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