Pat:
Excellent idea! I'm unsure if I can make the entire day or at all but I am very interested.
Besides the Arrow & the semi-portable setup (vehicle required!) I used for Field Day, I have 50% of a homebrew antenna setup - 6 element WA5VJB cheap yagi for 2M (I'll add it works FB for meteor scatter, too!). Need to make a 70cm version and possibly a smaller/more portable 2M. And get back on the birds after tearing the station apart for FD and not putting it all back together!
73 Steve KS1G
On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 11:46 AM, Kilroy, Patrick L. (GSFC-5680) < [email protected]> wrote:
I WISH TO PROPOSE the AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013, to take place on Saturday, March 23, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. It will be a nearly all-day event.
"Workshop on Portable Satellite Ground Stations"
... is the title, where attendees will learn about and develop their own portable ground station and show off their wares which will feature one or more of the following:
- One's own laptop computer, with appropriate
software installed, such as for satellite tracking, SDR receiver control, antenna control (optional), audio recording and any other apps, for example.
- The FUNcube Dongle Pro receiver or equivalent,
emphasizing *receiving* and not including the transmit side at this particular time. See the links below for ideas about software, receivers and antennas.
- Antennas for 146 MHz and 436 MHz with a
mounting means, such as on a camera tripod, small mast, homebrew PVC, or other portable creation. Your antennas can be either the Arrow, Elk or equivalent, or homebrew. Polarization linear or circular. Antenna Az-El movement can be by hand or controller (manual activating or automated, fully or partially).
Everything, or almost everything, ought to be designed to run from a 12-volt source of your choosing.
Additional details will be determined by a small humble steering committee that YOU can influence early on. And speaking of that, . . .
May I include you, among others, on my steering committee? If not, that's okay, but I need to know if you'd like to participate. Can you bring in some gear to assemble and to show off to others attending?
Perhaps we could meet in person, telecon by phone, or by EchoLink conferencing soon as a group to further outline this event?
Foremost, if needed, an alternate date can be selected, from either March 9 or 16, or moved into April on a Saturday AFTER the Greater Baltimore Hamboree and Computerfest of April 6, as long as we decide in the next week or two.
Are you in??
Can you help organize? Or attend? What might you bring?
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Pat Kilroy N8PK amsat area coordinator
Links for antenna ideas: http://arrowantennas.com/ http://www.elkantennas.com/ http://www.g6lvb.com/homebrewarrow.htm http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/faqs/crow/index.php http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/Az_El_Pos.pdf http://www.wa5vjb.com/references/Cheap%20Antennas-LEOs.pdf http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/downloads/iROTOR.pdf http://www.arrl.org/shop/The-ARRL-Satellite-Handbook/ http://ac6v.com/antprojects.htm
Links for software ideas: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/software.php http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/ http://www.moetronix.com/spectravue.htm http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/faqs/resguide.pdf http://sdrsharp.com/
Links for receiver ideas: http://www.funcubedongle.com/ http://www.amsat.org/amsat/intro/sats_faq.html http://www.funcubedongle.com/MyImages/SpectravueConfigurationForFCD.pdf http://sdrsharp.com/
"People don't care about how much we know, until they know how much we care." - Jack Vieira
Outreach: http://simsat.net/
Via the AMSAT-DC mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA [email protected] http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-dc