The Aero Thread..

[Confucian]

97W , now you have started something ! Lol
8.7deg Elevation from here may cause a problem, I will have to do a survey later (when the wifes not watching me LoL)
SDR# hasnt been to bad for me but will have a look at SDRconsole always nice to hav other options.
I have two/three issues to solve here.
1 Stability , I'm working on supplying my three Lnb's and three Dongles with their lo's derived from a common gps disciplined source, progress is a bit slow and learning curve fairly steep. In the mean time a combination of s-bands TCXO modded Lnb's and sunshades work quite well.
2 SDR# sporadically freezing. This I suspect is USB/power related. I'm running three setups off one pc and every now and again one or all of the sdr#'s freeze and have to be re started. I unplugged the usb mouse the other day and all three froze immediately. I plan on trying Vipersan's solution and fitting one or more PCIe USB 3 hubs with external power feeds as soon as the budget allows.
3 Wobble. not sure what to try here. spacedish suggested using two Lnb's one above the other on the same dish. Another would be to use two dishes on the same bird peaked for different parts of the Wobble or I have considered moving the dish under control of a micro controller.

 

[aceb]

Think that might be -8.7° which could involve some serious engineering ;)

 

[Confucian]

Think that might be -8.7° which could involve some serious engineering ;)

Ha , wondered why it was in "Red" on dishpointer Lol

 

[s-band]

3 Wobble. not sure what to try here. spacedish suggested using two Lnb's one above the other on the same dish. Another would be to use two dishes on the same bird peaked for different parts of the Wobble or I have considered moving the dish under control of a micro controller.

I don't know if Andrew still has any but an RC2000 + Novella RX should work well:

If anyone wants an RC2000, Andrew Jones Broadcast has 4 for sale. I have no connection but am just a happy customer. If interested please contact Andrew direct.

Research Concepts » RC2000

They are a mix of plain, C & X on the labels but may have been upgraded or changed. I don't think any had the polariser board fitted. He also has some beacon receivers. The Novella B356 are better than the Satellite System corp ones as the former cover 940-2150MHz and are better made (both are awful to operate though).

Edit - I suppose you could put the LNB on an actuator, rather than moving the dish, since you only want one axis

 

[Confucian]

I don't know if Andrew still has any but an RC2000 + Novella RX should work well:



Edit - I suppose you could put the LNB on an actuator, rather than moving the dish, since you only want one axis

The RC2000 looks just the thing but I fear would be out of my price bracket but creating an lnb mount that would allow the lnb to be moved is a possibility worth considering, wish I still had my old Mechano set :-)

 

[River Patrol]

1.2 dish has been proved to work ok on 15W but 25E & 54W may need something slightly larger but I suppose your location will come into it. I use 1.4 offset on 15W & 54W and 1.8 prime (petaled) on 24E , nothing scientific in this just what was available second hand and cheap at the time.

As you said, "available second hand and cheap". That's what I'm hoping for also but the second hand market around here is pretty slim but I'm looking. If I find a good deal on a larger dish I'm sure I'd go for it.

 

[River Patrol]

97W , now you have started something ! Lol
8.7deg Elevation from here may cause a problem, I will have to do a survey later (when the wifes not watching me LoL)
SDR# hasnt been to bad for me but will have a look at SDRconsole always nice to hav other options.
I have two/three issues to solve here.
1 Stability , I'm working on supplying my three Lnb's and three Dongles with their lo's derived from a common gps disciplined source, progress is a bit slow and learning curve fairly steep. In the mean time a combination of s-bands TCXO modded Lnb's and sunshades work quite well.
2 SDR# sporadically freezing. This I suspect is USB/power related. I'm running three setups off one pc and every now and again one or all of the sdr#'s freeze and have to be re started. I unplugged the usb mouse the other day and all three froze immediately. I plan on trying Vipersan's solution and fitting one or more PCIe USB 3 hubs with external power feeds as soon as the budget allows.
3 Wobble. not sure what to try here. spacedish suggested using two Lnb's one above the other on the same dish. Another would be to use two dishes on the same bird peaked for different parts of the Wobble or I have considered moving the dish under control of a micro controller.

One nice thing about SDRconsole is you can use multiple VFO's within the available bandwidth selected limited to the power of your PC. In this picture I'm using it with PC-HFDL and receiving plane location information from 6 different frequencies in multiple countries. It's just dependent on the SDR as with the SDRplay I can get up to 10MHz of bandwidth.
I have also had USB issues as I have multiple sdr's and sometimes things would crash due to too much bandwidth being requested out of one USB controller. I use a little program called USB Device Tree Viewer USB Device Tree Viewer to find which controllers had what SDR's on them and once I moved them around to distribute the load all was well. I found out that an Airspy just about needs it's own controller as it's a bandwidth hog.

 

[Confucian]

One nice thing about SDRconsole is you can use multiple VFO's within the available bandwidth selected limited to the power of your PC. In this picture I'm using it with PC-HFDL and receiving plane location information from 6 different frequencies in multiple countries. It's just dependent on the SDR as with the SDRplay I can get up to 10MHz of bandwidth.
I have also had USB issues as I have multiple sdr's and sometimes things would crash due to too much bandwidth being requested out of one USB controller. I use a little program called USB Device Tree Viewer USB Device Tree Viewer to find which controllers had what SDR's on them and once I moved them around to distribute the load all was well. I found out that an Airspy just about needs it's own controller as it's a bandwidth hog.View attachment 102613

Great post , sorry didnt get notification that it was there. I tried the USB Viewer that will help me a lot it looks like i need to get some decent usb extn cables.
Will need to have an in depth look at SDR Console.
1 Can you run more than one instance. ?
2 Can you allocate a VFO to to a particular audio device an channel. ?
Mick

