I received a new toy for my birthday (thanks Anne for your contribution!). It’s an Analog Devices ADALM-PLUTO – “supporting future engineers during their formative years” it says on the box. That’s me 🙂
Continue reading “A new toy“OSCAR-100 amateur narrowband testing
The QO-100 narrow band transponder was opened for experiments this afternoon, prior to the official inauguration on Thursday. I simply had to have a look!
There we are! Not strong, but clearly visible.
Continue reading “OSCAR-100 amateur narrowband testing“Qatar OSCAR-100 signal reception
A nice sunny day with no wind today – ideal to set the dish up outdoors and see if my simple and very cheap setup can detect signals from the Es’hail 2 OSCAR-100 package.
The answer is – yes!
Continue reading “Qatar OSCAR-100 signal reception“Satellite reception indoors
I couldn’t wait for Monday when the wind will be down and weather expected to be good – I set up the Octagon LNB on the dish and pointed it out through the window. Tricky to point, but worth trying!
Continue reading “Satellite reception indoors“LNB tests – indoors
With the bias tee providing 12V down the LNB feed it was time to set up and test things. My plan is to see if I can receive signals from Es’hail 2 with a really simple system, consisting of the 60cm dish plus LNB, an RTL-SDR dongle, and a Raspberry Pi running Gqrx.
I have already used the RTL-SDR plus Raspberry Pi setup to receive Funcube in the 144MHz band, so had the software already set up (fortunately I always document how I do stuff, otherwise I would never have remembered how to set it up!). Here’s a screenshot of the system looking at a test signal on the LNB:
Continue reading “LNB tests – indoors“Prep for geostationary tests
I’ve had no time to make proper progress on the deep space project recently. However the launch of Es’hail 2 in November made me think about another step along the way. I have a steerable dish (even though it’s not yet computer controlled), so I can steer it towards geostationary satellites easily!
The Es’hail beacon and transponders will allow for some useful tests; and Brian GM8BJF gave an interesting talk at the Lothians club recently showing how it could be done. So the first step is to make a bias tee for a LNB:
I found a useful screened box on the IF section of an old microwave unit, and have made a very simple bias tee to squirt 12V up to the LNB.
Continue reading “Prep for geostationary tests“Deep Space part 3 – motor tests under load
Continue reading “Deep Space part 3 – motor tests under load“
Deep Space part 2 – motor drives
Deep Space part 1 – the antenna mount
SOTA – Allermuir Hill GM/SS-171
This is my local hill from home, so is easy to get out to for a quick activation. Andrew G4VFL had posted that he was going to be up Schiehallion with his father, and was keen to try 13cm from there – so he had a few takers! I decided to go for Allermuir as it’s also line of sight to Schiehallion, just over 100km.