I have watched many of your videos over the last few years. I am on a binge watching session this weekend and want to tell you thank you. I also want to extend a thank you to your wife for allowing you to continue with these awesome journeys across a series of topics.
Thanks for the continuation of the series Andreas. It's really instructive to see a process broken down scientifically, clearly, and methodically. Even though most of us are not planning to speak to Antarctica any time soon, the concepts and problems involved are all great to see here.
This episode brings back so many many MANY memories. In 2006 I was introduced to our company's satellite ground station. I don't remember all the specs we operated "new" I.P. MPLS across multiple birds. But we were using unused Ka / Ku bands and channels between 13 and 40 GHz. I honestly cannot remember what the broadcast power was. The teleport's 15 meter parabolic reflector dish had this huge fence around it with massive warning signs not to stand within 20 meters from any 90° position of its aimed direction, a bird in geosynchronous orbit at 36,000 km if memory serves. It required some power.. I just cannot remember!! Btw, there is an excellent 2012 Antarctic Satellite white papers online for those that wish to read them.
I have been building small 10GHz and 24GHz radars for about 17 years - not the RF part, but everything around it - and I still learned something from this video. Thank you so much for your great and clear explanations - looking very much forward to the next videos in this series.
THANK YOU for showing and using a torque wrench on your SMA connectors! On addition to the "real" metal kind you showed (that cost around $200 US new), there are some composite plastic ones selling for around 30 US that do a decent job. Observe minimum radius rules on microwave cables. Also, look for an HP 11693A Limiter to protect the front end of your spectrum analyzer; they show up on eBay every so often.
Brilliant Andreas, Im building a ground station but have far less knowledge than you, your videos are a great help. Even basic things, like setting up the pluto from out of the box, networking little things like that can trip up the beginner. When I get it working I look forward to giving you a call . thanks.
@@AndreasSpiess hey Andreas Culd you please use you spectrum analyser To show .. why ther is a difrence of 150kc from carrier.. Up or down I am tired of retards..trimning ther radios to be in the middel .. not upper or power side band !! Ther is 300kc betwin upper and power .. right
Re: Receiving signals from geostationary satellites. I have a little tiny Pioneer Inno handheld receiver for XM satellite radio, the size of a Walkman, and it can receive signals directly from geostationary orbit. Signals which are hundreds of channels of lovely stereo music, or BBC WS. I can bring it outside anywhere in North America, and listen to satellite radio. I still find that amazing. Cheers.
Much easier. The handheld receiver's antenna is inside a little plastic cylinder just 1 cm diameter by 2 cm high. On the other hand, the bandwidth of reception is presumably about MHz wide to accommodate so high a data rate to provide each boquet of channels. I have to keep reminding myself that the XM satellites are in geostationary orbit, so far away.
Another great video Andreas, thank you. I just wanted to add a bit regarding the SSB. With the conventional amplitude modulation AM we transmit the carrier (tone) and the modulation signal's spectrum on both sides of it with the amplitude of 50% of the carrier for 100% modulation (i.e. when the modulated wave goes down to zero). If we assume that we modulate with a sine wave, the power, transmitted in each sideband, is only a quarter of that of the carrier. The SSB cuts off on the carrier's power (as you can see on the displayed spectrum, not completely in practice), and on the other sideband. Overall it becomes 6 times more power efficient in this scenario (sinewave modulation). Power saving when idle simply comes from the absence of the modulation signal.
Great project..... I had just started building my own QO 100 station. Downlink is functional (40cm dish, TXCO modified LNB to 70cm into my FT847), now working on the uplink. Looking forward to your next videos ! 73s de Thomas F8DBY
@@AndreasSpiess I am using the TXCO modified LNB from qro.cz, it works really well, the frequency stability is very good. I had tried others too which I had lying around, unmodified, they all worked but of course frequency drift was abysmal ! 40cm is a small dish indeed but it works, I have the CW beacon at S5-6. Yesterday I installed an oval 50/60cm dish (horizontal oval), which is giving me an extra + 1 S on the scale. My coax feed line from the shack to the dish is quite short though, only about 3 meters.
@@AndreasSpiess I was a radio operator in my time in the army so I guess I shouldn't be to hard, we had quite a lot of radio and antenna theory. Some still remain even if it's been a couple of years ago.. Like 28 to be exact.. And even morse doesn't scare me. I received it trough inheritance, my mother was a radio telégrafist in the merchant fleet back in the 60s..
6:46 Could someone please clarify why he used a 20dB (max 10dBm) amplifier when previously he explains that he only needs to amplify 1dBm + 5dB => 6 dBm? Does this mean he is passing 10dBm of power (10mW), i.e. 4mW more than needed? Also, when you say an amplifier is capable of 20dB with max 10dBm output does this mean that it is capable of amplifying by +20dB but up to a max output (10dBm)? This makes sense, but just checking. This means a 0dBm signal will be amplified to 20dBm, but due to the max cut-off the amplifier will only supply 10dBm. However, if the signal was say -20dBm, it can be amplified to 0dBm (1mW), right?
