Category Archives: Space

Articles about Space Communications – Satellites, ISS, and EME

Satellite Station 4.0 Part 7 – Flex SDR Satellite Transceiver

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Flex-6700 SmartSDR in Satellite Mode

A major part of our plans for Satellite Station 4.0 includes the ability to operate our home satellite station remotely over the Internet. We’ve been using our Flex-6700 Software Defined Radio (SDR) as a Remote Operating Gateway (GW) on the HF Bands and 6m for some time now. Our latest project is to upgrade our Remote Operating GW to support satellite operations on the 2m, 70cm, and 23cm bands.

Remote Gateway Rack with Satellite Additions

Adding the additional bands for satellite operations involves adding a 2m Amplifier, a 70cm Transverter, and a 23cm Upconverter to our SDR-based Remote GW. We decided to repackage our Remote GW set up in a rack mount cabinet on casters. This allows all of the required gear to be placed under the desk in our station in a way that is neat and reliable.

We also added an Ethernet Switch, a pair of USB hubs, and upgraded power and remote controls to improve our ability to manage our station remotely and to simplify the interconnections between our Remote GW and the rest of our station. The final assembly mounts all of the components in the rack on 5 levels as follows:

The purpose of these components is explained in more detail below.

All of these devices are powered from 13.8 Vdc station power to avoid the potential for noise from wall wart transformers inside the rack. Also, attention was paid to the isolation of the digital and RF components on separate levels to minimize the chance that noise from digital signals would leak into the RF chains.

Satellite SDR

Remote Satellite SDR System Design

The diagram above shows how the added components for the satellite bands interconnect with the Flex-6700. The new components include:

The Flex-6700 can generate and receive signals on the 2m band but it does this at IF power levels. The 2m LPDA brings the IF power level up to a maximum of 75 watts. The DIPs device enables the Flex-6700 to operate in U/v, V/u, and L/v modes.

The 28 MHz splitter allows a total of 4 transverters/upconverters to be connected to the radio. This will enable us to add 5 GHz and 10 GHz bands to our satellite station in the future.

Our Flex-6700 includes a GPS Disciplined Oscillator (GPSDO) which provides an accurate and stable 10 MHz reference output to lock the 70cm and 23cm transverter frequencies. The 10 MHz Reference Distribution Amplifier expands the single 10 MHz on the Flex-6700 to drive up to 4 transverters or upconverters.

The two USB cables allow the Flex-6700 and SmartSDR to control the LPDA and PTT for the 70cm and 23 cm bands.

2m/70cm Shelf

The rackmount arrangement uses shelves which provide ventilation for the components and enable us to use zip ties to tie down all of the components. The photo above shows the layout of the shelf which contains the 2m LPDA, the 70cm Transverter and many of the RF interconnections. Velcro tape is used to secure the smaller components to the shelf.

2m/70cm Shelf RF Interconnection Details

The photo above shows the RF interconnections. The 70cm Transverter is on the upper left and the 2m LPDA is on the upper right. The rectangular boxes coming from these devices are the sensors for the WaveNode WN-2 Power and SWR Meter that we are using. They are terminated in 50-ohm dummy loads for initial testing. The DIPS device is center bottom and the 4-port device above it is the 28 MHz splitter. All of the interconnections are handled using 50-ohm BNC cables and the unused ports on the 28 MHz splitter are terminated with 50-ohm BNC terminators.

Rear View of Remote Gateway Rack

The photo above shows the rear of the unit. The 10 MHz Reference Distribution Amplifier (bottom center) and the two Industrial 12V powered USB hubs are visible at the bottom of the unit. The DC power distribution components are at the upper left and a set of Internet-controlled relays are at the upper right.

USB Connections via Hubs

One of the USB hubs fans out a single USB connection from the host PC to the USB controlled devices in the Remote GW rack. The other USB hub expands the USB outputs of the Flex-6700 to accommodate the control cables for the devices in the rack and the CAT cable which provides frequency data to the microHam SMD Antenna Controller.

