Automated Ground Station Design for an Amateur LEO
Satellite System
Lipika Garg
Manipal Institute of Technology
Manipal Academy of Higher Education
Manipal, India
+91 9818818167
garglipika.98@gmail.com
Malhar Pradhan
Manipal Institute of Technology
Manipal Academy of Higher Education
Manipal, India
+91 9820301505
malharpradhan23@gmail.com
Abstract—This paper describes the RF architecture and auto-
mated functioning of the Ground Station of a 2U nano-satellite.
The satellite utilizes the UHF band for payload transmission
and the VHF band for both satellite uplink as well as beacon
downlink. Hence, the station has been set up to have reception
capability for the VHF and UHF amateur radio frequency
bands. The ground station hardware architecture has been
described along with the specification of the components used.
The intent behind the automation of the ground station is to
enable data collection and satellite tracking during off hours. At
the ground station, Doppler shift correction and the control of
the Yagi Uda antennas via the rotor control during a satellite
pass is automated for continuous data reception. The radio,
chip transceiver and rotor control setup are all interfaced to a
dedicated PC via a UART line. The PC also hosts third-party
software required for reception and decoding. This includes the
satellite tracking software, audio recorder and decoder. The
specification of the software above and their automation capa-
bilities have been discussed. The ground station functioning was
verified by receiving and decoding beacon data from other nano-
satellites transmitting on the same amateur radio frequency
bands, at heights comparable to the LEO height. The paper
also includes the link budget calculations and the subsequent
link margin determination. The reception of the beacon and
raw data bits from the satellite using a Radio and CC1101
transceiver chip respectively and its subsequent decoding on
the computer has been described. It includes all necessary
calculations and diagrams.
TABLE OF C ONTENTS
1. I NTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. G ROUND S TATION A RCHITECTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3. AUTOMATION OF G ROUND S TATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. L INK B UDGET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. D ECODING OF DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6. C ONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
R EFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
B IOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1. I NTRODUCTION
Since the invention of the radio at the end of the 19th century,
people have been fascinated by the wireless transmission of
978-1-5386-6854-2/19/$31.00
2019
c IEEE
1
Atharva Kand
Manipal Institute of Technology
Manipal Academy of Higher Education
Manipal, India
+91 9538998189
atharva.kand@gmail.com
Abhishek Agarwal
Manipal Institute of Technology
Manipal Academy of Higher Education
Manipal, India
+91 9113580692
abhishekagarwal1968@gmail.com
data over vast distances. More than a hundred years later,
the field has exploded, not just for commercial applications,
but also for enthusiastic amateurs. There are many radios,
software applications, and other hardware available for ham
operators to communicate with not only each other, but with
satellites as well. For this purpose, we have set up our Ground
Station as a base for amateur radio satellite communication.
This paper details the architecture of the ground station along
with the exact hardware used. Automation of the ground
station is an essential part of a modern amateur ground station
and so this paper details the implementation of automation
systems to reduce human intervention as much as possible.
This paper includes techniques employed to implement au-
tomation on the two main fronts: Doppler compensation, and
antenna rotor movement. The paper explains the interfacing
of various programs used in the process of tracking, data
collection and decoding of data received from satellites.
Automation of hardware such as the radio and antenna rotor
systems leads to more accurate data collection and minimal
data loss due to human error.
2. G ROUND S TATION A RCHITECTURE
The Ground Station has been constructed to serve as the
primary downlink facility to track and collect data from the
team’s satellite. Apart from tracking its own satellite, the
ground station is also capable of automatically tracking any
other satellite as and when the need arises. The ground
station has been designed to receive data within the follow-
ing amateur bands: VHF (144-146MHz) and UHF (434-
438MHz). It has been configured such that Beacon and
Uplink transmission of the satellite takes place on the VHF
link, whereas the payload data is obtained via the UHF link.
The Beacon and Uplink are time multiplexed using a coaxial
relay. A detailed description of the ground station structure
has been given below.
Antennas
To receive satellite data, we have installed two circularly
polarized Yagi Uda antennas: one for UHF and the other
for VHF. These antennas have been designed to operate at
frequencies of 134-174 MHz for VHF link and 433-437 MHz
for UHF link. They have been installed on an elevated (20
ft. approx.) structure to reduce interference from nearby
infrastructure. The antennas being circularly polarized, com-
pensate for any Faradays rotation that data signals might
encounter in the ionosphere. They also come with a gamma
matching network. Both antennas have a gain of 11 dBic
and have a bandwidth of 5kHz and 15kHz for VHF and
UHF bands respectively. Since the antennas are circularly
polarized, they have an axial ratio of approximately 0dB.
They also offer a low Voltage Standing Wave Ratio of 1.5.
Rotors
The antennas are mounted on a Yaesu G-5500 rotor. This
particular model has been selected because it offers a k factor
of 578, which means it can support the weight of our antennas
as well as the torque that arises due to their rotation. The
Yaesu G-5500 provides 450◦ azimuth and 180◦ elevation
control. The rotor has been calibrated to point true North.
The rotor has been set to a default setting of elevation, =18◦
and azimuth =0◦ pointing towards true north. These elevation
values were calculated from the link budget.
station is in the order of -120dBm, which suffers further
attenuation due to waveguide losses. An LNA amplifies the
input signal without drastically changing the SNR of the
signal so that the processing of the signal can take place
correctly. The LNA we use is ZX60-33LN+ also from Mini
Circuits, which provides a gain of 20dB over the input signal
and has a low noise figure of 1dB. [1]
The enclosure box contains a PCB designed by the students,
which supplies power to the active components. It also pro-
tects the components from the power surge that might occur
from the ground station power supply. The PCB converts an
input of 24V to 5V and then supplies it to the LNAs.
Three lines of LMR400 coaxial cables (approx. 50 ft of
length) are used to carry the signal from the ground station to
antennas and vice versa. One line carries UHF signal from the
antenna to ground station, and the other two carry the VHF
uplink and beacon respectively.