1. I take what I get. So an amplifier with more gain is ok becasue I can reduce its input signal. 2. Yes. You read the specifications right. 20dB amplification up to a max output of 10dBm
@@AndreasSpiess thanks for the feedback Andreas. Switzerland, specially Geneva, is a very special place for me. I have family who are now Swiss. I used to spend many of my University related vacation days in Geneva. I have a deep seated obsession for horlogerie and collect Patek watches (and a few others - I have many videos on my channel). I’ve travelled through Basel, Bienne to the Omega museum, and also spent time in Zürich. I dream of when I can visit again! Thanks, Best Mike (from Sri Lanka). (P.S. I finished my EEE bachelors and MSc in Mechatronics many years ago in the UK; now I mainly tinker in my homelab as a hobby. At University we started with microcontrollers before GitHub or Arduino existed. I ended up writing my own C/Assembly libraries just for SPI or I2C, even PS2 to talk to a mouse!)
Memory flash back 25+ years here to when I was a HAM (ZL2...), we had just got a new R&S-52 spectrum analyzer at the office, a must have. I still have my UV eraser and eproms with the 6809's. I have written a lot of embedded code since then. I see you are 6 months older than me, cool :)
Ah - this brings back memories of working the LE Russian Sats (2m/10m) in the 90s. 5 Watts and a couple of coat hangers on a broom stick. "What are your working conditions, OM? .... Er, What????" I also contacted the MIR space-station with the same broomstick.
In India we got some junk 2.1Ghz 3G band BTS PA module and converted to 2.4 Ghz with just tweaking the bias. Of course it's not easy to get it now, thanks to overwhelmed response by HAMs here, even the illiterate scrap dealer knows how costly it can be. Anyway, we are getting around 40 watts output . I am on a same project with a pluto SDR, but as already you have shown it, I need a pre driver to drive the PA. Thank you for the video. Also your POTY antenna one is great to start, as video illustration is far better than those on blogs. Cheers. See you on QO100 or 20 Meter SSB, Europe remains open to India around 13:30 hours to 15:00 hours UTC. Hope to see you down the log. One more project if you want to try, the uSDX standalone SDR using Arduino. Excellent piece or art to learn and see how things got into such a low performing Atmega328. 73 de VU3GDP Guru
Because of you I bought my first 2 lora boards recently. It's such an interesing topic and I'm sure thy're a good replacement for SIM-based communication :)
Dear Andreas, good to see that you are progressing with you QO100 Station project. I have one important wish for your next episodes. I would recommend that you repeat in each episode that it is mandatory of having a HAMRADIO license for doing a potential rebuild of your QO100 project. Please tell this all your non HAMRADIO followers again and again...... RF transmitting is serious stuff... best 73 de DM5TU
Thank you for your advice. If this is so important for you, maybe you add your comment to all other fellow OM RUclipsrs. I am the only mentioning this fact.
Andreas Spiess Dear Andreas, it is not important for me rather it is important for our hobby. You are promoting that topic so it is your responsibility to ack so. I trust you. So in the soul purpose of HAMRADIO .... but technically how could I post a message to all the viewers ? Anz hint? 73s
Andreas, another great video. Looking forward to the next one. For a laugh you should have a small plaster on your finger pointer stick. Hope your real finger getting better :)
Thanks for sharing! You are doing an amazing job in explaining this. I had almost bought a pluto two years ago, I should have done it... Oh well... there will be more chances to get one. Best regards and 73 de PC4AD
Thanks for this series of videos - very interesting and informative - I have leant a few new things today and clarified some others - always heard that you should not transmit without an antenna attached now I know why it can damage RF transistors
Perhaps the spurious emissions result from intermod distortion due to the 28v boost converter. Would be interesting to power the module from a separate linear 28v supply?
First of all, you are just full of information! How you remember all of that and not burn up $200+ device.....!!!! I can't keep up, but I love to at least learn something I'll probably never do. Thanks for such a great videos Andreas! Stay safe and let us know how much longer is your finger out of commission? Heel fast and well!
@@AndreasSpiess Well, lets get that finger fixed and time does that anyway, I hope! Yes, you do cover many subjects and I like that about you and your videos! Have a great weekend!
A lot of people don't fully understand that SSB is AM. What most people call AM is actually DSB with carrier. Interesting here in VK standard and advanced licenses get to play in this 13cm band without special licenses from ACMA. Advanced get a full 120w constant or 400w PEP. Of course our friends in USA get 1500 PEP if they get that band. That's way more power than you'd realisticly need especially when running lots of gain on the antenna. For any non hams reading this the most important thing is line of sight. This is why NASA still hears Voyager 1 and 2 and big dishes and modern DSP. They're 18+ hours away at the speed of light. They don't run a lot of RF power considering how far away they are. So RF power is not all it's cracked up to be. Can't wait to hear your QSO.
