SARC Satellite Station

The SARC Directors recently approved a project, under the leadership of Dino VE7XDT, to construct a club station capable of making contacts via satellites. A few of us have done this previously at our home station, or are equipped to use a portable setup with an Arrow antenna and handheld radio. But for most of the group, it was to be a new experience.

We already owned an IC-9700 transceiver, in which Dino had installed a module for stabilizing frequency drift. The Projects group met during the winter months to confirm equipment purchases, then bought what we needed and commenced to get it underway . We decided to go basic and upgrade it in future, depending on the level of interest.

Equipment purchased included:

• Yaesu G-5500DC AZ-EL rotator and control box 

• Yaesu thrust bearing

• FoxDelta SD2 USB Tracking Interface

• Diamond A144S5 2m 5-el Yagi

• Diamond A430S10 440 MHz 10-el Yagi

• 120 ft. of LMR-400 Ultraflex cable

• Mini PC

• SatPC32 satellite tracking software from AMSAT

John VA7XB fabricated the stand, by bolting together 1.5” angle aluminum for the rotators and antennas. When completed, the stand was moved out of John’s garage onto the flat roof of our Ops Centre, with coax and control cables connected to the controller for 2m and 440 Mhz. Planned for the future is 1.2 GHz capability.

Why did we not use cross yagis as is the usual practice? The loss from circular polarization (LHCP and RHCP) compared with linear polarization is only 3 dB which is easily compensated by using the internal preamp of the Icom IC 9700. The cost of a cross polarization antenna with appropriate switching is far more expensive and it’s hard to justify for a basic setup.

The controller can move the antennas 450 deg in azimuth and 180 degree in elevation as directed by the Foxdelta Tracker. The SatPC32 software controls both the tracker and the frequency, adjusting for Doppler shift.

The project took approximately 6 weeks to complete, from the time of ordering components to making the first contact. At the end, a day was devoted to getting the tracker, radio and controller all talking to each other. Since neither Dino nor I had used SatPC32 for several years, we had to re familiarize ourselves with how they all work together.

At first we just listened. Then on Saturday, June 8th, two members made successful contacts with the linear and TEVEL satellites and the International Space Station (ISS). The rest of us just watched and learned. We will use the coming months to explore the details of this fascinating communication mode, perfect our technique and start filling in the log.

I knew nothing about TEVEL satellites, so I looked it up and here is what | found:  Tevel [Herzliya Science Center] The Israeli Tevel is a mission with eight identical CubeSats developed and built by students of secondary schools at the Space Laboratory of the Herzliya Science Centre (HSC). They are built to the 1U CubeSat standard. The FM amateur radio transponder is the only  payload. How cool is that?

Already experienced with satellite communication, Adrian VA7YEP has taken on the job of satellite station manager and will assist in coaching others over the next few months. First assignment: Field Day!

—John VA7XB