Satellite Tracker Sr.

On Sunday evening, April the 14th, 2002, I connected my new Satellite Tracker Senior to my 10' dish, pictured on the main page, for the first time. I calibrated the bearings in the Satellite Tracker Senior, but since AO-40 was not up, I had to wait until the next morning to see how well it tracked AO-40 on a low elevation Western pass providing communication into the Orient for me. Only 2 stations were heard & contacted on this pass, JA1CG in Japan and 9Y1ER in Singapore. 9Y1ER told me that I was the first W0 station he had ever worked by satellite. I suppose he will want a QSL card. The Satellite Tracker Senior kept the big dish aimed at AO-40 within 1/5th of a degree for several hours, making the QSOs strictly "armchair copy".

Two weeks later I got a 7 1/2' portable dish with wheels runniing under control of another Satellite Tracker Sr. This dish's mount used 8 K incremental encoders instead of potentiometers. With the almost 4 to 1 stepup of the azimuth sprockets, the resulting pointing accuracy was close to 1/84th of a degree in azimuth and 1/22nd of a degree in elevation! I now have a com cable going to a Satellite Tracker Jr. controlling my PrimeStar Dish, the Satellite Tracker Sr. controlling the 10' dish, and the Satellite Tracker Sr. controlling the portable 7 1/2' dish with its triband patch feed. When all 3 dishes start moving in unison in the backyard, the XYL says, "it's starting to get scarey!"

Satellite Tracker Senior Features:

Manual or fully automatic tracking for medium to large sized dishes. Dual Backlit Graphic LCDs provide the desired and actual bearings in large 1/4" characters. Left LCD dedicated to Elevation; Right LCD shows the Azimuth Bearing. 4 pushbuttons provide East, West, Up and Down control of the dish and menu selection. Can directly control medium sized DC gearmotors and the HAM-M family of AC powered rotators. It can also drive external relays. Inputs can be analog precision potentiometers, incremental encoders, or absolute encoders, giving this tracker the full potential for up to 1/10 of a degree accuracy. Direct keyboard input for terrestrial dish operation. Enter a call or name, with bearings on an attached IBM keyboard; the Satellite Tracker Senior remembers and recalls, turning towards this station. Front panel keys provide delta offsets to the NOVA bearings for precisely pointing a large dish. Uses EASYCOM I or NOVACOM I (positions to 1/10 of a degree) protocol. The tracking program NOVA over a 9600 baud Serial COM port is the preferred driver. Both the Satellite Tracker Sr and the Satellite Tracker Jr (above) running the yagis on your Yaesu rotator can be used together off the same PC COM Port. 3 axis control so that not only elevation and azimuth control is provided, but also polarity motor control for automated pattern testing of dishes and feed systems. Automatically switch to Manual mode when no input data occurs and back to Tracking when input data resumes. Automatically detects if elevation or azimuth motor is jammed or stalled, turning off all motors to protect your valuable motors. When a motor is activated, the screen tells which motor(s) and which direction(s). Case similar to the Satellite Tracker Jr, about 2 1/2 times wider than the STJ to accomodate the dual displays and keys, colored similar to the control unit of the Yaesu satellite rotators.

 

12/1/2004

I have 3Satellite Tracker Seniors left in stock plus a 4th unit reserved for a 7 1/2' dish system. My PCB house went out of business and destroyed all of my negatives without warning me. I will not be working on a new design. If you are interested in obtaining one of these units, the cost is $495 postpaid USA and $510 postpaid to other countries.

Dr. Robert Suding - W0LMD

Robert W0LMD robert@ultimatecharger.com