👍 Perhaps consider a series of videos on HAM (Amateur) Radio. Your style would lend itself to be informative and entertaining. (I do understand how much time is involved in video production so I recognize this would not be in conjunction with all the other topics)
This channel stays centered on sensors and microcontrollers. There are quite a few HAM channels around, so no need to add one. This project is an exception and only because of the wish of my Patreons and subscribers.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing. I have a spectrum analyzer but it's only good to 1GHz so it's nice to know there's an inexpensive way to measure power. I don't think I have an SWR meter that will work up there either. Maybe I can find one in AliExpress.
There is cheap NanoVNA 2.0 available which is able to do measurements up to 3 GHz. The device is sold without calibration kit so you have to buy it additionally on your own.
thanks for your great detailed videos. one thing I observed on your spectrum analyzer screen was that carrier on SSB tx. is that some kind of extra carrier leakage from plutosdr? 73's de EP6DSP
For the 2.5G uplink, do you use a dish or an array of yagi’s? If the 20W uplink power + antenna gain is sufficient depends on the available satellite up/down link budget. 8W could be enough with a clear sky, but a rainy day at the transmitting location and/or on the receiving location can put your signal in the noise. 73’s on5vb
Andreas Spiess Nice solution. I was wondering how the feed construction would be.. I think the dish gain will drop about 50% at 2.4G. At the receiving side, is the selected freq deviation tracked in software? The local oscillator of a low cost lnb shall not be super stable.
Something to point out here, these generations of amplifiers (they're all made by a single company, main chinese amp) did NOT have support for wifi modulation and bandwidths, they were straight dirty PAs. Now you can buy specifically crafted ones supporting 802.11 modulations, as well as bluetooth modulations.
meanwhile I have stuff lying around since march but I'm not allowed in the lab to solder and test it
4 года назад+1
I did as well, however few things arrived already, even those ordered later. I am starting to believe Aliexpress now does not tell true info in shipping information.
Excellent choice! Aquarius people are very easy-going ;-) My math teacher would use this case to calculate the probability out of 200'000 subscribers...
@@AndreasSpiess it depends on the point of view, from my view this is interesting to know. Anyway you showed a cheap rf power meter which reminds me of my Monaco RF spectrum analyzer which goes from 20MHz up to 2.4GHz ish and some bands at 5.8GHz. Have you heard of this product or can you tell something about it? Im wondering if its a real tool and capable to measure real power or more a gadget because at this moment i cant tell and don't know how to find out without a reference.
Thanks again for this excellent series! One thing that is known to the experienced hams but which may be overlooked by new players is that one must take into account cable and connector losses, particularly at frequencies this high. I assume you have at least three cables and six SMA connectors between the Pluto and the antenna given that you are using two amplifiers. Wouldn't this cause a loss of at least 3-6 dB?
Quit good next step to "our" goal. Where did you get the Lottak attenuator from? The link to the SMA torque wrench via Aliexpress is already broken (may be only in Germany). 73, Martin DG6MS
1. My supplier is no more online. But I found one which looks very similar: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dZAOLLB 2. The Link to the wrench works here. Do you use an ad-blocker?
Hi Andreas, any idea what the input impedance of the cheap power meter is? Is it 50 ohms, or something else? I don't see it listed in the specifications for them online.
Oooh, you get a nice plastic card for your licence. We in the UK get a website and a link to download a PDF file :/ Also, "20w is too much" makes me laugh, as I use my 250w amplifier all the time 🤣. Granted that's doing about 50w on DATV, but I can use it on NB too, I just add 20db of attenuation so the 68.5db amplifier doesn't de-orbit qo100 :).
We have to pay 150$ a year for this "plastic card" :-( I now have a 120cm dish and only need a few watts for SSB. Unfortunately I still have issus with my Adalm Pluto and the Ethernet connection to SDR console. So I am not QRV.
@@AndreasSpiess Have you done the grounding mod to the Pluto? The locking up when using ethernet comes from a difference in ground references, which flips the pluto back into USB mode, taking it out of OTG mode. I fixed it by soldering a wire link across the choke on L7's ground.
@@AndreasSpiess The difference doesn't need to be much, 250mv AD says here under "Why do a Rev C", but it's enough to pull it out of host mode and put it into device mode. wiki.analog.com/university/tools/pluto/hacking/hardware They suggest changing a resistor, but when you see the size of it, it's just easier to join the grounds together :).
Is there some way to check the rating of the torque wrench? I have one but I am unsure if they sent me the 0.57Nm I ordered or a 1Nm one. The paper that came with it says the manufactured value is 1Nm, but it is unknown to me if this has been adjusted prior to being sent out...
I am currently looking into the chinese 20dB LNA pre amp. Do you think it would also work as a RX pre amp near the antenna if you have to use a lot of high loss cable between antenna and receiver?
I believe this power requirement is an overkill, but I don't know yet, how you will transmit the radio signal. Many years ago I have programmed satellites, and we used a precision dish with an atomic clock mechanism and then the transmitter required just something around 1 Watt of output power ... also because the satellite receivers are very sensitive and it is pretty easy to destroy them with an over-powered transmitter.
Sorry for my poor English, but i have tried the low cost power meter beetween HP ( 437 ) power meter and the low cost power meter is a gadget but not a real mesurement device . Best regards .
