<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><head><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:AllowPNG/><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div><span>First off stay away from the Elk. If you see someone using one,</span></div><div><span>point it's ass at the bird. The signal gets stronger.</span></div><div><span><br></span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76436"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76434">Have a look at <a href="http://www.wa5vjb.com/" class="enhancr2_e95c5c75-fa87-2567-add5-453b54a6a68f" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76433">Printed Circuit Board Antennas| Commercial and Hobby Antennas</a> Reference LEO</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76481"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76434"><br></span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76480"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76434">You will find quite a few easy to build antennas for the LEO birds.<br></span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76652"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76434"><br></span></div><div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76701"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76434">I also did a 145/435 MHz Log Periodic that was fairly easy to build, I thought</span></div><div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76719"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76434">the construction article was on the website, but it's not. Another round to it.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76479"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76606">Yes, the Direct TV type antennas can be re-purposed to the 2, 3, 5, and 10 GHz bands.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76555">For the LEO's the 3 deg beamwidths at 10 GHz make them nearly impossible to point, but</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76575">for the Geo Sync brids we were looking at they would work great. Only have to tweak</div><div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76607">their aim about ever 8 hours. The 10 GHz receiver will be quite reasonable.</div><div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76862">There are some crystal controlled LNB's on the market to digital TV, and sell for <br></div><div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76897">about $15. You put one of those on that rescued 18" dish and 10.450 GHz comes about</div><div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76947">about 700 MHz. And most SDR's work with 700 MHz just fine.<br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76523"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76763">Look out for those projects that have vertical learning curves!</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76969"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76985">73 Kent WA5VJB<br></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76392"><br><br></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76387" style="display: block;"> <div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76386"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76385"> <div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76384"> <font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76396" size="2" face="Arial"> <hr id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76399" size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Hugh Brown <aardvark@saintaardvarkthecarpeted.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> KENT BRITAIN <wa5vjb@flash.net> <br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b> Michelle Thompson <mountain.michelle@gmail.com>; ground-station@lists.openresearch.institute<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Monday, October 1, 2018 10:58 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Ground-station] Open Source CubeSat Workshop notes from Hugh<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1538434132229_76388"><br>KENT BRITAIN wrote:<br clear="none">> Hi Hugh<br clear="none">> I have several antennas in orbit and working on several more.<br clear="none">> And did the articles on the 'Cheap Yagi's' for ground stations.<br clear="none">> What kinds of antennas are your seeing a future need for?<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Hi Kent -- my understanding is that for 5/10GHz, the antennas may need<br clear="none">to be substantially different from what is common in SatNOGS stations<br clear="none">right now (which are aimed at the 2m and 70cm bands). (I seem to<br clear="none">recall something on the mailing list or Slack about repurposing<br clear="none">Primestar dishes...but I might be imagining that.) If you're asking<br clear="none">about whether I think it should be a<br clear="none">Yagi/Lindenblad/parabolic/something else, the answer is I don't know<br clear="none">-- I'm very much learning all this as I go along.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">More generally -- one challenge that SatNOGS has had is getting people<br clear="none">who *aren't* already into radio up to speed on what's needed to set up a<br clear="none">ground station. By way of example, I came in through the space/Linux<br clear="none">nerdery path, rather than having already been interested in radio.<br clear="none">(In fact, I only got my license this year as a result of my<br clear="none">involvement with SatNOGS.) For me, at least, the radio side has been<br clear="none">a steep learning curve. (Not that I'm complaining...I love being at<br clear="none">the bottom of a steep learning curve.)<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Someone already interested in VHF/UHF radio in general, or working<br clear="none">amateur satellites in particular, would probably either a) make a<br clear="none">quick vertical and be done with it, b) buy/make a Yagi or log-periodic<br clear="none">(Arrow/Elk, for commercial options) + a rotator, or c) have informed<br clear="none">opinions about turnstile vs Lindenblad and so on. I've had to learn<br clear="none">all that; if there had been a default "just buy/build one of these"<br clear="none">default option, I would have done that to get myself started. I'm<br clear="none">guessing I'm not the only one who could use a suggestion like that,<br clear="none">particularly when we start having Phase 4 radios in orbit.