The Precision Tracker
01 July 1963
The Telstar satellite radiates a 4079.73-mc continuous-wave (CW) carrier 00 mc below the frequency of the communications carrier. 1 This signal is designed as a beacon for the processes of tracking and initial acquisition. The design of the precision tracker receiver is thus based on the characteristics of this beacon signal as modified by the dynamic orbital parameters: these are listed briefly in Table I. The system application -- the manner in which the tracker is integrated into the Telstar ground system operations -- is described in Ref. 2. Section II of this paper is a brief description of the precision tracker system; sections III through IX cover the several subsystems in greater detail.