Power Control and Distribution Design

Remote control and distribution of DC power to all of the devices in our Remote GW is an important design consideration. In addition to proper fusing, one must be able to remotely turn devices on and off remotely. The diagram above shows the power distribution and control architecture that we are using.

13.8 Vdc Power Distribution

RigRunner power distribution blocks are used to fuse and distribute power to all of the accessory devices in the rack.

Remote Gateway Power Controls

The RigRunner 4005i provides remote power control via the Internet for all of the major units and accessories in the rack. In addition to controlling power on/off states and providing electronic fusing, the RigRunner 4005i monitors voltage and current to the equipment in the Remote GW. These controls are accessed via a web browser and a network connection. Login/password security is also provided.

Remote Control Relay Unit

A microBit Webswitch device provides Internet controlled relays to manage various station functions including:

After some configuration of the Transverters and PTT controls in SmartSDR, the satellite portion of our Remote GW is up and running. There is quite a bit of software installation and configuration left to do and we’ll cover that in a future post.

You can find other articles about our Satellite Station 4.0 project here:

Can learn more about the SDR-based Remote Operating Gateway at our station here.

Fred, AB1OC

Satellite Station 4.0 Part 6 – Tower Finishing Touches

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New Shack Entry and Ground Block

We recently completed the finishing touches on our new VHF/Satellite Tower. The first step was to install a second set of entry conduits into our shack and a new ground block for our satellite antennas. This involved installing 4″ PVC conduits into our shack. The new entries are very close to the base of our tower and this will allow us to keep our feedlines as short as possible.

Hardline Coax Cables Up The Tower

We also replaced the section of our feedlines which run down the tower with 7/8″ hardline coax. We installed a total of four runs for 6m, 2m, 70cm, and 23cm. The use of hardline coax will help reduce our feedline losses – especially on 70cm and 23cm.

Hardlines at Base of Tower

The new hardlines are connected one of the two entries into our shack. The 6m hardline enters on the side closes to our antenna switching matrix and the 2m, 70cm, and 23 cm hardlines will enter the shack via the newly created entry which will be close to our satellite transceiver.

The next step in our project will be to upgrade our Flex-6700 SDR based Remote Gateway for operation on the satellite bands. You can find other articles about our Satellite Station 4.0 project here:

Fred, AB1OC

Satellite Station 4.0 Part 5 – New IC-9700 Transceiver

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Portable Satellite Station 4.0

Portable Satellite Station 4.0

The new Icom IC-9700 transceiver has begun shipping, and we’ve recently added one to our Portable Station. The addition of the IC-9700 completes a key part of our Satellite Station 4.0 upgrade plans.

New IC-9700 In Satellite Mode

New IC-9700 In Satellite Mode

The IC-9700 is based upon Icom’s direct sampling SDR platform. It supports all modes of operation on the 2m, 70cm, and 23 cm bands. The radio also supports satellite modes and D-STAR.

MacDoppler Controlling the IC-9700

MacDoppler Controlling the IC-9700

The new IC-9700 replaced the IC-9100 in our Portable Satellite Station. An updated version of MacDoppler is available, which supports the IC-9700, and we tested MacDoppler using both the USB and CI-V interfaces. In both cases, MacDoppler properly handled the new radio, including band and mode selection, doppler correction, and access-tone setting. Our setup uses an iMac running MacDoppler and MacLoggerDX for radio control, antenna control, and logging, and a Windows laptop running UISS and MMSSTV for APRS and SSTV. Our setup was easily accomplished by connecting the IC-9700’s CI-V interface to the iMac and the USB interface (for audio and PTT) to our Windows laptop.

