[amsat-bb] Re: K5UTD Is On The Air

[Andrew Koenig]

Greg,

At this point in time, we're entirely grounded to the building's Franklin
loop. Although this is probably adequate, it's not quite up to our
standards. We don't have any lightning arrestors on our coax (yet), but
it's on the shopping list for Ham-Com and Dayton. They're not high, but
also not low priority. When we do get some, they'll likely be mounted near
our preamp box.

73's de KE5GDB


On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 9:28 PM, Greg D <ko6th.greg at gmail.com> wrote:

> Nice project!
>
> Just curious, what did you do for lightning protection?
>
> Greg  KO6TH
>
>
> Andrew Koenig wrote:
>
>> Hello Group!
>>
>> After about 6 months of work, I'm proud to say that the K5UTD Amateur
>> Radio
>> Club (University of Texas at Dallas) has finished setting up our satellite
>> station. Typically it should take a weekend and a case of beer to get the
>> job done, but this required a little more planning and involvement as we
>> had to collect the parts from various people and build several components
>> on our own; not to mention the fact that we get side-tracked like no other
>> club. For example, an effort to get the rotor controller resulted in
>> moving
>> about four truckloads worth of gear.
>>
>> We're using an FT-847 for our primary radio, and a Kenpro G-5400 for our
>> rotor system. We've interfaced the G-5400 to the computer using an
>> Arduino.
>> It works rather well with GPredict. The final bug in the system has to do
>> with GPredict talking to the '847, but that should be easily fixed with an
>> update.
>>
>> The antennas are on the roof of our Engineering and Computer Science
>> building, about 20 feet off the roof, 70 feet above ground. Out of luck,
>> we
>> had a GlenMartin RT-936 and the associated non-penetrating mount just
>> hanging out in our closet. Carrying the 50 cinder blocks up to the roof
>> for
>> that mount was not fun though. Coax wise, we have about 20 feet of Davis
>> Bury-flex for our initial run, which then feeds some very nice ARR
>> preamps.
>> The final 200 foot run of coax to the shack is 1/2" Heliax. There are a
>> few
>> jumpers here in the shack too.
>>
>> I was able to make a few contacts through SO-50 today, and plan to be more
>> active. With the help of DK3WN's SatBlog, I've had no trouble picking out
>> some cubesats and listening to the beacons and telemetry. Telemetry
>> collection is one of the primary goals for this station. Our other goals
>> for this station, aside from having fun on the air, are to get club
>> recognition on campus and to work with the William B. Hanson Center for
>> Space Sciences on upper atmospheric projects.
>>
>> Station photos: http://imgur.com/a/6TGOJ
>>
>> Also, if you know a member of the former TI club, give them a hug (or
>> handshake) on our behalf. None of the current K5UTD projects could have
>> been possible without them.
>>
>> 73!
>> Andrew Koenig, KE5GDB
>> Vice President, K5UTD
>> Research Assistant, Center for Space Sciences
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>


-- 
Andrew Koenig