Box.png At the ground station, the Icom IC-9100 transceiver receives

the Beacon, which is further decoded to get satellite health
data. The uplink is sent via the ADF 7021, a transmitter
chip from Analog Devices, Inc, and the UHF payload data
is received using the CC1101 transceiver which is connected
to the MSP430F5438A, a mixed signal micro-controller of
the MSP430 family by Texas Instruments, which in turn is
interfaced to the computer for further processing.

Figure 1. Enclosure Box Design

Enclosure Box
To house the various components used to aid reception, an
enclosure box has been added between the antennas and the
transceivers to protect the sensitive components from the
elements.
The VHF band supports Beacon reception and uplink trans-
mission, whereas the UHF band is used to receive the Pay-
load. Beacon and uplink communication is time multiplexed Figure 2. Enclosure Box Testing of VHF Link
using the coaxial relay CCR33SIC-N from Teledyne.The re-
lay bypasses all the components during uplink transmission.
To protect the components from a sudden rise in voltage due
to atmospheric conditions, the LP-BTR-NFF surge protector
from Times Microwave is used just after the antennas.
Due to the large bandwidth of the antennas, the signal re-
ceived may contain unwanted interference or noise. An SLP
200+ Low Pass Filter (LPF) and an SLP 550+ LPF from Mini
Circuits for the VHF band and the UHF band respectively are
required to filter the signal. The SLP200+ provides >20dB
attenuation in 290-390 MHz band and >40dB attenuation in
390-800MHz band [3]. Meanwhile, the SLP550+ provides
attenuation of >20dB in 750-920 MHZ band and >40dB
attenuation in 920-2000MHz band [4]. Thus the LPF helps in
filtering out noise as well as unwanted harmonics that might
be picked up by the antennas, thereby increasing the clarity
of the signal.
The most vital component of the receiver system is the Low Figure 3. Enclosure Box Testing of UHF Link
Noise Amplifier (LNA). The signal we receive at the ground
2
Rotor Controller
We are currently using two rotor controllers at the ground sta-
tion: one analog and one digital. The analog rotor controller
is provided by Yaesu along with the antenna rotors. It helps
in controlling the rotors. EA4TX ARS-USB is the digital
rotor controller used and it acts as an intermediate interface
between the analog controller and the computer.
The Yaesu rotor controller G-5500 has two motors, one for
the elevation and the other for azimuth. An external control
jack has been supplied in the rear end of the controller for
interfacing to other controllers via D to A converters.
The EA4TX ARS-USB is selected for interfacing the antenna
rotor to the computer. It is chosen as it is compatible with
the Yaesu GS-232A interface. It also allows for the remote
control of the rotors. The Rotator Controller Interface-
USB (RCI-USB board) is connected to the serial port of the
computer to communicate via WispDDE.
The board controls the rotators using five relays: [7]
(1) Left and Right (Azimuthal Orientation)
(2) AUX (for rotors that include a Brake or Speed control)
(3) Up and Down (Elevation Orientation)
The azimuth and elevation values are updated via PC in the
digital controller which then passes on these values to the
analog controllers. Finally, the antennas are rotated with the
help of the analog controller.
Radio
Selection of a transceiver plays an integral role in the setting
up of the ground station. We did a case study of many amateur
radios. In the end, it came down to two transceivers; the
Kenwood TS-2000 and the Icom IC-9100. We chose the IC-
9100 over the Kenwood TS-2000 since it supports interfacing
to PC which plays a vital role during automation. The IC-
9100 has a better receiver sensitivity and DSP implementa-
tion over the TS-2000, therefore improving the ground station
architecture, allowing it to receive low-power signals with
minimum errors. Hence the selection of Icom transceiver
proves to be a worthy trade-off with its higher pricing.
Icom has supplied us with the drivers and firmware neces-
sary for interfacing with a computer, thereby allowing the
interfacing of radio via a UART connection using the USB
standard cable which enables CI-V commands to be sent by
the computer using any satellite tracking application. The
device appears as a serial communication device to the end-
user.
The IC-9100 is compatible with frequency bands in the
UHF, VHF and HF bands[5]. It supports full-duplex com-
