On 2/24/12 11:58 AM, Joe Fitzgerald wrote:
Your fans will not be completely happy until your controller runs a state-space model of the motor/antenna system, with software that is careful to generate acceleration and jerk limited commands such that mechanical resonances are not excited.
With tongue firmly in cheek
What do you mean? That's exactly my plan. Fortunately, the problem of tracking a LEO satellite with a deadband of 5-10 degrees is a very non-demanding problem. That's why most hams are still doing it with primitive, bang-bang control.
But I think we can do a lot better. It's time to get serious about moving to the microwave bands. That will require one thing on both the ground and in space: much tighter antenna pointing. But the payoffs will be enormous: much smaller and lighter ground antennas that will be practical for many more hams, much better signal-to-noise ratios, and much higher bandwidths and data rates.
All this could mean substantial growth for AMSAT. But we'll have to let go of not only inefficient analog modulation but also the low frequency bands, especially 2m.