Space Center Abandoned Dish Rehabilitation - Outreach #1
A group of GNU Radio community members has permission to evaluate a dish installation in Huntsville, AL near the Space Center. If you've ever been to the Space Center (where the Saturn V is suspended from the ceiling) then this dish is right outside the main entrance. Anyone attending Symposium last year should recognize it!
Here's a set of photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1d_Oi3hrIi49JxmaoNuUA-pvUXOs7vSz1
We're looking for technical information, identification of what you recognize in the photos, recommended next steps, and what to watch out for, prioritize, or avoid. We already know we want to take the paint off all the ID plates and see what's under there.
We want to see if we can get this working for *amateur radio operators to access over the internet*, ideally with a GNU Radio flowgraph to control it from an SDR. Our priority is to make this work for amateur satellite.
This type of setup is similar to what GNU Radio Foundation is working on with the Allen Telescope Array. We have the go-ahead from the Space Center curator to do this study and make recommendations.
I have fully restored several basket-case British sports cars and then successfully raced them. My other team members have restored things even more challenging. We are not dumb, naive, or easily deterred. We know this may turn out to be something that requires way more work than we can do in any time frame we can manage. Documenting that is still of great value, and that is why we are asking for your help. Right now, no one knows much of anything about it. This sort of installation, if available for amateur radio, is well worth the effort.
Some of the people involved have been driving past this installation for 20 years and want to see it back in service at whatever level we can achieve. It will be discussed at GNU Radio Conference, and everyone at the conference will have the opportunity to see it up close and in person, since it's literally across the parking lot from the venue.
Want to attend or find out more about GRCon? https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon19/
If you know of someone off-list that might know details that will help, then please pass this along!
-Michelle W5NYV + Corps of Operation Flashlight
I would recommend trying to find out if the motors are AC or DC or some weird voltage or stepper or servo type. If you can get the motors to move, position feedback could be added with a simple potentiometer from a belt, or a fancy encoder. It may be possible to use the old position feedback, but it may be faster and easier to mount something on the outside that gives the same result.
In terms of frequency ranges, rate of tracking, dish beam width, these will determine what it could be used for, and assuming you use the old motors and the reflector on the dish is designed for vhf?, then this would limit top frequency and maximum tracking ability aligned with beam width. Say vhf, UHF lower microwave, and presumably the dish could track low earth orbit or moon bounce.
Looking at the photos it looks like the right middle connector is an n type coax connector for the feed. I assume the military type connectors are for position feedback from some sort of rotary or absolute encoder. Often there is an encoder mounted near or on the motor, which is AC or DC simple motor.
If the manual movement cranks work you could run belts to them and mount new motors on the outside. Speed might be limited, but acceptable.
I would recommend adding hardware limit switches no matter what you do to ensure the dish can never rotate too far and damage itself. It may have limit switches inside, but they may need replacing and external switches would be easier to service.
It would be great if this could track low earth orbit and receive school contacts from the iss and cubesats on vhf and UHF.
I would like to see it receive 2395MHz Hamtv from the ISS, which is relatively strong and easy to receive.
On Wed, 14 Aug 2019 22:11 Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
A group of GNU Radio community members has permission to evaluate a dish installation in Huntsville, AL near the Space Center. If you've ever been to the Space Center (where the Saturn V is suspended from the ceiling) then this dish is right outside the main entrance. Anyone attending Symposium last year should recognize it!
Here's a set of photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1d_Oi3hrIi49JxmaoNuUA-pvUXOs7vSz1
We're looking for technical information, identification of what you recognize in the photos, recommended next steps, and what to watch out for, prioritize, or avoid. We already know we want to take the paint off all the ID plates and see what's under there.
We want to see if we can get this working for *amateur radio operators to access over the internet*, ideally with a GNU Radio flowgraph to control it from an SDR. Our priority is to make this work for amateur satellite.
This type of setup is similar to what GNU Radio Foundation is working on with the Allen Telescope Array. We have the go-ahead from the Space Center curator to do this study and make recommendations.
