| Ground station |
In order to communicate with the institutes' satellites the Institute of Space Systems operates a ground station. The objective which is set to achieve during the construction of the facility is to automate the operation as far as possible. Therewith the utilization time shall be maximized without having a costly and complex 24/7 operation time. The core functions of the ground station are:
It will also be possible to download scientific data. Radio Hardware Ham radio bands are used for satellite communication. This is done to reduce costs as well as for being compatible to other universities and ham radio projects. At present all common ham radio bands for satellite communication are usable. These are:
The location of the antenna facility is the roof of Pfaffenwaldring 31, the coordinates are 48°44'58,19" N 9°06'13,84" E, approximately 500m above sea level, QTH Locator JN48NR. This location offers good radio reception due to its exposed position. At present it is reviewed to move the facility to the roof of the high-rise building on the opposite site of the street (Pfaffenwaldring 32). This site would further increase the radio reception. To monitor the rotor movement a webcam linked to the control room is installed on the roof. The high quality preamplifiers were purchased from SSB and Kuhne Electronic. A downconverter is used to receive S-band. The transceiver Kenwood TS-2000X with an extension module for L-band is installed. The tranceiver can be used for the common radio traffic of ham radio station e.g. FM, SSB- or CW-operation, as well as it is controllable via a standard PC. This offers the possibility of an automated operation. It is also possible to send and receive signals on different bands by using its built-in second Rx. The open source software Ham Radio Deluxe is used as central control software. It offers an interface to the transceiver for simple telecommand to e.g. correct the Dopplershift. Moreover the software can pre-estimate satellite orbits, controls the antenna rotor and creates logfiles along with other nice features. The picture depicted below shows an overview of the utilized hardware.
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