CubeSat Ground Station Help

SatNOGS
1

Hi Everyone,

I am working on building a ground station for UHF comms with a LEO CubeSat. I was planning on doing FCC experimental licensing in the amateur band but after reading the satellite operator page am unsure, any advice?

Also, these are our current components, if anyone has any opinions or sees any missing components that would be incredibly helpful.

Rohn non-penetrating roof mount 5’ x 5’ base, 10’ tall
Cross Yagi UHF 432MHz
HackRF One
SSB Electronic SP70
DCW 2004 B - Power coupler
ICOM 9700 Transceiver
Yaesu Rotor Computer Controller interface
Yaesu 5500 rotator + computer controller
1/2" Hardline
LMR 400 Ultraflex

We also are unsure of what software to use, currently thinking of doing GNU radio with some custom command software in there. Also using a software TNC (if anyone has recommendations).

Thanks for the help!

2

Recommendations for the software TNC:

The last two decode additionally BPSK and special frame formats.

If you plan on contributing to SatNOGS, please think about integrating your groundstation into the SatNOGS network or to occasionally upload received frames to SatNOGS database using something like GetKISS+ or gr-satellites uploader.

The ICOM 9700 is not capable of 9k6. Please consider using for example an ICOM 9100 instead.

You would also need a software for tracking the satellites to correct the doppler shift and move your rotator. I prefer Gpredict.

73
Daniel, dl7ndr

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