IC-9700 Display and Waterfall - Working FO-29

IC-9700 Display and Waterfall – Working FO-29

We’ve made about 50 contacts with the IC-9700 so far. The radio is a pleasure to use. The touchscreen layout and functions are very similar to the IC-7300, and one does not need to spend much time with the manual to become comfortable using the radio. The Spectrum Scope and associated waterfall are really nice for operating with linear transponder satellites. The screenshot above shows the IC-9700 display while working contacts using FO-29. As you can see, it is very easy to see where stations are operating in the passband of a linear transponder. The Spectrum Scope also makes it very easy to locate your signal in the satellite’s downlink and then adjust the uplink/downlink offset for proper tone.

We’ve also done a bit of APRS operation through the ISS using the IC-9700 and the UISS software. The direct USB interface was used on a Windows laptop for APRS. Setting up PTT and the proper audio levels was straightforward. The combination of MacDoppler controlling the VFO in the radio and the PC doing the APRS packet processing worked well.

The IC-9700 can power and sequence our external ARR preamplifiers, and we plan to use this capability to eliminate the outboard sequencers we are currently using with our preamps. We’ll need to climb our tower to change the preamps to be powered through the coax before we can complete the preamp control changeover.

All in all, we are very happy with the new IC-9700 for Satellite operations. We’ve also noticed that quite a few satellite operators have the new IC-9700 on the air.

You can find other articles about our Satellite Station 4.0 project here:

Fred, AB1OC

Satellite Station 4.0 Part 4 – Tower Camera and J Mode Desensitization Filter

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IP Camera View of New Tower

IP Camera View of New Tower

It is winter here in New England and it is not the best time of year to work outdoors. I have been able to complete a few finishing touches on our new Satellite and 6m Tower.

Installed IP Camera

Installed IP Camera

The first enhancement is the addition of an SV3C IP Camera. The camera allows us to see what is going on with our antennas. The camera has IR illumination so we can see our antennas when operating at night as well. The camera will also be useful for demonstrations when we operate our satellite station remotely in the future. This camera can use Power Over Ethernet (PoE) for power and is compatible with most popular security and webcasting applications.

The video above is from our IP Camera while our antennas are tracking AO-7 during a high-elevation pass.

The second enhancement relates to VU Mode (or J Mode) satellites such as SO-50 and FO-29 which use a 2 m uplink and a 70 cm downlink. Satellite ground stations are prone to problems with 70cm downlink receiver desensitization when transmitting on a 2m uplink. The symptom of this problem is difficulty in hearing your own transmissions in your downlink receiver while being able to here other operators in the downlink just fine. Our antennas are separated enough here that we have only minor problems with J Mode desensitization at our station. Fortunately, this is not a difficult problem to take care of.

Comet CF-4160N Duplexer

Comet CF-4160N Duplexer

Installation of a good quality duplexer in the 70 cm path between the antenna and electronics such as our 70 cm preamp provides about 60 dB of additional isolation when operating in J Mode. The Comet CF-4160 Duplexer is a good choice for this application.

J Mode FIlter Installed In Preamp Box

Duplexer J Mode FIlter Installed In Preamp Box

We added one to the preamp box on our tower to create a J Mode desensitization filter. The duplexer is mounted on the left side of the 70 cm preamplifier which is on the right side in the image above. The 70 cm output of the duplexer connects to the feedline from our 70 cm antenna and the common output goes to the input of our 70 cm preamp. We also added a connector cap to the unused 2 m port on the duplexer to protect it from moisture. You can read more about this approach to J Mode desensitization filtering here.

The next stage of our project will be to add hardlines to our new tower and install a second entry to our shack near our new tower to bring our feedlines and control cables permanently into our shack. These projects will have to wait until spring. For now, we are enjoying operating our new antennas from a temporary station set up in our house. We also have a new IC-9700 Transceiver on the way and we should have it installed sometime during the next couple of months.

