Station 2830 (Stockholm) L and S-Band new Helix antenna

Finally I have updated my L and S-band station with a 5 turn Helix antenna and a TQM3M9037 LNA. The LNA is power via Bias-T from the HackRF One.
Initial tests compared to similar S-band stations with Helix antenna seams equal performance.

So please use my station for L and S-band monitoring!

https://network.satnogs.org/stations/2830/


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Nice (:

I also bought one of those LNA’s and pulled it apart ofc.


One very peculiar design, the TP4056 is a Li+ charger, and I found it to have a very bad behaviour.
When powered up via the usb or via the coax and the switch was off, it stabilized at 4.2V and could throw the switch and power the LNA just fine.
But if the switch was in the on position when the power was applied, it went in some trickle charge mode and only delivered something like 2.5V.
This was visible on the lab supply as he current draw of these two states was observably different, and one of the leds was also visibly weaker.
I ended up gutting the charger circuit and put a linear regulator in it’s spot.
The other peculiar design is the diode B5819 that conducts the bias, very odd, but “works”.

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Yes @SA2KNG that is correct. And the description for this switch on AliExpress is non existent. This board is mass produced and it is very strange that they have decided a board with battery options. But as you wrote, running it with the switch “Off” (or USB mode as it is described on my LNA) then it works fine.

One example from an observation, signals are much improved compared with the antenna I used before. Comparing with other S-band SatNOGS station with Helix antennas is seams to be equal performance.

https://network.satnogs.org/observations/9929236/

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Lars, can you please tell me from where you obtained the cased TQM3M9037 LNA module? I can only find the actual component part. Did you buy yours from AliExpress or ??I see you’ve reduced the helix to five turns now :wink:

I got it from this store:
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/5797354?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_home.pcShopHead_1028920524.0

And I was recommended to use this store from another radio amateur.

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Nice, do you use a rotator ? Probably not looking at your observation (or maybe there are obstacles), but i just wanted to know ? :slight_smile:

No rotor, fixed antenna pointing 90 degree up.

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Nice! that gives me some ideas. I think i will copy that :slight_smile:

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Can you please tell me from where you obtained the antenna skeleton? I’ve been trying sgcderek via his various channels but without any reply. BTW the TQM3M9037 LNA is working fine using bias-t with a temporary setup. However, I do agree with @SA2KNG that it has strange power behaviour, and therefore not useful for a mast-head location otherwise. 73

or render one with your own parameters

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Yes it is from derekcz A friend of mine did the 3D printing. Then I spray the Helix with UV protection and protect the soldering and connectors with glue and vulc tape.

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This posting has encouraged me to enable S Band at my SatNogs station. I have placed order from https://www.aliexpress.com/i/1005004819319963.html (Non Battery Version). Good to know you have mounted the antenna 90 degree vertical. I have a helical antenna for QO 100 from RFHAMDESIGN which i plan to use and mount similar way you have done to start off. Any more pointers will help. 73

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Nice @vu3tyg We (SatNOGS) need more L and S-band stations.
I got my inspiration from @SA2KNG

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Noted @SM0TGU , I am planning to use a diplexer for L and S band with a single feed to the LNA > Pi 3 with SDR all mounted at the mast. Are such diplexers available ?

73
Nitin [VU3TYG]

Not sure. I have not seen any.

If this was VHF I would probably agree that it would be possible to build that way, maybe even UHF.
For S/L, the LNA should sit at the antenna feedpoint(s) so one per band/antenna. Then you can have filters, like cavity for S perhaps as adjacent signals can be pretty strong.
If the signals are nicely bandpass filtered they can simply be joined. If using a straigh T connection, the length of the joining cables start to matter thou (1/4 wl).

A diplexer is simply a high+lowpass filter on a T connection, which makes the stub length pretty short.

The DC bias needs to be fed around this, if you’re having it go on the coax.

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Noted, Thanks

@SA2KNG , Thanks for the inputs for S/L, Yes I will mount two LNA at the antenna feed point and use cavity for S Band like S-Band cavity filter 2170-2300 MHz | cf2235-kt30 (Not sure when this will be available)

For my current VHF / UHF setup I use filtered preamps for which power is fed from a power bank > diplexer and a single feed to the SDR. The preamps and diplexer are mounted on the mast and the coax run to the SDR is less than 8 feet. This is giving good results. Some images below. 73

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Is there a method of selecting s-band satellites without trawling through a long list of mostly VHF/UHF future passes?