Hello,
I have been following Satnogs for a while now. I am very much intrersted in this project and would like to get started on this.
Currently I live in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. The only thing I am concerned about is extreme winters. we have temps falling down to -40C, but the summers are good though (no more than 25 C) and was wondering if anyone has a similar experience. I am aware that circuit boards like RPi and Arduino have working temprature range, I hope to fix that by keeping only the necessary components out in the cold.
Welcome to the community, it is great to see you here
Have you operated a rotator before? Temperatures would not be my number one concern here, especially since all electronics are enclosed and are heated up due to operating (stepper or dc controllers/drivers + the power supply unit). Wind would be my biggest fear for your situation as well as snow deposits on your setup.
I would advise you start small with a no-rotator setup to verify operations of the RX and client electronics (sdr, rpi3, lna, psu etc) in your cold weather. Take a look at our No Rotator setup wiki page that can guide your through the process and feel free to post any questions, requests for guidance here. Cheers!
I would +1 for the no rotator if it’s out in extreme weather. I live in the north west UK on the coast and 50+ salty wind is a common antenna killer. I get reasonable results with a no-rotator in the loft. The rotator will also go indoors, it’s a compromise but I am working on the loss through the slate roof is a worthwhile compromise compared to an unreliable mechanism.
If you want any more detail on what works for me then just ask.