You can find other articles about our Satellite Station 4.0 project here:

Fred, AB1OC

Raspberry Pi Satellite Tracker Interface How To

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GHTracker Running On A Raspberry Pi 3

Raspberry Pi Satellite Tracker – GH Tracker Running On A Raspberry Pi 3 B+

I have received several requests to share the image and construction details for the Raspberry Pi Satellite Tracker Interface that we use with MacDoppler as part of the Satellite Stations here. You can read more about the motivation for this project and its initial design and testing here.

This article explains how to put a Sat Tracker together.

The information and software described here are provided on an “as is” basis without support, warranty, or any assumption of liability related to assembly or use. You may use information and software image here only at your own risk and doing so releases the author and Green Heron Engineering from any liability for damages either direct or indirect which might occur in connection with using this material. No warranty or liability either explicit or implicit is provided by either AB1OC or Green Heron Engineering.

Now that we have that out-of-the-way, here are the components that you need to build your own Sat Tracker:

The Sat Tracker image includes a display driver for the specific touch display listed above and will most likely NOT WORK with any other touch display. You will also need a Green Heron RT-21 Az/El or a pair of Green Heron RT-21 single rotator controllers from Green Heron Engineering that are properly configured for your rotators.

If you have not worked with the Raspberry Pi before, it’s a good idea to begin by installing NOOBS on your SD card and getting your Raspberry Pi to boot with a USB Keyboard, USB Mouse, and an HDMI display attached. This will give you a chance to get familiar with formatting and loading your SD card with the Raspbian build of the Debian OS for the Raspberry Pi. I’d encourage you to boot up the OS and play with it some to get familiar with the OS environment before building your Sat Tracker.

Etcher Writing Raspberry Pi SD Card Image

Etcher Writing Raspberry Pi SD Card Image

The first step in building your Sat Tracker is to put together the hardware and write the image to your SD Card. Use the enclosed instructions or search the web to find information on how to do each of these steps:

  1. Install the Heat Sinks on the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Motherboard. Make sure your chipset heat sink will clear the back of the case. If it won’t, it’s fine to just install the CPU Heatsink.
  2. Assemble your case to the point where it is built up to support the touch display
  3. Carefully install your touch display on the Raspberry Pi Motherboard
  4. Install the remaining pieces of your case including the nylon screws and nuts which hold the case parts together
  5. Download the SD Card image from the link below, unzip it, and load the image onto your SD card using Etcher
  6. Install your SD card in the slot on your Raspberry Pi Motherboard
  7. Connect your Raspberry Pi to the outside world as follows:
    • Connect Two USB cables – one end to the Elevation and Azimuth ports on your Green Heron Engineering RT-21 Controller(s) and the other ends to two of the USB connections on the Raspberry Pi
    • Connect a wired Ethernet Cable to your Raspberry Pi via a common Ethernet Hub or Switch with a PC or Mac that has VNC Viewer Installed. You will need a DHCP server running on the same network to supply your Raspberry Pi with an IP address when it boots. Your router most likely provides a DHCP function.
    • Connect your USB power supply to the Raspberry Pi Motherboard and power it up

Your Sat Tracker should boot up to the desktop with GH Tracker V1.24 running. The touch display works fine for using GH Tracker but its a bit small for configuring things. To make the configuration steps easier, the image comes up running VNC Server. I like to use VNC Viewer on my PC to connect to the Sat Tracker using VNC to perform the steps that follow. Note that both the Raspberry Pi and your PC must be on the same sub-network for the VNC connection to work. I’ve also included the following commands in the Sat Tracker image which can be run from the Raspberry Pi terminal window to make the configuration process easier:

$ setdisp hdmi # Disables the TFT display & uses the HDMI interface
$ setdisp tft  # Disables the HDMI interface & uses the TFT display
$ reboot       # Reboots the Raspberry Pi causing
               # the latest display command to take effect

If you select the HDMI interface, you will find that VNC Viewer produces a larger window enabling you to perform the following configuration steps:

