What is needed to get started with satellite communication  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / rf-microwave

author: Cicada
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 12, 2016, 08:53:30 pm
content: HelloI know very little about satellite communication so excuse my simple/stupid questions. I have done some reading and it seems that amateur satellite users work from 140MHz - 2GHz transmit and receive. Mostly voice related transmissions.http://rsgb.org/main/files/2012/07/satellites_radcom_mar07.pdfI have a couple of questions:1. What is needed to start out.I can buy the next two items for very cheap and want to start experimenting.-I can buy a BIG off axis satellite dish with no feed horn. Size is estimate = about 2m x 1m across the parabola.-I can buy the feed horns? as seen attached to this post. I have opened one a couple of weeks ago and from what I remember it seems like these feed horns work at ~ 11GHz. I want to mount one on the dish. I assume these units include some sort of local pre-amp which must be fed to another amp inside a radio that does the demodulation.What else is needed except the obvious radio (including amp and demodulator).2. What interesting things do people do with satellite comms, specially in the 11GHz band?- Do they just track satellites for fun and do voice comms?- can you get science data from NASA satellites?- Or data relay on public satellites?Are there cheap radio solutions for 11 GHz?

author: hammy
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 12, 2016, 09:01:49 pm
content: Hi,there are some books about this topic:The ARRL Satellite Handbook - 978-0-87259-985-7Digital Communications by Satellite - 0-13-214155-8Satellite Communications - 0-07-137176-1Satellite Basics for Everyone - 978-1-4759-2593-7Introduction to Satellite Systems - 097427878-5There are several ways to get in touch with this "hobby"...Is there a ham near to you who is an experienced satellite operator? (Maybe not with Ku-Band equipment.)Cheershammy

author: scatha
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 12, 2016, 11:18:38 pm
content: There's a lot of good info herehttp://www.uhf-satcom.com/.The NASA deep space network tends to use lower-X and Ka band, not a lot happening around 11 GHz.

author: whalphen
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2016, 04:02:27 am
content: Not much is needed to get started. I do satellite communication with a 5 watt handheld 2 meter/ 70 centimeter radio, a handheld 2 meter/ 70 centimeter antenna, a computer or smartphone to provide the satellite positions, and an amateur radio license. The radio is a cheap Baofeng and I use an Arrow antenna. But you can build your own antenna easily. There are many amateur radio satellites which have repeaters to receive and retransmit signals.Weather satellite telemetry can be received with an inexpensive RTL-SDR dongle with an easy to make antenna.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2016, 08:27:15 pm
content: The basic answer to your question, not a lot. In the late 70's I was working through the OSCAR satellites using a 2m transceiver, a 10m receiver and a 4-element 2m antenna. My father didn't believe that I was able to use a satellite until I demonstrated it to him. Fast forward forty years and this June at Friedrichshafen I saw another German ham working the ISS with an 8-element beam on a camera tripod and a handheld transceiver. An app on his iPhone told him where to point the beam.What gear you need depends on what satellites you want to work through and what bands these satellites use. This can be anything from 2m to microwaves.

author: Lord of nothing
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 05:02:53 pm
content: @German_EEI belive you know it to.There are a lot of Military Sat who work just like an Repeater. Everything who is send up to the sky is broadcast down.A lot of Romanians, Polish,... People use it to talk with Home or just 4 fun.In America mostly Brazilian use the US Mil Sat. The Brazilian Gov took there Antennas and after some hours the broadcast again.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2016, 10:57:57 am
content: If you want to illegally use a government or military satellite then please be aware of the consequences. As for me, I only transmit on the amateur radio bands below 30 MHz.