[amsat-bb] Thoughts on AZ/EL rotors

[k6vug at sbcglobal.net]

 Hi Keith,
By way of sharing my personal experience - 

(a) A controlled approach (aka smaller sticker shock) would be to establish the Azimuth rotor and use a fixed 30deg Elevation. It works for 90% of the passes.  
 
(b) But the main challenge in going from a handheld ops to a motorized rotator has one (usually missed) issue - you can no longer twist the antenna for phase angle compensation.  
 
(c) Also, a circularly polarized antenna (usually) requires a switch to change between RHCP and LHCP, for a complete setup.  
 
I too found the Arduino based approach most flexible and cost effective.  You can review it here - 
https://sites.google.com/site/k6vugdiary/home/satellite-tracking-system   
I have since, following my own advice, modified it to control an old azimuth rotor. 
 
Take your time...
 
Best,  
Umesh  
k6vug  







    On Wednesday, August 1, 2018, 10:48:44 AM PDT, Keith E. Brandt, WD9GET <wd9get at amsat.org> wrote:  
 
 I've been using the sats with my Arrow and HT and am considering the jump
to a more robust station. I'm pretty well set with my TS-2000 and I can
figure out antennas, but the interwebs are a major tangle of articles about
tracking systems, and  I'm having problems sorting out the info overload.

I'm in south Texas and planning a permanent installation, so weather
hardiness is necessary. This seems to me to rule out SatNOGs and Portable
Rotation systems. The main alternative I'm seeing is the Yaesu G-5500 (Alfa
Spid is more than I'm wanting to spend). Where things get really murky is
the computer interface. The GS232A is a bit on the expensive side. There
are many alternatives, but many are no longer in production or are
technically outdated.

What I'm looking for from the group is recommendations for Az-El rotor
systems and computer interfaces (I'm using SATPC32 and HRD for the tracking
software).

Thanks & 73,
Keith WD9GET

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Keith E. Brandt, WD9GET wd9get at amsat.org <wd9get at amsat.org>*

'Christianity and science are opposed…but only in the same sense as my
thumb and forefinger are opposed - and between them I can grasp
everything.' —Sir William Bragg (Nobel Prize for Physics- 1915)

 *This message transmitted with 100% recycled electrons

*xb*
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