A major part of our plans for Satellite Station 4.0 includes the ability to operate our home satellite station remotely over the Internet. We’ve been using our Flex-6700 Software Defined Radio as a Remote Operating Gateway on the HF Bands and 6m for some time now. Our latest project is to upgrade our Remote Operating GW to include SDR satellite transceiver capability on the 2m, 70cm, and 23cm bands…
Source: Satellite Station 4.0 Part 7 – Flex SDR Satellite Transceiver
We’ve completed hardware upgrades and repackaging of our Remote Operating Gateway to allow it to be used for satellite operations. The article (link above) explains what was involved in upgrading our Flex-6700 SDR to include SDR Satellite Transceiver capability on the 2m, 70cm, and 23m bands. The project includes:
- Addition of a 2m Amplifier, a 70cm Transverter, and a 23cm Upconverter to our Flex-6700 SDR
- Provision for the addition of the 5GHz and 10 GHz satellite bands in the future
- Local and remote monitoring of power output and SWR
- Use of the Flex-6700 GPS Disciplined Oscillator for locking of frequencies on all bands
- Enhanced remote power and station controls which provide station management via the Internet
- Repackaging of the system in a rack mount enclosure that can be placed under our operating desk
The next stage of our SDR Satellite Transceiver project will be to add the software components needed to control the Flex-6700/SmartSDR combination to make satellite contacts.
Fred, AB1OC