Greencube (IO-117) is a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite that carries a 70cm digipeater. This satellite can provide DX contacts covering a wide area around an Amateur Radio satellite ground station. Putting together a station and the necessary software to use Greencube is not difficult. If you already have a computer-controlled satellite ground station that works on 70cm, you may already have most of what is needed. We’ll cover Greencube (IO-117) setup in detail in this article.

Operating with Greencube – What’s Required

Greencube (IO-117) requires the following for successful contacts via its digipeater:

• A directional antenna with at least 12 dBi gain
• A 70cm SSB/FM capable Transceiver with a soundcard interface and at least 25 watts of output at the antenna
• Software to control the Transceiver to correct for Doppler shift and provide antenna tracking control or pointing information
• A computer running modem software and a Greencube Terminal Program
• A low-noise preamp at the antenna is recommended

Greencube Satellite Antennas

We have three different antenna combinations that are Greencube capable here:

• An M2 Antenna Systems 436CP46UG antenna(18.9 dBic gain) on a house-bracketed tower
• An M2 Antenna System LEO Pack with a 436CP16 antenna (13.3 dBic gain) on a transportable ground tower
• An M2 Antenna Systems 440-11X antenna (13.44 dBi gain) mounted on a camera tripod for portable use

All three antennas have Advanced Receiver Research Low-Noise preamps which are powered via the associated antenna’s coax feedline. Unfortunately, the ARR preamps are no longer available. A good alternative would be the SSB Electronic SP 70 preamp. I recommend choosing a preamp that can be sequenced using coax power from your transceiver if your transceiver supports coax-powered preamps. This approach ensures that your preamps are protected from transmit power in most operational scenarios.

Radio, Computers, and Power

All of our Greencube (IO-117) setups use an Icom IC-9700 Transceiver.

We use two computers to run our stations:

• A Mac (iMac or MacbookAir) running MacDoppler to control antenna tracking and to control our IC-9700 to perform Doppler correction
• A Windows PC running the modem, terminal client software, and a logger for using Greencube’s digipeater and for decoding telemetry

Using the two computers means that both must simultaneously control the IC-9700 via the radio’s CAT interface. This is easily accomplished with the IC-9700 by using both the CI-V and USB CAT interfaces. The radio’s CI-V interface is used with MacDoppler, and the USB interface is used with the Windows PC to connect the IC-9700’s Rx and Tx audio to the modem SW and to provide for PTT via a COM port.

We use AC power for our fixed and transportable setups.

Our portable setup uses solar power consisting of two 90-watt foldable panels, an MPPT charger system, and a pair of A123 LiPo batteries. We’ll share more about our portable and transportable setups in subsequent posts.

Software

We use the following software for our Greencube (IO-117) ground station:

• UZ7HO’s Greencube Soundmodem (download greentnc.zip)
• OZ9AAR’s Greencube Terminal Software
• DK3WN’s Greencube Telemetry Decoder
• MacDoppler to control antenna tracking and Doppler correction on the IC-9700
• N3FJP’s ACLog for logging contacts

MacDoppler runs on a Mac computer (iMac or Macbook Air), and the rest of the software runs on a Windows PC.

The links above include instructions for setting up each of the software applications. The following are some notes on Greencube (IO-117) setup for each software component.

MacDoppler

The Greencube (IO-117) setup in MacDoppler configures the IC-9700 Transceiver to operate in simplex SSB digital mode. This is the SSB-D choice in MacDoppler’s Modes tab for Greencube.

You’ll want to select SSB-D mode in MacDoppler to track Greencube and configure the IC-9700 to work with the Greencube digipeater. Setting the uplink and downlink offsets to -1.200 KHz will place Greencube’s packet transmissions in the middle of the IC-9700’s passband.

UZ7HO Soundmodem

There is a specific version of UZ7HO’s Soundmodem for use with Greencube (see the link above to download greentnc.zip). The soundcard and PTT COM port interfaces provided via the USB connection to the IC-9700 must be configured in Soundmodem.

