Tag Archives: Satellite

Antennas, Featured, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Satellite Station Antenna Upgrades

We’ve been making good use of our Satellite Ground Station. Our existing 2MCP14 and 436CP30 antennas have enabled us to make over 2,000 satellite contacts; working 49 of the 50 U.S. States, 290+ Grid Squares, and 31 DXCCs. Our station is also an ARISS Ground Station which enables us to help Schools around the world talk to astronauts on the ISS.

As you can tell, we are pretty active on Satellites so we decided to take our station up a level by upgrading our antennas. We choose larger yagis with booms over 18+ ft in length. The upgrade required us to improve the mechanical aspects of our Satellite Antenna System as well…

Source: Satellite Station 4.0 Part 12 – Antenna Upgrades

We’ve been pretty busy with antenna projects at AB1OC-AB1QB this fall. In addition to building a new EME Antenna System and Station, we’ve also been working on upgrading our Satellite Antennas.

Satellite Antenna Upgrade

The Satellite Antenna project was a pretty challenging one. We opted for the largest available circularly satellite antennas available from M2 Antenna Systems.

Satellite Antennas On the Tower - Parked
Satellite Antennas On the Tower – Parked

Getting these antennas to be mechanically reliable, properly aligned, and operating smoothly required us to make some custom modifications to the hardware associated with our Satellite Ground Station.

Cross Boom Counterweight and Trusses
Cross Boom Counterweight and Trusses

The article above covers the construction and adjustment of the new antennas. It also covers several custom enhancements that we made to our satellite antenna support system.

Aircraft Tracking Antenna System Addition

Satellite Tower Infrastructure including ADS-B Antenna
Satellite Tower Infrastructure including ADS-B Antenna

We also added an outdoor antenna for our FlightAware ADS-B Tracker as part of the project. ADS-B is a relatively recent aircraft tracking system. Our new ADS-B antenna has increased our Tracker’s contribution to the ADS-B network considerably.

If you’ve ever wondered what goes into building and putting up a high-performance satellite ground station, take a look at the article. The ideas shared there are applicable to the construction of any VHF and above antenna system – especially those that utilize elevation rotators and thus require balancing.

Fred, AB1OC

Featured, General, Newsletter, Space

ISS Voice Repeater is QRV!

Thanks to some great work by the ARISS Team, a new Voice Repeater system is operating on the International Space Station (ISS)! Here is the access information…

Source: ISS Voice Repeater is QRV!

Thanks to some great work by the ARISS Team, a new FM Voice Repeater system is operating on the International Space Station!

ISS Voice Repeater Hardware
ISS Voice Repeater Hardware

The link above provides the details and the information needed to access the ISS Voice Repeater.

I was able to work several stations using the new Voice Repeater this morning. It is very sensitive and uses 5 watts of downlink power with a good antenna on the ISS. I was able to make solid contacts using the Ground Station here using only 1.5 watts uplink power when the ISS was at 10 degrees above the horizon. At least one of my contacts was with a station using an HT with a whip antenna!

The voice repeater is sensitive enough and uses a power level that will enable folks with an HT and a whip antenna to make contacts using the ISS when its close to the horizon. It should also be easy to make contacts using mobile rigs that can support cross-band operation as well. Program your radios!

I’m looking forward to working you through the ISS!

Fred, AB1OC

Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Space

AO-27 Satellite Is Back On The Air!

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The AO-27 FM satellite is back on the air! It is an FM V/U Mode satellite that was launched back in 1993. The satellite’s Amateur Radio payload became inoperative about 7 years ago due to …

Source: AO-27 Is Back!

The AO-27 FM satellite is back on the air! This satellite is an FM V/U Mode satellite that was launched back in 1993. The satellite is back on the air on a limited-time basis (4 minutes, twice per orbit over the mid-latitudes).

I was able to make my first contact through AO-27 this morning. The contact was with AI9IN in Indiana, USA. I’m looking forward to making more contacts using this satellite in the near future.

You can learn more about this satellite and how to make contacts using it via the link above. I hope to contact you on it sometime soon.

Fred, AB1OC

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