Category Archives: Satellite

Field Day Irony

Posted on June 29, 2015 by robert

Well Field Day 2015 has come and gone, and I was able to snag another satellite contact to help garner some bonus points for my club (Newport County Radio Club) — Thank you NX9B, I was W1LY on the other end. Despite … Continue reading →

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Satellite Uplink Calibration

Posted on June 25, 2015 by robert

I finally had some time to ensure that my SatPC32 program was correctly calibrated to my Icom IC-9100 when using any of the three available linear transponder satellites.  While SatPC32 deals with doppler corrections (assuming the PC Clock is accurately set … Continue reading →

Posted in Contests, From the OM, Satellite | 2 Comments

Field Day 2015 Satellite Passes

Posted on June 24, 2015 by robert

With only a single operating FM satellite (FO-50), there is almost no chance to work it during Field Day.  The best chance is provided by one of the three operational analog satellites:  AO-7, FO-29 and AO-73.  AO-7 is an ancient … Continue reading →

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Open Source SGP4 Python Package

Posted on April 2, 2015 by robert

SGP4 is a Simplified General Perturbations mathematical model, which is used to calculate the position of satellites relative to the Earth.  The most frequently used model is SGP4, which is used with Two-Line Element (TLE) sets provided by NORAD and … Continue reading →

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Setting the RPi System Clock via GPS

Posted on April 1, 2015 by robert

I am still learning and experimenting with the Adafruit Ultimate GPS HAT and the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B.  While I have the GPS tied into the system now, it doesn’t appear that the Raspbian NTP service is handling the … Continue reading →

Posted in Raspberry Pi, Satellite, Tracker | 10 Comments

Auto Login and Auto Run gpsd

Posted on March 27, 2015 by robert

As I continue to work on the Autonomous Satellite Antenna Tracking System (ASATS), to changes need to be made to setup the RPi so things happen automatically on power-up.  This requires two changes to the RPi: Setup for Automatic Login … Continue reading →

Posted in Raspberry Pi, Satellite, Tracker | 1 Comment

GPredict and RPi 2 Model B Power Consumption

Posted on March 23, 2015 by robert

I started today’s experimentation by loading the gpredict program.  This was written by Alexandru Csete, at http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/ While his repository has all the source code, there is no reason to do anything other than load it into the pi, at … Continue reading →

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Satellite Tracker – Finally Underway

Posted on March 21, 2015 by robert

Toward the end of last year I decided to make a small antenna satellite tracking system that was based on the Raspberry Pi.  It was to be entirely self-contained — no other computer devices required.  Seven months later, I’ve finally … Continue reading →

Posted in Raspberry Pi, Satellite, Tracker | 1 Comment

An Autonomous Automatic Satellite Tracker for a Small Crossed Beam

Posted on August 15, 2014 by robert

One of the goals I set for 2014 was to develop an antenna tracker that would be fully self-contained and not require an interface to a PC to obtain the tracking coordinates. The major components of the project are: Raspberry Pi … Continue reading →

Posted in Raspberry Pi, Satellite, Tracker | 2 Comments

Field Day 2014 Satellite Passes

Posted on June 17, 2014 by robert

This is a list of satellite passes that occur between 1400 Local on Saturday June 28 and 1400 Local on Sunday June 29 for the Rhode Island (FN41) area is shown below.  AO-7 will only be usable during daylight hours. … Continue reading →

Posted in Contests, From the OM, Operating, Satellite | 2 Comments