Satellite Network Update on May 9, 2025

On May 9, 2025, at 15:00 UTC, the C-band signal transmitted over the Telstar 18V (T18V) satellite will move to a new frequency. Hence, users in the Asia-Pacific region covered by this signal will need to upgrade the CLI/GUI and reconfigure the receiver to continue with the reception. Users covered by the other signals (including the T18V Ku-band signal) do not need to take any action but may update the CLI/GUI to benefit from the latest features and bug fixes.

The required software upgrade will be made available on the day before, May 8, 2025, by 15:00 UTC. Please, check back after this time and proceed with the following steps in preparation for the downlink frequency update.

To download the upgraded CLI and GUI versions, run the following:

sudo pip3 install blocksat-cli blocksat-gui --upgrade

Next, verify that the CLI and/or GUI have the new version by running the following:

blocksat-cli --version
blocksat-gui --version

The result should be blocksat-cli 2.5.1 and blocksat-gui 2.5.1, respectively.

Next, if you are running the receiver via the CLI, stop it and restart by re-running the CLI command. The frequency update should apply automatically and log the following to the console:

INFO     Updating the T18V C DL frequency from 4122.6 MHz to 4140.0 MHz

If you are running the receiver using the GUI, close the GUI and restart it after the software upgrade. Next, on the Receiver> Settings page, confirm the updated downlink frequency (4140 MHz). Then, restart the receiver.