Our HAM Station

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LEO Satellite Contacts via Easy Sat and Linear Transponder Satellites

Posted: 20 Jun 2017 09:41 AM PDT
https://stationproject.wordpress.com...er-satellites/

Satellite Station 2.0 Antennas

We recently did a Tech Night at our club on Building and Operating a
Satellite Ground Station. As part of my portion of our Tech Night
presentation, I recorded several LEO satellite contacts and made videos
showing the operation of the computer controlling our Satellite Station 2.0
during these contacts. These videos give an idea of what its like to
operate through LEO satellites.


The video above is a recording of a several contacts through SO-50 an FM
Easy Sat.


The next video several contacts made through FO-29, a linear transponder
satellite.

The distortion that you hear in my voice is a result of my own voice coming
back delayed through the satellites.

We will have our Satellite Station 2.0 setup at Field Day this year. If you
are local to Nashua, NH; you are welcome to visit us during Field Day and
see our Satellite Station in operation.

You can read more about the station used to make these contacts here on our
Blog.

Fred, AB1OC
Filed under: Station

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GoKit for Field Day and EMCOMM

Posted: 20 Jun 2017 05:55 AM PDT
https://stationproject.wordpress.com...gokit-project/

Completed VHF/UHF GoKit

Weve been thinking about building a portable GoKit for VHF/UHF EMCOMM and
Field Day Applications for a while now. The following is a list of our
requirements for a GoKit

2m and 70cm operation with FM simplex and repeaters
APRS capability and tactical display for portable coordination
Digital messaging capability
Weather band monitoring capability
AC Power with flexible battery backup options


A plan to build our GoKit came together during our trip to the Dayton
Hamvention this year.
Kenwood TM-D710GA At Dayton

The heart of any GoKit is the Transceiver. Weve been using Kenwood
equipment for our APRS iGate for some time now and we have had good results
with it. Kenwoods latest 50W transceiver with APRS is the TM-D710GA. This
unit provides full support for APRS tactical applications and now includes
a built-in GPS receiver making it ideal for our GoKit application.
AvMap GeoSat 6 APRS Tactical Display

We have been using the Kenwood TM-D710 along with an AvMap GeoSat APRS
display in our APRS iGate setupÂ*and the combination works very well. The
AvMap display lets one see the location of portable and mobile APRS
stations on a map display. This arrangement is perfect for coordinating
activities in an EMCOMM situation. The AvMap GeoSat 6 APRS display is no
longer in production but I was able to locate a nearly new unit on eBay.



We had a chance to look at the iPortable enclosure at Dayton and decided
that their Pro 2 4U deep unit would be a good choice for our GoKit
application. The iPortable enclosures are based on a portable rack mount
case and include a DC power system, speaker and headphone hookups, a light,
and provisions for a cooling fan.
Radio Shelf

With all the components in hand, we began the construction of our GoKit.
Reliability is important in any portable system like this so we put some
time into securely mounting all of the equipment and neatly arranging the
cabling. First came the shelf which holds the Kenwood transceiver and a
SignaLink USB sound card. A combination of drilling the shelf to secure
gear with large cable ties and #8 stainless hardware was used here.
Coax Connector Cables

Our iPortable case was equipped with both SO-239 and N-connectors on the
front panel to allow for antennas and feed lines equipped for either
connector type. To make the change over between the connector types easy,
we installed separate PL-259 jumper cables for each connector. One simply
connects the appropriate jumper to the radio.
Display and Power Shelf

The power and AvMap display shelf was next. The AvMap display mount was
dissembled and modified to accept a custom mounting bracket.
PWRgate Battery Interface and Charger

The iPortable enclosure was drilled to mount a West Mountain Radio PWRgate
to handle backup battery charing and management. The PWRgate supports
instantaneous switching between an AC power supply and a backup battery and
can accommodate a wide range of battery types and sizes.
Backup Battery

The PWRgate was configured to properly charge our 18AH AGM backup battery.
Note the use of a fuse in series with the battery for safety reasons. We
used a Powerwerx SPS-30DM adjustable power supply set to 14.5Vdc to operate
our GoKit and to provide proper charging voltage for our AGM battery.
Diamond X-30 Antenna and Mast

The last piece of the setup was the antenna. We wanted something that was
portable, easy to set up and would provide good performance. We choose a
Diamond X-30A 2m/70cm ground plane antenna and mounted it on an 12
fiberglass push up mast. The feed line is made from 25 of LMR-400UF coax.
Several bungee cords are used to attach the mast to a fence post or other
vertical structure.



The picture above shows the completed GoKit in operation. We typically set
one side of the Kenwood TM-D710GA to operate as an APRS transceiver and
Digipeater and the other side to operate on a local repeater or simplex FM.
The SignaLink sound card is used with a laptop computer running FldigiÂ*and
NBEMS for messaging applications. The iPortable case has a 13.8V lighter
socket which connects to a power brick to power our laptop PC.
GoKit Packaged for Transport

The GoKit is quite portable when closed. All of the equipment and cable
connections are enclosed and protected by the cases removable end caps.
Weve tested our GoKit during our clubs weekly repeater net and it worked
great. The first real use of our new GoKit will be at Field Day this year.
It will be located in our public information tent and will be used as a
talk-in system.

Fred, AB1OC


Filed under: Antennas and Feedlines, Digital, Portable Station and Field
Day, Software, Station Design, VHF-UHF Tagged: Antennas and Feedlines,
APRS, Digital, Portable Station and Field Day, Station Design, VHF-UHF