AWS Ground Station Site Capabilities

To simplify your experience, AWS Ground Station determines a common set of capabilities for an antenna type and then deploys multiple antenna to a ground station location. Part of the onboarding steps ensures your satellite is compatible with the antenna types at a specific location. When you reserve a contact, you indirectly determine the antenna type used. This ensures your experience at a particular ground station location remains the same over time regardless of which antennas are being used. The specific performance of your contact will vary due to a wide variety of environmental concerns such as weather at the site.

Currently, all sites support the following capabilities:

Note

Each row in the following table indicates an independent communication path, unless otherwise indicated. Duplicate rows exist to reflect our multi-channel capabilities that allow multiple communication paths to be used concurrently.

Capability Type	Frequency Range	Bandwidth Range	Polarization	Common Name	Notes
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	50 - 400 MHz	RHCP	X-band wideband downlink	This capability requires the use of the AWS Ground Station Agent. This capability is not supported in Alaska 1 or Punta Arenas 1. The aggregate bandwidth must not exceed 400MHz per polarization at each location. All utilized frequency ranges must be non-overlapping.
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	50 - 400 MHz	RHCP
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	50 - 400 MHz	RHCP
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	50 - 400 MHz	RHCP
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	50 - 400 MHz	RHCP
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	50 - 400 MHz	LHCP
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	50 - 400 MHz	LHCP
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	50 - 400 MHz	LHCP
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	50 - 400 MHz	LHCP
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	50 - 400 MHz	LHCP
antenna-downlink	2200 - 2290 MHz	Up to 40 MHz	RHCP	S-band downlink	Only one polarization can be used at a time
antenna-downlink	2200 - 2290 MHz	Up to 40 MHz	LHCP	S-band downlink	Only one polarization can be used at a time
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	Up to 40 MHz	RHCP	X-band narrowband downlink	Only one polarization can be used at a time
antenna-downlink	7750 - 8500 MHz	Up to 40 MHz	LHCP	X-band narrowband downlink	Only one polarization can be used at a time
antenna-uplink	2025 - 2110 MHz	Up to 40 MHz	RHCP	S-band uplink	Only one polarization can be used at a time EIRP 20-50 dBW
antenna-uplink	2025 - 2110 MHz	Up to 40 MHz	LHCP	S-band uplink	Only one polarization can be used at a time EIRP 20-50 dBW
antenna-uplink-echo	2025 - 2110 MHz	2 MHz	RHCP	Uplink echo	Matches antenna-uplink restrictions
antenna-uplink-echo	2025 - 2110 MHz	2 MHz	LHCP	Uplink echo	Matches antenna-uplink restrictions
antenna-downlink-demod-decode	7750 - 8500 MHz	Up to 500 MHz	RHCP	X-band demodulated and decoded downlink
antenna-downlink-demod-decode	7750 - 8500 MHz	Up to 500 MHz	LHCP	X-band demodulated and decoded downlink
tracking	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Support for auto-tracking and program tracking

* RHCP = right-handed circular polarization, and LHCP = left-handed circular polarization. For more information on polarization, see Circular polarization.

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Document Conventions

AWS Ground Station site masks

Understand how AWS Ground Station uses ephemerides