I wish they'd do more ham radio testing online, at least here in the States. Last I checked, one still has to go to a testing center. Perhaps this will be one of the silver linings to come out of a global pandemic. I want to get my license and talk to satellites!!
I have watched many of your videos over the last few years. I am on a binge watching session this weekend and want to tell you thank you. I also want to extend a thank you to your wife for allowing you to continue with these awesome journeys across a series of topics.
You are welcome! I will tell my wife ;-)
Thanks for the continuation of the series Andreas. It's really instructive to see a process broken down scientifically, clearly, and methodically. Even though most of us are not planning to speak to Antarctica any time soon, the concepts and problems involved are all great to see here.
Thank you for your nice words. I try to include a little "general knowledge" in the videos.
Thanks for the great info, the explaination of the signal paths and the dangers of not connecting load/cables to the o/p's was a great touch :)
Glad it helped
This episode brings back so many many MANY memories.
In 2006 I was introduced to our company's satellite ground station. I don't remember all the specs we operated "new" I.P. MPLS across multiple birds. But we were using unused Ka / Ku bands and channels between 13 and 40 GHz. I honestly cannot remember what the broadcast power was. The teleport's 15 meter parabolic reflector dish had this huge fence around it with massive warning signs not to stand within 20 meters from any 90° position of its aimed direction, a bird in geosynchronous orbit at 36,000 km if memory serves. It required some power..
I just cannot remember!!
Btw, there is an excellent 2012 Antarctic Satellite white papers online for those that wish to read them.
I always knew that those satellites existed and saw the big antennas. I could not imagine taht I would be able to use one myself!
I have been building small 10GHz and 24GHz radars for about 17 years - not the RF part, but everything around it - and I still learned something from this video. Thank you so much for your great and clear explanations - looking very much forward to the next videos in this series.
Thank you! Next should follow tomorrow.
Thank you for posting a follow up to this. I'm learning a lot and still have a lot to learn :)
My pleasure!
THANK YOU for showing and using a torque wrench on your SMA connectors! On addition to the "real" metal kind you showed (that cost around $200 US new), there are some composite plastic ones selling for around 30 US that do a decent job. Observe minimum radius rules on microwave cables. Also, look for an HP 11693A Limiter to protect the front end of your spectrum analyzer; they show up on eBay every so often.
Mine is of metal and you find a link in the description. It is around 20 dollars. Maybe not accurate, though. I did not test.
Bravo! Thank you Andreas for giving us such gift with your videos!! (popcorn popping while waiting for next!) Keep up with your GREAT job!!
My pleasure! Maybe already next Thursday evening...
I still giggle *every* time I see that hand on a stick
But it is so useful - lot better than a finger and funnier then pointer :)
I love his orange transparent version too.
The orange is the original from the 90's
It's an overhead projector relic, isn't it?
Brilliant Andreas, Im building a ground station but have far less knowledge than you, your videos are a great help.
Even basic things, like setting up the pluto from out of the box, networking little things like that can trip up the beginner.
When I get it working I look forward to giving you a call . thanks.
I am sure it will work in the end. My main Pluto still does not want to connect via Wi-Fi :-(
Dear Sir, amazing 😘 amazing job, good thing that the XYL allowed the purchase of the second attenuator hehehe. Although perfect description
This was below the budget she controls ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess hehe long live the ebay and alliexpress... I guess a bird one would set you back several hundreds?
Really enjoying this series - looking forward to the next instalment 73s
Thank you!
@@AndreasSpiess hey Andreas
Culd you please use you spectrum analyser
To show .. why ther is a difrence of 150kc from carrier.. Up or down
I am tired of retards..trimning ther radios to be in the middel .. not upper or power side band !!
Ther is 300kc betwin upper and power .. right
Again a clear and useful information from Switzerland !
TNX Vy much Andreas !
My pleasure!
Thank you for continuing the series, interesting as always.
My pleasure!
Re: Receiving signals from geostationary satellites. I have a little tiny Pioneer Inno handheld receiver for XM satellite radio, the size of a Walkman, and it can receive signals directly from geostationary orbit. Signals which are hundreds of channels of lovely stereo music, or BBC WS. I can bring it outside anywhere in North America, and listen to satellite radio. I still find that amazing. Cheers.
I assume those satellites work with higher power. So it is easier to receive them.
Much easier. The handheld receiver's antenna is inside a little plastic cylinder just 1 cm diameter by 2 cm high. On the other hand, the bandwidth of reception is presumably about MHz wide to accommodate so high a data rate to provide each boquet of channels.
I have to keep reminding myself that the XM satellites are in geostationary orbit, so far away.
Another great video Andreas, thank you.
I just wanted to add a bit regarding the SSB. With the conventional amplitude modulation AM we transmit the carrier (tone) and the modulation signal's spectrum on both sides of it with the amplitude of 50% of the carrier for 100% modulation (i.e. when the modulated wave goes down to zero). If we assume that we modulate with a sine wave, the power, transmitted in each sideband, is only a quarter of that of the carrier. The SSB cuts off on the carrier's power (as you can see on the displayed spectrum, not completely in practice), and on the other sideband. Overall it becomes 6 times more power efficient in this scenario (sinewave modulation). Power saving when idle simply comes from the absence of the modulation signal.
