crew have officially broken the distance record set by Apollo 13. They’re further from Earth than any human has ever been. Even cooler? Sunshine Coast’s own @coastal8049.bsky.social is helping NASA track the mission from his home-built system. 📡
Humans have travelled farther from Earth than ever before
Podcast Episode · The Jill Bennett Show · April 6 · Bonus · 10m
podcasts.apple.com
#Artemis2 is a challenging object to collect Doppler from with a small sensor. Since Artemis I, I began research into a method of Doppler extraction that doesn't rely on a carrier, demodulation or FFT. I can report success! Nearly complete pass with heavy tree attenuation.🧵⬇️
This screenshot appears to reveal success in my new way of reducing Doppler without using a FFT from signals like Artemis II is using. My software is firmly locked on Artemis II and reducing Doppler all without demodulation or FFTs... All in a ultra-low SNR environment.
Today I lost a friend. Goodbye Jason Whyte, AKA VJ Honeybee.
I had a nice chat with @glendaluymes of the @vancouversun.bsky.social about my involvement with the NASA Artemis II mission. vancouversun.com/news/bc-amat...
B.C. amateur astronomer using a 'whole lot of math' as he tracks Artemis II for NASA
'It's like a test of non-NASA systems, to see how well they can keep track,' said Scott Tilley.
vancouversun.com
Artemis II is flying a very southern declination trajectory for most of the mission. Despite the extremely low elevation angles I received very useful data this morning. This was exactly the type of data I was hoping for to test new small dish cis-lunar tracking techniques.
So what’s going on here with respect to Artemis II? The mission is flying a northern hemisphere adverse trajectory. But as you can see from these early models it’s very dynamic. DSN activity schedule vs trajectory.
I’ve been helping the University of New Brunswick (UNB) team get ready for Artemis II. Brent Petersen and I both sit on the AMSAT-CA board and have a common vision to build a pan Canadian space monitoring culture. GO ARTEMIS II, GO UNB! globalnews.ca/news/1175516...
New Brunswick students collecting data for NASA as part of Artemis II mission - New Brunswick | Globalnews.ca
The world has been collectively anticipating the launch of Artemis II but five university students in New Brunswick are keeping an especially close eye on the mission to the moon.
globalnews.ca