My Analog APT Station
Over the years I have had an incredible range of weather satellite ground station hardware. For the last few years I have done little with the hobby, having bought into the notion of the rapid demise of the analog satellites that had given me so much pleasure over the years. Given that there are some solid years of service left in the analog satellite world, I have reconfigured what will probably be my last analog groundstation.
ANTENNA
My polar APT antenna is an old Quorem quadrifilar helix:
Mine will never look this pretty, since it is hanging in the attic, but it is a solid antenna system. Unfortunately, this particular antenna is no longer made, but there are plenty of sites to instruct you how to build an equivalent system. Try Julian Moss' Web Site for one good option or Google "QFH" and "APT" for other options.
RECEIVER
I am presently using an R2FX receiver designed and marketed by Holger Eckhardt in Germany:
This is an ultra-compact, thoroughly modern receiver that can even be powered from 5VDC from a laptop is you want to try portable operation. Just for the record, my old Vanguard WEPIX-2000B is still working fine, as is my Hamtronics R139 Receiver . Bottom-line, whatever you have in the way of hardware, give it a try.
SOFTWARE
Pass Scheduling. For basic pass scheduling I continue to use Pass Scheduler by T.S. Kelso, with Keplerian updates from his CelesTrak WWW website.
Graphic Tracking. For map-based tracking I am now using WXTrack by David Taylor - a superb program.
Pass Display. For basic image display and saving of both BMP images and source WAV files, it is hard to beat WXSat, a spectacular piece of freeware authored by Christian Bock.
WAV File Demodulation. The WAV files saved by WXSat can be processed by a specialized software to yield even better image than those produced directly by WXSat. The best of these is SatSignal by David Taylor. It is not freeware, but, once you have tried it, you will by quite happy to pay the fee for the registered version!
Recording WAV Files.An alternative for recording WAV files, if you routinely process them with SatSignal, is the Recall AudioCapture from Sagebrush. This program will record WAV files in a VOX mode, activated by audio from your receiver, or in a timer mode. Excellent program that will run in the background while you are doing other things on your computer.
Pass Control. A new program from David Taylor is Pass Control. It calculates passes for selected satellite and then uses the serial port to switch your R2FX receiver to the proper channel. This avoids the problem of missed passes if your receiver locks up on another satellite pass or an interfering signal. With this little gem, youwill be on the proper channel for a given pass, no matter what was going on with the receiver when the pass was supposed to start. The receiver also works with the popular RX2 receiver (if modified for serial frequency control) available from the RIG site.
Take my word for it, things are just as fascinating as they have always been!!