  1. First, you need to determine the IP address of your Sat Tracker. This can be done via your DHCP server or by touching the network icon (up and down arrows) at the top of the display on the Sat Tracker.
  2. Use VNC Viewer on your PC or Mac to connect to the IP address of your Raspberry Pi. The default password is “raspberry“.
  3. Once you are connected, open a terminal dialog on the Sat Tracker, set your display to hdmi mode via the command shown above, and reboot your Sat Tracker.
  4. Reconnect VNC Viewer to your Sat Tracker and click on the Raspberry button (Start Menu Button) at the top left of the screen, select Preferences, and run Raspberry Pi Configuration. Select Expand Filesystem from the System Tab. This will expand the filesystem to use all of the available space on your SD Card. You can also change the system name of your Sat Tracker and your login password if you wish. When you are done making these changes, reboot your Sat Tracker.
  5. Reconnect to your Sat Tracker via VNC Viewer and select Setup -> Rotator Configuration from the menu in the GH Tracker App. Select the TTY devices (i.e. COM Ports) associated with the Azimuth and Elevation connections to your RT-21 Controller(s) via the two dropdown boxes. You can also configure the operational parameters for GH Tracker at this time. The ones that I use with our Alfa-Spid Az/El Rotators are shown below.

    GH Tracker Rotator Configuration

    GH Tracker Rotator Configuration

  6. Configure your Green Heron Engineering RT-21 Controllers to work with your rotator(s). The settings below are the ones that we use with the RT-21 Az/El controller and Alfa-Spid Az/El Rotators that we have here.

    GHE RT-21 Az/El Controller Settings for Alfa-Spid Rotator

    Edit
    Setting Azimuth Elevation Notes
    Park Heading 0 degrees 90 degrees Set via MacDoppler. Minimize wind loading and coupling to antennas below. Also enables water drainage from cross-boom tubes.
    Offset 180 degrees 0 degrees Azimuth dead spot is South. Elevation headings are from 0 to 180 degrees.
    Delays 6 sec 6 sec Minimize relay operation during computer tracking
    Min Speed 2 3 Creates smooth start and stop for large array
    Max Speed 10 10 Makes large movements relatively quick
    CCW Limit 180 degrees 355 degrees CCW and CW limits ensures predictable Azimuth heading for range around 180 degrees. Elevation limits permit 0 to 180 degree operation. Elevation limits shown can only be set via GHE configuration app.
    CW Limit 179 degrees 180 degrees
    Option SPID SPID Alfa-Spid Az/El Rotator
    Divide Hi 360 360 Rotator has 1 degree pointing accuracy
    Divide Lo 360 360
    Knob Time 40 40 Default setting
    Mode NORMAL NORMAL Default setting
    Ramp 6 6 Creates smooth start and stop for large array
    Bright 2 2 Easy to read in shack
  7. Configure the source of tracking data to be MacDoppler (UDP) from the GH Tracker Source Menu. We use UDP Broadcasts with MacDoppler running on the same Mac with VNC Viewer to run our rotator. Finally, press the Press to start tracking button on GH Tracker and run MacDoppler with UDP Broadcast on and Rotators Enabled to start tracking.

    MacDoppler Tracking AO-91

    MacDoppler Tracking AO-91

  8. Once you are satisfied with the operation of your Sat Tracker, use VNC Viewer to access the terminal window on your Sat Tracker one last time, set your display to TFT, and reboot.

The most common problems that you’ll run into are communications between your Sat Tracker and your Green Heron Engineering RT-21 Controller(s). If the Azimuth and Elevation numbers are reversed in GH Tracker, simply switch the TTY devices via the Setup Menu in GH Tracker. Also, note that it’s important to have your RT-21 Controller(s) on and full initialized BEFORE booting up your Sat Tracker.

Most communications problems can be resolved by initializing your tracking system via the following steps in order:

  1. Start with your RT-21 Controller(s) and you Sat Tracker powered down. Also, shutdown MacDoppler on your Mac.
  2. Power up your RT-21 Controller(s) and let the initializations fully complete.
  3. Power up your Sat Tracker and let it fully come up before enabling tracking in GH Tracker.
  4. Finally, startup MacDoppler, make sure it is configured to use UDP Broadcasts for Rotator Control and make sure that Rotators Enabled is checked.