 

[River Patrol]

Great post , sorry didnt get notification that it was there. I tried the USB Viewer that will help me a lot it looks like i need to get some decent usb extn cables.
Will need to have an in depth look at SDR Console.
1 Can you run more than one instance. ?
2 Can you allocate a VFO to to a particular audio device an channel. ?
Mick

Yes, you can run more than 1 instance. Very useful if you want frequencies in a wide spectrum as currently with a SDRplay RSP you are limited to 10MHz of bandwidth. I also will use 2 instances if I have several frequencies I want to use at both ends of a 10MHz span as it's less CPU intensive than trying to process 10Mhz chunks. Keep in mind that you can create as many VFO's in a single instance as your PC will allow. I use 5-6 VFO's all the time on a I5 processor with no issues with each one outputting to it's own virtual audio cable.
I normally use virtual cables to allocate each frequency to separate applications\decoders. SDRconsole doesn't separate L&R channels to my knowledge. Simon (the author of the program located in Cornwall) is constantly making updates\additions to the new v3 version of the program which keeps it very fluid.
Bill
Here's a link: It's all about the software

 

[Confucian]

Yes, you can run more than 1 instance. Very useful if you want frequencies in a wide spectrum as currently with a SDRplay RSP you are limited to 10MHz of bandwidth. I also will use 2 instances if I have several frequencies I want to use at both ends of a 10MHz span as it's less CPU intensive than trying to process 10Mhz chunks. Keep in mind that you can create as many VFO's in a single instance as your PC will allow. I use 5-6 VFO's all the time on a I5 processor with no issues with each one outputting to it's own virtual audio cable.
I normally use virtual cables to allocate each frequency to separate applications\decoders. SDRconsole doesn't separate L&R channels to my knowledge. Simon (the author of the program located in Cornwall) is constantly making updates\additions to the new v3 version of the program which keeps it very fluid.
Bill
Here's a link: It's all about the software

Thanks Bill I will have a look at that this evening. I should be ok I have a Proliant server with twin quad core 3.0ghz processors , not over endowed with memory (8gig) but that can be fixed easily enough. Not sure off the top of my head how close my six VFO's are but will probably only need two instances.
Mick

 

[Confucian]

Derrrrr silly sod I need to connect 3 dongles so will need 3 instances ! LoL

 

[EmilK]

So, as I sad I've created this account only to say THANK YOU for this treath
I have the feeling that many ideas posted here are going to help me in my journey.
My system for now looks this way
1.8 m offset antenna (was prepared to be scrapped but Ive saved her from what I have found the antenna is designed for data transmission internet over sat.
After more internet research Im 95% sure that this one is the one
1.8 Meter VSAT Antenna - General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies

Also it can be that is a Prodelin antenna

Receiver is an TBS 6903 receiver driving an Inverto Premium Twin LNB currently on Eutelsat 10°E for Eumetsat (weather reception).
Im planing to ad a multi feed holder to cover the 24° difference between Eutelsat and Alphasat for AERO signals any idea if this is makeble?

From what I understood till now
JAERO
SDR Sharp
of course signal
Splitter with DC blocker on second LNB - not sure here - I dont have a pass loop on TBS card.

So any comments, ideas are higly apreciated

Thanks
Emil

 

[s-band]

That's an excellent dish. You might get away pointing the dish at Alphasat and offsetting the Ku LNBF for Eumetcast. Alternatively, get a small, cheap dish for 10E. Alphasat has an inclined orbit so you will need to check that it will give enough signal all the time without tracking. From memory, the number of aircraft I received reduced for a few hours a day on a 1.5m dish. It's probably best to use a separate power supply and DC injector if you just want aero on C band. @Confucian probably has the most experience here

If you are going to use a Titanium LNBF then consider modifying it by replacing the crystal with a TCXO Titanium PLL C Band LNBs
There are some cheap ones on Ebay at the moment 25MHz TCXO Qty. 2 | eBay

 

[RimaNTSS]

Im 95% sure that this one is the one

To be 100% sure you could post picture of your antenna for all to see it. Something tells me that dish could also be NSC, I give to that 5%. Of course it is possible to make multifeed for any offset dish, but reception might be not perfect.
Welcome to the Forum.

 

[EmilK]

Yeap, the idea with the image is a good one, I will do it tomorrow
Im not that experienced but I have found the antenna as General Dynamics and Prodilin

 

[Channel Hopper]

Just an image of the rear of the antenna will confirm what it is and where it was manufactured.

Don't risk life and limb to climb a pole though.

 

[EmilK]

So here you have the image
Maybe if someone moves the post to a "Hardware identifying" stuff just to not pollute this topic with not so relevant info.

 

[RimaNTSS]

So here you have the image

Nice picture! And it is 100% not the same antenna from the link you've posted yesterday night

 

[EmilK]

I had an apology was late and yesterday :-)

 

[RimaNTSS]

It looks like Prodelin made. If you look closely, maybe there is something visible on the stamp . Some elements of the mount alse remind me Prodelin.
Anyway, it is advisable to do precise measurements of the working area of the dish and also the depth in the middle. Could you make more pictures of the mount and also the face of the dish?
If this is dish designed for VSAT than it probably has small opening angle, something like 60* (normal antennas have ~80* opening angle). And that means that out-of-shelve universal LNB will not perfectly illuminate the dish, therefore the reception will not be perfect. But, in any way, this is nicer dish than any nowadays made-of-tin ones.
Hey, but who can restrict you from proceed with the project?!