Samudra, You could use a polar mount and preset mast angle and azmuth before each pass. That will give you a single axis control. Most antennas are moer that 30 degrees in beamwidth, the system only needs to be close +/- 15 degrees to have max signal.
Art, KC6UQH
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Samudra Haque Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:16 PM To: Amsat-bb Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: antenna question
While searching for public text concerning Amateur satellites and phased array antennas, I came across this gem from our very own Tom Clark, K3IO http://mysite.verizon.net/w3iwi/electronic_scanning_antennas.pdf, "Electronic Scanning Antennas for Amateur Spacecraft". I wonder if this knowhow could be utilized for ground stations to have antennas that could rapidly switch between different birds by a software reload function and a intelligent switching matrix ?
How many of you would prefer (if a command station) to have multi-access to satellites as they pass during conjunction but use a small antenna farm selectively to access them _simultaneously_.
On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 3:06 PM, Samudra Haque samudra.haque@gmail.com wrote:
Hi, Amsat-BB
Are there any antenna designs that use predominantly rotating sub-reflectors and a reflector for tracking LEO birds, in contrast to rotating the main antenna structure on booms in the AZ-EL directions ? I am aware of multi-LNB antenna arrangements, thought it would be interesting to find out ways to keep a fairly large reflector constant on the ground and use a smaller steerable sub-reflector or horn feed to aim the beam ?
Any ideas ?
Samudra N3RDX
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