Here is a table of the current equipment
I have for operating the
AMSAT International Phase 3D satellite:
| Band | Antenna | Rig | Output power | Noise figure | Note |
| 145 MHz TRX | 40 el. crossed Yagi | TS790S | 50 W | ~1 dB | Good access to uplink |
| 435 MHz TRX | 6
turn Helix or 40 el. crossed Yagi |
TS790S | 50 W | ~1 dB | Good access to uplink |
| 1269 MHz TX | 60 cm Dish | Homebrew transverter | 50 W | - |
Good access to uplink |
| 2400 MHz RX | 21 turn Helix or 60 cm dish | Homebrew converter | - | ~1 dB | TX copied fine |
| 2400 MHz RX | 21
turn Helix or 60 cm dish |
Modified MMDS converter | - | ~2 dB | TX copied fine |
| 2400 MHz TX | 21 turn Helix | Homebrew transverter |
30 W |
- | Not tested |
| 2446 MHz TX | 21 turn Helix | Homebrew transverter | 30 W | - | Not tested |
| 5668 MHz TX | 60 cm Dish | Homebrew transverter | 25 W | - | RX QRT ? |
| 10450 MHz RX | 90 cm Dish | Homebrew converter | - | 0.7 dB | TX QRT |
| 10450 MHz RX | 38 cm Offset Dish | DB6NT converter | - | 0.9 dB | TX QRT |
| 24048 MHz RX | 60 cm Dish | Homebrew
converter |
- | 2.5 dB |
TX copied fine |
| IR Laser | 10 cm telescope | Homebrew | - | ~20 % QE | Philips PMT |
| IR Laser | No optics | Homebrew | - | ~20 % QE ? | Fairchild 10 cm PMT |
My technical class licence does not allow me to operate on 21 or 24 MHz bands.
For testing I sometimes use my 3 m dish that is good to 10 GHz.
For portable operations I have put together an L band up/S band down compact station to accompany
my 90 cm dish. The feed is a dual band, dual polarisation prototype that still needs work on it. For
uplinking the package uses an old FT790R Mk. 2 for driving a homebrew transverter
to 23 cm. This supplies 10 W to a homebrew 50 W SSPA that is in the same
box.
On RX it uses a heavily modified Drake D/C with a homebrew LNA. The converter is used with a 2 m IF
with the old FT290R Mk. 2 for receive. The receive chain has a splitter to allow simultaneous reception
of the telemetry beacon. Some photos of the portable 90 cm dish system:
