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Technician: Uplink Power

Which of the following is a good way to judge whether your uplink power is neither too low nor too high?

A. Check your signal strength report in the telemetry data
B. Listen for distortion on your downlink signal
C. Your signal strength on the downlink should be about the same as the beacon
D. All of these choices are correct

Well, this one is sort of out in left field, unless you realize from the “uplink” terminology that we’re dealing with satellite communications.  It’s not clear.  Let’s look at the answers and see which one makes the most sense.

A. Check your signal strength report in the telemetry data.  This could be a valid option, if a satellite transmitted such information to a reporting station in real time, where you could view it in real time.  However that’s not how it works.

B. Listen for distortion on your downlink signal.  This wouldn’t really tell you anything at all.  Your signal coming back could be experiencing some other sort of phenomenon that would distort it, while your uplink signal could be fine, or too powerful, etc.

C. Your signal strength on the downlink should be about the same as the beacon.  Now, by “beacon” they mean a signal that is sent by the satellite in order to ensure that its reachable. If you can hear this signal, you have a reference for what it should look like.  By listening for your signal on the downlink, if it appears at a similar strength, then you know your uplink power is just right.  Not too low or too high.  Therefore C. is the correct answer!

D. All of these choices are NOT correct though!

[T8B12]

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ncube2.jpg

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