Soundmodem Devices Settings

The USB connection from the IC-9700 to a Windows PC will create a pair of sound devices (in this example, USB Audio CODEC) and a COM port (in this example, COM15) for CAT and PTT control. These must be properly configured in the Settings – Devices choice on the Soundmodem main menu.

Soundmodem Modem Settings

The Settings – Modems choice on the Soundmodem main menu brings up this dialog. The settings are the default ones. Note that Soundmodem has two modes – GreenCube 1200bd and GreenCube 300bd. The GreenCube 1200bd setting is normally used for digipeater operation, including decoding telemetry when enabled. You’ll need to use the GreenCube 300bd setting to decode telemetry if Greencube’s digipeater is turned off.

IC-9700 Transceiver Settings

There are some important adjustments to the configuration of the IC-9700 that need to be made for Soundmodem to work properly with the transceiver.

Configuring the CI-V USB Port to Unlink from [REMOTE] is necessary to allow it to function independently for the other interfaces.

You’ll want to set the AF Output Level of the USB interface to about 25% of the maximum and adjust the Windows audio control in Control Panel to get a display on the Soundmodem waterfall of about the intensity shown above.

Setting up the Tx audio levels is important to avoid overdriving the Transmitter. A good place to start is to set the USB Mod Level in the IC-9700 to about 25%.

Then adjust the Windows audio control in Control Panel to get full transmitter output power with only one or two bars of ALC indication on the IC-9700’s ALC meter when transmitting via the Greencube Terminal client. This adjustment is an essential part of your Greencube (IO-117) setup.

OZ9ARR’s Greencube Terminal Setup

A client program is required to format and decode the packets from Greencube. We are using OZ9ARR’s Greencube Terminal for this purpose. This program includes a macro button capability to help you format Greencube Tx packets and includes some nice capabilities for logging contacts and identifying new DXCCs, Grids, and Stations that you have not yet worked.

We are using Greencube Terminal with N3FJP’s ACLog to log contacts made with Greencube. This makes it easy to export our contacts to an adif file after each Greencube operating session and import them into our main logger. We also periodically export an adif file containing all of our satellite contacts from our main logger and provide access to this file so Greencube Terminal can determine what we’ve worked before. OZ9ARR’s Greencube Terminal webpage thoroughly explains how to set up and use the program.

DK3WN’s Greencube Telemetry Decoder

Greencube periodically sends Telemetry information. You can decode it by using DK3WN’s Greencube Telemetry Decoder with Soundmodem. You can download the decoder and see how to install it on DK3WN’s webpage.

Making Contacts with Greencube

With your Greencube (IO-117) Setup complete, you should be ready to make some contacts! Begin by starting up all of the software and configuring MacDoppler to track Greencube in SSB-D mode. When Greencube is in range, you should see Greencube’s packet transmission being displayed in Soundmodem’s waterfall, and you should be able to hear the packet bursts on your Transceiver. Adjust the Soundmodem decode pointers by dragging them with your mouse to center them in the waterfall traces received in Soundmodem. The setting should be around 1400 – 1500 Hz. Also, make sure that GreenCube 1200db mode is selected in Soundmodem. You should see packets being decoded by Soundmodem.

You can configure the Shortcut buttons to handle the steps needed to make a contact. The images above show the setup of the buttons that we are using here.

You’ll want to set the Tx delay for 0 – 2 seconds to give your preamp time to recover from transmitting before you receive your digipeater packets back from Greencube.

You can begin to make a contact by either clicking on another station’s CQ to load the station’s callsign or by just calling CQ yourself. Next, use the INFO button to send your callsign and grid square and then the RRR and 73 buttons to complete your contact. When you are done, you can right-click on the last packet in the exchange or on the station’s callsign that you have worked in one of the right windows to log the contact. That’s all there is to it!

Note that you’ll want to confirm that Greencube has heard and digipeated each of your transmissions. Collisions, fading, and other effects will often cause your packets to not be digipeated, and you’ll need to repeat your transmission until it is digipeated by Greencube.

You can also use the digipeater in store-and-forward mode by setting a long TX Delay (the number is in seconds). This can be as long as several hours to allow you to have Greencube digipeat your packet on the other side of the world! Note that store and forward contacts do not count for operating awards such as Worked All States, VUCC, or DXCC.