munication, allowing us to utilize both the UHF and VHF
bands simultaneously. The radio supports demodulation of a
variety of analog modulation formats including CW, RTTY,
FM, AM, and SSB[5]. This extensive demodulation format
support also allows for the data received by the transceiver to
be transmitted to the PC using the same UART protocol.
One of the principal modes of operation of the radio is
’satellite mode’[5]. With this, we can simultaneously receive
on one band and transmit via the other. The receiving and
the transmitting frequency are linked in such a way that the
Doppler correction calculated by the computer is applied to
both; a change in the receiver frequency leads to a change in
the transmitter frequency as well.
3
The IC-9100 has a variety of filters of different bandwidths
at different frequencies. The filter bandwidths are of the
range 0.5-2KHz which are sufficient to be able to obtain the
required data.
IC-9100 also has an in-built notch filter which filters out
signals that are not in the frequency band corresponding to
the Doppler shifted values of the transmitting frequency of
the satellite. Hence, there is substantially less channel noise,
and data is received with a higher Signal to Noise Ratio.
Figure 4. Icom IC-9100
CC1101
The CC1101 from Texas Instruments is selected as the
transceiver of choice to receive payload data at the ground
station. It is a sub-1-GHz transceiver that is programmed for
frequencies of operation in the range of UHF band.
The team’s satellite engages CC1101 as the transceiver to
send payload data, which makes this selection a viable option
due to hardware compatibility and ease of use. CC1101
supports various modulation formats like OOK, 2-FSK, and
4-FSK. It has configurable data rates of up to 600kbps and
provides extensive hardware support for packet handling, data
buffering and link quality indicator. The CC1101 has a high
rated sensitivity of -116 dBm at 0.6 kBaud, 433 MHz with 1%
packet error rate and is suitable for packet hopping systems
due to a fast settling frequency synthesizer. [9]
Another feature of the CC1101 is its ability to calculate and
show both received signal strength indication (RSSI) and
frequency offset. For frequency offset, the transceiver chip
tracks the center frequency of incoming data, allowing the
user to correct the receiving frequency by merely offsetting
the original frequency. This frequency offset can be used for
Doppler correction.
The CC1101 also supports synchronous and asynchronous
modes for reception and transmission and is compatible with
existing radio communication protocols. Texas Instruments
provides support packets for CC1101. These packets provide
on-chip support for incoming data like sync word detection,
address check, flexible packet lengths and automatic CRC
handling. It uses an efficient SPI interface where all registers
can be written to with one burst transfer, a programmable
interface and carrier sense indicator.
3. AUTOMATION OF G ROUND S TATION
The ground station collects data from satellites even in the
absence of ground station personnel. However, if important
satellite data needs to be received during off hours, the
Ground Station needs to function without human presence.
It has many components which can be automated: the radio,
the antenna rotor, data collection and archiving as well as
decoding.
 and inclination, and this data is grouped and distributed as
TLEs (Two Line Elements). These TLEs calculated at epoch
let us track any given satellite accurately for a considerable
time, roughly five days to a week.
Based on our requirements, we selected Orbitron as the
satellite tracking software. It works on NORAD SGP4/SDP4
prediction models and can track up to 20,000 satellites at the
same time. The prediction can be done in Real Time or in
Simulation Mode [10]. It has an easy to use interface where
the clock can be synchronized with the PC via NTP and the
satellite. TLE’s can be updated from a reputable online source
like Caltech or NASA (with ZIP support) via HTTP. It also
has radio/rotor control which can be done via the intermediate
software, WispDDE.
For the software to work accurately, the TLEs need to be
updated regularly. It should also consider if the object has
deviated from its ideal orbit (due to docking, de-orbiting or
otherwise change in eccentricity) since the last TLE update.
Other factors include making predictions as close to real time
as possible and using precise coordinates and altitude of the
location of the ground station.

