43 replies to this topic

[lexxx]

I dont know much about this area, but I'd like to learn. Satellite TV doesnt necessarily interest me, but satellite phones...thats another matter. Phreaking sites dont seem to cover this area. Maybe this should be in the phreaking thread?

[sonof]

hey nrg, thanx for all that. That is plenty to get started.

[wf9]

I would be more interested in using a DVB PCI card or USB device and doing all the work in software -- no serial cables to mess with and the power to set things up exactly as you please.

But right now I have digital cable.

Edited by wf9, 22 June 2006 - 01:38 PM.

[lowlevelup]

The P4 cards has been hacked, but you have to no alot more about the cards then the old P3s, DaveTV is also taking down the P4 stream in a few months if they havn't already. So it would be point less to start using the P4 cards. I don`t know much about the P5 (D1) cards. There is a new card/D2, but I have hear much information and don;t have one yet. I remember the good old days of bootlegging satellite TV was just a point and click away . Then again I don't watch TV anymore

[radio_phreak]

I know it's like a month on but I thought I'd also chime in here there is a little more to it than just broadband sat's etc etc you sometimes can get unencrypted military downlinks coming through sat tv dish's like hotbird etc etc and there is the UHF satcoms where you can pick up people having conversations and sometimes the DTMF that they dialled with each other as for the inmarsat stuff yes it is mostly unencrypted but they are thinking of transitioning over to digital equipment leaving the analouge inmarsat's up until they decay so that could possibly lead to a free for all to get started you need a scanner to receive voice and a a decent aerial I personally use a 90cm dish with a 4 turn helix mounted on a tripod however there are a number of different antenna types to try including the slinky helix and other types of helix there are a number of different sat's to watch and listen, sometimes you will catch them being abused (the brazilian pirates) to tell you the truth stealing sat tv is lame anyway fine you get free tv but to tell you the truth it's the same a red boxing "Toll Fraud is Lame" anyways if you are that interested here is a few inmarsat freq's to get you started




1535.425 Analogue voice
1535.450 Analogue voice
1535.475 Analogue voice
1535.500 Analogue voice
1535.525 Analogue voice
1538.450 Analogue voice
1539.875 Analogue voice
1540.050 Analogue voice
1540.975 Analogue voice
1541.025 Analogue voice
1541.200 Analogue voice
1541.225 Analogue voice

Edited by radio_phreak, 04 August 2006 - 08:31 AM.

[MolcoM X]

Reading this whole thread really makes me meg curious about satellite stuff. Can some one point me into the right direction on learning stuff like this?

My crime is that of curiosity

I know what you mean!

[SUB-S0NIX]

I know it's like a month on but I thought I'd also chime in here there is a little more to it than just broadband sat's etc etc you sometimes can get unencrypted military downlinks coming through sat tv dish's like hotbird etc etc and there is the UHF satcoms where you can pick up people having conversations and sometimes the DTMF that they dialled with each other as for the inmarsat stuff yes it is mostly unencrypted but they are thinking of transitioning over to digital equipment leaving the analouge inmarsat's up until they decay so that could possibly lead to a free for all to get started you need a scanner to receive voice and a a decent aerial I personally use a 90cm dish with a 4 turn helix mounted on a tripod however there are a number of different antenna types to try including the slinky helix and other types of helix there are a number of different sat's to watch and listen, sometimes you will catch them being abused (the brazilian pirates) to tell you the truth stealing sat tv is lame anyway fine you get free tv but to tell you the truth it's the same a red boxing "Toll Fraud is Lame" anyways if you are that interested here is a few inmarsat freq's to get you started



Position Freq Modulation
15.5w
Inmarsat 1537.750 Inmarsat TDM channel
3F2 1544.500 SAREX downlink
1575.420 Egnos overlay downlink
1535.425 Analogue voice channel
1535.450 Analogue voice channel
1535.475 Analogue voice channel
1535.500 Analogue voice channel
1535.525 Analogue voice channel
1538.450 Analogue voice channel
1539.875 Analogue voice channel
1540.050 Analogue voice channel
1540.975 Analogue voice channel
1541.025 Analogue voice channel
1541.200 Analogue voice channel
1541.225 Analogue voice channel

Thats l33t! Got any sweet tuts or web sites with more info? I searched google for "Scanning Satellite Signals" but didn't find anything to interesting.