I have fully restored several basket-case British sports cars and then successfully raced them. My other team members have restored things even more challenging. We are not dumb, naive, or easily deterred. We know this may turn out to be something that requires way more work than we can do in any time frame we can manage. Documenting that is still of great value, and that is why we are asking for your help. Right now, no one knows much of anything about it. This sort of installation, if available for amateur radio, is well worth the effort.
Some of the people involved have been driving past this installation for 20 years and want to see it back in service at whatever level we can achieve. It will be discussed at GNU Radio Conference, and everyone at the conference will have the opportunity to see it up close and in person, since it's literally across the parking lot from the venue.
Want to attend or find out more about GRCon? https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon19/
If you know of someone off-list that might know details that will help, then please pass this along!
-Michelle W5NYV + Corps of Operation Flashlight _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Wow! Fun project. Very exciting. Any chance there are also antique antennas at the California ground station at Goldstone. Nasa had three primary ground stations for Apollo: Spain, Australia, and California. https://www.gdscc.nasa.gov/
73 Robert MacHale. KE6BLR Ham Radio License. http://spaceCommunicator.club/aprs%C2%A0 . Supporting Boy Scout Merit Badges in Radio, Robotics, and Space Exploration
On Wednesday, August 14, 2019, 2:54:16 PM PDT, Daniel Cussen via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
I would recommend trying to find out if the motors are AC or DC or some weird voltage or stepper or servo type. If you can get the motors to move, position feedback could be added with a simple potentiometer from a belt, or a fancy encoder. It may be possible to use the old position feedback, but it may be faster and easier to mount something on the outside that gives the same result.
In terms of frequency ranges, rate of tracking, dish beam width, these will determine what it could be used for, and assuming you use the old motors and the reflector on the dish is designed for vhf?, then this would limit top frequency and maximum tracking ability aligned with beam width. Say vhf, UHF lower microwave, and presumably the dish could track low earth orbit or moon bounce.
Looking at the photos it looks like the right middle connector is an n type coax connector for the feed. I assume the military type connectors are for position feedback from some sort of rotary or absolute encoder. Often there is an encoder mounted near or on the motor, which is AC or DC simple motor.
If the manual movement cranks work you could run belts to them and mount new motors on the outside. Speed might be limited, but acceptable.
I would recommend adding hardware limit switches no matter what you do to ensure the dish can never rotate too far and damage itself. It may have limit switches inside, but they may need replacing and external switches would be easier to service.
It would be great if this could track low earth orbit and receive school contacts from the iss and cubesats on vhf and UHF.
I would like to see it receive 2395MHz Hamtv from the ISS, which is relatively strong and easy to receive.
On Wed, 14 Aug 2019 22:11 Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
A group of GNU Radio community members has permission to evaluate a dish installation in Huntsville, AL near the Space Center. If you've ever been to the Space Center (where the Saturn V is suspended from the ceiling) then this dish is right outside the main entrance. Anyone attending Symposium last year should recognize it!
Here's a set of photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1d_Oi3hrIi49JxmaoNuUA-pvUXOs7vSz1
We're looking for technical information, identification of what you recognize in the photos, recommended next steps, and what to watch out for, prioritize, or avoid. We already know we want to take the paint off all the ID plates and see what's under there.
We want to see if we can get this working for *amateur radio operators to access over the internet*, ideally with a GNU Radio flowgraph to control it from an SDR. Our priority is to make this work for amateur satellite.
This type of setup is similar to what GNU Radio Foundation is working on with the Allen Telescope Array. We have the go-ahead from the Space Center curator to do this study and make recommendations.
I have fully restored several basket-case British sports cars and then successfully raced them. My other team members have restored things even more challenging. We are not dumb, naive, or easily deterred. We know this may turn out to be something that requires way more work than we can do in any time frame we can manage. Documenting that is still of great value, and that is why we are asking for your help. Right now, no one knows much of anything about it. This sort of installation, if available for amateur radio, is well worth the effort.
Some of the people involved have been driving past this installation for 20 years and want to see it back in service at whatever level we can achieve. It will be discussed at GNU Radio Conference, and everyone at the conference will have the opportunity to see it up close and in person, since it's literally across the parking lot from the venue.
