The Ground Station's hardware


Joachim Köppen Strasbourg 2013


The antennas

The installation on the roof-top comprises

Note that the 144 and 432 MHz antennas work in circularly polarized mode. The antennas are mounted on an H-frame, which can be rotated 360° in azimuth and 90° in elevation. The motors are controlled from the interior station, and can be controlled by computer software.

The coaxial cables

The distance of 45m between antennas on the roof and the transceiver in the control room is covered by low-loss coaxial cables for the radio signals. Thus, there is some attenuation which amounts to

Control Room Equipment

Apart from the computers (not shown) which can completely control the equipment, the station consists of a Icom IC910H Amateur Radio Transceiver (centre) and the controllers for the azimuth (left bottom) and elevation rotators. Also, there is a switch to change-over the handedness of the circular polarization of the antennas' radiation. Of course, all equipment can also be operated manually.


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last update: Apr. 2013 J.Köppen