Satellite and Spacecraft Radio Transmission Frequencies

This  list includes satellites and spacecraft tracked from the Zarya home location with additional information from other observers. Some of the frequencies are used, or have been used, by other satellites in the past. The Zarya list documents only those signals actually tracked on active frequencies since the year 2000.

Some transmitters operate continuously and some are switched on and off periodically. Soyuz TM and Progress M/M1 ferries tend to transmit only when engaged in their own on-orbit operations. The remainder of the time they are silent, docked with the International Space Station, though they transmit occasionally when being checked-out by Mission Control.

The list includes only transmissions readily received using simple equipment such as a hand-held scanner. Often, the aerial supplied with the scanner will suffice. Frequencies listed are all below 1 GHz. US and Chinese meteorological satellites have transmissions around 1.7 GHz and there are telemetry frequencies around 2.2 GHz but they require relatively sophisticated equipment to track them. Specifically excluded from the list are amateur radio satellites, and the US military satellite point-to-point communications transponders to be found around 250 MHz.

For anyone interested particularly in the International Space Space Station, there is a separate list of all known transmitting frequencies below 1 GHz.

Zarya is located at Lincoln, UK: 53.22 degrees North, 0.60 degrees West.