[amsat-bb] Day/Night SNR above 1GHz??

[Scott]

Hello everyone!

With talk of some of the future amateur satellites using higher and higher frequencies, I can assure you that I for one am going to have a lot of questions about the world above 1GHz.

Since I have been taking baby steps by monitoring L-Band with some success, a pattern has become so regular that I wonder if it will be applicable if/when I am ever equipped to work next generation AmSats in the GHz range.

I have noticed (quite reliably) that the quality of my received signal easily doubles at night.  One example would be the Outernet data stream from Inmarsat 4-F3.  The SNR value reported by the Outernet software might be in the area of –6- during the day, but often jumps to –11- or –12- (or even higher) at night.

Is this normal?  Should I generally expect to have significantly better performance above 1GHz at night (at least in the case of ground-to-space contacts)?

If so, of course that would be nice to know before trying to work nextgen satellites on those higher frequencies.

Thanks!

-Scott,  K4KDR
Montpelier, VA  USA