Want to attend or find out more about GRCon? https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon19/
If you know of someone off-list that might know details that will help, then please pass this along!
-Michelle W5NYV + Corps of Operation Flashlight _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
_______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Robert,
Not that it is something we could fix but really like this site:
https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
It lets you real time observe what Canberra, Madrid and Goldstone are doing. Fascinating to watch.
I don't recall the name of the site in North Carolina that has the rejuvenated dishes. But a ham friend of mine took a tour and it is pretty cool stuff. Unfortunately they are not much used because according to them these old dishes are very expensive to operate. Must be kind of like buying a horse - the real money gets spent not when you buy the horse but over the next twenty years as you pay to maintain the trusty steed!
John
On Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 6:22 PM Robert MacHale via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
Wow! Fun project. Very exciting. Any chance there are also antique antennas at the California ground station at Goldstone. Nasa had three primary ground stations for Apollo: Spain, Australia, and California. https://www.gdscc.nasa.gov/
73 Robert MacHale. KE6BLR Ham Radio License. http://spaceCommunicator.club/aprs . Supporting Boy Scout Merit Badges in Radio, Robotics, and Space Exploration
On Wednesday, August 14, 2019, 2:54:16 PM PDT, Daniel Cussen viaAMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
I would recommend trying to find out if the motors are AC or DC or some weird voltage or stepper or servo type. If you can get the motors to move, position feedback could be added with a simple potentiometer from a belt, or a fancy encoder. It may be possible to use the old position feedback, but it may be faster and easier to mount something on the outside that gives the same result.
In terms of frequency ranges, rate of tracking, dish beam width, these will determine what it could be used for, and assuming you use the old motors and the reflector on the dish is designed for vhf?, then this would limit top frequency and maximum tracking ability aligned with beam width. Say vhf, UHF lower microwave, and presumably the dish could track low earth orbit or moon bounce.
Looking at the photos it looks like the right middle connector is an n type coax connector for the feed. I assume the military type connectors are for position feedback from some sort of rotary or absolute encoder. Often there is an encoder mounted near or on the motor, which is AC or DC simple motor.
If the manual movement cranks work you could run belts to them and mount new motors on the outside. Speed might be limited, but acceptable.
I would recommend adding hardware limit switches no matter what you do to ensure the dish can never rotate too far and damage itself. It may have limit switches inside, but they may need replacing and external switches would be easier to service.
It would be great if this could track low earth orbit and receive school contacts from the iss and cubesats on vhf and UHF.
I would like to see it receive 2395MHz Hamtv from the ISS, which is relatively strong and easy to receive.
On Wed, 14 Aug 2019 22:11 Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
A group of GNU Radio community members has permission to evaluate a dish installation in Huntsville, AL near the Space Center. If you've ever been to the Space Center (where the Saturn V is suspended from the ceiling)
then
this dish is right outside the main entrance. Anyone attending Symposium last year should recognize it!
Here's a set of photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1d_Oi3hrIi49JxmaoNuUA-pvUXOs7vSz1
We're looking for technical information, identification of what you recognize in the photos, recommended next steps, and what to watch out
for,
prioritize, or avoid. We already know we want to take the paint off all
the
ID plates and see what's under there.
We want to see if we can get this working for *amateur radio operators to access over the internet*, ideally with a GNU Radio flowgraph to control
it
from an SDR. Our priority is to make this work for amateur satellite.
This type of setup is similar to what GNU Radio Foundation is working on with the Allen Telescope Array. We have the go-ahead from the Space
Center
curator to do this study and make recommendations.
I have fully restored several basket-case British sports cars and then successfully raced them. My other team members have restored things even more challenging. We are not dumb, naive, or easily deterred. We know
this
may turn out to be something that requires way more work than we can do
in
any time frame we can manage. Documenting that is still of great value,
and
that is why we are asking for your help. Right now, no one knows much of anything about it. This sort of installation, if available for amateur radio, is well worth the effort.
