-In [Tutorial: Downlink data from NASA's Aqua public satellite](downlink-aqua.md), data from NASA's Aqua satellite is downlinked using a **managed modem**, meaning the raw RF signal received from the Aqua satellite by the ground station is passed through a modem managed by Azure Orbital. The output of this modem, which is in the form of bytes, is then streamed to the user's VM. As part of the step [Configure a contact profile for an Aqua downlink mission](downlink-aqua.md#configure-a-contact-profile-for-an-aqua-downlink-mission) the **Demodulation Configuration** was set to **Aqua Direct Broadcast**, which is what enabled and configured the managed modem to demodulate/decode the RF signal received from Aqua. As part of using vRF, there's no managed modem, and instead the raw RF signal is sent to the user's VM for processing. This concept can apply to both the downlink and uplink, but in this tutorial we examine the downlink process. We create a vRF, based on GNU Radio, which processes the raw RF signal and act as the modem.
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