The VNC Server on the Sat Tracker will sometimes fail to initialize on boot. If this happens, just reboot your Sat Tracker and the VNC Server should initialize and enable VNC access.

I hope you have fun building and using your own Sat Tracker.

Fred, AB1OC

Satellite Station 4.0 Part 1 – New Tower

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New Satellite and 6m Tower

New Satellite and 6m Tower

Our plans for Satellite Station 4.0 are based, in part, on the idea that we can extend our current remote operating environment to include Satellite Operations. Now that our ISS Crew Contact is complete, the antennas from the current Satellite Station 3.0 can be permanently installed at our QTH.

Tower Footing

Tower Footing

The first step in the project is to put up a second, 35′ house bracketed tower. Our new tower will also feature a new 6m yagi along with a permanent installation of our Satellite 3.0 Antennas. The first step in the project was to secure a building permit and prepare the footing for our new tower. Using Rohn’s specifications for the 45G Tower that we are using calls for the first section of the tower to be placed 4′ below ground in a concrete form. It’s important to place a foot or so of stone at the base of the footing and to ensure that the legs of the tower remain open so water can drain. Failure to do this part of the preparation properly will result in water freezing in the Tower Legs which will split them open and ruin the tower.

Also, note the rebar reinforcing material in the hole around the tower and the bracing to keep the first section of the tower level and plumb. The folks at Form King did an excellent job in preparing and pouring the footing for our new tower.

Tower Base

Tower Base

The picture above shows the completed tower base. We’ve also installed a lightning ground on each of the three legs of the tower and the ground are bonded to each other and to the rest of our station’s ground system.

Tower Section on Gin Pole

Tower Section on Gin Pole

With the base complete, Andrew and Matt from XX Towers helped me to put the tower up. Here Andrew is using a Gin Pole to hoist a section of the 45G Tower into place.

House Bracket

House Bracket

With a few sections of the tower in place, it was time to install the house bracket. The bracket needs to be reinforced with blocking material on both sides of the wall. The blocking and the bracket are held together with 10″ galvanized bolts.

Rotator and Mast

Rotator and Mast

We chose a 2″ x 25′ Chrome Molly Mast for our tower. We wanted to have about 10′ of mast above the top of the tower. Rather than cut the mast, we choose to keep the mast full length by setting our M2 Orion Rotator down a section and a half from the top of the tower. This is a good thing to do for several reasons. First, it makes the rotator easier to access for service. Also, the mast can twist a bit to absorb the torque on the rotator when the antennas start and stop moving.

The combination of the 25′ tower and the 10′ of mast above top will place our Satellite Antennas at a height of about 45′. This will provide additional clearance above the trees in our backyard for low angle satellite contacts.

The next step in our project will be to rebuild and reinforce the Satellite 3.0 Antenna Cross Boom and rotator system, build our new 6m yagi, and install the antennas on our new tower. You can read about other parts of our project via the links below.

Fred, AB1OC

Journey To An ISS Crew Contact

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Like many memorable events in our lives, our journey towards the Hudson Memorial School ISS Crew Contact began in a modest fashion with a telephone call from Dan Pooler at Hudson Memorial School in Hudson, NH. Dan had been to Space Camp where he heard about an ARISS Crew Contact from … Continue reading Journey to an ISS Crew Contact →

Source: Journey to an ISS Crew Contact – Nashua Area Radio Society

Our project to help the students at Hudson Memorial School in Hudson, NH make contact with an astronaut on the International Space Station via Amateur Radio is a memory now. The link above is an article about the more than year-long journey that led to this once-in-a-lifetime experience. I hope you enjoy it and don’t miss the video of our contact towards the end of the story.

