1. VE3RMC Amateur Satellite Communications Ground Station
Alex Clay Cushley, BSc, RMC, BEd, OCT
Royal Military College of Canada (RMCC), Kingston, ON
Introduction
Overview
Sample Data
Characteristics
As part of its research program in space mission analysis & design, and proposed CubeSat operations, the Royal Military College of Canada (RMCC) Center for Space Research (CSR) has developed an amateur satellite communication ground station. The ground station has been implemented to support staff and student research, teaching and learning opportunities in communications, and in support of high altitude balloon and CubeSat design, testing, and operations
VE3RMC has been composed of relatively low-cost, small scale equipment enabling communications with OSCAR-class satellites in the 2m and 70cm wavelength radio bands. It is hoped the VE3RMC station may support, command, and control future RMCC CubeSats upon their successful launch into orbit. As RMCC does not have an active satellite at this time to downlink data and uplink commands the primary users of the VE3 RMC ground station are students obtaining communications and satellite contact experience. Additionally high altitude balloon communications and navigation (tracking) training may be performed prior to launch using ground station software for Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) equipped aircraft.
VE3 RMC Characteristics
Location
RMCC, Kingston, ON
Latitude, Longitude, Altitude
N44°13’ ”, W76°28’ ”, m
Transceiver (*GENSO)
ICOM 910H UHF/VHF 9600bps
Frequency Bands
100W 430/440 75W 10W
Antennae
Yagi-Uda bi-directional with 100W pre-amplifiers
Rotators
Yaesu CPU Controlled Az./El.
Software
Open Source Ham Radio Deluxe V5.0-orbit propagation, antenna control, and Doppler frequency-shift correction.
CPU
Intel DuoCore 2.33GHz, 1.95Gb RAM, 74.5Gb+ network
TNC (*GENSO)
Kantronics KPC9612+ (2 ports for bps)
QSO Card
APRS flight tracking, PCSAT Navy Oscar 44, ISS, PRISM, AO-7……
Structure
Titan Tower Series T800 mounted on roof of Sawyer Building above Physics Dept
Environment
88.1mph wind shear with 1/2” radial ice accumulation
Rooftop Antenna Tower
PRISM Telemetry Received & Decoded -by Michael A. Earl
APRS Signals Received in UIView-32
Configuration
Operations Console
VE3RMC Schematic
HRD Rotator View
*GENSO: ICOM computer Control Interface (ICOM CI-V) radios allow multiple radio control simultaneously and are required ground station hardware for participation in the Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations (GENSO).
Team
Director, Centre for Space Research: Dr. Ron Vincent
Project Supervisor: Dr. Jean-Marc Noël
Preliminary Design: Maj. Pascal Tremblay (VA3LGM)
Assembly Integration & Testing: Mr. Alex Cushley (VA3CUS)
Operations: Mr. Alex Cushley, Maj. Richard Van Der Pryt (VE3VDP), Lt-Col. (Ret’d) Philip Somers (VE3HST)
Dept. Electronics Technologist: Mr. Dave Watts
Dept. Materials Technologist: Mr. Steve Lockridge
CubeSat System Link Margin (dB)
Based on 1 Watt Power Transmission
2 m
70cm
12.5 cm
G_Omni
-1.03
-10.73
-25.46
G_yagi
7.97
-1.73
-16.46
G_parabolic
20.27
10.77
-3.96
CubeSat Link Budget