Thank you for your info.
"displacement can only be replaced with more displacement" 👍, good video as always, keep the series and other videos coming 👍
It's all at the pure cubic doll-hairs
That's the plan!
Looking forward to the next video in the series!
:-)
It was already hard to convince the wife to get this one - lol
Yes, it was!
only knows who has one - a wife, i mean.
Was it „You already have 5 of these devices“?
It was a video with useful information. I watched with pleasure. thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
You are amazing! Knowledgable and cool! If you go to Greece for holidays, all the locals will love you!
I fear I have to wait to travel to Greece ;-) This WE the Hackaday event in Belgrade would have been...
Nice one! Glad so many people like this and you are going on with this series.
We will see how this one performs...
Thank you Andreas. I'm looking forward to the next instalment.
Coming soon!
Once again, another great video. Very interested in the series. Learned a lot from this video.
Glad to hear it!
Glad you keep making these, loving them
:-)
Great project..... I had just started building my own QO 100 station. Downlink is functional (40cm dish, TXCO modified LNB to 70cm into my FT847), now working on the uplink. Looking forward to your next videos ! 73s de Thomas F8DBY
40 cm is small! I will start with 80cm. Which LNB do you use?
@@AndreasSpiess I am using the TXCO modified LNB from qro.cz, it works really well, the frequency stability is very good. I had tried others too which I had lying around, unmodified, they all worked but of course frequency drift was abysmal ! 40cm is a small dish indeed but it works, I have the CW beacon at S5-6. Yesterday I installed an oval 50/60cm dish (horizontal oval), which is giving me an extra + 1 S on the scale. My coax feed line from the shack to the dish is quite short though, only about 3 meters.
Thinking more and more about getting a license! Thank you for your videos.
Go for it!
Thanks for continuing this series, cant wait to see the rest!
Thanks for watching!
I don't understand much of it. But i still love to watch it. Keep up the good work!
If you understood everything, maybe it would be boring ;-)
Andreas, thank you for great explanation. Your videos are great. If the comments can support, we can do that.
Comments are always motivating. Thank you!
i am icelandic live in denmark now and i love your videos
Thank you for your feedback!
This is just awesome, I definitely want to play with this.. I just have to figure out have to get the proper license my self..
Good idea. Not too difficult anymore without the Morse.
@@AndreasSpiess I was a radio operator in my time in the army so I guess I shouldn't be to hard, we had quite a lot of radio and antenna theory. Some still remain even if it's been a couple of years ago.. Like 28 to be exact.. And even morse doesn't scare me. I received it trough inheritance, my mother was a radio telégrafist in the merchant fleet back in the 60s..
@@oleeide9763 - in the US the ARRL is now doing HAM radio license exams online (Covid :/ ). Maybe other countries are doing similar...
Thank you for continuing the series.
You are welcome!
That's super cool! Can't wait for the next part!
:-)
6:46 Could someone please clarify why he used a 20dB (max 10dBm) amplifier when previously he explains that he only needs to amplify 1dBm + 5dB => 6 dBm? Does this mean he is passing 10dBm of power (10mW), i.e. 4mW more than needed?
Also, when you say an amplifier is capable of 20dB with max 10dBm output does this mean that it is capable of amplifying by +20dB but up to a max output (10dBm)? This makes sense, but just checking. This means a 0dBm signal will be amplified to 20dBm, but due to the max cut-off the amplifier will only supply 10dBm. However, if the signal was say -20dBm, it can be amplified to 0dBm (1mW), right?
1. I take what I get. So an amplifier with more gain is ok becasue I can reduce its input signal.
2. Yes. You read the specifications right. 20dB amplification up to a max output of 10dBm
@@AndreasSpiess thanks for the feedback Andreas. Switzerland, specially Geneva, is a very special place for me. I have family who are now Swiss. I used to spend many of my University related vacation days in Geneva. I have a deep seated obsession for horlogerie and collect Patek watches (and a few others - I have many videos on my channel). I’ve travelled through Basel, Bienne to the Omega museum, and also spent time in Zürich. I dream of when I can visit again! Thanks, Best Mike (from Sri Lanka).
(P.S. I finished my EEE bachelors and MSc in Mechatronics many years ago in the UK; now I mainly tinker in my homelab as a hobby.
At University we started with microcontrollers before GitHub or Arduino existed. I ended up writing my own C/Assembly libraries just for SPI or I2C, even PS2 to talk to a mouse!)
I really like this ham satellite series! Just got my Swiss amateur radio call sign this week.
Welcome in the club!
Another awesome post, looking forward to the next one! Keep Up the good work dude!
Thanks a ton!
Very good bonus video series! I'm looking forward to the next episode.
Glad you like them!
That is really interesting. I am looking forward to the next episode.
Glad to hear it!