Some of the people involved have been driving past this installation for
20
years and want to see it back in service at whatever level we can
achieve.
It will be discussed at GNU Radio Conference, and everyone at the conference will have the opportunity to see it up close and in person, since it's literally across the parking lot from the venue.
Want to attend or find out more about GRCon? https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon19/
If you know of someone off-list that might know details that will help, then please pass this along!
-Michelle W5NYV + Corps of Operation Flashlight _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
Opinions
expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
program!
Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Nice! It even reports the movement on the Az/El for each dish. I love it. 73 Robert MacHale. KE6BLR Ham Radio License. http://spaceCommunicator.club/aprs%C2%A0 . Supporting Boy Scout Merit Badges in Radio, Robotics, and Space Exploration
On Wednesday, August 14, 2019, 3:34:55 PM PDT, John Kludt johnnykludt@gmail.com wrote:
Robert, Not that it is something we could fix but really like this site: https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html%C2%A0 It lets you real time observe what Canberra, Madrid and Goldstone are doing. Fascinating to watch.
I don't recall the name of the site in North Carolina that has the rejuvenated dishes. But a ham friend of mine took a tour and it is pretty cool stuff. Unfortunately they are not much used because according to them these old dishes are very expensive to operate. Must be kind of like buying a horse - the real money gets spent not when you buy the horse but over the next twenty years as you pay to maintain the trusty steed! John On Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 6:22 PM Robert MacHale via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Wow! Fun project. Very exciting. Any chance there are also antique antennas at the California ground station at Goldstone. Nasa had three primary ground stations for Apollo: Spain, Australia, and California. https://www.gdscc.nasa.gov/
73 Robert MacHale. KE6BLR Ham Radio License. http://spaceCommunicator.club/aprs%C2%A0 . Supporting Boy Scout Merit Badges in Radio, Robotics, and Space Exploration
On Wednesday, August 14, 2019, 2:54:16 PM PDT, Daniel Cussen via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
I would recommend trying to find out if the motors are AC or DC or some weird voltage or stepper or servo type. If you can get the motors to move, position feedback could be added with a simple potentiometer from a belt, or a fancy encoder. It may be possible to use the old position feedback, but it may be faster and easier to mount something on the outside that gives the same result.
In terms of frequency ranges, rate of tracking, dish beam width, these will determine what it could be used for, and assuming you use the old motors and the reflector on the dish is designed for vhf?, then this would limit top frequency and maximum tracking ability aligned with beam width. Say vhf, UHF lower microwave, and presumably the dish could track low earth orbit or moon bounce.
Looking at the photos it looks like the right middle connector is an n type coax connector for the feed. I assume the military type connectors are for position feedback from some sort of rotary or absolute encoder. Often there is an encoder mounted near or on the motor, which is AC or DC simple motor.
If the manual movement cranks work you could run belts to them and mount new motors on the outside. Speed might be limited, but acceptable.
I would recommend adding hardware limit switches no matter what you do to ensure the dish can never rotate too far and damage itself. It may have limit switches inside, but they may need replacing and external switches would be easier to service.
It would be great if this could track low earth orbit and receive school contacts from the iss and cubesats on vhf and UHF.
I would like to see it receive 2395MHz Hamtv from the ISS, which is relatively strong and easy to receive.
On Wed, 14 Aug 2019 22:11 Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
A group of GNU Radio community members has permission to evaluate a dish installation in Huntsville, AL near the Space Center. If you've ever been to the Space Center (where the Saturn V is suspended from the ceiling) then this dish is right outside the main entrance. Anyone attending Symposium last year should recognize it!
Here's a set of photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1d_Oi3hrIi49JxmaoNuUA-pvUXOs7vSz1
We're looking for technical information, identification of what you recognize in the photos, recommended next steps, and what to watch out for, prioritize, or avoid. We already know we want to take the paint off all the ID plates and see what's under there.
We want to see if we can get this working for *amateur radio operators to access over the internet*, ideally with a GNU Radio flowgraph to control it from an SDR. Our priority is to make this work for amateur satellite.
