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VK7AX > WIA 27.08.90 05:01z 55 Lines 3546 Bytes #-13089 (0) @ WW
BID : 16411_VK7AX
Subj: Radio Telescopes Turn Radar Receivers to Track Satellites an
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Sent: 260827/0459Z 16411@VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.AUNZ LinBPQ6.0.24
Radio Telescopes Turn Radar Receivers to Track Satellites and Space Debris
Date : 26 / 08 / 2026
Author : Critical Comms
Radio telescopes normally spend their time listening for incredibly faint signals from stars,
galaxies and other objects across the universe.
Now researchers have demonstrated that the same highly sensitive receiving systems can be put to another use:
detecting and tracking satellites and space debris in real time.
An article by Lauren Davis in Critical Comms reports on the international Long Baseline Multistatic Radar
(LBMR) project, led by the University of Birmingham, which combines powerful radar transmitters with
geographically separated radio astronomy antennas acting as receivers.
Tracking objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) is already well established, but detecting smaller objects
around geostationary orbit (GEO), approximately 36,000 km above Earth, is considerably more demanding.
The project takes advantage of instruments such as the 76-metre Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank
Observatory and the e-MERLIN network, which are designed to detect extraordinarily weak radio signals.
According to the researchers, incorporating these sensitive receivers can increase the sensitivity of
existing radar systems by more than tenfold, potentially allowing smaller objects to be detected at
much greater distances.
The significant breakthrough is doing it in real time. During a demonstration at the European Space
Agency's ECSAT facility in the UK, radar transmissions originating in the United States were reflected
from objects in space and received by radio telescopes in the UK.
The signals were captured, processed and displayed to government, defence and industry observers as the
detections occurred.
The project involves partners from the UK, United States and Australia and has had to solve some decidedly
familiar radio problems involving accurate synchronisation, distributed receivers, signal processing and
extracting useful information from extremely weak returned signals.
There are fascinating parallels here with amateur radio experimentation.
Radio amateurs involved in EME, aircraft scatter, meteor scatter, passive radar, satellite tracking,
radio astronomy and weak-signal VHF/UHF and microwave operation already understand the basic principle:
transmit or exploit a signal, detect an extremely weak return or transmission, and use sophisticated
processing to extract useful information from it.
The LBMR project takes those concepts to an altogether different scale.
Its next goal is to simultaneously use multiple receiving antennas, potentially allowing researchers
to determine an object's position in three dimensions.
It is another demonstration that sensitive receivers, distributed stations and clever signal processing
can sometimes achieve things that brute transmitter power alone cannot.
Full credit to Lauren Davis and Critical Comms web e-zine for the original story & image.
Read the full Critical Comms article: Radio telescopes enable real-time tracking of orbital threats -
Link >> https://www.criticalcomms.com.au/content/industry/article/radio-telescopes-enable-real-time-tracking-of-orbital-threats-944413348
Page Last Updated: Wednesday, 26 Aug 2026 at 17:24 hours by Justin Giles-clark
(Sourced from https://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2026/20260826-1/index.php)
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Posted to the packet radio network on behalf of WIA courtesy Tony VK7AX)
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