Fred, AB1OC

Live Video from an ISS Crew Contact Tomorrow

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Primary and Backup Stations at Hudson Memorial School

An ISS Crew Contact with Hudson Memorial School will take place tomorrow afternoon. We will be streaming several live video feed from the school all day tomorrow….

Source: ISS Crew Contact – The Day is Almost Here – Nashua Area Radio Society

Primary and Backup Antennas at the School
Primary and Backup Antennas at the School

All of our gear and Antennas are set up and ready to go. Contact activities will start around 1:15 pm eastern time (18:15 UTC) and our contact will begin at 1:45 pm eastern time (18:45 UTC). The article above contains a link where you can watch the Live Video of the ISS contact. We hope that you’ll join us for the contact!

Fred, AB1OC

ISS Crew Contact Part 4 – Final Date and Time for Our Contact!

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Serena M. Aunon - NASA Astronaut
Serena Aunon-Chancellor – NASA Astronaut

We have just received word from our ARISS Mentor, Dave Jordan, AA4KN – Our ISS Crew Contact will take place on Friday, December 7th at approximately 1:45 pm EST. Activities on-site will begin with some videos and station tours before the contact.

We will be using the Nashua Area Radio Society callsign, N1FD, for our contact with NA1SS. We believe that our contact will be with Serena Aunon-Chancellor, KG5TMT. We are all very, very excited to hear the news!

Prioritized ISS Passes for our Crew Contact
Prioritized ISS Passes for our Crew Contact

This date/time was our second choice and the ISS will be on a good pass reaching a maximum elevation of 48 degrees at Time of Closest Approach (TCA). Our contact with the ISS will last about 10 minutes.

Click to N1FD Facebook
Click to View Video on N1FD Facebook

Our plan is to begin the final setup of our equipment on Monday, December 3rd at Hudson Memorial School. We will be Live Streaming the setup and testing of our Station at HMS as well as our actual contact via the Nashua Area Radio Society Facebook page.

Fred, AB1OC

ARISS-Contact-Press-Release

 

ISS Crew Contact Part 3 – Summary of Our Preparations

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Nashua Area Radio Society preparations for our upcoming ISS Crew Contact at Hudson Memorial School (HMS) are almost complete. All of our gear is tested and packed, our press release is written, we’ve alterted local news media folks, the students have put together their questions, and have practiced for their contact.

Prioritized ISS Passes for our Crew Contact
Prioritized ISS Passes for our Crew Contact

We are just awaiting notification of the final date and time for our contact and we’ll begin final setup and testing at HMS.

We’ve been sharing our progress as we’ve on the Nashua Area Radio Society’s Youth Forum as we have worked through our final preparations. I also would like to share a summary here along with some insights on what we’ve learned along the way.

An ISS Crew Contact is No Small Undertaking …

Satellite Station 3.0 Antenna System
Satellite Station 3.0 Antenna System Test

We have been working for almost a year now to get ready for our contact. We’ve built and tested two space ground stations and we’ve discovered and addressed several performance and reliability issues with these stations during trial deployments at Field Day, Ham Fests, License Classes, and during testing here at our QTH.

Space Field Trip at HMS
Space Field Trip at HMS

Dan, AC1EN and the faculty team at HMS have expended a great deal of effort with the students at their school to prepare for our contact. Their activities have included:

  • Leading the ARISS Crew Contact Application Process for our contact
  • Integration of Radio Space Science concepts into their student curriculum
  • A Skype contact with a NASA Engineer
  • Visiting the Boston Museum of Science special exhibit on Space and the International Space Station
  • A High Altitude Balloon Project with the Nashua Area Radio Society to learn about Atmospheric Science and Space Communications
  • Space-related student projects including building rovers, participating in an egg drop, and having their pre-engineering program students work on solutions for the ISS
  • Holding a Field Astronomy and STEM night for students and building Amateur Radio into the school’s annual STEM Nights

Audio-Visual Elements are Important and as Challenging as the Ground Station Equipment…

Sound System Mixer
Sound System Mixer

We planned from the very start to provide a shared, multimedia experience as part of our contact. Our plans included:

  • Providing a professional-quality audio and video experience for the students, parents, and faculty members at HMS during our contact
  • Creating a high-quality Video Capture of our Contact
  • Live Streaming our Contact to Facebook so that more Students, Parents, and the Amateur Radio Community could participate in our contact in real-time

Dave, K1DLM who is a member of NARS had extensive professional sound experience and was able to help us with this part of our project.