Figure 5. Control Flow of Ground station

One of the fronts on which automation takes place is Doppler

compensation. Doppler shift arises due to the relatively high
orbital velocity of the satellite as it passes over the ground
station. As the satellite approaches, its Doppler frequency
will continuously increase till the satellite reaches its maxi-
mum elevation angle above the ground station. After that, the
Doppler frequency decreases.
Another important field in need of automation is rotor control.
The automation of the rotor is done to position the highly di-
rectional Yagi Uda antennas so that they continuously follow
the trajectory of the satellite as it travels across the sky above
the ground station. Manually changing the antenna position
or the receiving frequency is not preferred as it would lead to
inconsistent tracking and is very tiresome to do continuously
over a long pass. Hence this automation becomes necessary
for proper and timely retrieval of data. We make use of two Figure 6. Orbitron GUI
programs for this purpose, WispDDE, and Orbitron.
WispDDE
Many commercially available applications allow for amateur WisppDDE is the application software used for interfacing
radio level automation, but they are either built on legacy with the rotor controls as well as the radio. It is an application
software that is incompatible with modern systems (JSat- similar to AVROTDDE.EXE, which is a part of AVROT
Track) or is outside the budget of an amateur student team package also developed by Pavel Vachel, a Czech ham radio
(MacDoppler). We have detailed our methods to automate a operator (call-sign OK1DX) [11]. AVROT is designed to
ground station in a commercially viable and efficient way to control the antenna rotator. WispDDE communicates with
ensure maximum bandwidth and data coverage. the prediction software, which in our case is Orbitron using
Orbitron the DDE protocol on one end and serially transmit data to
AVROT on the other end.
The most important step to receive data from a satellite is
its accurate pass prediction and trajectory mapping according Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) is a protocol for data ex-
to the location of one’s ground station. For this purpose, we change between Windows applications. It purges Wisp for
make use of a satellite tracking software. Such software show new data at pre-set intervals and sends control instructions to
satellite positions in real or predicted time. For such predic- radio and rotor via the serial ports. For such data transfer to
tions, calculations are done based on known orbital parame- take place, Orbiton and WispDDE need to run simultaneously
ters such as argument of perigee, mean motion, eccentricity on the same PC.
4
Automation of Rotor Controls
We have used a Yaesu G-5500 motor connected to the boom
of the antennas which is controlled using the GS-232A in-
terface. This interface is further connected to a commercial
DAC and micro-controller combination called the ARS-USB
from EA4TX, which is then interfaced with the PC to allow
for automation. Orbitron produces the values of azimuth and
elevation; calculating them using the exact location of the
ground station and the two line elements of the satellite being
tracked. These are sent to WispDDE which outputs it to the
ARS-USB via the UART protocol using USB cable. The
rotor control box has been calibrated with respect to the true
north allowing for accurate azimuth and elevation rotation.
For software to receiver interfacing; some settings are up-
dated in the Rotor settings option in WispDDE. The interface
type is set to GS-232, the step angle is set to 1◦ . Along with
this, the baud rate and port are chosen to correspond to the
port settings as seen on the PC.
Figure 7. Rotor Control settings in WispDDE
Automation of Radio
The radio drivers are downloaded from the Icom America
website to interface the IC-9100 to PC. WispDDE acts as
an interface between Orbitron and radio. Hence both the
applications should be present on the same PC. For software
to receiver interfacing, some settings are updated in the Radio
settings option in WispDDE. Radio index is made to 1. If
multiple radios are connected simultaneously, the settings of
each individual radio can be changed by adjusting this radio
index. Radio model is selected as IC-910, which follows pro-
tocols similar to that of IC-9100. Repetitive testing was done
to make sure that this did not affect the receiver interfacing.
Radio address is also set, which is the 8-bit address we use
for our radio. In our case, this address is 7D.
For ideal operation, the radio is configured for ’satellite
mode.’ As Orbitron tracks the satellite, it continuously
5
updates the frequency corresponding to the Doppler shift
calculated. It then sends the satellite information as well as
the Doppler values to WispDDE every second which then
relays these values to radio via the using USB cable, thus
automating frequency shifting.
Figure 8. Radio settings in WispDDE
Doppler compensation using CC1101
Doppler compensation is crucial when tracking LEO satel-
lites travelling at orbital velocity. From observation, it was
found that throughout a pass, the frequency of the received
signal changes over a range of 20kHz. Though the receiv-
ing bandwidth of the CC1101 is comparable to this value,
Doppler correction must be applied at the Ground Station to
guarantee data coherence. Increasing the receiver bandwidth
over the entire range leads to more noise and less consistent
data reception. Hence, a software-based Doppler compen-
sation system was devised for our application to ensure data
reception is error-free.
The CC1101 has a programmable receiver bandwidth range
of 58 kHz to 812 kHz.[9] While the chip can be programmed
to operate at the highest bandwidth, for a good Doppler
compensation, the step of the synthesizer itself must be set
to 1kHz. For our application, the chip transceivers receiver
frequency is programmed via the MSP430F5438A. The chip
is interfaced with the micro-controller unit (MCU) via the
SPI protocol (Serial Peripheral Interface), while the MCU
itself is connected to the dedicated PC via a UART (Universal
Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter) line. The Rx (receiver)
channel frequency of the CC1101 can be set via dedicated
frequency registers which are programmed externally through
the MCU. To update the registers the transceiver state needs
to be updated for real-time frequency hopping.
According to the procedure, the following operations and
state changes take place during the frequency update:

