Amount of funding awarded
3000
Budget Report
View budget report.
How the program has supported you
The SatNOGS project was created as an introduction to the basic aspects of Radio Frequency engineering. Students were tasked with a high-level objective of building a satellite radio station to the standards of the SatNOGS network. We also got the opportunity to collaborate directly with members of the Libre Space Foundation. The team started with students without any RF experience, and we focused on developing a fundamental understanding of the subject.
PAF funding has allowed us to procure the components that compose an amateur radio ground station, as well as development equipment so that the students can get acquainted with industry standard tools. The objective is to start from a well-documented platform such as SatNOGS, to then be able to develop a complete radio communication system from scratch, as we do in other projects within the team.
Outcomes
Over the past year, we focused on developing the skills required to design each aspect of the station from the ground up. The team has built a dipole antenna using raw materials and learned how to use a VNA to tune its length to the desired frequency.
The team has also worked on a rotator system used to point the directional antenna to a determined point in the sky. This includes a 3D printed structure, motor drivers, and a controller built on a custom PCB – allowing students to learn about mechanical, circuit, and PCB design, as well as assembly of PCBs and electrical components.
Furthermore, the team has gained experience with Software Defined Radios and the development of models within GNUradio, a standard platform for SDRs. They learned about what it takes to build a full radio system, considering characteristics such as filtering, encoding, and modulation.