Memory flash back 25+ years here to when I was a HAM (ZL2...), we had just got a new R&S-52 spectrum analyzer at the office, a must have.
I still have my UV eraser and eproms with the 6809's. I have written a lot of embedded code since then.
I see you are 6 months older than me, cool :)
Old, but not too rusty ;-)
Excellent video, very clear and informative as usual.
Glad you liked it!
Ah - this brings back memories of working the LE Russian Sats (2m/10m) in the 90s. 5 Watts and a couple of coat hangers on a broom stick. "What are your working conditions, OM? .... Er, What????" I also contacted the MIR space-station with the same broomstick.
Interesting! For me the geostationary location is very handy because I can save the whole antenna movement mechanics.
Really enjoying this series. RF projects are fascinating :)
Glad to hear it!
This is very interesting. I've seen your channel pop up from time to time. But this antarctic challenge really caught my attention. Sub'ed
Welcome aboard the channel!
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks! Happy to be in the 1st row!
In India we got some junk 2.1Ghz 3G band BTS PA module and converted to 2.4 Ghz with just tweaking the bias. Of course it's not easy to get it now, thanks to overwhelmed response by HAMs here, even the illiterate scrap dealer knows how costly it can be.
Anyway, we are getting around 40 watts output . I am on a same project with a pluto SDR, but as already you have shown it, I need a pre driver to drive the PA.
Thank you for the video. Also your POTY antenna one is great to start, as video illustration is far better than those on blogs.
Cheers. See you on QO100 or 20 Meter SSB, Europe remains open to India around 13:30 hours to 15:00 hours UTC.
Hope to see you down the log.
One more project if you want to try, the uSDX standalone SDR using Arduino.
Excellent piece or art to learn and see how things got into such a low performing Atmega328.
73 de VU3GDP
Guru
Unfortunately I am not QRV on HF. The only antenna I can mount for the moment is the dish. And a hotspot in my lab for DMR ;-) 73 de HB9BLA
Another great video! It is good to remember that +3dB is "twice as much"
Only for power, though!
It's interesting to see this come together, especially with you explaining it from start to finish - keep up the good work :)
Thanks, will do!
Super! Even managed to acan the qr code on the back of your license and the office on the 4th floor.
:-)
Because of you I bought my first 2 lora boards recently. It's such an interesing topic and I'm sure thy're a good replacement for SIM-based communication :)
I do not think so. Maybe in niches.
cant wait the next one in the series, thank you!!
Already out by now!
@@AndreasSpiess Yep watched it already thanks!!!!
Hi, Andreas! , very interesting video. Keep on working in the project,. Keep with the recommendation. Greetings from Argentina.
I will!
Always looking forward to your video blogs and they are always not long enough! 😉
Glad you like them! I try to keep them short on purpose :-(
Dear Andreas, good to see that you are progressing with you QO100 Station project. I have one important wish for your next episodes. I would recommend that you repeat in each episode that it is mandatory of having a HAMRADIO license for doing a potential rebuild of your QO100 project. Please tell this all your non HAMRADIO followers again and again...... RF transmitting is serious stuff... best 73 de DM5TU
Thank you for your advice. If this is so important for you, maybe you add your comment to all other fellow OM RUclipsrs. I am the only mentioning this fact.
Andreas Spiess Dear Andreas, it is not important for me rather it is important for our hobby. You are promoting that topic so it is your responsibility to ack so. I trust you. So in the soul purpose of HAMRADIO .... but technically how could I post a message to all the viewers ? Anz hint? 73s
Andreas, another great video. Looking forward to the next one. For a laugh you should have a small plaster on your finger pointer stick. Hope your real finger getting better :)
Great idea!
Awesome! I've been waiting for this video. :)
More to come!
Very interesting, looking forward to the next video.
Coming soon!
Thanks for sharing! You are doing an amazing job in explaining this. I had almost bought a pluto two years ago, I should have done it...
Oh well... there will be more chances to get one. Best regards and 73 de PC4AD
Today I got a second one because this one is now fixed in the project. They had 500 in stock ;-)
Thanks for this series of videos - very interesting and informative - I have leant a few new things today and clarified some others - always heard that you should not transmit without an antenna attached now I know why it can damage RF transistors
It is always good to also know the "why?"...
Perhaps the spurious emissions result from intermod distortion due to the 28v boost converter. Would be interesting to power the module from a separate linear 28v supply?
They were already there before the PA, just less visible, but similar distance. So I will check again with the final GPSDO.
The licensee is authorized to operate amateur radio stations in compliance with CEPT Recommendation T/R 61-01 in the countries which have adopted it.
That is why it has the QR codes for the different languages on the back, I assume.
Great video once again...really good pickup and info on the power meter...so cheap I will get a couple
You are welcome!
nice job Andreas..looking forward to the next part..
Thank you!
Thanks for this video looking forward to the dish setup
Coming soon!
First of all, you are just full of information! How you remember all of that and not burn up $200+ device.....!!!! I can't keep up, but I love to at least learn something I'll probably never do. Thanks for such a great videos Andreas! Stay safe and let us know how much longer is your finger out of commission? Heel fast and well!
