satellite antenna

2 Articles

3D Print Your Next Antenna

February 19, 2021 by 40 Comments

Building antennas is a time-honored ham radio tradition. Shortwave antennas tend to be bulky but at VHF frequencies the antenna sizes are pretty manageable. [Fjkaan’s] 2 meter quadrifilar helicoidal antenna is a good example and the structure for it can be created with 3D printing combined with electrical conduit.

Many people, including [G4ILO] use PVC pipe for the structure, and that design inspired [Fjkaan]. Despite being a bit less substantial, the conduit seems to work well and it is easy to cut. The helical design is common for satellite work owing to its circular polarization and omnidirectional pattern.

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L Band Satellite Antennas Revealed

August 4, 2019 by 7 Comments

[SignalsEverywhere] has a lot of satellite antennas and he’s willing to show them off — inside and out — in his latest video that you can see below. Using software-defined radio techniques, you can use these antennas to pull off weather satellite images and other space signals.

A lot of these antennas are actually made for some commercial purpose like keeping ships connected to Inmarsat. In fact, the shipborne antenna has a nice motorized system for pointing the antenna that [SignalsEverywhere] is hoping to modify for his own purposes.

With what appears to be standard NEMA 17 steppers onboard, it should be relatively easy to supplant the original controller with an Arduino and CNC shield. Though considering the resale value these particular units seem to have on eBay, we might be inclined to just roll our own positioner.

The QHF QFH antenna is another interesting teardown. The antenna makes a helix shape and looks like it would be interesting to build from scratch. There isn’t a lot of details about the antenna designs, but it is interesting to see the variety and range of antennas and how they appear internally.

L band is from 1 GHz to 2 GHz, so signals and antennas get very strange at these frequencies. The wavelength of a 2GHz signal is only 15cm, so small antennas can work quite well and are often as much mechanical designs as electrical. The L band contains everything from GPS to phone calls to ADS-B.

We’ve seen radiosonde antennas reborn before. Dish antenna repurposing is also popular.

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