After much reading and viewing of youtube videos I have finally settled on the parts that I want to use to build my QO-100 Satellite ground station.
Initially I’m only going to build the receive path of the QO-100 station. From the articles and blogs I’ve read online all the experienced Amateur Radio satellite Op’s recommend getting the receive side sorted first and then moving onto the transmit path.
I need to stress here that I have no experience of radio above 433Mhz (70cm), a band that I have only used a handful of times. 99% of my Amateur Radio life has been spent below 30Mhz and so this is going to be a very new experience for me.
So, what am I going to purchase for the receive path?
I’ve settled on a 1.1m off-set dish from the Satellite Super Store that should give me plenty of gain if I manage to get it pointed successfully at the bird.
I’ll pair a Bullseye 10Ghz TCXO LNB with the dish to give me a high stability receive path that shouldn’t wander too much up and down the band with temperature changes throughout the seasons.
The Bullseye LNB gets extremely good reviews from the HAM Satellite community, although it is a little on the expensive side compared to many others available. Since I only want to do this once I’ve gone with the more expensive option in the hope that it gives me the stability I’m looking for.
Since we’ve never had satellite TV here at home I’ve only just learnt that LNBs require a voltage feed since reading about other peoples QO-100 station builds. Most LNBs can be used for either horizontal or vertical polarisation and are switched by feeding with either 12v or 18v respectively. The LNBs also use this same voltage feed to do the frequency down conversation and some amplification of the received signal.
At the moment I’m only looking to get onto the narrowband part of the QO-100 satellite service and so I will need to feed the LNB with around 12v to ensure vertical polarisation is achieved. The easiest way to do this is to inject the 12v feed up the coax cable to the LNB.
To achieve this I will need to purchase a little circuit called a Bias Tee. This relatively simple circuit consists of a capacitor and inductor combination that stops the 12v from going back into the receiver whilst at the same time stopping the RF from going back into the power supply.
Bias Tee units are relatively cheap to buy online and I have decided to get one from Amazon that has been recommended in a number of blogs posts I have read during my research.
With these parts ordered I now need to source the materials to mount the dish up above head height in the garden with a clear view of the sky in the direction of the satellite.
Getting the dish up high enough to be above head height will be important for when I get the 2.4Ghz uplink path in place. At these frequencies it’s important to ensure that no one is able to walk across the front of the dish whilst I’m transmitting. I’m hoping to get the dish up about 3m in the air in such a fashion that it is rigid enough to stop the dish moving around in the wind. I must admit I’ve not done any wind load calculations for the 1.1m dish so I’ll have to see how it goes over time. Fortunately where I want to put the dish is fairly well sheltered from the north wind that often howls through here so, hopefully it won’t be an issue.
More soon …