Groundstation

Introduction

Würzburg’s ground station was built within the UWE I project. Since then the ground station was constantly adapted and improved, as well in terms of software solutions as in terms of hardware. Although the ground station’s main task is commanding and receiving the UWE satellites. Satellite projects from other universities are also assisted.

Hardware

The ground station is mainly composed of COTS-hardware. Hardware that is utilized is basically:
Radio – ICOM IC 910 The radio transmits and receives signals to/from the satellite.
TNC The Terminal Node Controller (TNC) translates the digital packet data into signals that can be sent by the radio and vice versa.
CT17 The CT17 connects the control computer with the radio. It permits to send control commands from the computer to the radio as well as reading information from the radio. Thereby the CT17 permits the tele-operation of the radio system. Adjusting the frequencies etc. remotely or reading s-meter values from the radio-system are its typical tasks.
Rotorcontroller Interface The Rotorcontroller Interface, connects the control computer with the rotorcontroller. After receiving commands, specifying the azimuth and elevation angle, the interface connects to the rotor controller and places the antenna in the correct position. Also the current rotor position can be determined at any given time.
Rotorcontroller The rotorcontroller steers the rotors according to the information provided either through the rotorcontroller interface, or according to the switches at its front.
Rotors Yaesu G550 The rotors are mounted on top of the antenna slide, holding the antennas. In order to perform the tracking of satellites two rotors are needed one for the azimuth and another for the elevation rotation.
Antennas Two Yagi-Uda antennas are used to transmit the signals into Orbit 144/166 MHz 2x 11 Element Cross-Yagi 430/440 MHz 2x19 Elements Cross-Yagi
Computer Ordinary PC with a Linux operating system