This plugin can be used to demodulate Inmarsat C data packets. They are transmitted by four geostationary satellites, using right-hand circular polarization (RHCP).
The packets are BPSK modulated with a symbol rate of 1,200 symbols/s and a data rate of 600 bit/s. The packets are decoded from within frames of 639 bytes that take 8.64 seconds to receive.
Satellites and corresponding frequencies are:
| Region | Id | Satellite | Longitude | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic Ocean West | AOR-W | Inmarsat 4-F3 | 98W | 1,537.70 MHz |
| Atlantic Ocean East | AOR-E | Inmarsat 3-F5 | 54W | 1,541.45 MHz |
| Pacific Ocean | POR | Inmarsat 4-F1 | 178E | 1,541.45 MHz |
| Indian Ocean | IOR | Inmarsat 4A-F4 / Alphasat | 25E | 1,537.10 MHz |
The direction from your anntenna to the satellites can be determined in the Satellite Tracker Feature:
Messages containing coordinates in the address or message fields can be displayed on the Map Feature:
More information about the encoding of EGC (Enhanced Group Call) messages can be found in: Safety NET Manual
The top and bottom bars of the channel window are described here
Use the wheels to adjust the frequency shift in Hz from the center frequency of reception. Left click on a digit sets the cursor position at this digit. Right click on a digit sets all digits on the right to zero. This effectively floors value at the digit position. Wheels are moved with the mousewheel while pointing at the wheel or by selecting the wheel with the left mouse click and using the keyboard arrows. Pressing shift simultaneously moves digit by 5 and pressing control moves it by 2.
Average total power in dB relative to a +/- 1.0 amplitude signal received in the pass band.
- top bar (green): average value
- bottom bar (blue green): instantaneous peak value
- tip vertical bar (bright green): peak hold value
This specifies the bandwidth of a LPF that is applied to the input signal to limit the RF bandwidth. This should be at least 2.4 kHz.
The Equalizer combobox allows selection of an equalizer to use, which can help to overcome some forms of channel distortion. Options are:
- None: No equalizer will be used.
- CMA: Constant Modulus Algorithm equalizer.
- LMS: Least Mean Squares equalizer.
EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) measurement in % over the last 10,240 received symbols (one frames worth). Lower values indicate better quality signals.
The status icon shows the status of the demodulator:
- When the background is green, the demodulator is synchronized to the start of a frame.
- When the background is yellow, the demodulator Costas Loop is locked, but it is not yet synchronized to the start of a frame.
- When the background is grey, the Costas Loop is not locked, which suggests either no signal or too weak a signal to lock on to.
Checking the icon will diplay additional PLL status and parameters, but these typically shouldn't require modification.
When checked, received packets are forwarded to the specified UDP address (9) and port (10).
IP address of the host to forward received packets to via UDP.
UDP port number to forward received packets to.
Entering a regular expression in the Type field displays only packets where the type, displayed in the Type column, matches the regular expression.
Entering a regular expression in the Message field displays only packets where the message, displayed in the Message column, matches the regular expression.
When checked, if the source device is a File Input device, the date and time used for packet reception time is taken from the file playback time. Otherwise, the current system clock time is used.
When checked, writes all received packets to a .csv file.
Click to specify the name of the .csv file which received packets are logged to.
Click to specify a previously written .csv log file, which is read and used to update the table.
Pressing this button clears all packets from the tables.
The received packets area has two tabs, which each contain a table. The Packets table displays the contents of all packets that have been received. The Messages table displays only packets that contain messages. Left clicking a row in the table will highlight it. The highlighted packet will be decoded in the area below the tables.
Right click on the table headers to select which columns are visible. Columns can be resized and reordered by dragging.
Right clicking on a cell in the table will show a context menu, allowing the contents to be copied. If the message contains coordinates, an option to find that location on the Map Feature will be shown.
The Waveforms rollup has a scope that can display various signals within the demodulator. To see a constellation diagram for the recevied symbols, set the X & Y traces to IQ Derot Real & Imag, and Display to XY trace.