This type of setup is similar to what GNU Radio Foundation is working on with the Allen Telescope Array. We have the go-ahead from the Space Center curator to do this study and make recommendations.
I have fully restored several basket-case British sports cars and then successfully raced them. My other team members have restored things even more challenging. We are not dumb, naive, or easily deterred. We know this may turn out to be something that requires way more work than we can do in any time frame we can manage. Documenting that is still of great value, and that is why we are asking for your help. Right now, no one knows much of anything about it. This sort of installation, if available for amateur radio, is well worth the effort.
Some of the people involved have been driving past this installation for 20 years and want to see it back in service at whatever level we can achieve. It will be discussed at GNU Radio Conference, and everyone at the conference will have the opportunity to see it up close and in person, since it's literally across the parking lot from the venue.
Want to attend or find out more about GRCon? https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon19/
If you know of someone off-list that might know details that will help, then please pass this along!
-Michelle W5NYV + Corps of Operation Flashlight _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
_______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
_______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Michelle,
So help me understand - what is the problem we are trying to solve? Let's play this out, we somehow get our hands on a surplus dish and we fix it up. I will skip over the part of the story that deals with annual maintenance costs and ongoing operational costs every time we fire it up and use it. The question is, use it for what? A dish for the sake of saying, "Heh, we own a dish" - who ever "we' is - just does not make any sense.
I suppose we could use it as part of a network of stations on 2.4 MHz for HamTV but that works only if the dish is part of a greater US HamTV network that does not exist right now. And it only works if the Az/El system turning the dish is a fast enough to keep up with a LEO such as the ISS - that is simple question of fact that we can discover. Other uses that would benefit the general amateur radio satellite community?
While it is a cool idea at least to me it feels a bit like a solution in search of a problem. Not saying it is bad idea but I am saying so help us understand why we need a 20 foot dish owned by the amateur *satellite* community at large. The other part of me that does EME sees lots of uses but that is very different game - see HB9Q. And before we get too far down the road, I'd like to see not just acquisition and repair costs but ongoing maintenance and operations costs.
Respectfully,
John
On Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 5:12 PM Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
A group of GNU Radio community members has permission to evaluate a dish installation in Huntsville, AL near the Space Center. If you've ever been to the Space Center (where the Saturn V is suspended from the ceiling) then this dish is right outside the main entrance. Anyone attending Symposium last year should recognize it!
Here's a set of photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1d_Oi3hrIi49JxmaoNuUA-pvUXOs7vSz1
We're looking for technical information, identification of what you recognize in the photos, recommended next steps, and what to watch out for, prioritize, or avoid. We already know we want to take the paint off all the ID plates and see what's under there.
We want to see if we can get this working for *amateur radio operators to access over the internet*, ideally with a GNU Radio flowgraph to control it from an SDR. Our priority is to make this work for amateur satellite.
This type of setup is similar to what GNU Radio Foundation is working on with the Allen Telescope Array. We have the go-ahead from the Space Center curator to do this study and make recommendations.
I have fully restored several basket-case British sports cars and then successfully raced them. My other team members have restored things even more challenging. We are not dumb, naive, or easily deterred. We know this may turn out to be something that requires way more work than we can do in any time frame we can manage. Documenting that is still of great value, and that is why we are asking for your help. Right now, no one knows much of anything about it. This sort of installation, if available for amateur radio, is well worth the effort.
Some of the people involved have been driving past this installation for 20 years and want to see it back in service at whatever level we can achieve. It will be discussed at GNU Radio Conference, and everyone at the conference will have the opportunity to see it up close and in person, since it's literally across the parking lot from the venue.
Want to attend or find out more about GRCon? https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon19/
If you know of someone off-list that might know details that will help, then please pass this along!
-Michelle W5NYV + Corps of Operation Flashlight _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
EME seems most practical...
From the shadows, it looks like it is on the north side of the building
and has SERIOUS blockage to the east and west through south maybe as high as 40 degrees or more. Then trees block the North and NE. About the only sky it can see is NW?
Since LEO's spend 70% of their time in view below about 22 degrees, My guess is that this dish could only see about 10% of all possible pass times?