T x/Rx ⇒ Idle ⇒ U pdatef requencyRegisters
⇒ Calibrate ⇒ Idle ⇒ T x/Rx (1)
The micro-controller sends the commands to perform this
cycle of operations every 5 seconds, on receiving the updated
frequency values for the Doppler compensation. Since the
calculated calibration time is in the order of microseconds,
its effect on frequency hopping is negligible. The MCU itself
pulls frequency values from an open source satellite tracking
software, Gpredict. This is programmed in-house on the
dedicated PC. The cycle time for every frequency update is
5 seconds. The command to update the Rx frequency on the
CC1101 is sent at the end of every frequency update cycle on
Gpredict. For the payload application, the base frequency is
taken as 437.80 MHz.
Figure 9. MCU to transceiver interfacing diagram
4. L INK B UDGET
The link budget is a mathematical tabulation of the satellite
communication model. It summarizes the successful trans-
mission of satellite data to the ground station and vice versa.
Link budget analyses the difference between the transmitted
power and the received power and accounts for the factors
that create discrepancies between the two. It explains the
various parameters such as polarization loss, pointing loss, at-
mospheric and ionospheric loss, and channel loss; that induce
noise and lead to signal attenuation as well as deterioration.
It also accounts for the gains provided by the antennas and
amplifiers.
The fundamental link budget equation is written as:
Pr
10log( 1W Pt
) − 10log( 1W )=
10log(Gt ) + 10log(Gr ) − 10log(Lp )[dB] (2)
Pr Received Power
Pt Transmitted Power
Gt Gain of Transmitting Antenna
Gr Gain of Receiver Antenna
Lp Path Loss
6
The primary goal is to design a system that allows us to
close our link budget with a significant link margin, i.e.,
the difference between receiver sensitivity and the minimum
power that the system is capable of receiving.
Calculation of link budget was done taking into account the
worst-case parameters. The estimates discussed in this paper
are from the downlink point of view, i.e., it talks about
healthy retrieval of data at the ground station. The link budget
has been divided into various separate parts and explained
individually below.
Ground Station Receiver System
The noise at the ground station receiver system is character-
ized by system noise temperature. Noise temperature is a way
of defining the noise factor introduced by a component. It is
split into three parts: sky temperature, waveguide losses, and
losses arising due to inline components such as amplifiers and
filters.
The equation for system noise temperature is given as:
TRcvr
Ts = (a)Ta + (1 − a)To + TLN A + (3)
( GLN
Ld )
A
Where,
L LLP F Lother
a = 10(( 10 )+( 10 )+( 10 ))
(4)
Ts System Noise Temperature
Ta Antenna Sky Temperature
TLN A Noise temperature LNA
TRcvr Noise temperature of
communications front end receiver
GLN A Linear gain of LNA
a Feed Line Coefficient
L Waveguide Loss of cables before LNA
LLP F Insertion loss of Low Pass Filter
Lother Other In-Line device losses
Taking the sky temperature range between 715-800K and
taking into account the other component losses, the system
noise temperature is calculated as 721K and 1504K for UHF
and VHF respectively. The calculations show that the ground
station is capable of receiving signal at -154.2 dBW and -
149.7dBW in VHF and UHF bands respectively while also
maintaining comfortable link margins.
Antenna Losses
Yagi Uda antennas are directional antennas. Hence they
radiate more in one direction than the rest. Due to this
directional nature of the Yagi Uda, signal attenuation arises
due to polarization loss and pointing loss. Polarization loss
occurs due to angular mismatch loss between the transmit-
ting and receiving antennas. PAGOS antennas are Right-
Hand Circularly Polarized to compensate for this, thereby
contributing to a negligible loss of 3dB. The antennas also
have an estimated pointing error of 10◦ , which leads to a
pointing loss of 0.3dB. The internal antenna gain of 11dBic
significantly contributes towards negating this loss.
Conclusion
From the link budget we find that in the UHF band, the loss
from the ground station receiver system is approximately -
19dB/K. The CC1101 transceiver has receiver sensitivity of
approximately -116dBm in this band.

