Sven Grahn
The Inmarsat-4 F3 satelite was launched by a Proton-M launch vehicle from Baikonur in Kazakhstan at 2243 UT on 18 August 2008. I set my receiver on 1018.5 MHz during the early morning hours of 19 August. and connected it to the SDR-14 which recorded the signal spectrum on a so-called waterfall display. When I woke up at 0400 UT I tried to detect signals on 1020.5 MHz without result. Tried the same again at 0500-0515 UT - again without result. This is not to say that "absence of evidence is evidence of absence"! However, after leaving home at 0545 UT I let the SDR-14 record the signal spectrum around 1018.5 during the rest of the day. The table below summarizes all receptions made. The last signals from Briz-M were received about 12 hours after launch.
| Reception # | Date | Time (UT) | Notes | Adjacent mission event |
| 1 | 19 August 2008 | 0237-0238 | Single carrier, rapid Doppler | Briz-M shutdown at 0227 UT |
| 2 | 19 August 2008 | 0239-0241 | Two carriers 12 kHz apart? Rapid Doppler | |
| 3 | 19 August 2008 | 0249-0323 | Three carriers 0, +/- 16 kHz | |
| 4 | 19 August 2008 | 0348-0425 | Three carriers 0, +/- 16 kHz | |
| 5 | 19 August 2008 | 0617-0627 | Two carriers +/- 16 kHz | Briz-M firing 0725-0730 UT. The S/C separated at 0746 UT. |
| 6 | 19 August 2008 | 0853-0923 | Single carrier | |
| 7 | 19 August 2008 | 1011-1031 | Single carrier | |
| 8 | 19 August 2008 | 1053-1103 | Two carriers +/- 16 kHz |
The strange shapes of the spectrogram traces are explained in a previous article on Briz-M tracking.