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">That's the side for folks who don't run their own cubesat. For those<br clear="none">who do (university departments, open source projects, etc), it might be<br clear="none">good to have an all-in-one solution on tap: need a radio with lots of<br clear="none">bandwidth? need a ground station to collect telemetry? need a<br clear="none">world-wide network of ground stations that will help with that? Here<br clear="none">are the designs/parts for the radio that goes into orbit, here's the<br clear="none">radio and antenna design/parts for your own ground station, and here's<br clear="none">what you can publish so that other SatNOGS stations can collect your<br clear="none">data. <br clear="none"><br clear="none">I hope that makes sense...I'm definitely curious to know how well<br clear="none">these rambling thoughts map to reality. :-)<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Thanks,<div class="yqt6474451001" id="yqtfd72552"><br clear="none">Hugh<br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">> 73 Kent WA5VJB<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> From: Hugh Brown <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:aardvark@saintaardvarkthecarpeted.com" href="mailto:aardvark@saintaardvarkthecarpeted.com">aardvark@saintaardvarkthecarpeted.com</a>><br clear="none">> To: KENT BRITAIN <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:wa5vjb@flash.net" href="mailto:wa5vjb@flash.net">wa5vjb@flash.net</a>> <br clear="none">> Cc: Michelle Thompson <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:mountain.michelle@gmail.com" href="mailto:mountain.michelle@gmail.com">mountain.michelle@gmail.com</a>>; Michelle Thompson via Ground-Station <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:ground-station@lists.openresearch.institute" href="mailto:ground-station@lists.openresearch.institute">ground-station@lists.openresearch.institute</a>><br clear="none">> Sent: Monday, October 1, 2018 10:16 PM<br clear="none">> Subject: Re: [Ground-station] Open Source CubeSat Workshop notes from Hugh<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> KENT BRITAIN via Ground-Station wrote:<br clear="none">> > Interesting Report<br clear="none">> > Can Hugh be more specific about what kind of antennas he has in mind?<br clear="none">> > I didn't see a way of contacting him directly.<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> Hi Kent -- I'm on the list (and neglected to add my email address to<br clear="none">> the notes).<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> I think they bit you're referring to is:<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> > - As designs for antenna progress, it will be worth talking to SatNOGS<br clear="none">> > folks about designs/instructions for easy-to-build Phase 4 antenna<br clear="none">> > that can be put into SatNOGS ground stations<br clear="none">> > - One interesting possibility might be to market Phase4 radio<br clear="none">> > designs (or better yet, cubesat parts as Bruce has suggested) +<br clear="none">> > SatNOGS ground station as a standard open source ground station<br clear="none">> > for satellite telemetry:<br clear="none">> > - visualization via SatNOGS DB<br clear="none">> > - telemetry/instrument data via DVB<br clear="none">> > - perhaps with built-in amateur radio functionality (whatever the<br clear="none">> > next generation of current AMSAT FM repeaters might look like)<br clear="none">> > in order to get amateur radio community interested as well<br clear="none">> > (though this may need to be balanced against worries of amateur<br clear="none">> > radio folks appearing as scribes/assistants)<br clear="none">> > - Note: C&C not part of SatNOGS; they've got some stubs for the<br clear="none">> > functionality, but I'm not sure if this is a priority for them<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> Looking back, I realize I wasn't terribly clear here. What I had in<br clear="none">> mind was that as design/build of the Phase 4 receiver (and antenna)<br clear="none">> progresses, it might be worth looking for ways to make it easy to<br clear="none">> integrate it into the SatNOGS project. I was thinking about the<br clear="none">> discussions I seem to recall about both receiver and antenna design on<br clear="none">> the mailing list and on Slack -- thus, not a particular antenna but<br clear="none">> whatever the final (or final-ish) design converges on.<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> Since SatNOGS (I think) needs mainly a GNU Radio-compatible SDR, and<br clear="none">> is antenna-agnostic, I don't think this should present much of a<br clear="none">> problem; my idea was more about presenting SatNOGS + Phase4 as an<br clear="none">> "all-in-one" solution for cubesat ground stations run by the<br clear="none">> operators, as well as for stations run by interested third parties<br clear="none">> (the way SatNOGS can be used by non-operators today to collect<br clear="none">> telemetry).<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> As I'm still learning about Phase 4 (and amateur radio in general for<br clear="none">> that matter), it's entirely possible I've misunderstood some of this,<br clear="none">> underestimated difficulties, etc...any confusion is likely to be<br clear="none">> mine. :-)<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> I hope that helps, but let me know if you have any questions.<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> Thanks,<br clear="none">> Hugh<br clear="none">> <br clear="none"><br clear="none">-- <br clear="none">Hugh Brown<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="http://saintaardvarkthecarpeted.com/" target="_blank">http://saintaardvarkthecarpeted.com</a><br clear="none"></div><br><br></div> </div> </div> </div></div></body></html>