Cassini

Cassini X-Band reception info.

Cassini was launched on the 15th October 1997 and arrived at Saturn on 1st July 2004. The mission ended on 15th September 2017 with atmospheric entry and subsequent destruction of the spacecraft. The primary High Gain Antenna is 4m diameter with 46.6dB gain at X-Band. There is a Low Gain Antenna which is horn with 9dB gain mounted on the feed structure of the dish. Cassini transmitted on 8427.222221MHz,8429.938271MHz and 32033.76MHz. It also had an S-Band transmitter and various radar transmitters. For the Space to Earth link, its primary TWTA ran at 20 watts.

Final signals copied from Cassini on the 19th July 2017 at 1.37 Billion Km distance from Earth

Signals copied from Cassini on the 22nd June 2017

Signals copied from Cassini on the 23rd June 2017

Breaks in the carrier can be seen in the following FFT's possibly where Cassini flew behind Saturns rings.

First signals from Cassini at the UHF-Satcom ground station. Cassini was running a "radio experiment" where by full power carrier only was transmitted as the spacecraft passed between the planet and the rings. At the time of the reception, Cassini was 1.36 billion Km from Earth, some good DX by any standards. All of the signals below were heard on the 29th May 2017.

Two antennas at DSN Madrid were receiving the X-Band signal from Cassini during the REX.

The signals were at times strong enough to copy in the speaker.