[radio_phreak]

I know it's like a month on but I thought I'd also chime in here there is a little more to it than just broadband sat's etc etc you sometimes can get unencrypted military downlinks coming through sat tv dish's like hotbird etc etc and there is the UHF satcoms where you can pick up people having conversations and sometimes the DTMF that they dialled with each other as for the inmarsat stuff yes it is mostly unencrypted but they are thinking of transitioning over to digital equipment leaving the analouge inmarsat's up until they decay so that could possibly lead to a free for all to get started you need a scanner to receive voice and a a decent aerial I personally use a 90cm dish with a 4 turn helix mounted on a tripod however there are a number of different antenna types to try including the slinky helix and other types of helix there are a number of different sat's to watch and listen, sometimes you will catch them being abused (the brazilian pirates) to tell you the truth stealing sat tv is lame anyway fine you get free tv but to tell you the truth it's the same a red boxing "Toll Fraud is Lame" anyways if you are that interested here is a few inmarsat freq's to get you started



Position Freq Modulation
15.5w
Inmarsat 1537.750 Inmarsat TDM channel
3F2 1544.500 SAREX downlink
1575.420 Egnos overlay downlink
1535.425 Analogue voice channel
1535.450 Analogue voice channel
1535.475 Analogue voice channel
1535.500 Analogue voice channel
1535.525 Analogue voice channel
1538.450 Analogue voice channel
1539.875 Analogue voice channel
1540.050 Analogue voice channel
1540.975 Analogue voice channel
1541.025 Analogue voice channel
1541.200 Analogue voice channel
1541.225 Analogue voice channel

Thats l33t! Got any sweet tuts or web sites with more info? I searched google for "Scanning Satellite Signals" but didn't find anything to interesting.

type into google "uhf satcoms" "c-band" "ka-band" "ku-band" and look for something called hearsat it's a forum for people who regularly listen into sat coms it's very interesting! also try http://www.g6lvb.com the dude is a radio ham in the UK who does primarily in Ham Sat's he has got a number of different antenna types including a converted 60cm sat tv dish and a brolly dish I intend to make the umbrella dish soon cos it looks damn cool

Edited by radio_phreak, 03 August 2006 - 05:02 AM.

[radio_phreak]

In addition it's also called "War Tracking" I remember some dude wetting himself on a page cos he decoded a weather satellite on APT you can find Weather Sat's between 137.0000 and 138.0000 it's hard to pick them up where I live I am near the paging base station which operates on 137.9750 so that creates a lot of interference

[chown]

Here's an interesting 'tutorial' on a South African forum
Anyone read the story of captain midnight? It's quite a good read.

[radio_phreak]

Here's an interesting 'tutorial' on a South African forum
Anyone read the story of captain midnight? It's quite a good read.

Good link mate, I honestly didnt know about that hack, but then once you have done that what can you do? seriously?

[radio_phreak]

As a small follow on to someone's question about abandoned satellite's I believe INMARSAT are going to abandoning the INMARSAT A NFM series of satellite's and there are no plans to sell them to anyone so who knows the possibility's?

[jfalcon]

As a small follow on to someone's question about abandoned satellite's I believe INMARSAT are going to abandoning the INMARSAT A NFM series of satellite's and there are no plans to sell them to anyone so who knows the possibility's?

Even better, what about Iridium? They're already up there but just burning fuel.
Now that's a waste of resources.

[radio_phreak]

As a small follow on to someone's question about abandoned satellite's I believe INMARSAT are going to abandoning the INMARSAT A NFM series of satellite's and there are no plans to sell them to anyone so who knows the possibility's?

Even better, what about Iridium? They're already up there but just burning fuel.
Now that's a waste of resources.

There is still some usage of them it's mainly data stuff now a day's but if they are planning on abandoning them doesnt that mean that anyone can use them?

[ticom]

When it comes to the whole SATCOM monitoring/hacking thing, the Euros are significantly ahead of the US. Monitoring Times and Popular Communications magazines used to have articles on monitoring SATCOM stuff, especially for VHF/UHF and L band stuff that you could pick up with a high-end communications receiver, then around the early-mid 1990s they stopped doing articles of that nature. There was even a book pubished called Hidden Signals on Satellite TV (ISBN 0916661040) that talked about some of the more esoteric stuff out there.

There is Tele-Satellite International Magazine, which I have seen at local bookstores and just recently discovered can be downloaded in PDF off their website. They used to have a writer called "Dr. Dish" who put out some interesting material. Unfortunately, his orignal website with all the good articles has went away. Still available on the Wayback Machine though.

As far as hardware goes, you'e best bet is look for the old-school stuff and "test equipment" through used equipment sources. All the modern consumer-grade stuff looks to be too crippled for experimentation purposes for the most part.

[jfalcon]

As a small follow on to someone's question about abandoned satellite's I believe INMARSAT are going to abandoning the INMARSAT A NFM series of satellite's and there are no plans to sell them to anyone so who knows the possibility's?

