3-meter Satellite Dish Assembly and Operation

Getting ready to deploy portable 2.4GHz satellite communication stations all around the globe, the Robotics Systems Lab at Santa Clara University sets up a 3-meter parabolic dish with automated az&el controllers.

This time, the location is an SRI International site in the Palo Alto foothills, in California.

The dish, feed, rotors and controller are from RF Ham Design, in the Netherlands. The tower assembly was designed by RSL.

Shortly after assembly was finished, the station was used to track and communicate with GeneSat-1, a NASA low-earth orbit satellite currently operated by the Robotics Systems Lab at Santa Clara University. The contact was successful and the Ops Team was able to command the satellite and download spacecraft telemetry. The radio-frequency link performance was remarkably good demonstrating the expected functionality of the integrated system.
Author: nachobotics