André shares his QO-100 Ground Station and HF/VHF/UHF Station
Thank you to RTL-SDR.com reader André for submitting and sharing with us his QO-100 ground station setup. The setup also includes antennas and equipment to receive HF and VHF/UHF. His setup can serve as an example of a well set up permanent installation.
André's set up consists of a 1.8 meter prime focus dish, Raspberry Pi 4, GPIO connected relay, Airspy R2, Ham-it-up upconverter, coaxial relay for switching between Mini-Whip and Discone Antenna, and FM bandstop filter and a power terminal rail block. The Airspy R2 is used for HF/UHF/UHF reception and the antennas and upconverter are all controlled via a web connected relay system. All equipment is enclosed in an outdoor rated box, and André notes everything has been working well from temperatures range from -10C to 35C.
Inside the satellite dish feed is housed an Adalm Pluto SDR, and a wideband LNA and a USB to LAN converter with power over Ethernet. A small log periodic Yagi serves as the feed. In order to work the wideband DATV band on Qo-100, André' swaps out this feed for a custom feed and brings the PlutoSDR indoors where it is connected to a 120W Spectran Amplifier and modulator.
For the full writeup of his setup, we have uploaded André's document here.
That’s an seriously impressive setup, André! The dedication to detail, especially with the weather-proof casing and remote control, is inspiring. It really shows what’s possible with some ingenuity and the right gear. I’m always looking for cool tech projects, and seeing things like this on Geometry Dash’s creative showcases often sparks new ideas.
a rail block power terminal, a coaxial relay for selecting between the Mini-Whip and Discone antennas, and a ham-it-up upgrade converter.
The source material is Yagi’s periodic mini-diary entries. Features include an FM band filter, a rail block power terminal, a coaxial relay for selecting between the Mini-Whip and Discone antennas, and a ham-it-up upgrade converter.