The video above shows Uz7HO Soundmodem and OZ9AAR’s Greencube Terminal being used to make contacts during a Greencube pass. the video also demonstrates some of Greencube Terminal’s features for identifying unworked calls and grids. You’ll want to spend some time reading OZ9AAR’s webpage to learn about and take maximum advantage of the many features Greencube Terminal can provide.

More Fun With Greencube

This article is the second in a series that we are working on. You view the other articles via the links below. This is a work in progress, and we’ll be creating additional Greencube-related posts in the near future:

• Greencube (IO-117) – A New Satellite for DX!
• Greencube (IO-117) – Completing a Satellite Worked All States
• Greencube (IO-117) – M2 Antenna Systems LEO Pack – Will It Work?
• Greencube (IO-117) – A Portable Station for Activating Grid Squares
• Greencube (IO-117) – The Road to a Satellite DXCC?

You can also read more about our Satellite Ground stations here.

Fred, AB1OC

The post Greencube (IO-117) – Setup, Software, and Operation appeared first on Our HAM Station.

The next step in our project is to configure our microHam station management system to support the new antennas and other components in our 6m antenna project. Each radio in our station (we have five that are 6m capable) has a microHam Station Master Deluxe antenna controller that is used to select and control all of our antennas. These units use the band selection and frequency data from their associated Transceivers to present a set of antenna choices and associated rotator, LNA, amplifier, and other controls to the user.

We are adding the following components to our 6m antenna farm that will need to be controlled by our microHam system:

• A 7-element LFA Antenna on our main tower
• Three stacks of 3-Element LFAs on our main tower
• A microHam remote TEN SWITCH antenna switch to select one of the above antennas
• Two Premamp Housings – one shared unit between the antennas above on our main tower and a second housing that will be added to our existing 7-element antenna on our VHF tower

Any of these antennas and their associated Preamp Housings can be used by any of the six Transceivers in our station. There are also two Elecraft KPA-1500 1500w amplifiers (one is shared) that operate on 6m and can be used by three of the five Transceivers in our setup. In this article, I will cover the configuration of our microHam system to support all of the new elements.

Remote Antenna Switching

I choose a microHam TEN SWITCH to handle switching between the new 7-Element LFA and the 6m Antenna Stacks that we will be installing. This switch is can be mounted outdoors on our tower and has good SWR, power handling, and loss performance at 50 MHz. I also chose the option to have N-connectors installed on our TEN SWITCH.

Control Interface Installation

The first step in this part of our project was to install two new microHam Control Boxes to control the new remote antenna switch and the two 6m Preamp Housings. These control boxes are connected to a control bus which allows the Station Master Deluxe antenna controllers associated with our transceivers to control all of our equipment and antennas. The microHam TEN SWITCH that we are using requires ten 12 Vdc control lines to select one of its ten antenna inputs. Each of the two 6m Preamp Housings requires a combination of two 28 Vdc control lines to manage its relays and a 13.8 Vdc line to power its LNA. The microHam Relay 10 Control Box is a good choice for controlling the antenna switch, and a single microHam Relay 6 Control Box can be configured to control the two Preamp Housings. I installed the two new control boxes and a DIN Rail Terminal Block for ground fan out on an existing section of DIN rail in our shack. Finally, I extended the microHam control bus to the new units and connected the control boxes to the 13.8 Vdc and 28 Vdc power systems in our shack, and set the addresses of the two new control boxes.

Next, we updated the firmware in the new Control Boxes. We configured their relays into groups for interfacing to the remote microHam TEN SWITCH and the components in the 6m Preamp Housings.

New Antenna and Remote Switch Configuration

The next step was to define “RF Boxes” in the microHam program for the 7-Element LFA, three fixed-direction 3-Element LFA Antenna Stacks, and the two 6m Preamp Housings that we are going to be installing on our towers.

With this done, we created an additional RF box for the microHam TEN SWITCH that will be located on our main tower. The image above shows how the switch is configured in the microHAM system. We also needed to associate the Relay 10 control box with the switch to enable the microHam system to control it.

