To test it is really easy.
Just download the Java .jar set it up with the two text files in your home directory.
Then just play the attached .wav file out loud and it will hear the .wav recording of a Inmarsat satellite transmission and it will begin to sync then crc and then it will start to display text message. It is really groovy.
EGC-decoder-v07.rar
ncsEGCs.wav
I doubt it will work.
⢠Receive Frequency: TV 48.25 ~ 863.25 MHz
⢠Fully DVB-T Compliant
L-Band is 1500Mhz plus.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RTL-SDR-FM-DAB-USB-DVB-T-TV-Dongle-DVB-T-STICK-RTL2832U-e4000-/261797949512?hash=item3cf45fb048:g:50EAAOSwZjJU9EGF
You need something like this. It must be a genuine E4000 not the lesser R820T .
My stick has the magical e4000 Elonics chip and it can apparently work at 1500mhz without getting too hot and destabilizing.
I special ordered it to be a sdr AIS ship beacon receiver years ago.
It works great on ADBS (aircraft transponders) and now appears to work alright on Inmarsat but I have never actually connected. I think I need a better Helical antenna to get a better signal. This is a L-Band Helical you can print on a 3d printer.
yes. true 
DIY L-band receivers are definitely still on the roadmap. The model will be very close to Orx, where the vast majority of the software is open source, but there is a piece of proprietary freeware.
Yes, that is also on the roadmap. An L-band patch antenna is probably around $20 (probably less). An ADC that passes raw digital IQ to the CPU is probably $15. $35 is the max target for a USB antenna with an ADC. And then all youâll need is a minimum (TBD) amount of computing power.
ViaSat does not require a specific type of antenna for the L-band rx-only. The link simply requires a minimum amount of gain (~8 dBi).
The return path can only be possible through the proprietary terminal, but yes, the return path is over L-band.
Yes, thatâs the problem with the R820 tuner, that is found on almost all RTL dongles. They get hot and unstable above 1 GHz. Once a software demodulator is available for L-band, a standard RTL dongle will need a downconverter so that the signal is processed in the tunerâs intended frequency range.
This is another L band antenna with integrated LNA.
http://orbanmicrowave.com/l-band-satellite-receive-antenna-with-integrated-lna/
Orban is a very solid company. They provided some initial designs for us.
That sounds fantastic Syed.
What is the time frame for testing transmissions to begin?
Which satellite do you intend to âLite upâ first.
Could you start test transmissions in non proprietary low data mode and then when the hardware is available move to the proprietary protocol?
To clarify, we will only be using the ViaSat waveform, so there wonât be a non-proprietary protocol, unfortunately. The receive-only software demodulator will offer a lot more flexibility, similar to ORx, but it will still be a proprietary piece of software. Even to us, it will be black box.
The primary focus for for the next few months is getting the L-band system operational on the two-way terminals. Once that is done, then weâll move to the software demodulator.
The satellites weâre using are SkyTerra-1, Thuraya-2, and Thuraya-3.
Yes, though it could only receive one of the satellites. Thuraya and SkyTerra have different polarizations (left/right hand circular). This is a really neat little helical. Are there plans on how to build it? Or is this a manufactured product?
Interesting this L-band part! Is there a bit of information regarding the planned bandwidth over Thuraya/SkyTerra and the planned EIRP over this bandwidth, and the minimum Eb/No, or C/N that the Viasat waveform needs, so we can do a bit our own reference link budget ? (Also to see whether this can be used later also over other L-band satellitesâŚ)
Regarding the return link - is there anything you can say regarding the required EIRP or RF power needed by the Outernet terminal ? What kind of bandwidth is planned here?
(I see the benefit of using the Viasat M2M waveform, I regret slightly that the Outernet leaves the open source path, and uses this kind of Blue Force Tracking waveformsâŚ)
Blue Force TrackingâŚso you must be an industry insider 
Sadly, Iâm not able to share any technical details on the waveform or terminal. Once we move towards a software demodulator, then we can be much more open about the technical requirements. However, that type of receive will not have a return path.
What I can say is that the return link we have access to is equivalent to SMS. The maximum power during a transmission is about 18W, but that is just a quick burst.
We could still continue down open source as a separate L-band channel, but we just donât have any market interest to do so. I agree, itâs unfortunate that we could not see that through. However, we still have our cubesats, which will operate on UHF and be receive by an RTL-SDR.
Syed,
I am a bit confused.
Does this mean the Original Lantern receive only will be delayed until you get the new Lantern Transceiver working with the new proprietary waveform from Viasat?
Or will you be releasing a open-source , non proprietary version for the original Indiegogo Lantern receiver subscribers and then a paid propriety waveform commercial version with a transceiver option for future purchasers.
George
Because weâre unable to both develop and build more than one version of Lantern, weâre concentrating all efforts on the Lantern Transceiver. As you correctly stated, this will be based on the proprietary ViaSat waveform. The benefit of this waveform to us is that it allows us to burst to very high data rates (relatively speaking), rather than being stuck at the 2.4 kbps that would be associated with a 5 kHz channel.
What do you mean by a paid, commercial waveform? Regardless of the waveform, our backers will not pay any additional fee for the device.
Syed I never said that. I have no idea what you are talking about.
Where has Outernet publicly announced that it is abandoning the open source , build your own if you want, one way anonymous, Indiegogo Lantern receiver and replacing it with a proprietary waveform Lantern version two, transceiver model to be delivered sometime in the future?
Weâve informed our backers of the partnership with ViaSat in our backer-updates. Those backer updates are on the campaign site. We are not abandoning the DIY receiver for L-band. We are simply prioritizing the non-DIY product. The user-facing application of Lantern (Librarian) is the same as that of Lighthouse, so open source is not being abandoned. However, our entire technology stack is not open source. Even now with the ORx, there are proprietary pieces of code.
I have been able to set-up an antenna running on a pi3, and, separately, Iâve been able to get outernetâs l-band image working on a pi3. I cannot, however, install the drivers for the antenna on the pi without all the developerâs tools you stripped out of the rxos image.
Can someone help me figure out whatâs going on the source? At the very least, Iâd love to get librarian.outernet working on our mesh network (nycesh.net/map) (even if the CC content gets delivered over terrestrial lines). I understand that it will be a while before software demodulation happens, but I would love to get this content system working on a pi that has things like make and cmake so that I can develop on our platform.
Thanks!