Even better, what about Iridium? They're already up there but just burning fuel.
Now that's a waste of resources.

There is still some usage of them it's mainly data stuff now a day's but if they are planning on abandoning them doesnt that mean that anyone can use them?

Guess I was wrong. http://www.iridium.com/ is still up. Apparently they were bought up and are doing fine now. You can even get prepaid phones with them.

I'd agree, there's not nearly enough stuff done in these areas. Gotta be a hack somewhere for this and Inmarsat. Tho, if one really wants to, they can phreak a marine operator to making a call.

[BEGOTTEN]

I am new to this forum ,.. and soo amazed too seee al the things u guys talk abt in here.. How come i never see this before.. Sttellite hacks are awesome.. I wanna know some tooo

[SUB-S0NIX]

When it comes to the whole SATCOM monitoring/hacking thing, the Euros are significantly ahead of the US. Monitoring Times and Popular Communications magazines used to have articles on monitoring SATCOM stuff, especially for VHF/UHF and L band stuff that you could pick up with a high-end communications receiver, then around the early-mid 1990s they stopped doing articles of that nature. There was even a book pubished called Hidden Signals on Satellite TV (ISBN 0916661040) that talked about some of the more esoteric stuff out there.

There is Tele-Satellite International Magazine, which I have seen at local bookstores and just recently discovered can be downloaded in PDF off their website. They used to have a writer called "Dr. Dish" who put out some interesting material. Unfortunately, his orignal website with all the good articles has went away. Still available on the Wayback Machine though.

As far as hardware goes, you'e best bet is look for the old-school stuff and "test equipment" through used equipment sources. All the modern consumer-grade stuff looks to be too crippled for experimentation purposes for the most part.

Thats for dropping those links! Im definately going to research more on this topic and hopefully write up an article for 2600 or most likely BinRev Mag.

[\h3x]

Long time lurker, first time posting.

I'm amazed that no one mentions FTA (free-to-air) satellite hacking. These receivers were used back in the days for those huge metal dish that sat in people's backyards. But lately, people have found a way to hack them to receive dish network signals (and many more). I've been doing it for almost two years now. I started out, and still have, a Pansat 2500; it works great but there are much better receivers now. I'm currently testing out a coolsat 5000 plat from a friend, this receiver is much better. The actual channel listing (EPG) actually works; it shows all the current shows. Unlike the one on my pansat, which doesn't do jack. Pansat also sucks now because the creator of the receiver started to send out scripts to kill their receivers. (ironic)

The receivers run about 150 to 200 bucks on ebay, local swap meet or flea market, classified ads (craigslist). Then you pick up a directv or dish network 18" circular (this can receive up to two sat with a small mod) or 24" oval dish (this dish can receive up to 4 satellites on one dish) (also make sure they're not DISH Pro500 LNB) (LNB are the things at the end of the dish). Aim the dish to the desired satellite in space, hook up the wires to the receiver. Then program the receiver from your computer via serial cable. It's very simple to program too: just find the latest bin people have created, and find a current channel list. Upload both and you're good to go. ViewSAT is the best I’m hearing right now, but I’ve never got a change to test drive one of those.

My setup: coolsat 5000 plat, 24" oval dish with two LNB, one pointed to 110 and 119. I only program my receiver when it gets hit, average around every 4 months or when a huge sporting events show up haha. But sometimes when it does get hit, it's just a simple key change.

al7bar.tk is the forums I use for FTA files and info.


As of right now, some ppv dont work. Must be some channel frequency change. I haven't looked on any other forums yet about this; maybe i'll get to it tomorrow.

If you must start hacking now, I suggest a coolsat 5000 plat receiver. if you do somehow end up getting a pansat 2500/2700, make sure it's not a fake. there are tons of clones/fakes out there that hardly works.


If you guys are interested, ask any quesitons and i'll try to answer them. I have more links for more files

edit: opps, is this in the right location? maybe It should be in its own thread? I don't know =\

Would you happen to know what size dish I would need for FTA??? I know you said a 18" - 24" dish.. But I live in Alaska and I'm not sure if I'd need to step up the dish size to be able to get a good signal.

Edited by \h3x, 15 August 2006 - 03:18 PM.

[ticom]

Thats for dropping those links! Im definately going to research more on this topic and hopefully write up an article for 2600 or most likely BinRev Mag.

Do it for both. Why the hell not? There is definitely a need for some up-to-date, accurate information on this topic.

On a related note, I came across some information about 2.4 GHz. hamsats and downconverters to receive them on 2m SSB rigs.
http://9z4bm.tripod.com/id18.html
http://www.ultimatec...r.com/dish.html
http://k5gna.com/