6m Preamp Housing Configuration

The next step was to configure our 6m Preamp Housings. The image above shows the configuration of the shared housing installed on our main tower behind the microHAM TEN SWITCH.

The shared Preamp housing will be connected to one of the inputs on our antenna switching matrix shown above.

This arrangement allows us to use the 6m LNA in the housing with any of the 3-Element LFA antenna stacks or the 7-Element LFA antenna we are installing on this tower. One of the features of the microHam system is that it can understand and correctly sequence shared devices like LNAs, amplifiers, and other active RF components.

LNA Controls

The image above shows the configuration for the LNA control button that will appear on our SMDs. The configuration above creates a button and display to turn the LNA on or off when an associated button on one SMDs is pressed. This control will appear on the SMDs for any radio using one of the associated 6m antennas.

LNA and PTT Sequencing

We also need to configure a sequencing element for each of our 6m Preamp Housings. This ensures that the Push To Talk (PTT) lines and transceiver inhibit lines are properly sequenced for the transceivers, amplifiers, and relays in the Preamp Housing that is part of a path to a selected antenna. The microHam system automatically applies the appropriate timing and sequencing rules to all of the RF elements in the path based on the sequencer settings shown above. Configuring the sequencer also involved associating the appropriate relay control units on the newly installed Relay 6 Control Box with the elements in the sequencer timing diagram above. One item to note here is the 20 – 30 ms tail on the sequencing of the Preamp Housing relays when going from Transmit to Receive. This is done to allow extra time for any stored RF energy in the feedlines during high-power Tx to dissipate before bringing the LNA back into the feedline system.

We also added our second 6m Preamp Housing to the RF path for our existing 7-Element M2 Antenna on our VHF Tower and configured it similarly.

Virtual Rotator for Fixed Antenna Stacks

The microHam system has a Virtual Rotator feature which is a great way to control selecting between fixed stacks of antennas of the type we are installing. The image above shows the Virtual Rotator we configured for our 3-Element LFA stacks. The Virtual Rotator becomes an additional antenna choice that accepts a direction in the same way that a conventional rotator does. The microHam system figures out which of the available stacks would best match any heading selected and automatically switches the antenna path to the stack that best matches the chosen heading. This capability will be a great tool in VHF contests when we are working multiplier grids on 6m.

Final Testing

With all the configuration work done, I downloaded the final microHam program to all of our Control Boxes and SMDs and did some more testing. I connected one of our 6m Preamp Housings to the newly installed Relay 6 Control Box and tested the operation with our Transceivers. Everything worked as expected.

I also used the microHam Control App (shown above) to test the various combinations of 6m antenna selections and configured options. The image above shows the selection of the new 7-Element LFA we are adding. Note the availability of controls for the LNA in the shared Preamp Housing and the controls for pointing the antenna via the associated rotator.

The image above shows the selections and controls for the 6m Antenna Stacks. The Virtual Rotator choice (STK-VR) is selected in this example. Each SMD has a control knob that can be turned to any heading. When the heading for the STK-VR antenna choice is changed, the system automatically chooses the stack that most closely matches the chosen direction. Choices are also available to choose any of the three stacks directly (ex. EU-STK for the LFA stack facing Europe).

Another nice feature of the microHam system is its ability to use different antennas for Transmit and Receive. The example above shows a setup that uses two different antennas for Tx and Tx.

As you can probably tell, the microHam Station Master Deluxe (SMD) system provides many features for controlling complex antenna arrangements and shared equipment. You can learn more about the microHam SMD system and what it can do here. You can learn more about the programming and operation of the SMD components via the SMD manual.

Next Steps

We’ll continue to post more articles in this series as our project proceeds. Here are some links to other articles in our series about our 6m Antenna Upgrade Project:

• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 1 – Plans for Antenna Enhancements
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 2 – High-Power Power Preamp System
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 4 – Building Antennas and Prep for Installation
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 5 – Antenna Installation and Station Integration

Our new LFA antennas and supporting equipment have arrived. The next step in our project will be assembling them and creating an adjustable mounting system for the 3-Element LFA antennas in our stacks.

Fred, AB1OC

The post 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 3 – microHam Antenna Control System appeared first on Our HAM Station.