But EME is high most of the time. And easy to schedule around times of high passes for a club station at a museum. Also would be a high interest item and things MOVE SLOWLY!
If it is rusted frozen, then the EASY way out is to point it roughly south some how. And then wait for the moon to pass through its field of view. Hummh, lets say using the 2m feed the beamwidth is 5 degrees and the moon goes 180 degrees in 12 hours. Then its in view (3dB) maybe 20 minutes at a time?
Then to improve the number of days, one could add another dipole above and below the existing one and then pick up additional passes without having to move the dish. Or easier, just nutate the feed up and down. Then you could get a moon pass every day.
You could predict and post a schedule of when people could make contacts.?
Just playing with ideas...
Zooming in with google earth in 3d you can stand ANYWHERE and almost see the same views as the excellent ones alrady posted. But walk around and fine tune them. Amazing...
Bob, WB4APR
-----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org On Behalf Of John Kludt via AMSAT-BB Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2019 9:25 PM To: Michelle Thompson mountain.michelle@gmail.com Cc: AMSAT BB amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Space Center Abandoned Dish Rehabilitation - Outreach #1
Michelle,
So help me understand - what is the problem we are trying to solve? Let's play this out, we somehow get our hands on a surplus dish and we fix it up. I will skip over the part of the story that deals with annual maintenance costs and ongoing operational costs every time we fire it up and use it. The question is, use it for what? A dish for the sake of saying, "Heh, we own a dish" - who ever "we' is - just does not make any sense.
I suppose we could use it as part of a network of stations on 2.4 MHz for HamTV but that works only if the dish is part of a greater US HamTV network that does not exist right now. And it only works if the Az/El system turning the dish is a fast enough to keep up with a LEO such as the ISS - that is simple question of fact that we can discover. Other uses that would benefit the general amateur radio satellite community?
While it is a cool idea at least to me it feels a bit like a solution in search of a problem. Not saying it is bad idea but I am saying so help us understand why we need a 20 foot dish owned by the amateur *satellite* community at large. The other part of me that does EME sees lots of uses but that is very different game - see HB9Q. And before we get too far down the road, I'd like to see not just acquisition and repair costs but ongoing maintenance and operations costs.
Respectfully,
John
On Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 5:12 PM Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
A group of GNU Radio community members has permission to evaluate a dish installation in Huntsville, AL near the Space Center. If you've ever been to the Space Center (where the Saturn V is suspended from the ceiling) then this dish is right outside the main entrance. Anyone attending Symposium last year should recognize it!
Here's a set of photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1d_Oi3hrIi49JxmaoNuUA-pvUXO s7vSz1
We're looking for technical information, identification of what you recognize in the photos, recommended next steps, and what to watch out for, prioritize, or avoid. We already know we want to take the paint off all the ID plates and see what's under there.
We want to see if we can get this working for *amateur radio operators to access over the internet*, ideally with a GNU Radio flowgraph to control it from an SDR. Our priority is to make this work for amateur
satellite.
This type of setup is similar to what GNU Radio Foundation is working on with the Allen Telescope Array. We have the go-ahead from the Space Center curator to do this study and make recommendations.
I have fully restored several basket-case British sports cars and then successfully raced them. My other team members have restored things even more challenging. We are not dumb, naive, or easily deterred. We know this may turn out to be something that requires way more work than we can do in any time frame we can manage. Documenting that is still of great value, and that is why we are asking for your help. Right now, no one knows much of anything about it. This sort of installation, if available for amateur radio, is well worth the effort.
Some of the people involved have been driving past this installation for 20 years and want to see it back in service at whatever level we can
achieve.
It will be discussed at GNU Radio Conference, and everyone at the conference will have the opportunity to see it up close and in person, since it's literally across the parking lot from the venue.
Want to attend or find out more about GRCon? https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon19/
If you know of someone off-list that might know details that will help, then please pass this along!
-Michelle W5NYV + Corps of Operation Flashlight _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
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Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
_______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (5)
-
Daniel Cussen -
John Kludt -
Michelle Thompson -
Robert Bruninga -
Robert MacHale