Audio System for ISS Contactr
Audio System for ISS Contact

Dave put together a professional-level A-V system design to support our contact and provided much of the gear to realize the design. His uses a pair of communications microphones, a pro-mixer, and audio interface gear to provide student and radio audio to the sound system in the auditorium at HMS as well as to an array of video cameras. The system makes extensive use of XLR cabling and pro-level devices to ensure clean audio.

Video Presence on the Internet is an Important Element to Draw Interest in a Project Such as Ours…

We Live Streamed some of our Station Testing activities to Facebook and we were amazed at the interest and response that we received. Many folks worldwide followed our progress on Facebook in real-time as we set up and completed our full station test.

ISS Antenna Camera Test
ISS Antenna Camera Test

We are planning to have two IP Video Cameras Live Streaming to Facebook during our contact. One in the room to provide video of the students as they talk with the astronaut on the ISS and a second on our antennas as they track the ISS.

Its Critically Important to Test the Complete Station Ahead Of Time – New Challenges Emerged when we Mixed Audio and Radio Gear…

Full Station Setup and Test
Full Station Setup and Test

We set up the full station (Primary and Backup) along with all of the Audio and Video Gear about 3 weeks prior to our contact for a complete system test. We learned a great deal in doing this and we encountered several problems which we have since corrected.

On-Air Station Test
On-Air Station Test

The most important issues did not show themselves until we made some contacts with all of the A-V gear in place. We had problems with RF aggravated ground loops in the radio microphone circuits during the initial test. These problems did not show themselves until we added the audio mixer and sound system into the station.

Audio Isolation Transformer
Audio Isolation Transformer

These problems were easily corrected by adding Audio Isolation Transformers into the radio microphone circuits.

XLR Line to Microphone Level Attenuator
XLR Line to Microphone Level Attenuator

We also solved some potential issues related to level differences between line and microphone audio circuits using Audio Attenuators.

These problems were not difficult to solve but they would have seriously degraded our contact if we had not discovered them early while there was still plenty of time to secure parts and retest.

Data Networks in Schools and Public Places Require Configuration Adjustments to Support Contact Elements…

Data Network Test at HMS
Data Network Test at HMS

Schools and other public places typically do a good job of protecting their data networks and users from threats from both the Internet and within the venue. Tracking Programs, IP Cameras for Live Streaming, and other contact support gear are not typical devices that would be in operation on such networks. Also, many public venues rely almost exclusively on WiFi for access to the Internet and typically prohibit or severely limit client devices from communicating with each other.

WiFi can often suffer from RF interference issues when many devices like Smart Phones are located together in a small area. This situation is common in large gatherings.

Data System for ISS Contact

Data System for ISS Contact

We had quite a bit of experience with these problems as part of other school projects we’ve done. We worked closely with the IT staff at HMS to plan for and create a network design to support our contact. We opted to use a wired network approach with a local Ethernet switch to implement the IP communications between the elements in our stations and the associated IP Cameras.

The IT team at HMS configured their network to ensure that the IP addresses of our devices were fixed in DHCP and that devices that needed access to the Internet had the access that they required. The IP cameras where the most challenging elements here.

Packed and Ready to Go…

Equipment Packing and Protection
Equipment Packing and Protection

Well, all of our gear is packed and ready to go for setup on-site at HMS. The next article in this series will cover the on-site set up for our contact.

Fred, AB1OC