Figure 10. Link Budget Calculations
With a gain of 20 dB from the LNA and 11dBic from
the antenna, the ground station is capable of receiving at
approximately -150dBW in the UHF band.
5. D ECODING OF DATA
When data is received from the satellite, it is found to be
encoded in the format chosen by the team responsible for
making it. Hence it is necessary to decode it to extract useful
information. Due to the variety of formats and encoding
methods used, it is not possible to decode all of the data
received by the Ground Station. However, it is possible to
decode some of the commonly used formats.
In the case of beacon data, all of it is sent in Morse code.
The beacon data is received on the radio which is interfaced
7
with a computer. The data is recorded in the form of audio
via the sound card of the computer which can be decoded
by anyone fluent in Morse code. To automate the process of
data decoding, the encoded audio is automatically processed
by an online program to reduce noise and is passed through
an online Morse audio decoder which translates the audio to
display the string of characters sent by satellite. It has been
verified by the Communications Team repeatedly and has
been found to be reliable. The obtained series of characters
is useless without prior knowledge of the exact beacon data
format of the satellite. Thus, many satellite teams have
Graphical User Interfaces that take the obtained characters as
input and process it to display the value of the battery voltage,
current, temperature and other useful data related to general
health and functioning of the satellite.
In the case of payload data, it cannot be directly received on
the radio as the payload data is transmitted in packets and the
radio Icom IC-9100 does not support the reception of data in
this format without an external device. Hence the transceiver
CC1101 connected to the MSP430F5438A is used. The
transceiver receives the packets of data, in the form of raw
bytes. This data is then extracted from the micro-controller
and stored on the computer. After this, the data is fed to the
GUI developed by the satellite team which processes it and
shows the required information. This processing cannot be
done without prior knowledge of the payload, the encoding
used, or the data frame format set by its respective satellite
team.
All the data collected is uploaded to a server so that the
Communications Team can access the data and share it with
the team from whose satellite the data was received.
6. C ONCLUSION
Automation of a ground station leads to a more accurate
and efficient reception of data. Our ground station has
been automated to allow for Doppler correction and antenna
rotor movement in real-time and is capable of autonomously
tracking the satellites. Details of many programs and devices
used, have been given in this paper. The ground station has
been designed to be operated even at the off hours as and
when prompted without the need for human input. The link
budget of the ground station has also been included in this
paper. In future, further advances can be made to reduce
human intervention to as less as possible.
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Ground system design for receiver-end RF communica-
tion in amateur band, 2017 IEEE Aerospace Conference,
pp. 17, 2017
[2] N. Annavarapu, B. S. Cheela, and K. S. Sadasivan, A
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10-Apr-2018]. of Technology in Electronics Commu-
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https://www.yaesu.com/ [Accessed: 20-Aug-2018]. elor’s of Technology in Computer and
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B IOGRAPHY [

Lipika Garg is a Third Year under-

graduate student at Manipal Institute of
Technology. She is pursuing Bachelor’s
of Technology in Electronics Commu-
nication Engineering. Her interests in-
clude Machine Learning, RFCommuni-
cations and Embedded Systems. She
also has a keen interest in Amateur Ra-
dio.

Atharva Kand is a Third year un-

dergraduate student at the Manipal In-
stitute of Technology. He is pursuing
Bachelor’s of Technology in Electron-
ics Communication Engineering. His
interests include Signal Processing, RF
Communications and Embedded Sys-
tems.