I try to include also stuff for "normal" people like dB/dBm or how to treat SMA connectors... The finger has another 3-4 weeks to go, if all is ok.
@@AndreasSpiess Well, lets get that finger fixed and time does that anyway, I hope! Yes, you do cover many subjects and I like that about you and your videos! Have a great weekend!
Very fine. Can't wait to see more.
Hopefully next Thursday evening.
A lot of people don't fully understand that SSB is AM. What most people call AM is actually DSB with carrier. Interesting here in VK standard and advanced licenses get to play in this 13cm band without special licenses from ACMA. Advanced get a full 120w constant or 400w PEP. Of course our friends in USA get 1500 PEP if they get that band. That's way more power than you'd realisticly need especially when running lots of gain on the antenna. For any non hams reading this the most important thing is line of sight. This is why NASA still hears Voyager 1 and 2 and big dishes and modern DSP. They're 18+ hours away at the speed of light. They don't run a lot of RF power considering how far away they are. So RF power is not all it's cracked up to be. Can't wait to hear your QSO.
I do not want to dig too much into radios. Otherwise I lose most of my viewers ;-)
Great video! At 4:00 it should say 1mW = 0dBmW
But I know a lot of people just write dBm.
As an Engineer I think it looks wrong to leave out the Watt.
You are right. One core belief on this channel is: it's easier to confuse someone than to educate someone. So I must leave out a lot...
I have never seen dBmW in literature or anywhere else. It's not wrong if it's a convention to unambiguously use it that way.
👍 Perhaps consider a series of videos on HAM (Amateur) Radio. Your style would lend itself to be informative and entertaining.
(I do understand how much time is involved in video production so I recognize this would not be in conjunction with all the other topics)
This channel stays centered on sensors and microcontrollers. There are quite a few HAM channels around, so no need to add one. This project is an exception and only because of the wish of my Patreons and subscribers.
Again very interesting...can not wait to see the final results ..
This will still take a few weeks :-(
Awesome. Thanks for sharing. I have a spectrum analyzer but it's only good to 1GHz so it's nice to know there's an inexpensive way to measure power. I don't think I have an SWR meter that will work up there either. Maybe I can find one in AliExpress.
Look at the VNA video I made. Much better than an SWR meter. Or wait till the antenna part...
There is cheap NanoVNA 2.0 available which is able to do measurements up to 3 GHz. The device is sold without calibration kit so you have to buy it additionally on your own.
@@AndreasSpiess , sq2jul,
Thanks. I'll look for that.
Andreas .. you are amazing thaaank you so much 🙏🙏🙏
You are welcome!
thanks for your great detailed videos. one thing I observed on your spectrum analyzer screen was that carrier on SSB tx. is that some kind of extra carrier leakage from plutosdr?
73's de EP6DSP
The sound of the SA fan ;-)
For the 2.5G uplink, do you use a dish or an array of yagi’s? If the 20W uplink power + antenna gain is sufficient depends on the available satellite up/down link budget. 8W could be enough with a clear sky, but a rainy day at the transmitting location and/or on the receiving location can put your signal in the noise. 73’s on5vb
I will start with a POTY and an 80 cm dish. 73 de HB9BLA
Andreas Spiess Nice solution. I was wondering how the feed construction would be.. I think the dish gain will drop about 50% at 2.4G. At the receiving side, is the selected freq deviation tracked in software? The local oscillator of a low cost lnb shall not be super stable.
I plan to show both possibilities
Great video and it is a pleasure to follow you on your channel - Please go on it 📡📡📡
Thank you very much!
Thanks again for great content. And heal this finger fast.
You are welcome! For eh finger, I mainly have to wait...
Something to point out here, these generations of amplifiers (they're all made by a single company, main chinese amp) did NOT have support for wifi modulation and bandwidths, they were straight dirty PAs. Now you can buy specifically crafted ones supporting 802.11 modulations, as well as bluetooth modulations.
Thank you for your additional info. We use SSB (very narrow signal) for the QO-100
Thank you very much, it was very educational!
You are welcome!
Great video, just in time for lunch. Thanks)
It was already late here ;-)
i hope your part comes faster than my random electronics
ordered stuff on march 5th and still waiting 🙏
I also get the things ordered beginning of March :-(
meanwhile I have stuff lying around since march but I'm not allowed in the lab to solder and test it
I did as well, however few things arrived already, even those ordered later. I am starting to believe Aliexpress now does not tell true info in shipping information.
Look forward to *Receiver* & *Antenna!*
Hopefully next week...
Good Video :) a closer look at your radio license told me that we are born on the same day ;)
Excellent choice! Aquarius people are very easy-going ;-)
My math teacher would use this case to calculate the probability out of 200'000 subscribers...
@@AndreasSpiess it depends on the point of view, from my view this is interesting to know. Anyway you showed a cheap rf power meter which reminds me of my Monaco RF spectrum analyzer which goes from 20MHz up to 2.4GHz ish and some bands at 5.8GHz. Have you heard of this product or can you tell something about it? Im wondering if its a real tool and capable to measure real power or more a gadget because at this moment i cant tell and don't know how to find out without a reference.
I never heard this name
Thanks again for this excellent series!
One thing that is known to the experienced hams but which may be overlooked by new players is that one must take into account cable and connector losses, particularly at frequencies this high. I assume you have at least three cables and six SMA connectors between the Pluto and the antenna given that you are using two amplifiers. Wouldn't this cause a loss of at least 3-6 dB?
Probably 2-3 dB or so. I use very short cables. But I have a 20 dB amplifier and theoretically only need 6 dB. So no issue.
I forgot to leave a comment on the last video, so I'm extremely pleased to see that my co-viewers covered my back. Thank you all!
You're very welcome!
Hi Andreas, thanks for the video - I was looking forward to it! There is a typo in the title, 2.5 instead of 2.4 GHz :) How is your finger?
I thought I changed it yesterday... Now it is changed. Thanks!
Quit good next step to "our" goal. Where did you get the Lottak attenuator from? The link to the SMA torque wrench via Aliexpress is already broken (may be only in Germany). 73, Martin DG6MS
1. My supplier is no more online. But I found one which looks very similar: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dZAOLLB
2. The Link to the wrench works here. Do you use an ad-blocker?
thank you for doing this
You are welcome!
Meh. 20 watts will be fine. :D You've REALLY gained my interest with this project! Makes me sad I scrapped my dish a few months ago!
They are not very expensive...
I love your videos. AMAZING.
Thank you!
Hi Andreas, any idea what the input impedance of the cheap power meter is? Is it 50 ohms, or something else? I don't see it listed in the specifications for them online.
It should be 50 ohms. And you have to add a lot of (50 ohm) attenuators anyway...
Oooh, you get a nice plastic card for your licence. We in the UK get a website and a link to download a PDF file :/
Also, "20w is too much" makes me laugh, as I use my 250w amplifier all the time 🤣. Granted that's doing about 50w on DATV, but I can use it on NB too, I just add 20db of attenuation so the 68.5db amplifier doesn't de-orbit qo100 :).
We have to pay 150$ a year for this "plastic card" :-(
I now have a 120cm dish and only need a few watts for SSB. Unfortunately I still have issus with my Adalm Pluto and the Ethernet connection to SDR console. So I am not QRV.
@@AndreasSpiess Have you done the grounding mod to the Pluto? The locking up when using ethernet comes from a difference in ground references, which flips the pluto back into USB mode, taking it out of OTG mode.
I fixed it by soldering a wire link across the choke on L7's ground.
I did not do it yet. But I will do it now... Thank you! I think that my Ethernet does not share the same ground. But anyway, it cannot hurt!
@@AndreasSpiess The difference doesn't need to be much, 250mv AD says here under "Why do a Rev C", but it's enough to pull it out of host mode and put it into device mode. wiki.analog.com/university/tools/pluto/hacking/hardware
They suggest changing a resistor, but when you see the size of it, it's just easier to join the grounds together :).
Andreas, what happened to your finger (6:43)? Did QO-100 bite it?! :D Thank you for great HAM radio content. 73!
The finger story was told in another video ;-)
This is great. Keep it up!
Thanks, will do!
Is there some way to check the rating of the torque wrench? I have one but I am unsure if they sent me the 0.57Nm I ordered or a 1Nm one. The paper that came with it says the manufactured value is 1Nm, but it is unknown to me if this has been adjusted prior to being sent out...
It should be possible. But I am no mechanical engineer ;-)
I am currently looking into the chinese 20dB LNA pre amp. Do you think it would also work as a RX pre amp near the antenna if you have to use a lot of high loss cable between antenna and receiver?
Maybe. But the LNBs already have amplifiers and you do not need one
I believe this power requirement is an overkill, but I don't know yet, how you will transmit the radio signal. Many years ago I have programmed satellites, and we used a precision dish with an atomic clock mechanism and then the transmitter required just something around 1 Watt of output power ... also because the satellite receivers are very sensitive and it is pretty easy to destroy them with an over-powered transmitter.
We will see. I for sure will not start with the biggest power ;-)
Perhaps you need the reserve of RF power for DVB wich uses more bandwidth
Maybe. You nevr know...
I always judge the output power of my rf devices by how much it tingles when coming near the antenna
The fluorescent tubes in my neighbors bedroom are perfect for tuning :-)
Sorry for my poor English, but i have tried the low cost power meter beetween HP ( 437 ) power meter and the low cost power meter is a gadget but not a real mesurement device . Best regards .
If properly used with attenuators it works ok. I did not test it, but there are some tests in the internet.
Hi, you modified your PlutoSDR to be able to feed in the reference clock? Is modification hard or simple? Thanks
You have to be able to do SMD work.
I wish they'd do more ham radio testing online, at least here in the States. Last I checked, one still has to go to a testing center. Perhaps this will be one of the silver linings to come out of a global pandemic. I want to get my license and talk to satellites!!
Good luck for your test!
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks!