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Diploma Thesis
Front-End Design
for a Multi-Mission, Multi-Standard
Satellite Ground Station
under the supervision of
Dipl.-Ing. Michael Fischer

and
Univ.Prof.Dr. Arpad L. Scholtz
E389
Institute of Communications and Radio-Frequency Engineering

Vienna University of Technology
Electrical Engineering
by
Adria Ainhoa Solana Esteban

0927152
Karolinengasse 6, 1040 Wien
DNI: 24392892-N
Vienna, July 2010

Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to thank my supervisors, Dipl.-Ing. Michael Fischer
for his support along these months, his invaluable help at all times, and for his
endless patience and optimism, and Univ. Prof. Dr. Arpad L. Scholtz, who was
always kindly willing to help me in any kind of problem that came up, and was
always eager to share his knowledge and curiosity in life with me, and managed
to make my stay much more enriching and fulfilling.
Moreover, I would like to thank Jonathan Ronquillo for his relentless help and
support when I most needed, for caring about me and for making my days much
more pleasant.
I would also like to thank Peter Witschel for always finding time to help me, for
caring and for doing it with a big smile.
Furthermore, I would like to thank other friends, like Rocío Morales who patiently
had to listen to me talking about things she couldn’t understand but always
managed to cheer me up, Edu Tormo, for supporting me every day from the
distance and believing in me, and Sara Martínez, who had always the perfect
words to cheer me up and who I’m missing so much since she left.
I would like to thank specially René Sapetschnig for being there for me every
day, for taking care of me, for supporting me, for making my days, for putting
up with all my complaints and for being so patient.
Finally, but definitely not less important, I would like to thank my family. With-
out my mother, this experience would have never been possible. I would like
to thank her for her caring, her strength of spirit and support, not only these
months, but my whole life, which has made me the way I am. Also, I would like
to thank my aunt Olga for worrying, caring and asking about me every day.
Thank you all!
ii
Abstract
It can be said that satellites are a proof of technical advance. Their use in
physics, astrophysics, communications, among others, have turned them into a
reliable and unconditional everyday tool. Moreover, nowadays, satellite commu-
nications do not serve mere commercial services but also educational scientific
radio research. This is feasible due to the possibility of building low cost space-
crafts and earth stations for LEO, allowing, for instance, universities to carry out
educational research.
Specifically, Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Communications and
Radio-Frequency Engineering is currently building a ground station that will com-
municate with satellites in LEO at scientific and amateur radio S-band (2.00-
2.45 GHz), as well as in UHF (435-438 MHz) and VHF (144-146 MHz) bands.
The mission and projects supported in the first step by the ground station are
of special scientific interest in the field of asteroseismology, physics and commu-
nications, and highlight the countless possiblities that LEO communications can
offer.
In this thesis, I describe a radio-frequency S-band front-end design and com-
ponent selection of a ground station supporting BRITE Constellation mission,
GENSO project, COROT satellite and MOST project. The ground station is de-
signed to be flexible and open for future add-ons or modifications. Link budgets
and propagation losses are carefully calculated in this thesis, predicting excep-
tional performance in the uplink and downlink of the institute’s ground station.
iii
Resumen
Los satélites son una prueba más del avance tecnológico actual. Su uso en los
campos de la física, la astrofísica y las comunicaciones, entre otros, los ha conver-
tido en utensilios fiables, a la vez que imprescindibles en el día a día. Asímismo,
en la actualidad, las comunicaciones por satélite no sirven únicamente servicios
comerciales, sino que también son aprovechadas por los usuarios amateur (afi-
cionados) y universidades. Este hecho es posible gracias a la opción de construir
satélites de órbita baja y estaciones terrenas de bajo coste, permitiendo, por
ejemplo, que las universidades tengan acceso a este terreno y puedan llevar a
cabo investigaciones con propósitos educacionales.
En concreto, el Instituto de Comunicaciones e Ingeniería de Radiofrecuencia,
de la Universidad de Tecnología de Viena, está construyendo en el edificio de
la facultad de Ingeniería Eléctrica una estación terrena que se comunicará con
satélites de órbita baja en la banda S (2.00-2.45 GHz), tanto en la subbanda cien-
tífica como en la subbanda amateur, así como en las bandas UHF (435-438 MHz)
y VHF (144-146 MHz). Las misiones espaciales soportadas por esta estación ter-
rena, son de especial interés científico en los campos de la asteroseismología, la
física y las comunicaciones, y ponen de manifiesto las numerosas posibilidades
que ofrecen las comunicaciones mediante satélites en órbita baja.
Esta tésis, como parte del proyecto descrito anteriormente llevado a cabo por
la Universidad de Viena, consiste en el diseño de la parte de radiofrecuencia
en banda S y selección final de los componentes de una estación terrena que
se comunicará con los satélites pertenecientes a las misiones de la constelación
BRITE, el proyecto GENSO, el satélite COROT, así y como con el proyecto
MOST. La estación terrena ha sido diseñada de manera que sea flexible y abierta
a futuras modificaciones y características adicionales. Los balances de potencia
y las pérdidas de propagación han sido calculados cuidadosamente en esta tésis,
prediciendo un comportamiento excepcional tanto en enlaces de subida como de
bajada.
iv
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 The Project MOST 2

2.1 MOST Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 MOST Satellite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.3 MOST Orbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.4 MOST Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 The COROT Satellite 4

3.1 COROT Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2 COROT Satellite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.3 COROT Orbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.4 COROT Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4 The BRITE Constellation Mission 7

4.1 BRITE Mission Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.2 BRITE Constellation Satellites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.3 BRITE Orbits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.4 BRITE Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.5 Summary of BRITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5 The GENSO Project 15

5.1 GENSO Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.2 Typical Educational Satellite Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.3 Educational Satellites Orbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.4 Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6 Concept of a Multi-Mission Ground Station 21

6.1 General Concept of a Ground Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.2 Frequency Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.3 Block Diagram of the Ground Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
7 Building Blocks Analysis and Selection 29

7.1 Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
7.2 Feed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.3 Switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.4 Duplex Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
v
Contents
7.5 Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

7.6 Bandpass Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7.7 High Power Amplifiers (HPAs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7.8 Polarization Selectors and Polarization Recovery Units . . . . . . 35
7.9 Upconverters and Downconverters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
7.10 Modulators and Demodulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
7.11 Transceivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7.12 Terminal Node Controllers (TNCs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7.13 Cables and Waveguides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7.14 Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
8 Propagation Losses 39
8.1 Propagation Effects Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
8.2 Propagation Effects at S-Band . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
8.2.1 Ionospheric Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
8.2.2 Tropospheric Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
8.2.3 Local Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
8.2.4 Free Space Path Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
8.3 Cases Under Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
8.4 The BRITE Constellation Propagation Losses . . . . . . . . . . . 48
8.5 The GENSO Project Propagation Losses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
8.6 The COROT Satellite Propagation Losses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
8.7 The MOST Project Propagation Losses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
9 Link Budgets 52
9.1 Link Budget Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
9.1.1 Uplink Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
9.1.2 Downlink Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
9.2 The BRITE Constellation Link Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
9.3 The GENSO Project Link Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
9.4 The COROT Satellite Link Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
9.5 The MOST Project Link Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
9.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
9.7 Intermodulation and Interference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
10 Summary 69
Bibliography A.1
List of Abbreviations B.1
List of Figures C.1
List of Tables D.1
vi
Contents
A Beam Spreading Loss using the ITU Model Ap.1
B Refraction and Fading using the ITU Model Ap.2
C Focusing and Defocusing using the ITU Model Ap.6
D Gaseous Absorption using the ITU Model Ap.7
E Rain Attenuation using the ITU Model Ap.11
vii
Chapter 1
Introduction
Vienna University of Technology has previous experience building successful
ground stations, such as the station for MOST located at the Institute of As-
tronomy of the University of Vienna [?]. This time, the Institute of Commu-
nications and Radio-Frequency Engineering of Viena University of Technology
is determined to have success in a more difficult challenge: building a ground
station that will, not only support MOST, but it will also be capable of holding
communications with the COROT satellite, along with the BRITE Constella-
tion satellites. Moreover, the ground station will be part of the GENSO project,
allowing communications with all satellites operating in the amateur radio S-
Band at 2400-2450 MHz as well as the UHF and VHF amateur radio bands, at
435-438 MHz and 144-146 MHz, respectively.
This thesis will deal with the design of the Radio Frequency (RF) S-Band
front-end of the ground station. In Chapters 2 to 5 the different missions and
projects that will be supported by the earth station will be explained in detail.
Their aim, structure, operating frequencies, data transfer rates and orbits will be
described. Chapter 6 will deal with the general concept of the ground station,
showing the final block diagram of the design and the frequency plan. In the
design of an earth station, each stage of the design has to be carefully carried
out, as every element can affect seriously the whole system. In Chapter 7 each
component will be analysed and justified, deciding which of them are critical to
the design. Finally, actual components will be selected in order to accomplish
the desired task.
The second part of the thesis, Chapters 8 and 9 , will analyse the ground
station’s theoretical performance by means of calculating the propagation losses
and the link budgets for different settings. Calculations will be carried out for
different elevation angles and also for different frequencies and satellite altitudes.
Nevertheless, apart from expecting good results, it should be taken into account
that this station is designed so that it remains flexible, allowing communications
with new satellites to be easily arranged just by incorporating new pipelines to
the existing system.
1
Chapter 2
The Project MOST
2.1 MOST Objectives
The project Microvariability and Oscillations of STars (MOST) is a microsatellite
space telescope mission, managed by the Canadian Space Agency in cooperation
with the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Vienna and the Institute of
Communications and Radio-Frequency Engineering of the Vienna University of
Technology. The mission of the MOST satellite is to monitor the variations in the
stars’ light by observing them for a long period of time (up to 60 days), in contrast
with other space telescopes, which though larger, cannot afford remaining focused
on a single star for such long periods due to the demand for their resources. The
MOST satellite is the first spacecraft dedicated to the study of asteroseismology.
The main goals of the mission are to find out the limit age of nearby stars (that
may lead to an approximation of the age of the Universe), as well as the search
for possible exoplanets [1].
In the past years, the telescope has led to multiple discoveries, as, for instance,
the finding of a new class of variable star: the slowly pulsating B supergiant, or
the detection of abnormal oscillations in certain stars [2],[3].
2.2 MOST Satellite

The satellite is only 65 cm × 65 cm × 30 cm large and weighs less than 60 kg.
Despite its small size (see Figure 2.1), it has a small 15 cm aperture high precision
photometric optical telescope [1] powered by solar panels and steered by a system
of wheels and magnetotorquers which allows the telescope to point, within 10
arcseconds of the desired target, 99% of the observation time [3].
2.3 MOST Orbit

The MOST satellite has a polar sun-synchronous Low Earth Orbit (LEO) of
about 830 km high and with a period of roughly 100 minutes. From that orbit,
the front side of the satellite will have a continuous viewing zone in which the
2
2.4 MOST Communications
Figure 2.1: The MOST Satellite, [2]
target star will be visible for up to 60 days, and the back side will point to the
Sun [3],[1].
2.4 MOST Communications

There are already three ground stations working with the satellite, two in Canada
(Vancouver and Toronto), and one in Austria (Vienna), sited in the Institute of
Astronomy of the Vienna University but property of the Institute of Commu-
nications and Radio-Frequency Engineering of Vienna University of Technology,
that take turns in communicating with the satellite due to their location.
However, although somehow redundant, our new ground station will also sup-
port MOST, as it was not necessary to add many elements to the ground station
in order to be able to support this mission, and, what is more, it may serve as a
back-up station for MOST.
Uplink and downlink communications are held at S-band, see Table 2.1, with
uplink and downlink data rates of 9.6 kBit/s and 38.4 kBit/s, respectively. More-
over, the MOST satellite is available up to 40 minutes per day, per ground station
[3],[1].
Table 2.1: Frequency and data rates of the MOST satellite.
Uplink Downlink
Frequency (GHz) 2.055 2.232
Data Rate (kBit/s) 9.6 38.4
3
Chapter 3
The COROT Satellite
3.1 COROT Objectives
COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits (COROT) is a mission led by the
french national agency, Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), along with
many other collaborators, such as the European Space Agency (ESA) [4]. The
satellite was launched on the 27th December 2006, and it will remain operational
for at least 2 more years, mostly because it has been, so far, tremendously suc-
cessful in its assignments [4, 5].
COROT’s main tasks are:

• To search for exoplanets (precisely rocky planets larger than or equal to
Earth, with short orbit periods, that are outside our solar system) using
the method of planetary transits. This method consists of detecting planets
by detecting the drop, due to the light blocking, in the star’s brightness (the
star that the target planet orbits around) as the planet passes in front of
it. This method reveals both period and size of the exoplanets discovered
[4, 5].
• To study the star’s interior by means of asteroseismology. The ripples
observed on the surface of stars due to acoustic waves generated in their
interior, alter their brightness and allow astronomers to calculate the star’s
precise mass, age and chemical composition [4].
In order not to be blinded by the Sun, as the Sun gets closer to the satellite’s
orbit plane, the spacecraft rotates 180◦ and starts observing the opposite region.
This happens twice per year. Therefore, the year is divided into two six-month
periods of observation (by convention, summer and winter). Every 150 days,
COROT will move to a new field and begin observing again [5, 4].
COROT will observe simultaneously up to 10 stars with magnitudes between
6 and 9 [5] for the asteroseismology mission, and about 12000 less bright stars
(magnitudes between 11 and 16) for the exoplanet search mission.
4
3.2 COROT Satellite
3.2 COROT Satellite

The COROT satellite is composed of a platform (PROTEUS Series) designed for
satellites that operate in LEO, and a payload which is made up of a telescope,
two cameras – one for each of the two mission objectives (exoplanet search and
asteroseimology), and on-board computer processors (see Figure 3.1). The te-
lescope’s field of view is a square of 2.8◦ × 2.8◦ , half used for asteroseismology
and half used in the detection of exoplanets. A prism will be used in order to
separate colours, allowing scientists to study stellar activity during a transit of a
planet. Both goals require the camera to be accurate in order to notice changes
in a star’s light of one part in one hundred thousand. Consequently, an external
panel or shield is placed around the telescope which prevents light pollution from
affecting the telescope [4, 5].
From the satellite’s point of view, the Sun will rotate 1◦ every day. To guarantee
enough power, the solar wing panels will rotate every 14 days [5].
Table 3.1 presents a summary of the main characteristics of the COROT sate-
llite [5].
Figure 3.1: COROT Satellite. [5]
3.3 COROT Orbit

The COROT satellite describes a polar inertial circular orbit with 90◦ inclination
at an altitude of 896 km [5]. If placed at a higher altitude, the satellite would
5
3.4 COROT Communications
Table 3.1: Summary of the main characteristics of the COROT satellite.
Satellite Specification Value

Mass 630 kg
Payload Mass 300 kg
Length 4100 mm
Diameter 1984 mm
Power 530 W
Pointing accuracy 0.5 arcsec
suffer from the solar radiation, and, if placed lower, the instruments would suffer
from the reflection of the solar light on the Earth. Moreover, by means of having
a polar orbit, the orbit plane will keep a constant position with respect to the
target stars.
3.4 COROT Communications

Several ground stations are distributed in different geographical places around
the world. Some of them with an specific task to carry out, and others just as
secondary stations. For instance, the MOST ground station in Vienna acts as a
secondary station for COROT.
COROT will only have a downlink in Vienna, at about 2.3 GHz. Both, Right
Hand Circular Polarization (RHCP) and Left Hand Circular Polarization (LHCP)
are available, and the modulation used is Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK).
High data rates, close to 1 Mbit/s, are feasible.
6
Chapter 4
The BRITE Constellation Mission
4.1 BRITE Mission Objectives
Massive luminous stars, or bright stars, are still one of the most mysterious
components of our Universe [6]. These stars are among the least understood
due to their rapid rotation, strong radiation pressure and stellar wind [7]. Their
life cycle, their rotation and convection, their history, along with their age could
be studied by means of asteroseismology [8]. The importance of these massive
stars lies on the fact that they dominate the ecology of the Universe [8], so,
consequently, scientists are eager to measure their variable behaviour in order to
explore how they work inside. These massive stars are hotter, develop faster and
die earlier [8] with a longer-period variability. Therefore, long observations of at
least three months and at least at two different epochs [9], should be carried out.
The BRIght Target Explorer (BRITE) Constellation mission consists of a group
of Austrian/Canadian nanosatellites that help answering some of the questions
arisen about this topic by means of precise differential photometry [10].
Why a constellation and not a single satellite?

There are several reasons for having more than one satellite. Having multiple
satellites observing the same region of interest will increase the overall duty cycle
of observation compared to having one satellite, as, in case of having just one
satellite, for some period of time, the Earth would occult the zone of interest not
allowing a continuous observation of the region. In contrast, having two satellites
in two slightly different orbits with different viewing times for the same region
will double the duty cycle.
Furthermore, if we group the satellites in pairs and we place a telescope in each
satellite prepared to work in only one colour filter, different in each member of a
pair, then, by collecting colour as well as intensity data, the science capacity is
greatly improved [6] as the spectrum range is increased.
The BRITE Constellation will consist of four LEO nanosatellites in the be-
ginning, divided into pairs, both members of a pair with similar orbits, each
member with different filter colour and each pair with different orbit, whose ob-
jective will be to take images (at least 10 times more precise than achievable
using ground-based telescopes), for time periods up to 100 days or even longer,
7
4.1 BRITE Mission Objectives
allowing measurements of stellar variability on the order of hours to months. The

satellites should be able to detect oscillation differences in the order of two parts
in 10−5 with a Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) greater than 2 [10]. To do so, an op-
tical, small (3 cm) aperture telescope will collect the light for a camera equipped
with a CMOS detector. These telescopes will have a big field of view of about 24
degrees across that will result in images containing from 2 up to 15 (on average
4 stars) of the 286 bright stars under study1 (see Figure 4.1) [9]. Having multi-
ple bright stars will allow high precision differential brightness measurements of
these stars, accurate to at least 0.1% per sample [6, 10]. If we assume a mission
lifetime of three years, at least a dozen satellites would be needed to observe
all those stars of interest. However, BRITE will carefully select a subsample of
them so that they truly represent the entire group in order to be able to obtain
interesting scientific conclusions out of them.
Figure 4.1: The number of stars to +3.5 magnitude in 25 degrees of field view for
BRITE. [6]
These satellites will use new technologies including reaction wheels, a star
tracker and an optical telescope with a CMOS detector that is compatible with
nanosatellite size and power restrictions, all together designed to fit in the Uni-
versity of Toronto Space Flight Laboratory (SFL)’s 5 kg, 20 cm × 20 cm × 20 cm
CanX nanosatellite bus [11].
The first Austrian satellite, funded by the Austrian Space Program, known
as TUGSAT-1/BRITE-Austria, builds upon the technology of the CanX-2 [7]
1
The stars under study are those brighter than visual magnitude of 3.5
8
4.2 BRITE Constellation Satellites
incorporating a high-performance Attitude Control System (ACS). It was desig-

nated CanX-3 by the SFL [8, 11]. The other three satellites that will make up
the constellation are the UniBRITE satellite from the University of Vienna, and
BRITE-Toronto and BRITE-Montreal from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
which are currently under review. Both UniBRITE and BRITE-Austria are ex-
pected to be lauched in early 2011 [9], representing the first pair of satellites in
orbit. The main difference between them will be the filters. A blue filter, rang-
ing from about 380 nm to 550 nm will be implemented in one of the satellites,
whilst a red filter, ranging from about 550 nm to 850 nm, will be implemented
in the other satellite. The filters were selected according to asteroseismological
and astrophysical needs.
Is BRITE a mere copy or improvement of MOST?

Although both, BRITE and MOST, are missions whose objective is to observe
and measure characteristics of stars, among others, they were built to analyze
different type of stars. MOST project’s target are miniscule asteroseismic oscil-
lations of Solar-type stars, while BRITE is focused on the study of massive stars.
Therefore, they can be considered as complementary satellite missions.
Moreover, regarding their structure, the MOST satellite utilizes an instrument
whose field of view (approximately 0.8 degrees) is too narrow to obtain simul-
taneous observations of multiple stars that are far apart in the sky in order to
improve accuracy.
Last but not least, the MOST bus was designed to keep one face pointing
towards the Sun. That means that the targets within the viewing face zone cannot
be observed for more than 7 weeks without being obscured by the Earth. As a
result, characterisation of long-period variability of stars, which is the variablity
expected in many of the brightest stars and one of BRITE’s main objectives, is
not possible with MOST, as the duration of the observations is not long enough
to accomplish this aim [10].

The BRITE Constellation of satellites will be composed by four vitually identical
nanosatellites that will use the Generic Nanosatellite Bus (GNB) developed by
SFL. The GNB is a modular spacecraft bus design that provides all basic satellite
functionality and incorporates a direct energy-transfer solar power system [6].
Each satellite will comprise the following subsystems [12]:
9
Structural Subsystem
Each satellite has a cubic structure with a size of 20 cm × 20 cm × 20 cm, made

of aluminium which is nickel-plated (see Figure 4.2), and a weight between 5 and
7 kg [8, 11, 9].
Figure 4.2: Structure of a BRITE Satellite. [12]
Thermal Subsystem
Thermal control is provided through passive measures with the help of sensors.
Thermal coatings and tapes are applied on every panel of the cube. This will keep
the average temperature between 10◦ C and 30◦ C. The thermal control of individ-
ual components is achieved by means of thermal isolation and heat sinking [9, 12].
Attitude Determination and Control (ADC) Subsystem
Accurate determination and control are needed in order to fulfill the mission
requirements. This accuracy will be fulfilled by means of actuators and sensors
(see Figure 4.3), such as the new Dynacon’s NanoWheel system, that includes
three reaction wheels and three orthogonal magnetorquer coils which allow 3-axis
stability control to the level of 1 arcminute rms, and momentum dumping. An
attitude determination of 10 arcseconds will be provided through a magnetometer
and sun sensors, which will enable BRITE to be one of the first operational space
science nanosatellites. The satellite will also house a miniaturized star tracker
integrated with the instrument. All this equipment will allow control accuracy
better than a degree [7, 9].
10
Figure 4.3: Attitude control hardware of the BRITE satellite. [8]
Power Subsystem
The power required for the satellites will be obtained through solar cells that
will convert light into electrical energy. This energy will be stored in batteries
so that energy is available in eclipse phases. On average, 6 W of energy will be
generated [7, 12] with a maximum of 10 W [6].
On-board Computer Subsystem
The satellite will carry three computers [12, 7]:

• One computer will control the payload, i.e. the photometer.
• A second computer will carry out the housekeeping tasks.
• Finally, a third computer will control the ADC system.
The whole subsystem will ensure functionality in case of failure of one of the
computers, such as decodification of Earth commands, control of the various
subsystems and telemetry, and forwarding of the data to the communication
subsystem for downloading.
Serial links using robust, reliable protocols will be used to connect the different
computers.
Communication Subsystem
The communication subsystem is responsible for receiving commands from the

ground stations and transmitting data and telemetry back to Earth. Two patch
antennas, shown in Figure 4.4, and a Ultra High Frequency (UHF) receiver are
mounted in the satellite.
11
4.3 BRITE Orbits
Figure 4.4: Patch antennas mounted on the BRITE satellites. [12]
Payload
As mentioned before, the satellite will carry a photometer instrument that

will capture images of bright massive stars. This telescope will have only 30 mm
of diameter and a maximum length of 100 mm, but a wide field of view. It
will consist of a CMOS detector coupled with a lens system designed to provide
the accuracy required. Moreover, the filters needed in order to take images in
different spectrums, were designed so that, for a star of 10000 K (which is the
average temeperature of the target type of stars), both filters would generate the
same amount of signal on the detector, with a maximum transmission of 95% [9].
Up to 12 rasters will be taken per image of up to 10 x 20 pixels each [10], and
only sub-rasters of the whole image will be downloaded for further analysis [7].
In Figure 4.5 we can see how all these components are integrated in the small
GNB spacecraft.
4.3 BRITE Orbits

The satellites’ orbit will be polar sun-synchronous, with a height of approximately
900 km [12], that will lead to a 100 minute orbit period. During this period,
one sample image of at least one target field should be taken. Orbits without
observations should not exceed 20% of all orbits, and should never exceed 2 days
of duration [10].
4.4 BRITE Communications

BRITE satellites will allow full duplex communications with the ground stations
[6]. All the satellites will use the same available set of frequencies. Uploading
commands and software from Earth will be transmitted in the UHF band by
means of four pre-deployed rod antennas in the satellite. The uplink data rate
12
4.5 Summary of BRITE
Figure 4.5: Components of the GNB BRITE satellite. [12]
will be nominally 4 kbit/s using Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) mod-
ulation [6, 7]. The downlink communications will be carried out in the S-band
[6]. The S-band antennas will consist of two patch antennas mounted in oppo-
site sides of the satellite. The antennas will be fed in phase with equal signals.
This configuration will provide a near omnidirectional pattern. Finally, circular
polarisation will be used [7].
Data will be downloaded at a nominal rate of 32 kbit/s, although, in case of
ground stations with a high figure of merit, higher rates (up to 256 kbit/s) are
possible [12, 7]. The daily average downlink volume of scientific data can reach
6 Mbytes [10], however, typically it is around 2 Mbytes [12]. For data downlink,
a Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation scheme will be used, just like
MOST. Therefore, the same demodulator can be used for both missions [13].
Telemetry data will be transmitted in the S-band to the ground station, and
in UHF from the ground station to the satellite. The amount of telemetry data
sent per day will be at least 180 kByte [7].

In Table 4.1 we can see a summary of the main characteristics of the BRITE
satellites’ structure and communication capabilities [12, 9].
13
Table 4.1: Summary of the main characteristics of the BRITE satellites.
Satellite Specification Value

Volume 20 cm × 20 cm × 20 cm
Mass 6 kg
Attitude Determination 10 arcseconds
Attitude Control Accuracy better than 1◦
Attitude Control Stability 1 arcminute
Power 5.4 W to 10 W
Transmitting Power 0.5 W
Frequency Ranges (data and telemetry) S-band (downlink), UHF (uplink)
Data Downlink Rate 32 kbit/s to 256 kbit/s
Modulation Downlink BPSK
Data Uplink Rate 4 kbit/s
Modulation Uplink GMSK
Data Volume per Day 2 MByte to 6 MByte
Polarisation Circular Polarisation
14
Chapter 5
The GENSO Project
5.1 GENSO Objectives
The Global Educational Network for Satellite Operators (GENSO) project is a
worldwide project which may have a great impact on the current concept of com-
munication with educational satellites. GENSO can be regarded as a software
package for ground station computers that allows interaction between different
ground stations. This will be possible by connecting the ground stations via the
internet so that, for instance, someone in America can use remotely a ground
station in Europe in order to communicate with a certain satellite [14, 15].
The idea of this global network was first discussed in the Ground Station Net-
work Conference in Tokyo, Japan, in July 2006. Soon after, the ESA and the
International Space Education Board (ISEB) accepted the proposal and GENSO
was born [15]. Currently, the project counts with numerous collaborators, par-
ticularly universities.
Generally, educational scientific satellites are small satellites that operate on low
power budgets. It’s structure is similar to that of amateur satellites due to their
low cost, and usually they use the same frequency bands. Their hardware is not
intended to resist high radiations, so therefore, they usually operate in LEOs. As
a result, the operable time per orbit that the satellite is available is just a few
minutes [15, 16]. This fact limits the amount of data that can be exchanged with
the satellite, since increasing the data rate is not a feasible possibility for these
small satellites. Furthermore, as a consequence of the small amount of time that
the satellite is visible for the ground station, most of the time the ground station
would be in an idle state, that is, wasting its capacity [17].
By means of GENSO, the availability of satellites and the ground stations’ effi-
ciency can be drastically increased. If multiple ground stations were used to
receive data from a single spacecraft, the data throughput of that satellite would
be positively influenced. In order to do this, GENSO will link multiple ground
stations around the world through the internet using an open source software,
creating a sense of global coverage.
15
However, increasing the data throughput is not the only scope of the project.
Availability of remote uplink through trusted third party ground stations, def-
inition of an optional standard solution for the ground-segment hardware, and
downlink error correction are other objectives of this ambitious project.
In addition, another important goal of the GENSO project is to encourage stu-
dents to continue their education in the radio amateur domain [15, 14].
Mostly, GENSO will connect educational scientific ground stations, which usually
work in amateur radio frequency bands. Consequently, the project will focus on
packages that support the amateur frequency bands to start with. However, there
are no real restrictions on frequencies, nor restrictions on modulation schemes,
operational modes or equipment, since new drivers can easily be distributed [15].
The GENSO network consists mainly of three components [15, 14, 17] (see also
Figure 5.1):
Central Server or AUthentication Server (AUS). The central server would

perform authentication of the nodes in the network as well as encryption,
acting as a supervisor of the network, and distributing the information
(satellite lists and statistics) to the nodes when required. Currently, it is
located at Vienna University of Technology.
Ground Station Server (GSS). The ground station server is sited in the ground
station and controls the connected antennas, TNCs and radio in order to
move the rotators and tune the radio remotely.
Mission Control Client (MCC). The mission control client is an application
used by satellite operators to control the network’s management of the
satellite.
In other words, by means of the MCC, a satellite operator will tell the GSS
relevant information about the satellite, such as mode, frequencies, etc. Each
spacecraft will have one MCC, however, there is no need to place it in the satellite,
but it can be located on any computer connected to the internet. As soon as the
AUS authenticates the registration on the network, the MCC will get a ground
station server list (GSSL), which includes all the available ground stations, their
location, frequencies, among other necessary data. Once registered, the MCC
is responsible of keeping the AUS up to date. If a GSS wants to register on
the network, it would log on to the AUS to get the Participating Spacecraft
List (PSL). This list contains all the data from the available spacecrafts, such as
status, frequency, and Keplerian elements, as well as the satellite MCC encryption
keys so that the GSS can contact the satellite’s MCC to transfer downlink data
[14, 15].
In order to start up the GENSO network, AMSAT-UK has developed a stan-
dard ground station hardware which includes common commercial elements [16].
16
GENSO
GSS MCC
Internet
AUS
Figure 5.1: Components of a GENSO network.
However, the hardware supported is not restricted to the standard, as new soft-
ware drivers of other devices can be written and added.
A diagram of a standard ground station is shown in Figure 5.2 below, where the
connection of the GSS to the TNC and the tranceiver is shown.
Audio Data
Transceiver TNC GSS
Control
Figure 5.2: Diagram of a standard GENSO ground station.
Nevertheless, if any individual amateur radio operator would like at any mo-
ment to use their ground station as they did in the past, there is an option to
disconnect definitely or temporarily from the GENSO network, and reconnect it,
if wanted, once they are ready again.
17
5.2 Typical Educational Satellite Features
5.2 Typical Educational Satellite Features

Satellites can be classified according to their mass, as large, medium or small.
Most educational scientific satellites belong to the small satellite category, This
category can, in turn, be divided into subcategories, as shown in Table 5.1.
Table 5.1: Classification of small satellites.
Subcategory Mass
Minisatellite 100-500 kg
Microsatellite 10-100 kg
Nanosatellite 1-10 kg
Picosatellite 0.1-1 kg
Microsatellites (or Microsats) (see Figure 5.3) and nanosatellites are the most
common among the academic and amateur spacecrafts, as universities cannot
afford big satellites that cost a lot to produce and put on orbit. However, nowa-
days, it is common to find cubesats [18]. Cubesats are 10 cm cubic spacecrafts
originally developed by the Stanford University in California and California Poly-
technic State University. They have the advantage (due to their small size) of
sharing a common launcher so that 3 to 6 cubesats can be launched at the same
time, and therefore, decreasing the launching costs [19].
Figure 5.3: AMSAT-OSCAR 51 (Echo AO-51) microsatellite. [19]
5.3 Educational Satellites Orbit

Due to their small size, educational satellites usually have low power available.
Moreover, the launch costs in order to put a satellite in a high orbit are signif-
icant and would need the spacecrafts to be able to support more radiation. In
18
5.4 Communications
contrast, lower orbits have the advantage of suffering from less propagation de-
lay. Therefore, small satellites are usually placed in low orbits between 400 and
2000 km with high inclination or polar orbits [19].
Yet, placing the satellites in LEO has a big disadvantage: the satellite is most
of the time out of the line of sight of the ground station antenna (pass times
range from 12 to 22 minutes). Furthermore, in order to increase the coverage,
many satellites are needed, as the footprint of a single LEO satellite is too small.
5.4 Communications
Over the years, technology has evolved forcing the utilizable frequency spectrum
to extend (higher frequencies became necessary) so that new amateur satellite ser-
vices could be allocated. Educational satellites usually operate at amateur radio
frequencies as they cannot afford their own frequency allocations. In Table 5.2
we can see the most common amateur satellite frequency bands.
Table 5.2: Common amateur satellite frequency allocations.
Band Frequencies (MHz) Approximate Wavelength

VHF 144–146 2m
UHF 435–438 70 cm
L-Band 1260–1270 23 cm
S-Band 2400–2450 13 cm
The combination of uplink frequency, downlink frequency, and transmission

mode are all lumped together into satellite modes.
In the table below, there is a list of common satellite modes used by amateur
satellites.
Each band in Table 5.2 can be used for both downlink and uplink, however it
is common to have dual frequencies that operate simultaneously [19]. However,
you can also find satellites operating simultaneously at L-Band and S-Band.
Table 5.3: Common amateur satellite modes.
Traditional Mode Designator New Mode Designator Downlink Uplink

B V/U 70 cm 2m
J U/V 2 m 70 cm
S S/U 70 cm 13 cm
Our ground station, will be able to use 2m/70cm/13cm bands for downlink
and uplink, therefore it will work for every satellite operating on modes U, V and
S.
19
5.4 Communications
Regarding the modulation schemes, amateur satellites commonly use frequency

modulations, such as Frequency Modulation (FM) or Frequency Shift Keying
(FSK). Data rates vary remarkably with bandwidth and modulation used. Nor-
mally, nominal data rates of 1200 baud, 9600 baud, and up to 78400 baud are used
[19, 20]. However, higher rates are also possible.
20
Chapter 6
Concept of a Multi-Mission Ground
Station
6.1 General Concept of a Ground Station
A ground station is a terrestrial terminal station used in communicating with
spacecrafts and/or satellites. Its location is usually on the surface of the Earth,
however, it can be located within the Earth’s atmosphere too [21]. A telecom-
munication link between a satellite and the ground station is achieved by trans-
mitting and receiving radio waves in high frequency bands when the satellite is
within the ground station’s line of sight.
Our ground station should be able to support different missions in LEO as well
as being flexible for future modifications. Therefore, in order to achieve this and
keep it simple, the ground station can be divided into three segments or layers
[22] (see Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.2):
Front End Segment The front end segment contains all the equipment ope-
rating at RF down to the first intermediate frequency [23], including the
antenna and rotators.
Signal Processing Segment The signal processing segment is also called back
end [23]. It includes the elements and converters between the analog and
the digital domains, as, for instance, the tranceivers, modems and TNCs.
Data Processing Segment This subsytem is in charge of the specific data pro-
cessing carried out usually by Personal Computer (PC)s.
21
FRONT END
SIGNAL PROCESSING
DATA PROCESSING
Figure 6.1: Division of a ground station into three segments.
S-Band UHF-Band VHF-Band
Converters Tranceivers (De)modulators
Computer
Figure 6.2: Overview of the three segments of a ground station.
22
In the case of our ground station, it will support Very High Frequency (VHF),
UHF and S-Band communications (see Table 6.1) and will allow both transmi-
ssion and reception.
Table 6.1: Scientific bands and frequencies of interest for the ground station.
Band (MHz) Frequencies of Interest (MHz) Reference Wavelength

VHF 30 – 300 144-146 2m
UHF 300 – 3000 430-440 70 cm
S-Band 2000 – 4000 2000–2450 13 cm
Moreover, taking a closer look on these three segments, Figure 6.3, shows how
the ground station’s blocks can be easily classified to fit into each of these seg-
ments and can be considered as independent subsystems.
Polarization
Filter LNA
Recovery Unit
Duplexer
Polarization
Filter HPA
Selector
Up-
Converter
Transceiver Modem TNC

Down-
Converter
Internet
Figure 6.3: A closer look into the three segments.
According to other publications [24], in which, a reference model is proposed in

order to simplify the specification of the ground station’s capabilities, the signal
processing segment would correspond to the transmit and receive pipelines, and,
the data processing segment would implement the session level and some master
group tasks.
However, a ground station system is not only composed of the communication-
devoted system, but of other sections which make communication possible.
23
Tracking
System
Polarization
Control
Weather
Protection
GROUND-
STATION
Lightning Power
Protection Supply
&
Control
Rotator
&
Controller
Figure 6.4: Other subsystems of a ground station.
As can be seen in Figure 6.4, these include, but are not limited to,
• a polarization controller which enables the user to choose a polarization
between horizontal linear, vertical linear, right handed circular (RHCP)
and left handed circular (LHCP),
• a lightning protection system that protects the station from electric over-
load,
• a rotator and its controller to position the antenna towards the desired
satellite,
• a tracking system that provides the antenna with the capability of following
the satellites to enable communication,
• a power supply and a control system to provide the adequate power needed
for operating,
• and finally, a weather protection unit that, for instance, forces the antenna
to stay in rest position during strong winds or snow storms.
24
6.2 Frequency Plan
6.2 Frequency Plan

The first step in order to design the ground station was making a frequency plan,
where the bandwidth needed could be seen, as well as the frequency separation
between the different missions and the possible combination of them in uplink
and downlink. Table 6.2 shows the compilation of the uplink and downlink fre-
quencies used in the missions accomplished in the ground station.
Table 6.2: Frequencies of the satellite missions considered.
Mission Uplink (MHz) Downlink (MHz)

BRITE 437 2200
146
COROT – 2300
2300–2450 2300–2450
GENSO 435–438 435–438
144–146 144–146
MOST 2055 2232
However, the objective of this thesis was to design the S-band front-end of the
ground station. Therefore, the only frequencies to take into account are the ones
in the S-band that are shown in the Table 6.3, which are, naturally, included in
the frequencies that our ground station will support, according to the Table 6.1.
Within the S-band amateur radio frequency bandwidth, the band that is generally
used is 2400-2450 MHz. Therefore, the design of the ground station will focus on
these frequencies for GENSO, as shown in the table below.
Table 6.3: Frequencies in the S-Band.
Mission Uplink (MHz) Downlink (MHz)

BRITE – 2200
COROT – 2300
GENSO 2400–2450 2400–2450
MOST 2055 2232
As a suitable solution of an implementation of this ground station, a switch

can be used to select between GENSO and non-GENSO. COROT, BRITE and
MOST use the scientific bands, while GENSO uses the amateur frequency bands.
On the one hand, a duplex filter will separate the transmit and receive bands
25
6.3 Block Diagram of the Ground Station
for non-GENSO frequencies enabling full duplex communication in the scientific

bands. Then, another switch will be placed to select between COROT, BRITE
and MOST.
For GENSO, full duplex communication is not possible, forcing to select be-
tween reception and transmission at a given moment.
In the Figure 6.5 below, an outline of the ground station is shown, without go-
ing into details describing the transmission and reception pipelines of the different
satellite missions.
GENSO RX
2.40 – 2.45 GHz
GENSO TX
GENSO RX COROT
NON-GENSO 2.20 – 2.30 GHz

RX BRITE
RX
RX MOST
DUPLEX
FILTER
COROT, BRITE, MOST
TX
TX MOST
2.03 – 2.11 GHz
Figure 6.5: Ground Station S-Band Outline.

As described in the previous section, by means of switches, the different options
can be selected easily. The design had to be kept simple, modular and efficient.
For instance, the same demodulator can be used for BRITE, COROT and MOST
when receiving, reducing the complexity of the ground station block diagram and
increasing its efficiency as it is shown in Figure 6.6.
A distinction is also made between the elements situated at the antenna mounting
place (i.e. outside), the elements that are located on the roof but not outside (in
an electrical cabinet), and, finally, the elements that are sited in a room inside the
building. This way, the duplex filters, the filters and the LNAs will be mounted
26
along with the feed in the parabolic dish focus to minimize losses because of long
cables (see Section 7.13) . The polarization recovery unit, the polarization selec-
tor, the HPAs, the transmission filters and the up- and downconverters will be
situated in a cabinet on the roof (see Chapter 7). The rest will be located inside
the building as the losses in the cables after the downconverter and before the
upconverter have not so strong impact on the SNR and, furthermore, the ground
station data processing segment is more convenient to be located inside.
Double components are used in the outside elements due to the dual polari-
zation ability of the feed. Both vertical and horizontal linear polarizations are
available until the polarization recovery unit selects the wanted one.
27
VHF/UHF
Filter Polarization 140 MHz
Downcon
2400 – LNA Recovery
2450 MHz verter
Unit
RX Rx
TNC
Transciever + GENSO
Modem
GENSO
TX Tx
Polarization Filter Upconv
2400 – HPA
Selector erter
Figure 6.6: Ground station S-band diagram.
2450 MHz 140 MHz UHF Transciever
Feed
TNC
+ BRITE
Modem
COROT
BRITE COROT
MOST BRITE

RX MOST
2.20 – 2.30 GHz
Polarization 140 MHz

Duplex Downconv
LNA Recovery Modem COROT
Parabolic Dish Filter erter
Unit
TX MOST
2.03 – 2.11 GHz
Azimut / 140 MHz

Elevation Polarizatio Filter Upconv
2030 – HPA Modem TNC MOST
Rotator n Selector 2110 MHz
erter
Rotator
Controller
28
Outside
Internet
Roof / Elect. Cabinet
Inside
Chapter 7
Building Blocks Analysis and
Selection
When designing a ground station, every component has to be carefully analysed
and selected in order to obtain a good overall quality, minimum losses and a
reasonable cost. Some components are more critical than others but all of them
are necessary, affect the other components and have a specific task that will be
explained along this chapter. All these components are shown in Figure 6.6 in
Section 6.3.
7.1 Antenna
For satellite communications a high directivity and a high gain are needed. More-
over, full duplex operation should be provided. In this case, a parabolic dish is
the best option. Parabolic dishes have an acceptable dimension at microwave
frequencies regarding gain, a reasonable bandwidth and, profitably, as their dia-
meter increase, so does their gain [25, 26, 27]:
2
π·D
G= ·η (7.1)
λ
where D is the dish diameter in meters, λ is the wavelength in meters, and η is
the total efficiency.
In addition, another feature is that the Half Power Beam Width (HPBW), is
inversely proportional to the diameter [25, 26, 27].
21
HP BW = (7.2)
D·f
where f is the frequency in GHz and the result is in degrees.
The total efficiency is a combination of different efficiencies, η = ηr · ηat · ηs · ηo
[28, 29], where:
• ηr , is the radiation efficiency, which deals with the ohmic losses. Due to
the fact that the feed usually doesn’t have many losses and the reflector is
29
7.1 Antenna
typically metallic with high conductivity, this efficiency can be considered

as 1.
• ηat , is the aperture tapper efficiency and measures the uniformity of the
electric field across the reflector, which tends to decrease as we move away
from the main axis, leading to a reduction in the gain.
• ηs , is the spillover efficiency and measures how much radiation is actually
being reflected, as some of it overflow the reflector. See Figure 7.1.
• ηo , includes all other effects that affect the total effciency, such as, the
surface error, the aperture blockage, the cross polarization, and the non-
ideal feed center.
Reflector
Surface
Spillover
Focal Point
Aproximated
Radiation
Pattern
Figure 7.1: Losses due to spillover.
The efficiency improves, as well as the cross polarization, as the ratio F/D
between the focal distance, F, and the diameter of the dish, D, increases [30].
However, the spillover gets worse. So we reach a tradeoff situation. And, when
30
7.2 Feed
increasing the diameter in order to improve gain, windloading, rotator apparatus,

and mounting structure should be taken into account.
Typically, parabolic reflectors have a total efficiency between 55–75%, a F/D
ratio between 0.3–1, and a gain between 30–40 dB [26, 27].
Furthermore, the ground station will use Kepler elements to predict where the
satellite is expected to be and will point the antenna towards it using motors
that drive it from position to position. These motors and servos should provide
enough power to overcome inertia and friction.
For our ground station, a 3.65 m parabolic dish with F/D = 0.4, was chosen.
Regarding the frequencies that it will work at, and an efficiency of about 55%, it
should provide a gain of about 38 dB.
7.2 Feed
The feed is one of the most important parts of an antenna system. It doesn’t usu-
ally introduce much gain but it should illuminate the dish properly when placed
at the adequate focal distance. This focal distance depends on the reflector’s F/D
ratio, so the feed should, therefore, match with the selected reflector. Ideally, the
feed should illuminate the dish at the edges 10 dB below that in the center [31].
Moreover, the narrower the beamwidth of the antenna, the better, as it will
suffer from less interference from the ground due to reflected RF energy and
signal blockage [32].
Usually, horns are used, however, depending on the F/D ratio, different feeds
can be easily built to match the reflector appropiately. In our case, the optimal
F/D ratio regarding the dish selected would be 0.4, as mentioned before.
7.3 Switches
RF switches were necessary in my design of the ground station in order to keep
the design modular and simple. Nevertheless, splitters could also have been used
in some cases, with the disadvantage of higher losses, but with the advantage of
enabling, for instance, parallely feeding components and monitoring the signal
at the same time [22]. The switches are typically mechanical so they provide full
bandwidth operation with minimum insertion loss.
31
7.4 Duplex Filter
7.4 Duplex Filter

The duplex filter is a passive filter that avoids the transmit pipeline signal to get
into the receiver pipeline, but allows full duplex operation with the antenna, as
shown in Figure 7.2. Full duplex operation entails receiving and transmitting at
the same time.
Typically, in the pass bands, it introduces an insertion loss between 0.1 and
1 dB and, in any case, a high rejection out of bands.
Scientific Amateur
Band Band
___
Duplex
2.20 – 2.30 GHz Filter 2.03 – 2.11 GHz
f f
Scientific Reception Scientific Transmission

Pipeline Pipeline
(MOST, COROT, BRITE) (MOST)
Figure 7.2: The duplex filter of our ground station.
In the case of our ground station, it will separate the scientific transmission
pipeline, from the reception pipeline, enabling full duplex operation in the scien-
tific band. The duplex filter will be one of the first components in our reception
pipeline, so it is desirable to have a low insertion loss in order to minimize the noise
temperature. Therefore, a duplex filter from General Dynamics (see Table 7.1)
with only 0.1 dB insertion loss was selected.
Table 7.1: Duplex filter selected.
Manufacturer General Dynamics

Model 112225-01
Passband 1 2025–2120 MHz
Rejection out of Bands 80 dB
Insertion Loss 0.1 dB
32
7.5 LNAs
7.5 LNAs
The LNA’s function is to amplify the incoming RF signal that arrives with low
power before the consecutive stages add more noise, provided that the LNA adds
very little noise itself. It should be placed as close to the antenna as possible in
order to have the highest signal possible.
Owing to the fact that the LNA is one of the first blocks in the receive pipeline,
it will be determinant in the whole system’s noise figure, therefore, a low noise
figure for this device is crucial. Furthermore, a high gain is necessary to provide
the following stages with enough signal power level to be able to process the
signal. Naturally, it should have a suitable bandwidth regarding the operating
RF band.
In addition, the input and the output impedances should be matched with
the previous and the following stage, respectively. Usually, Rin = Rout = 50 Ω.
Moreover, it would be convenient that the LNA has enough linearity and a high
third-order interception point, in order to have a large dynamic range at the
input.
However, all these characteristics are not achievable at the same time, so a
compromised solution should be reached.
Some typical values are shown in the table below, Table 7.2:
Table 7.2: Typical LNA values.
Feature Typical Value

Noise Figure 1 dB
Gain 30 dB
Third-Order Interception Point −10 dBm
For the GENSO receiving pipeline, the LNA described in Table 7.3, was chosen:
Table 7.3: GENSO selected LNA.
Manufacturer Ciao Wireless

Model CA23-3034
Noise Figure 0.7 dB
Gain 32 dB
On the other hand, for the scientific reception pipeline, i.e. COROT, BRITE
and MOST, the LNA selected was the one described in Table 7.4 with a different
frequency pass band but similar noise figure.
33
7.6 Bandpass Filters
Table 7.4: Scientific band selected LNA.
Manufacturer Kuhne Electronic

Model 222 AH HEMT
Noise Figure 0.5 dB
Gain 30 dB
7.6 Bandpass Filters

Bandpass filters were placed in front of the LNA’s and after the HPA’s. As men-
tioned before, the filters in front of the LNA’s were used to avoid the saturation
of the LNA and should have a low noise figure, as it affects the system’s noise
critically.
For the scientific reception band1 , the duplex filter already filters most of the
unwanted frequencies, so a bandpass filter following the duplex filter would not
be necessary.
Regarding the filters following the HPA’s, these limit the frequency band of the
last output spectrum reducing the emissions produced by the amplifier’s non-
linearity [32].
The chosen bandpass filters are shown in Table 7.5. For GENSO reception
pipeline, the filter was selected according to its insertion loss, due to the fact
that this component is one of the first in the reception chain and so, therefore,
affects remarkably the system noise temperature.
Table 7.5: Selected filters for the ground station.
MOST TX GENSO RX GENSO TX

Manufacturer General Dynamics Miteq Delta Microwave
Model 112084-01 FCL4-2400-100 S1571
Bandpass (MHz) 2025–2120 2340–2470 2400–2485
Rejection out bands (dB) 120 80 90
Insertion Loss (dB) 0,1 0,5 1
7.7 HPAs
In the transmission pipelines, the power has to be adjusted so that it is enough to
reach the satellite with a reasonable level and to compensate losses in the S-band
1
Reception of COROT, BRITE and MOST
34
7.8 Polarization Selectors and Polarization Recovery Units
satellite systems [32]. These power amplifiers provide the necessary gain, mini-
mum RF loss and undesired interaction among the RF signals in order to fulfil
this requirement. It is the most critical active component in transmission. Typ-
ically, for the LEO S-Band, 50 W output power from these amplifiers is enough
[1], although we can find amplifiers that provide up to 130 W.
For our ground station, two HPAs were needed, one for the MOST transmission
pipeline, and another one for GENSO. The chosen amplifiers are specified in
Table 7.6.
Table 7.6: Selected HPAs for the ground station.
MOST GENSO
Manufacturer Empower RF Sys Empower RF Sys
Model 4026-GCS5A5DMP 4053-GCS5I5KRR
Bandpass (MHz) 2025–2120 2400–2500
Noise Figure (dB) 7 7
Gain (dB) 52 56
Output IP3 (dBm) 60 65
1 dB Compression Point (dBm) 50 56
Saturated Output Power (dBm) 52.04 57
7.8 Polarization Selectors and Polarization

Recovery Units
The ground station will be able to transmit in linear polarization and circular
polarization by means of a dual polarized feed. Both horizontal and vertical
polarizations are available and can be combined to produce circular polarization.
With the polarization selector, the desired transmitting polarization is chosen.
In reception, arbitrary polarizations states will be received but can be recovered
by combining the two available linear orthogonal polarization states by means of
the polarization recovery unit.
7.9 Upconverters and Downconverters

Up- and down-converters provide a frequency translation between an Interme-
diate Frequency (IF) (typically 140 MHz), and the actual uplink and downlink
frequencies, respectively. Its structure is shown in Figure 7.3.
For GENSO, the same Local Oscillator (LO) is used for both downconverter
and upconverter. For the scientific band, the LO can also be shared between
35
7.10 Modulators and Demodulators
S-Band input IF output DOWNCONVERTER
IF input S-band output UPCONVERTER
Phase-locked
oscillator
N Multiplier
Fixed frequency
crystal
reference
Figure 7.3: A fixed-frequency converter used in Earth Stations.
uplink and downlink pipelines. Moreover, some converters may be included just
as a module to be attached to the transceiver.
The upconverter and downconverters would desirably provide a good frequency
response in terms of gain flatness, group delay and out-of-band rejection as it is
the main bandwidth-limiting device within the RF front end of the ground station
[32]. Typically, upconverters are capable of providing the RF signal with a power
level in the range of −60 to −20 dBm.
7.10 Modulators and Demodulators

A modulator-demodulator (modem) is the device in charge of modulating an
analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also, in charge of de-
modulating the received signal to decode the transmitted information. Different
modems are used in the ground station in order to fulfill the needs of the different
satellite missions.
For the GENSO Project, for instance, this task is carried out by a special com-
binated TNC-modem. In addition, MOST project uses another assigned modem
to modulate the MOST signal. Finally, the reception pipeline for the scientific
band shares a satellite modem working as a demodulator among BRITE, MOST
and COROT, described in Table 7.7, which reduces the cost and complexity of
the ground station.
36
7.11 Transceivers
Table 7.7: Datum Systems PSM500 satellite modem specifications.
Modulation Demodulation
Information Rate (kbps) 1.2–29500 1.2–29500
Required Eb/No for 10−5 C-QPSK (dB) 9.6 9.6
Return Loss (dB) 20 20
Transmit Output Power (dBm) +5 to −35 —
Receive Input Range (dBm) — −20 to −84
Power (VAC) 90–264 90–264
Operating Temperature (◦ C) 0–50 0–50
7.11 Transceivers
Transceivers perform the tasks of both a transmitter and a receiver, sharing most
part of its circuitry. They convert from baseband domain to RF domain with high
data transmission speed. The proposed ground station will use one transceiver in
order to receive and transmit in the amateur radio frequency bands (S-Band, UHF
and VHF) for GENSO, and a transceiver in the BRITE transmission pipeline.
7.12 TNCs
The TNC is the device resposible for the processing of the High-level Data Link
Control (HDLC) and/or the AX.25 protocols and for the sending of the data
to/from the PC [22]. It is connected to a computer terminal and a transciever,
so that, data from the terminal is formatted into the proper protocol and also,
so that it provides an interface to the user. Typically, the TNC and the modem
can be found together in a single device, which is called TNC, but is actually a
TNC/modem combination. In case of BRITE, a mission specific TNC is used,
which includes a modulator [22]. For GENSO, because there is no specific com-
mon configuration, in some cases, a direct connection between the audio connec-
tors of the transceiver and the PC sound card can be implemented in order to
perform the analog to digital, and, digital to analog conversion in the PC [22].
All protocol layers are, then, implemented in software.
7.13 Cables and Waveguides

Care should be taken when dealing with the cables and waveguides. These are
necessary but introduce many losses, especially at high frequencies. We will use
semirigid coaxial cables to connect the outdoor devices inside the antenna mount,
high quality coaxial cables to take the RF signal to the inside, and possibly, lower
37
7.14 Connectors
quality VHF coaxial cables in the stages following the downconverter or preceding
the upconverter, that is, when the signal is in IF. In the Table 7.8 below, we can
see the typical attenuations for different types of cable.
Table 7.8: Typical attenuation values for cables.
Cable Typical Value

Semi-Rigid 0.50 dB/m
RF Cable 0.24 dB/m
VHF Cable 0.05 dB/m
In a closer look, our ground station will use specifically the cables shown in
Table 7.9 to interconnect the components.
Table 7.9: Specifications of cables used in the ground station.
Ecoflex 15 H2000-FLEX
Diameter (mm) 14.6 10.3
Impedance (Ω) 50 50
Capacity (pF/m) 77 80
Velocity Factor 0.86 0.83
Conductor stranded copper copper
Dielectric PolyEthylene (PE) PE
Minimum Bending Radius (mm) 70 100
Max. Power (40◦ C at 1000 MHz) (W) 560 310
Typ. Attenuation2 (dB/100 m) 16.3 22.0
7.14 Connectors
There are two connectors per cable, therefore, the losses that entail have to be
taken into account. SubMiniature version A (SMA) connectors will be used for
the outdoor devices inside the antenna mount. Typically, they present a loss of
0.2 dB at S-band, and are designed for its use with semi-rigid cables. In contrast,
for the indoor components and the rest of the outdoor elements, N connectors
will be used. These connectors are hard, humidity resistant and medium size.
Their loss is, typically, about 0.2 dB at RF frequencies and 0.1 dB in VHF.
The ground station needs about 20 connectors. Consequently, aproximately
3 dB are lost in these connectors. This fact is something that has to be taken
into account in order to achieve a good design.
38
Chapter 8
Propagation Losses
In satellite communications, as oppossed to most terrestrial communications, the
electromagnetic waves have to travel long distances to reach their destination.
In particular, these waves need to go through the atmosphere, which, at certain
frequencies, can entail significant effects on the waves’ properties.
In order to succeed in communicating, a certain SNR has to be maintained.
Therefore, propagation effects have to be taken into account as they tend to cause
transmission losses which can seriously affect this ratio.
8.1 Propagation Effects Classification

There are many different ways of classifying the propagation effects at microwave
frequencies. Commonly, they are classified according to where they take place
[33]. Thus, we can distinguish between local effects happening in the ground
station’s surroundings, atmospheric effects, and free space effects.
Concerning the atmosphere, it can be in turn divided into layers, as the at-
mosphere’s behaviour and content varies with pressure and altitude. Hence, the
effects can be subclassified according to the layer where they happen. The lay-
ers affecting most the radiowave propagation are the troposphere (or non-ionized
layer) and the ionosphere.
In Table 8.1 we can see the main effects that can occur along the wave’s pro-
pagation path. Nevertheless, depending on the operating frequency range and
elevation angle, some effects become more relevant than others. For instance, at
frequencies above 10 GHz, rain attenuation, gaseous absorption and clouds are
the most affecting effects, whereas, at frequencies below 10 GHz, ionospheric scin-
tillation and Faraday rotation increase their importance. Tropospheric refraction
and fading, can, however, happen at any frequency, especially, when rain and gas
attenuation have a low value and low elevation angles are used [33].
39
8.2 Propagation Effects at S-Band
Table 8.1: Classification of Propagation Effects.
Local Effects
Effects of clouds and fog (dB)
Effects of dust and sand (dB)
Effect of snow (dB)
Tropospheric Effects
Clear Air
Refraction and Multipath Fading (dB)
Wave-Front Incoherence
Tropospheric Scintillation
Beam Spreading (dB)
Defocusing (dB)
Gaseous Attenuation (dB)
Bandwidth Limitations
Fading due to Elevation Angle
Precipitation
Rain Attenuation (dB)
Depolarization
Ionospheric Effects
Faraday Rotation (degrees)
XPD2 (dB)
Range Delay (m)
Excess Time (s)
Propagation Effects dependent on TEC1
Phase Advance (rad)
Doppler Frequency (Hz)
Dispersion (s/Hz)
Ionospheric Scintillation (dB)
Ionospheric Absorption (dB)
Others
Free Space Loss (dB)

The frequency range between 1 and 4 GHz is a range that is only affected slightly
by the Earth’s atmosphere [26]. However, it is important to know to what extent
is this true. Therefore, it is advisable to predict the magnitude of the effects in
this frequency range [33].
1
TEC is the total electron content in el/m2
2
Cross Polarization Discimination
40
8.2.1 Ionospheric Effects

Faraday Rotation
Faraday rotation is the rotation of the polarization plane during its transit
through the atmosphere. It affects linear polarization due to the fact that a
linearly polarized wave can be considered to have left and right circularly polar-
ized components with different refraction indices. As a result, angles of rotation
can vary in the range of a few degrees to up to many complete rotations. This
effect depends on the length of the path, frequency, and, orientation with respect
to the Earth’s magnetic field [34].
The angle of rotation, in radians, can be calculated using the following Equation 8.1
[35, 34, 26]:
Bav NT
φ = 2.36 × 102 (8.1)
f2
Where:
• Bav is the Earth’s average magnetic field in W · m−2 or Teslas,
• NT is total electron content in electrons · m−2 ,
• f is the frequency in GHz.
A typical value for the average magnetic field is 7 × 10−21 Teslas [34]. Re-
garding the Total Electron Content (TEC) (NT , or electron concentration), it is
a parameter that describes the electron density in the ionosphere. It is really
variable as it depends on the solar radiation, i.e., the time of the day, the Sun
cycle, the time of the year and present geomagnetic storms [26]. In order to be
able to perform the calculations, an average value of 1.2 × 1017 is used.
It can be observed that Faraday rotation is inversely proportional to the fre-
quency squared, therefore, as we increase the frequency, the effect becomes less
significant. This effect does not depend on altitude nor elevation angle. Figure 8.1
shows the values of Faraday Rotation within the ground station bandwidth.
Cross-Polarization Discrimination
Directly related to Faraday’s rotation is the Cross-Polarization Discrimination
(XPD). It is defined as the difference between the cross-polarized component
and the copolarized component due to the depolarization of the wave as it passes
through the atmosphere. In case of circularly polarized waves, the Faraday shift
will not affect the polarization components.
It can be easily calculated using Equation 8.2 [36, 35, 27, 37].
XPD = −20 log(tan φ) (8.2)

Where φ is the Faraday rotation angle in radians.
41
Faraday Rotation (degrees)
3
2,69
2,5
Degrees of Rotation
2,28 1,97
2
2,18 1,89
1,5
0,5
0
2000 2050 2100 2150 2200 2250 2300 2350 2400 2450 2500
Frequency (MHz)
Figure 8.1: Faraday Rotation.
Phase Advance, Range Delay and Time Delay
Due to the refractivity of the ionosphere, the receiver may encounter a wave with
a different phase to that expected. The phase is actually advanced a certain
number of cycles depending on the operating frequency and the TEC (NT ). The
number of cycles can be obtained by means of Equation 8.3 [33], where ∆Φ is
given in radians.
1.34 × 10−7
∆Φ = NT (8.3)
f
The frequency, f , is expressed in Hz, and NT in electrons/m2 .
This phase shift can be considered as a change in the apparent path length or
range. This range delay will depend on the frequency of the wave and the TEC
of the ionosphere. Equation 8.4 shows how it can be calculated [34].
40.3
∆r = NT (8.4)
f2
Where, again, f is expressed in Hz, NT is expressed in electrons/m2 , and ∆r
is the range in meters. Nevertheless, this change in the path length can also be
turned into a time delay or excess time easily by using Equation 8.5 [35, 34].
40.3
t= NT (8.5)
cf 2
42
Where c is the speed of light in vacuum in m/s, f is the frequency in Hz, NT

is the TEC in electrons/m2 , and t is the time delay in seconds.
In Figure 8.2 the behaviour with frequency of the range delay and the time
excess for the different missions can be observed. There is no dependence with
elevation angle and altitude, just with frequency.
Range Delay and Excess Time
1,4 4,0E-09
1,15 3,81E-09 3,8E-09

1,2
3,6E-09
0,97
Excess Time (seconds)

1 3,4E-09
0,93
Range Delay (m)
0,84
3,23E-09 3,2E-09
0,8
3,09E-09 0,81 Range Delay
3,0E-09
2,79E-09 Excess Time
0,6
2,8E-09
0,4 2,6E-09
2,68E-09
2,4E-09
0,2
2,2E-09
0 2,0E-09
2000 2100 2200 2300 2400 2500
Frequency (MHz)
Figure 8.2: Range Delay and Time Excess.
Doppler Frequency
Doppler frequency is the derivative of the phase with respect to time, i.e., the
variation of the phase with time. In turn, for the atmospheric constribution to
Doppler frequency, the phase is proportionally related to the TEC. Due to the
difficulty of portraying TECs behaviour with time, we consider the TEC as a
constant. As a result, the contribution of the atmosphere to the existing Doppler
frequency will be 0 Hz.
Dispersion
Dispersion occurs due to the fact that the time delay is not equivalent for all
frequencies, i.e. it is frequency dependent. Dispersion is defined as the rate of
change of the delay with respect to frequency [34]. It can decrease the amplitude
of the wave, and introduce frequency modulation.
43
Equation 8.6 shows how dispersion can be calculated in s·Hz−1 , when the TEC
(in electrons/m2 ) and the operating frequency (in Hz), are known.
80.6
D=− NT (8.6)
f3
The differential delay, in seconds, associated to the lower and upper frequencies
of the signal is described in Equation 8.7
80.6
∆t = − ∆f NT (8.7)
cf 3
Figure 8.3 shows the evolution of the dispersion and the phase advance with
frequency for the missions supported by the ground station. Both effects show
no variation with altitude and elevation angle.
Dispersion and Phase Advance
50 4,0E-18
3,70909E-18
49 3,5E-18
49,28
2,89091E-18
48
2,705E-18 3,0E-18
Phase Advance (rad)
47
2,32292E-18 Dispersion (s/Hz)
2,5E-18
46
45,38 45,33 Phase Advance
45 2,0E-18
44,37 2,1875E-18 Dispersion
44
1,5E-18
43
42,2 1,0E-18
42
41,34
41 5,0E-19
40 0,0E+00
2000 2100 2200 2300 2400 2500
Frequency (MHz)
Figure 8.3: Dispersion and Phase Advance.
Ionospheric Scintillation
Ionospheric scintillation are rapid variations in the electron density that can
cause, among others, fading of the signal [36]. This fading can be severe and can
last for several minutes, however, it will not be taken into account for the link
budget as it just appears for a very short time interval.
44
Ionospheric Absorption
For frequencies above 70 MHz, and medium latitudes, ionospheric absorption can
be negligible, as the waves will penetrate the ionosphere with no substantial
dissipative attenuation [35].
8.2.2 Tropospheric Effects

Within the tropospheric effects, we can distinguish between clear air effects and
effects happening when there is precipitation (see Table 8.1). Next, each effect
will be explained in more detail.
Tropospheric Scintillation
It is important not to confuse tropospheric scintillation with fading effects in the
atmosphere. They both entail variations in amplitude due to irregularities in
the path, however, fading refers exclusively to slow variations, of seconds or even
minutes, whilst, scintillation refers to very rapid fluctuations [26].
Tropospheric scintillation consists of wave-front incoherence and beam spread-
ing. Wave-front incoherence depends on frequency, elevation angle and an-
tenna diameter. Nevertheless, this effect is negligible in comparison with beam-
spreading so it is not taken into account in calculations [38]. Beam spreading,
however, can cause losses of nearly 1 dB depending on the elevation angle. It is
independent of frequency for the range of 1 to 100 GHz and it is negligible at
elevation angles above 3◦ for latitudes below 53◦ which is the case of Vienna1
[38].
Nonetheless, a guide to calculate the beam spreading loss following the Inter-
national Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendations [38, 39] is described
in Appendix A.
Refraction and Fading

The refraction index varies with height, and as a result, the waves do not travel
in straight lines through the troposphere, experiencing bending or refraction [33].
Refraction becomes dominant at elevation angles greater than 4◦ however, the
prediction model used for calculating the amount of refraction has only been
tested at frequencies above 7 GHz. Therefore, losses for elevation angles above
4◦ at our frequency range are assumed negligible [38].
On the other hand, for elevation angles less than 5◦ fading is the predomi-
nant effect. It has a similar character to multipath fading on terrestrial links
[38]. Moreover, we can distinguish two kinds of fading: shallow and deep. In
Appendix B, step by step calculations for refraction and fading effects are de-
tailed [38, 40].
1
Vienna’s latitude is 48.22◦
45
Defocusing
The signal’s level can also be affected by dispersion or antenna’s beam narrowing
due to the dependence of the atmospheric refraction on elevation angle. This
effect is called focusing and defocusing of the wave, and it can be neglected
for elevation angles greater than 3◦ . Our ground station will work at elevation
angles above 3◦ , so, this effect will not be taken into account in the link budget.
Nevertheless, further data and sample calculations are shown in Appendix C [39].
Gaseous Attenuation
Gaseous molecules in the atmosphere, such as water vapour and oxygen, absorb
energy from waves that pass through them, leading to some attenuation. At
our operating frequency band it is not a very significant loss, as it is working
far away from the highest absorption lines. Withal, it will cause some attenu-
ation, depending on the frequency and climate of the station’s location. These
calculations are shown in detail in Appendix D [32, 41, 42].
Bandwidth Limitations
When working at frequencies near the absorption lines of atmospheric gases, some
dispersion may appear due to anomalies in the refractive index. However, these
changes are not significant for the bands and vicinity where space communications
are allocated. Therefore, it can be neglected.
Fading due to low Elevation Angles
For short periods of time, and for elevation angles less than 5◦ the signal’s level
can vary severely. For instance, at 7 GHz, the signal may increase up to 8 dB
or decrease 16 dB at an elevation angle of 3.3◦ . Unfortunately, there is still no
recommended model available in order to predict this increment or fade of the
signal [43].
Rain Attenuation
Rain attenuation can result in severe losses at high frequencies. However, at the
frequency range of 2 to 2.4 GHz, rain attenuation has only a slight effect on the
total of all the propagation losses [38]. Furthermore, the attenuation due to rain
rises as the number and size of the raindrops increase, as well as, as the length
of the path increases [34, 25, 27].
Rain attenuation depends on the location of the ground station, the elevation
angle, the frequency of operation, and, naturally, on the rainfall rate at the ground
station’s location.
46
In Appendix E a step-by-step guide is given in order to calculate the attenua-

tion due to rain. Also, specific calculations for our ground station can be found
there [38, 44, 45, 46].
Depolarization
Depolarization is the alteration of the polarization state of a wave as it passes
through an anisotropic medium, such as clouds. It may be measured by means of
cross-polarization discrimination, however, it is negligible for frequencies below
6 GHz [34, 38, 47].
8.2.3 Local Effects

Effects of Clouds and Fog
Clouds and fog can produce many losses for low elevation angles at high frequen-
cies. As the elevation angles increases, their effect becomes less significant, and
even for low elevation angles, their effect can be neglected at frequencies below
5 GHz [48, 33, 49].
Effects of Dust and Sand

All that is known about the effects that dust and sand can have on propagation
is that it may produce some attenuation at frequencies below 30 GHz. Hitherto,
there is no model in order to predict the real effects [38, 33].
Effects of Snow
Snow may have some fading effect on reflector antennas, specially, when the
reflector is looking vertically. Dielectric losses of dry snow can be neglected,
however, asymmetrically gathered snow can distort the antenna’s beam causing
phase delay that can, theoretically, lead to the complete disappearance of the
signal in extreme cases [50, 51]. Nevertheless, this effect can be easily prevented
if accumulated snow is removed from time to time from the reflector’s surface.
8.2.4 Free Space Path Loss

The free space loss is the loss produced along the line-of-sight path assuming
that no obstacles are present to produce reflection and/or diffraction. It is the
most significant loss of the propagation losses, and it depends on frequency and
on the distance between the satellite and the ground station. It is calculated in
dB, using Equation 8.8 [52, 25].

4·π·d
F SL = 20 log (8.8)
λ
47
8.3 Cases Under Study
The actual distance between the satellite and the station depends on the ele-
vation angle, increasing as the elevation angle decreases, rising the total losses.
Moreover, the free space path losses are directly proportional to frequency. As
a result, the higher the frequency, the higuer the losses.
8.3 Cases Under Study

In order to evaluate the performance of the ground station, different particular
cases are chosen for the missions of the ground station.
For all missions, the propagation losses will be calculated for a minimum ele-
vation angle of 5◦ and a maximum of 90◦ , correponding to the worst and the best
case, respectively.
The frequencies and the altitudes are fixed for all the missions, except for
GENSO, which has to be able to operate in the whole amateur radio S-band. As
a result, for GENSO, propagation losses will be calculated for both 2400 MHz
and 2450 MHz.
Moreover, another parameter that can vary in GENSO is the altitude of the
satellite. Educational scientific satellites are commonly situated in LEO, at an
altitude range between 600 and 1450 km. A study of the propagation losses will
be carried out for both altitudes.
Thus, a study of the GENSO project will convey the study of 8 different cases
(all the possible combinations with altitude, frequency and elevation angle).
8.4 The BRITE Constellation Propagation Losses

In Table 8.2, the results for the propagation losses are shown for the two different
cases under study: 0◦ and 90◦ elevation angles.
Table 8.2: Propagation losses for BRITE.
Satellite Altitude km 900 900

Elevation Angle degrees 5◦ 90◦
Distance to Satellite km 900.0 2992.4
Propagation Losses dB 169.38 158.51
48
8.5 The GENSO Project Propagation Losses
In Figure 8.4 can be seen how the losses are distributed according to their
origin, observing, as expected, that the free space loss is the most significant.
BRITE DOWNLINK
172
0,05
170 0,42
168
166
Loss (dB)
164 Rain Att.

Gas Att.
162 FSL
168,9
0,004
160
0,04
158
158,47
156
0
5 Elevation Angle (degrees) 90
Figure 8.4: Distribution of BRITE losses.

In Table 8.3 and Table 8.4, the results for the propagation losses are shown for
the eight different cases under study: the different possible combinations of 0◦ and
90◦ elevation angles, 600 and 1450 km satellite altitudes, and 2400 and 2450 MHz
frequencies.
There is no difference in the losses between uplink and downlink for the cases
selected.
Table 8.3: Propagation losses for GENSO with a satellite altitude of 600 km.
Satellite Altitude km 600

Frequency MHz 2400 2450
Elev. Angle degrees 5 ◦
90 ◦
5 ◦
90◦
Satellite Distance km 2328.0 600.0 2328.0 600.0
Propagation Loss dB 167.82 155.61 168.00 155.79
49
Table 8.4: Propagation losses for GENSO with a satellite altitude of 1450 km.

Elev. Angle degrees 5◦ 90◦ 5◦ 90◦
Satellite Distance km 2328.0 600.0 2328.0 600.0
Propagation Loss dB 172.56 163.27 172.74 163.45
Regarding the results, it can be said, as expected, that the best case is for a
satellite altitude of 600 km, at frequency 2400 MHz, and with an elevation angle
of 90◦ . On the other hand, the worst case is for a satellite altitude of 1450 km,
at frequency 2450 MHz, and with an elevation angle of 5◦ .
Propagation Losses for GENSO
174,0 172,73653
172,55621
172,0
170,0
167,82250 168,00280
Propagation Loss (dB)
168,0 Altitude 600 km - Elev. Angle 90°
166,0
Altitude 600 km - Elev. Angle 5°
163,27281 163,45200
164,0
Altitude 1450 km - Elev. Angle 90°
162,0
160,0 Altitude 1450 km - Elev. Angle 5°
158,0
155,60847 155,78767
156,0
154,0
2390 2400 2410 2420 2430 2440 2450 2460
Frequency (MHz)
Figure 8.5: Propagation Losses for GENSO.
Studying Figure 8.5, the propagation losses increase with distance (altitude
and elevation angle), elevation angle and frequency. However, as can be observed
in the results, the dependance on distance is much greater than on frequency, for
the cases under study. The difference in losses between 2400 MHz and 2450 MHz
is much less for a certain altitude and elevation angle, than the difference in losses
between different distances, for a certain frequency.
50
8.6 The COROT Satellite Propagation Losses
8.6 The COROT Satellite Propagation Losses

In Table 8.5, the results for the propagation losses are shown for the two different
cases under study: 0◦ and 90◦ elevation angles.
Table 8.5: Propagation losses for COROT.
Satellite Altitude km 896 896

Elevation Angle degrees 5◦ 90◦
Distance to Satellite km 896 2984.2
Propagation Losses dB 169.54 158.65
8.7 The MOST Project Propagation Losses

In Table 8.6, the results for the propagation losses are shown for the four different
cases under study: 0◦ and 90◦ elevation angles, for the uplink and downlink
frequencies.
Table 8.6: Propagation losses for MOST.

Uplink Downlink
Elevation Angle degrees 5 ◦
90 ◦
5 ◦
90◦
Distance to Satellite km 2846.7 830.0 2846.7 830.0
Propagation Losses dB 168.21 157.08 168.93 157.80
51
Chapter 9
Link Budgets
9.1 Link Budget Calculation
It is important to design a communication system in a way so that its perfor-
mance can be predicted prior to its deployment. This is done by means of the
link budget. The link budget is a compilation of all gains and losses along the
link, obtaining, in the end, a link margin [50]. The link margin describes how
robust the link is. A small margin can entail loss of communication in a certain
moment. However, providing a very big link margin is not necessarily a sign of
well planning, as it can mean an overdesign of the system. Along this chapter,
the calculation of link budgets will be described, both for uplink and downlink,
and link budgets for the different missions that the ground station supports, will
be shown.
9.1.1 Uplink Budget

For the uplink budget, the situation under study will be the one shown in
Figure 9.1.
The uplink budget is a measure of the quality of the signal arriving at the
satellite when the ground station is transmitting. In order to achieve this, a series
of step calculations need to be done. To begin with, we focus on the transmitter,
in this case, our ground station. The HPA will provide an amount of power, Pt ,
that will decrease by the time it arrives to the antenna feed due to the losses
between them, Lt . Once the signal is at the antenna feed, before propagating,
this signal will be focused by the antenna. This yields in an improvement, if
compared to an isotropic radiator, by the antenna gain, Gt . With this data, the
Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power (EIRP) can be calculated. The EIRP
serves as a parameter figure of merit for the transmit portion of the link, and
can be calculated in dBm using Equation 9.1, [26, 53, 47].
EIRP (dBm) = Pt (dBm) + Gt (dBi) − Lt (dB) (9.1)

The next step is to calculate the received isotropic power at the satellite. In
order to do so, first, the total propagation losses need to be known. The total
52
Transmitter Receiver
Altitude
Lpolarization
ATM Gr , TN , BN
FSL
+
Lpointing
θ
Gt
∑ Losses HPA
Lt Pt
Figure 9.1: Uplink budget.
propagation loss is the sum of the free space path loss, LF SL , the atmospheric
losses, LAT M , the polarization loss, Lpolarization and, finally, the total pointing
loss of the system, Lpointing .
LP ROP (dB) = LF SL (dB) + LAT M (dB) + Lpolarization (dB) + Lpointing (dB) (9.2)
LF SL and LAT M are described in Chapter 8. The polarization loss will be, in
worst case, 3 dB, when transmitting with linear polarization and receiving with
circular polarization. This value will be used for the link budget calculations.
On the other hand, the pointing loss is the loss due to the misalignment of
the transmit and receive antennas. In case of perfect alignment, the maximum
gain is achieved. However, as we move away from the perfect angle of alignment,
the gain drops significantly [50]. Causes of misalignment are the angle deviation
of the rotator, the structure, and the reflector and feed themselves, as well as,
misalignment in the satellite antenna. Moreover, the atmosphere can also cause
variations in the elevation angle that can cause some pointing loss. Due to the
misalignment, the actual gain will decrease, and could be calculated by means of
Equation 9.3, [27].
2
Pointing error

G = Gt − 12 ∗ (9.3)
HPBW
53
Resulting in a pointing loss, Lpointing , in dB:

2
Pointing error

Lpointing = 12 ∗ (9.4)
HPBW
Where HPBW is described in Chapter 7, and the pointing error is the sum of
all the angles of deviation wih respect to perfect alignment, in degrees.
At this point, the received isotropic power can be easily calculated using
Equation 9.5, [26].
Pri (dBm) = EIRP (dBm) − LP ROP (dB) (9.5)

To calculate the received power in the LNA input of the receiver, the gain of
the satellite’s antenna, Gr , and the losses between the antenna and the LNA, Lr ,
have to be taken into account.
Pr (dBm) = Pri (dBm) + Gr (dB) − Lr (dB) (9.6)

Another parameter of interest for a link budget is the G/T factor, which is
the ratio between the receiver’s final gain, Gr − Lr , and the receiver’s noise
temperature, Tsys [32]. This noise temperature, will be equal to 2400 K because
the satellite antenna is pointing towards the “hot” Earth [36, 1].
G
(dB/K) = Gr (dB) − Lr (dB) − 10 log (Tsys ) (dBK) (9.7)
T
Once, the G/T ratio is known, it is easy to calculate the ratio C/N0 at the
receiver. This ratio is the Carrier-to-Receiver-Noise-Density, with N0 = k · Tsys
and k = 1, 38065 × 10−23 J/K (Boltzmann’s Constant), [53, 47].
C G
(dBHz) = Pri (dBm) + (dB/K) − 10 log (k) (dB/Ks) + 30 (dB) (9.8)
N0 T
The ratio C/N is the Carrier-to-Noise ratio, and is one of the most important
parameters of the uplink budget. Unlike the C/N0 ratio, the C/N ratio takes
into account the receiver’s bandwith, B, in Hz. It can be calculated from the
C/N0 ratio using Equation 9.9, [53, 47, 26].
C C
(dB) = (dBHz) − 10 log (B) (dBHz) (9.9)
N N0
Finally, in order to calculate the link margin, the Eb/N o ratio at the receiver
is needed. This ratio represents the ratio between the energy per bit and the
noise density [26].
Eb C
(dB) = − 10 log (R) (9.10)
N0 N0
54
Where, R is the channel data rate in bps (bits per second). This rate will
depend on the code rate and the information data rate. The code rate or efficiency
of a Forward Error Correction (FEC) code, such as a convolutional code, can be
expressed as a fractional number, k/n, meaning that, once the information is
encoded, a n-bit codeword for every k-bit dataword will be produced [47]. In
other words, for every k bits of information, n bits will be generated, where
k < n. Therefore, k − n bits will be redundant, and the bandwidth will be
expanded by a factor of n/k.
Despite not having fixed code rates, typically for convolutional codes, code
rates of 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, etc, are used. For the following calculations, a code rate
of 1/2 will be assumed.
In summary, if, for instance the information data rate is Rinfo and the code
rate is 1/2, then the channel data rate, R, will result in R1/2
info
.
Eb
Lastly, the required N 0
for a certain Bit Error Rate (BER), is needed. It will
depend on the modulation, the required BER and the coding gain. The coding
gain is defined as the difference in dB, for a certain value of BER, between the
Eb
N0
without coding, that is, assuming a code rate of 1, and with coding, assuming
a code rate different to 1, both having the same information bit rate. Table 9.1
Eb
shows the required N 0
for a BER of 10−6 and coding gain for a BPSK modulation
scheme, with different code rates [27, 47].
Eb
Table 9.1: Theoretical required N 0
for a BER of 10−6 and coding gain for BPSK
modulation using different code rates.
Eb
Code Rate Required N0
Coding Gain
1 10.5 dB 0 dB
7/8 6.9 dB 3.6 dB
3/4 5.9 dB 4.6 dB
2/3 5.5 dB 5 dB
1/2 5 dB 5.5 dB
The link margin will finally be:
LinkMargin (dB) = Required Eb /N0 (dB) − Calculated Eb /N0 (dB) (9.11)
9.1.2 Downlink Budget

For the downlink budget, a similar procedure is carried out. This time, the
ground station is receiving the signal from the satellite. Therefore, the EIRP will
now be provided by the satellite, and the ground station should now present the
Eb
least noise temperature possible in order to achieve a good N 0
ratio.
55
Receiver Transmitter
Altitude
ATM
FSL
+ Gt, Lt, Pt
Lpolarization
Lpointing
θ
Gr , TN , BN
∑ Losses LNA
Lr Pr
Figure 9.2: Downlink budget.
For the downlink, the situation under study is as it is shown in Figure 9.2.
The steps to follow in order to calculate the link margin are the same as in the
uplink budget, but this time, taking into account that the receiver is the ground
station, and the transmitter is the satellite.
Nevertheless, for the downlink, the noise temperature of the ground station
needs to be calculated.
Downlink Noise Temperature
The noise present in the ground station is modelled as thermal noise. The noise
temperature, measured in Kelvin, defines the sensitivity of the receiver. Both the
antenna and the receiver are contributing to the overall noise of the system. The
system’s total noise temperature is calculated as indicated in Equation 9.12 [25].
Tsys = TA + Trec (9.12)

Where, TA is the antenna’s noise temperature, and Trec is the receiver’s noise
temperature, both measured in K.
There are two main contributors to the antenna noise: noise from the physical
structure of the antenna due to its losses, and noise from the radio path (also
known as sky noise) [26].
56
Usually, the antenna losses are already included in the antenna’s aperture
efficiency, therefore, there is no need to include them at this point.
Regarding the sky noise, this noise can come from both natural and human
sources, and it is affected by galactic and extraterrestrial noise, as well as by
atmospheric events [26].
The total antenna noise temperature can be calculated using Equation 9.13
[27].
(9.13)

TA = Tsky · 10−A/10 + Tm · 1 − 10−A/10 + Tf eed + Tground
Where,
Tm is the average temperature of rain. A value between 260 and 280 K is typically
used (I will use 280 K in calculations), [27, 54].
A is the rain and gas attenuation in dB.
Tf eed is the noise temperature of the feed.
Tground is the temperature of the ground, that is reflected into the antenna. Its
value is 50 K for elevation angles between 0 and 10◦ , and 10 K for elevation
angles between 10 and 90◦ .
Tsky is the temperature of the cold sky. According to the ITU recommendations
and other publications [55], this temperature is 20 K for an elevation angle
of 5◦ , and 2 K if the elevation angle is 90◦ .
On the other hand, the receiver’s equivalent noise temperature in K is calcu-
lated using Equation 9.14, [47, 26].
T2 T3 T4
Trec = T1 + + + + ... (9.14)
G1 G1 · G2 G1 · G2 · G3
Ti are the different noise temperatures of the components in the receiving
pipeline, as shown in Figure 9.3, and Gi represents the gain (loss, if less than 1)
of the component.
The components were put into groups so that in each box there were either one
active component or one or more passive components, but not a mixture. The
reason to do that is that the noise temperature is obtained slightly differently for
passive and for active components [26].
The equivalent noise temperature of a component is calculated as stated in
Equation 9.15 [55, 26].
Ti = T0 (nf − 1) (9.15)
Where T0 is the reference temperature, 290 K, and nf is the noise factor of the
component. Usually, the noise figure, NF, is given for the active components,
57
To antenna
T1 T2 T3 T4
- Cables - Cables
- Switch(es) - Connectors
Down
- Connectors LNA - Polarization
- Filter/Duplex Recovery converter
Filter Unit
Reference Point
Figure 9.3: Downlink budget.
which is just the noise factor expressed in dB. Moreover, for passive components,
the noise figure is equal to the insertion loss.
In turn, the noise factor can be easily calculated for the passive components
as expressed in Equation 9.16
nf = 10NF/10 = 10 Insertion Loss (dB)/10

(9.16)
As can be concluded from Equation 9.14, the further we go from the reference
point, the less contribution it will have to the total receiver’s noise temperature.
As a result, in calculations, only the components until the downconverter are
taken into account.
58
9.2 The BRITE Constellation Link Budget
9.2 The BRITE Constellation Link Budget

Table 9.2 shows the downlink budget for the BRITE Constellation mission. A
BPSK modulation scheme with code rate 1/2 will be used, so therefore, the
Eb
required N 0
value used for the calculations will be 5.12 dB for the downlink [56].
This value for the downlink is given in the specifications of the modem and it is
very similar to the theoretical value given in Table 9.1.
9.3 The GENSO Project Link Budget

For the GENSO Project, Table 9.3, Table 9.4, Table 9.5 and Table 9.6 summarize
the uplink and downlink budgets, for the different cases under study. A BFSK
modulation scheme will be assumed, as well as a information data rate of 9600 bps,
Eb
as mentioned in Section 5.4. For this modulation scheme, a required N 0
of 13.1 dB
is necessary [57].
9.4 The COROT Satellite Link Budget

Table 9.7 shows the downlink budget for the COROT satellite. The COROT
satellite will use a QPSK modulation scheme for its downlink. Consequently,
Eb
a required N 0
value of 5.12 dB is used in the calculations, as expressed in the
modem’s specifications [56].
9.5 The MOST Project Link Budget

For the MOST Project, Table 9.8 and Table 9.9 show the uplink and downlink
budgets, respectively. Regarding the modulation used for the downlink, BPSK,
Eb
the required N 0
value used for the calculations will be 5.12 dB [56]. For the
uplink, a value of 5 dB is used for the GFSK modulation scheme [1]. This value
is dependent on the satellite receiver.
59
Table 9.2: Downlink budget for the BRITE Constellation mission.

Downlink
Downlink Frequency 2200 MHz
Satellite Altitude 900 km
Elevation Angle 5 ◦
90◦
Distance to Satellite 2992.4 km 900 km
Satellite Antenna Gain 0 dBi
Satellite Losses 5 dB
Transmit Power 26.99 dBm
Transmit EIRP 21.99 dBm
FSL & Atmospheric Loss 168.72 dB 158.51 dB
Pointing Error 1.48◦ 1.30◦
Pointing Loss 1.65 dB 1.27 dB
Polarization Mismatch 3 dB 3 dB
Total Propagation Loss 173.37 dB 162.78 dB
Antenna Diameter 3.65 m
Antenna Efficiency 55%
Antenna Gain 36.03 dBi
Antenna Beamwidth 3.997◦
Receiver Line Losses 3 dB
System Noise Temperature 280.48 K 198.20 K
Ground Station G/T 11.55 dB/K 13.06 dB/K
Receiver Bandwidth 64 kHz
Received Isotropic Power −151.38 dBm −140.80 dBm
Received Power −118.34 dBm −107.76 dBm
Receiver Noise Power −126.06 dBm −127.57 dBm
C/No 58.77 dBHz 70.87 dBHz
C/N 10.71 dB 22.80 dB
Modulation scheme BPSK
Information Data Rate 32 kbps
Code Rate 1/2
Channel Data Rate 64 kbps
Coding Gain 3.01 dB
Eb/No without coding 13.72 dB 25.81 dB
Eb/No coded 10.71 dB 22.80 dB
Eb/No Required for 10−6 5.12 dB 5.12 dB
Downlink Margin 5.59 dB 17.68 dB
60
Table 9.3: Uplink budget for the GENSO Project with a satellite altitude of
600 km.
Uplink
Uplink Freq. 2400 MHz 2450 MHz
90◦
5◦
90◦
Distance to Satellite 2328.05 km 600.00 km 2328.05 km 600.00 km
Antenna Gain 36.65 dBi 36.83 dBi
FSL & Atmo. Loss 167.82 dB 155.61 dB 168.00 dB 155.79 dB
Pointing Error 1.48◦ 1.30◦ 1.48◦ 1.30◦
Pointing Loss 1.65 dB 1.27 dB 1.65 dB 1.27 dB
Polarization Loss 3 dB 3 dB 3 dB 3 dB
Total Propag. Loss 172.47 dB 159.88 dB 172.65 dB 160.06 dB
Line Loss 3 dB
Transmit EIRP 80.64 dBm 80.82 dBm
Noise Temp. 2400 K
Sat. Antenna Gain 0 dBi
Satellite Losses −3.5 dB
Satellite G/T −37.30 dB/K
Rec. Isotropic Power −91.82 dBm −79.24 dBm −91.82 dBm −79.24 dBm
Received Power −95.32 dBm −82.74 dBm −95.33 dBm −82.74 dBm
Rec. Noise Power -114.38 dBm
C/No 69.47 dBHz 82.06 dBHz 69.47 dBHz 82.06 dBHz
C/N 19.06 dB 31.64 dB 19.06 dB 31.64 dB
Info. Data Rate 9.6 kbps
Code Rate 1
Channel Data Rate 9.6 kbps
Eb/No 29.65 dB 42.24 dB 29.65 dB 42.24 dB
Eb/No Req. for 10−5 13.4 dB
Uplink Margin 16.25 dB 28.84 dB 16.25 dB 28.84 dB
61
Table 9.4: Uplink budget for the GENSO Project with a satellite altitude of
1450 km.
Uplink
Uplink Freq. 2400 MHz 2450 MHz
90 ◦
5 ◦
90◦
FSL & Atmo. Loss 172.56 dB 163.27 dB 172.74 dB 163.45 dB
Pointing Error 1.48◦ 1.30◦ 1.48◦ 1.30◦
Line Loss 3 dB
Transmit EIRP 80.64 dBm 80.82 dBm
Noise Temp. 2400 K
Satellite Losses −3.5 dB
Rec. Noise Power -114.38 dBm
C/N 14.33 dB 23.98 dB 14.32 dB 23.98 dB
Code Rate 1
Eb/No 24.92 dB 34.57 dB 24.91 dB 34.57 dB
Eb/No Req. for 10 −5
13.4 dB
Uplink Margin 11.52 dB 21.17 dB 11.51 dB 21.17 dB
62
Table 9.5: Downlink budget for the GENSO Project with a satellite altitude of
600 km.
Downlink
Downlink Freq. 2400 MHz 2450 MHz
90 ◦
5◦
90◦
Sat Antenna Gain 0 dBi
FSL & Atm. Loss 167.82 dB 155.61 dB 168.00 dB 155.79 dB
Pointing Error 1.48 ◦
1.30 ◦
1.48 ◦
1.30◦
Noise Temperature 436.59 K 372.16 K 436.59 K 372.16 K
Ground Station G/T 10.25 dB/K 10.94 dB/K 10.43 dB/K 11.12 dB/K
Receiver Bandwidth 9.6 kHz
Rec. Noise Power −132.38 dBm −133.07 dBm −132.38 dBm −133.07 dBm
C/N 20.55 dB 33.83 dB 50.55 dB 33.83 dB
Modulation scheme BFSK
Code Rate 1
Coding Gain 0.00 dB
Eb/No not coded 20.55 dB 33.83 dB 20.55 dB 33.83 dB
Eb/No coded 20.55 dB 33.83 dB 20.55 dB 33.83 dB
Downlink Margin 7.15 dB 20.43 dB 7.15 dB 20.43 dB
63
Table 9.6: Downlink budget for the GENSO Project with a satellite altitude of
1450 km.
Downlink
Downlink Freq. 2400 MHz 2450 MHz
90 ◦
5◦
90◦
Sat Antenna Gain 0 dBi
FSL & Atm. Loss 172.56 dB 163.27 dB 172.74 dB 163.45 dB
1.30 ◦
1.48 ◦
1.30◦
Noise Temperature 436.59 K 372.16 K 436.66 K 372.17 K
Ground Station G/T 10.25 dB/K 10.94 dB/K 10.43 dB/K 11.12 dB/K
Receiver Bandwidth 9.6 kHz
Rec. Noise Power −132.38 dBm −133.07 dBm −132.38 dBm −133.07 dBm
C/N 15.82 dB 26.16 dB 15.81 dB 26.16 dB
Modulation scheme BFSK
Code Rate 1
Coding Gain 0.00 dB
Eb/No not coded 15.81 dB 26.16 dB 15.80 dB 26.16 dB
Eb/No coded 15.81 dB 26.16 dB 15.80 dB 26.16 dB
Downlink Margin 2.41 dB 12.76 dB 2.40 dB 12.76 dB
64
Table 9.7: Downlink budget for the COROT satellite.
Downlink
90◦
Distance to Satellite 2984.2 km 896.00 km
Ground Station G/T 12.56 dB/K 14.06 dB/K
C/N 12.29 dB 24.39 dB
Modulation scheme QPSK
Information Data Rate 420 kbps
Code Rate 1/2
Channel Data Rate 840 kbps
Coding Gain 3.01 dB
65
Table 9.8: Uplink budget for the MOST Project.
Uplink
Uplink Frequency 2055 MHz
Elevation Angle 5◦ 90◦
1.30◦
Line Loss 3 dB
System Noise Temperature 2400 K
Receiver Noise Power -114.38 dBm
C/No 69.23625 dBHz 80.74 dBHz
C/N 18.82232 dB 30.33 dB
Modulation scheme GFSK
Information Data Rate 9.6 kbps
Code Rate 1/2
Eb/No 26.40 dB 37.91 dB
Eb/No Required for 10 −5
5 dB 5 dB
Uplink Margin 21.40 dB 32.91 dB
66
Table 9.9: Downlink budget for the MOST Project.
Downlink
90◦
Ground Station G/T −35.80 dB/K
C/N 12.52 dB 24.88 dB
Modulation scheme BPSK
Information Data Rate 38.4 kbps
Code Rate 1/2
Coding Gain 3.01 dB
67
9.6 Conclusion
9.6 Conclusion
The link budgets show a really good theoretical performance of the ground sta-
tion. The margins are sometimes big, allowing the use of, in case of the uplink,
HPAs with lower gains if necessary. In case of the downlink, big margins are ob-
tained for some missions in the interest of other missions, so that all can receive
with enough margin, assuring communication.
9.7 Intermodulation and Interference

At the ground station’s operating frequencies, there is plenty of interfering sys-
tems, such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)1 , as well as
most of the wireless personal area networks such as bluetooth or IEEE 802.11
devices, which are designed to work in the 2.4 GHz ISM band. Furthermore,
most 3G networks in Europe operate in the 2100 MHz frequency band. Robust
protocols, modulation and codification schemes are used in order to counteract
the strong interference. Moreover, these intefering frequencies may degrade our
signal and also cause intermodulation. The duplex filter in front of the LNA
for the scientific frequency band, the filter for GENSO receiving pipeline, and
the filters after the HPAs in both bands, will avoid most of the serious inter-
modulation in the station. What is more, the active elements like the LNA and
the downconverters can generate intermodulation products themselves that are
filtered later in the chain.
1
UMTS will use the bands of 1885-2025 MHz and 2110-2200 MHz for the IMT-2000 systems
and, precisely, the bands 1980-2010 MHz and 2170-2200 MHz for the satellite services of
these systems
68
Chapter 10
Summary
To sum up, the future ground station of the Institute of Communications and
Radio-Frequency Engineering of Viena University of Technology, that will be
located on the roof of the Electrical Engineering Faculty building, will, according
to the results of the link budgets, have a very good performance for elevation
angles as low as 4 degrees, providing sufficient link margins to make up for some
unpredicted losses. For elevation angles below 5 degrees, as explained in this
thesis, losses are much greater, and communications might be held most of the
times, but cannot be assured. Moreover, it can be seen that, within the frequency
range of the ground station’s S-band front-end, the total propagation loss will
not change significantly, whilst, changing the distance between the ground station
and the satellite, which is given by the elevation angle, can suppose an increase
of up to 10 dB in the losses for the missions considered.
The ground station is able to support different missions, at different frequency

bands, at different distances, with different transmitted powers, therefore, in
some cases, the margins have to be big. This is necessary in order to provide
every mission or project, sharing components within the receiving pipeline, with
enough margin to assure communication.
69
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[27] Maral G., Bousquet M., Satellite Communications Systems. Systems, tech-
niques and technology, 4th Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Toulouse, France,
2002.
[28] Pattan B., Satellite Systems: Principles and Technologies, Van Nostrand
Reinhold, New York, 1993.
[29] Milligan T., Modern Antenna Design, McGraw Hill, New York, 1985.
[30] Stutzman Warren L., Thiele Gary A., Antenna Theory and Design, John
Wiley & Sons, New York, 1998.
A.2
Bibliography
[31] Comly D., Parabolic Antennas and Their Feeds, Pack Rat Notes, Sept. 1995.
[32] Elbert B.R., The Satellite Communication Ground Segment and Earth Sta-
tion Handbook, Artech House Inc., London, 2001.
[33] Flock W.L., Propagation effects on Satellite Systems at Frequencies below
10 GHz: A Handbook for Satellite Systems Design, NASA Reference Publi-
cation 1108(02), Washington, 1987.
[34] Saunders Simon R., , Antennas and Propagation for Wireless Communica-
tion Systems, John Wiley & Sons, Surrey, England, 1999.
[35] ITU-R Rec. P.531-9, Ionospheric Propagation Data and Prediction Methods
required for the Design of Satellite Services and Systems.
[36] Roddy Dennis, Satellite Communications,3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill , New
York, 2001.
[37] Ludwig A., The Definition of Cross Polarization, IEEE Vol.AP-21, Septem-
ber 1976.
[38] ITU-R Rec. P.618-9, Propagation Data and Prediction Methods required for
the Design of Earth-Space Telecommunication Systems.
[39] ITU-R Rec. P.834-6, Effects of Tropospheric Refraction on Radiowave Pro-
pagation.
[40] ITU-R Rec. P.453-9, The Radio Refractive Index: Its formula and refractivity
data.
[41] ITU-R Rec. P.676-7, Attenuation by Atmospheric Gases.
[42] ITU-R Rec. P.1510, Annual Mean Surface Temperature.
[43] ITU-R Rec. P.619-1, Propagation Data required for the Evaluation of Inter-
ference between Stations in Space and those on the Surface of the Earth.
[44] ITU-R Rec. P.837-5, Characteristics of Precipitation for Propagation Mo-
delling.
[45] ITU-R Rec. P.839-3, Rain Height Model for Prediction Methods.
[46] ITU-R Rec. P.838-3, Specific Attenuation Model for Rain for use in Predic-
tion Methods.
[47] Tirró S., Satellite Communications Systems Design, Plenum Press, Rome,
1993.
[48] ITU-R Rec. P.840-3, Attenuation due to Clouds and Fog.
[49] Barue G., Microwave Engineering. Land & Space Radiocommunications,
John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2008.
[50] Seybold John S., Introduction to RF Propagation, John Wiley & Sons, New
Jersey, 2005.
[51] Salonen E., Attenuation Phenomena on Earth Satellite Links, McGraw Hill,
Helsinki University of Technology, 1992.
[52] ITU-R Rec. P.525-2, calculation of Free-Space Attenuation.
[53] Gagliardi, Robert M., Satellite Communications, 2nd Edition, Van Nostrand
Reinhold, California, 1991.
A.3
Bibliography
[54] ITU-R Rec. P.372-9, Radio Noise.

[55] Pozar David M., Microwave Engineering, 3rd Edition, John Wiley & Sons,
Massachusetts, 2005.
[56] Datum Systems, PSM-500 Modem Manual, Appendix A Specifications, Rev
0.86, April 2008.
[57] Sklar B., Digital Communications. Fundamentals and Applications, 2nd Edi-
tion, Prentice Hall, California, 2001.
A.4
List of Abbreviations
LEO Low Earth Orbit
VHF Very High Frequency
UHF Ultra High Frequency
RHCP Right Hand Circular Polarization
LHCP Left Hand Circular Polarization
LNA Low Noise Amplifier
HPA High Power Amplifier
BRITE BRIght Target Explorer
HPBW Half Power Beam Width
RF Radio Frequency
IF Intermediate Frequency
LO Local Oscillator
modem modulator-demodulator
TNC Terminal Node Controller
HDLC High-level Data Link Control
PC Personal Computer
SMA SubMiniature version A
MOST Microvariability and Oscillations of STars
SFL Space Flight Laboratory
ACS Attitude Control System
CSA Canadian Space Agency
SNR Signal to Noise Ratio
GNB Generic Nanosatellite Bus
ADC Attitude Determination and Control
GMSK Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying
BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying
COROT COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits
ESA European Space Agency
GENSO Global Educational Network for Satellite Operators
ISEB International Space Education Board
AUS AUthentication Server
GSS Ground Station Server
MCC Mission Control Client
FSK Frequency Shift Keying
FM Frequency Modulation
QPSK Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
SNR Signal to Noise Ratio
B.1
Acronyms
PE PolyEthylene
TEC Total Electron Content
XPD Cross-Polarization Discrimination
ITU International Telecommunication Union
EIRP Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power
FEC Forward Error Correction
BER Bit Error Rate
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
CNES Centre National d’Études Spatiales
PSL Participating Spacecraft List
IF Intermediate Frequency
B.2
List of Figures
2.1 The MOST Satellite, [2] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.1 COROT Satellite. [5] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1 The number of stars to +3.5 magnitude in 25 degrees of field view

for BRITE. [6] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.2 Structure of a BRITE Satellite. [12] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.3 Attitude control hardware of the BRITE satellite. [8] . . . . . . . 11
4.4 Patch antennas mounted on the BRITE satellites. [12] . . . . . . 12
4.5 Components of the GNB BRITE satellite. [12] . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.1 Components of a GENSO network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

5.2 Diagram of a standard GENSO ground station. . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.3 AMSAT-OSCAR 51 (Echo AO-51) microsatellite. [19] . . . . . . . 18
6.1 Division of a ground station into three segments. . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

6.2 Overview of the three segments of a ground station. . . . . . . . . . . 22
6.3 A closer look into the three segments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
6.4 Other subsystems of a ground station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.5 Ground Station S-Band Outline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6.6 Ground station S-band diagram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
7.1 Losses due to spillover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

7.2 The duplex filter of our ground station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
7.3 A fixed-frequency converter used in Earth Stations. . . . . . . . . . . 36
8.1 Faraday Rotation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

8.2 Range Delay and Time Excess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
8.3 Dispersion and Phase Advance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
8.4 Distribution of BRITE losses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
8.5 Propagation Losses for GENSO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
9.1 Uplink budget. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

9.2 Downlink budget. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
9.3 Downlink budget. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
B.1 Refraction and fading of our ground station at 2.4 GHz . . . . . . Ap.5
C.1
List of Tables
2.1 Frequency and data rates of the MOST satellite. . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.1 Summary of the main characteristics of the COROT satellite. . . 6
4.1 Summary of the main characteristics of the BRITE satellites. . . . 14
5.1 Classification of small satellites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

5.2 Common amateur satellite frequency allocations. . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.3 Common amateur satellite modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.1 Scientific bands and frequencies of interest for the ground station. 23
6.2 Frequencies of the satellite missions considered. . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.3 Frequencies in the S-Band. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.1 Duplex filter selected. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

7.2 Typical LNA values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
7.3 GENSO selected LNA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
7.4 Scientific band selected LNA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7.5 Selected filters for the ground station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7.6 Selected HPAs for the ground station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
7.7 Datum Systems PSM500 satellite modem specifications. . . . . . . 37
7.8 Typical attenuation values for cables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7.9 Specifications of cables used in the ground station. . . . . . . . . . 38
8.1 Classification of Propagation Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

8.2 Propagation losses for BRITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
8.3 Propagation losses for GENSO with a satellite altitude of 600 km. 49
8.4 Propagation losses for GENSO with a satellite altitude of 1450 km. 50
8.5 Propagation losses for COROT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
8.6 Propagation losses for MOST. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Eb
9.1 Theoretical required N 0
for a BER of 10−6 and coding gain for
BPSK modulation using different code rates. . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
9.2 Downlink budget for the BRITE Constellation mission. . . . . . . 60
9.3 Uplink budget for the GENSO Project with a satellite altitude of
600 km. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.4 Uplink budget for the GENSO Project with a satellite altitude of
1450 km. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
D.1
List of Tables
9.5 Downlink budget for the GENSO Project with a satellite altitude
of 600 km. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
9.6 Downlink budget for the GENSO Project with a satellite altitude
of 1450 km. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
9.7 Downlink budget for the COROT satellite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
9.8 Uplink budget for the MOST Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
9.9 Downlink budget for the MOST Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
A.1 Beam spread loss for Vienna’s Institute of Communications and

Radio-Frequency Engineering ground station. . . . . . . . . . . . Ap.1
C.1 Defocusing Loss for Vienna’s Institute of Communications and

Radio-Frequency Engineering ground station. . . . . . . . . . . . Ap.6
D.1 Gaseous attenuation parameters of our ground station at 2.4 GHz. Ap.10
D.2 Gaseous attenuation of our ground station at 2.4 GHz. . . . . . . Ap.10
E.1 Parameters used to calculate the rain attenuation for our ground
station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ap.13
E.2 Rain attenuation of our ground station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ap.13
D.2
Appendix A
Beam Spreading Loss using the
ITU Model
The beam spreading loss depends only on the apparent elevation angle θ, which
can, in turn, be calculated from the elevation angle and the ground station’s
altitude above sea level [38].
Abs = 2.27 − 1.16 log(1 + θ) (A.1)

Where θ is the apparent elevation angle in mrad.
In order to calculate θ, the station’s altitude above sea level, hs , and the
elevation angle, θ0 , are needed.
θ = θ0 + τs (hs , θ0 ) (A.2)
where τs is
τs (hs , θ0 ) = 1/[1.728 + 0.5411 θ0 + 0.03723 θ0 2 + hs (0.1815 + 0.06272 θ0 +

(A.3)
+ 0.01380 θ02 ) + h2s (0.01727 + 0.008288 θ0 )],
checking previously if the station is visible.

In the case of our ground station, where hs = 205 m, the values obtained are
shown in Table A.1.
Table A.1: Beam spread loss for Vienna’s Institute of Communications and
Radio-Frequency Engineering ground station.
Elevation Angle degrees 0.1 1 2

τs 0.54892 0.42368 0.32951
degrees 0.64892 1.42368 2.32951
Apparent Elevation Angle
mrad 11.32577 24.84782 40.65767
Abs dB 1.00466 0.63159 0.39115
Ap.1
Appendix B
Refraction and Fading using the
ITU Model
Deep Fading
STEP 1 Obtain the apparent elevation angle θ in mrad. This is already ex-
plained in Appendix A for the beam spreading loss.
STEP 2 Obtain the geoclimate factor, Kw , for the path location.
Kw = 100.1 (C0 + CLat ) ρL 1.5 (B.1)

Where:
C0 = 76 according to Table 3 in the ITU Recommendation 618-8 [38].
CLat = 0 regarding the ground station’s latitude. ρL needs to be calculated
by means of ITU Recommendation 453 [40]. From the maps contained
in this recommendation, the percentage of time that the refraction index
gradient is equal or less than −100 units N/km in different times of the
year, can be obtained:
– February: 1%
– May: 5%
– August: 5%
– November: 5%
The highest value is 5%Ṫherefore, ρL = 0.05.
STEP 3 Finally, the loss, Aref can be calculated using Equation B.2.
Aref (dB) = Gw + 92 + 9 log f − 55 log(1 + θ0 ) − 10 log p (B.2)

Where:
Gw (dB) = 10 log Kw − 92 (B.3)
Ap.2
Appendices
f is the frequency in Hz, p is the percentage of time that fade depth is

exceeded in the worst month, and θ0 is the apparent elevation angle.
STEP 4 Calculation of the percentage of time that the fade depth, Aref , is
exceeded in the average year. In order to calculate this, Equation B.4 is
used.
p = Ka f 0.9 (1 + θ0 )−5.5 × 10−Aref /10 [%] (B.4)

Where:
Ka = Kw × 10−0.1∆G [%] (B.5)

and
∆G = −1.8 − 5.6 log(1.1 ± |cos 2Ψ|0.7 )

(B.6)
+ 4.5 log(1 + θ0 )
For latitudes above 45◦ the minus sign is used in Equation B.6.
In Figure B.1, sample calculations are done at frequency 2.4 GHz.
Shallow Fading
STEP 1 Estimation of Aref exceeded for 63% of the average worst month or
average year, A63 .
Due to the latitude of the ground station, A63 coincides with the attenua-
tion, Abs calculated for the beam spread loss in Appendix A.
STEP 2 Calculation of the percentage of time, pt , that the fade depth of At = 25

dB is exceeded.
pt = Kw f 0.9 (1 + θ0 )−5.5 × 10−Aref /10 [%] (B.7)

STEP 3 Calculation of the new percentage of time, p, from:
p = 10−0.1A63 +log pt [%] (B.8)

STEP 4 Calculation of parameter q ′ .
20 100 − p
q′ = − log[− ln( )] (B.9)
At 100
Ap.3
Appendices
STEP 5 Calculation of the values of the shape factor, qt .
qt = (q ′ − 2)/[(1 + 0.3 × 10−At /20 ) × 10−0.016At ]−

(B.10)
− s0 (10−At /20 + At /800)
Where:
s0 = −1.6 − 3.2 log f + 4.2 log (1 + θ0 ) (B.11)

f , is the frequency expressed in GHz, and θ0 is the elevation angle in mrad.
STEP 6 In case qt was negative, the previous steps should be repeated for
At = 35 dB.
This is not the case for our ground station.
STEP 7 There are two different cases:

If Aref ∈ [A63 , A63 + At ], p and q are calculated using the following formu-
las:
p = 100 1 − exp −10−q(Aref −A63 )/20 (B.12)

q = 2 + 10−0.016(Aref −A63 ) 1 + 0.3 × 10−(Aref −A63)/20 ·

(B.13)
· qt + s0 10−(Aref −A63)/20 + (Aref − A63)/800
These formulas were used, in the calculations for our ground station, for an
elevation angle of 1◦ .
If Aref > A63 + At , p is calculated using Equation B.7. This was used in
the case of elevation angles of 0.1◦ and 0.5◦ .
STEP 8 Finally, there is a last step if Aref < A63 . However, this was not the
case so it will not be described here. For further information, go to the
ITU-R recommendation 618-8 [38].
Ap.4
Appendices
Figure B.1: Refraction and fading of our ground station at 2.4 GHz .
Ap.5
Appendix C
Focusing and Defocusing using the
ITU Model
This effect can be calculated for elevation angles less than 10◦ but should be
neglected for angles greater than 3◦ .
The total attenuation due to refraction in the atmosphere, in dB, can be cal-
culated using Equation C.1 [39].
b = ±10 log (B) (C.1)

Where,
2
0.5411 + 0.07446 · θ0 + h (0.06272 + 0.0276 · θ0 ) + h2 · 0.08288
B =1− (C.2)
1.728 + 0.5411 · θ0 + 0.03723 · θ0 2 + h · x + h2 · y

x = 0.1815 + 0.06272 · θ0 + 0.0138 · θ0 2 (C.3)
y = 0.01727 + 0.008288 · θ0 (C.4)

In Equation C.1, we will use the negative sign when the transmitter is on Earth,
that means, for the uplink, and, therefore, a positive sign for the downlink. In
Table C.1 we can see the values for Vienna’s ground station defocusing loss.
Table C.1: Defocusing Loss for Vienna’s Institute of Communications and Radio-
Frequency Engineering ground station.
Elevation Angle degrees 0.1 1 2 3

hs km 0.205
B 0.80943 0.76527 0.77655 0.80443
b downlink dB -0.91820 -1.16187 -1.09831 -0.94510
b uplink dB 0.91820 1.16187 1.09831 0.94510
Therefore, we can say that it will entail losses for the uplink, but will actually
result in some gain for the downlink.
Ap.6
Appendix D
Gaseous Absorption using the ITU
Model
In order to calculate the attenuation due to gases in the atmosphere, it has to
be taken into account that there are two different causes of attenuation, dry air,
and water vapour, and that each will have a different specific attenuation, γo and
γw , respectively, both measured in dB/km [41].
Calculation of the Specific Attenuation due to

Dry Air
The specific attenuation of dry air, γo , for frequencies below 54 GHz, can be
calculated using Equation D.1.
" #
7.2 · rt2.8 0.62 · ξ3
γo = 2 2 1.6
+ 1.16·ξ1
· f 2 · rp2 × 10−3 (D.1)
f + 0.34 · rp · rt (54 − f ) + 0.83 · ξ2
Where:
f is the frequency in GHz,
p is the pressure in hPa,
rp = p/1013,
t is the average temperature of the region in ◦ C,
rt = 288/ (273 + t), and
ξ1 = ϕ (rp , rt , 0.0717, −1.8132, 0.0156, −1.6515)

ξ2 = ϕ (rp , rt , 0.5146, −4.6368, −0.1921, −5.7416)
ξ3 = ϕ (rp , rt , 0.3414, −6.5851, 0.2130, −8.5854)
ϕ (rp , rt , a, b, c, d) = rp a · rt b · exp [c · (1 − rp ) + d · (1 − rt )]
Ap.7
Appendices
Calculation of the Specific Attenuation due to

Water Vapour
The specific attenuation of water vapour, γw , can be calculated using Equation D.2.
3.98η1 exp [2.23 (1 − rt )] 11.96η1 exp [0.7 (1 − rt )]

γw = 2 · g (f, 22) + +
(f − 22.235) + 9.42η1 2 (f − 183.31)2 + 11.14η1 2
0.081η1 exp [6.44 (1 − rt )] 3.66η1 exp [1.6 (1 − rt )]
+ 2 + +
(f − 321.226) + 6.29η1 2 (f − 325.153)2 + 9.22η1 2
25.37η1 exp [1.09 (1 − rt )] 17.4η1 exp [1.46 (1 − rt )]
+ + +
(f − 380)2 (f − 448)2
844.6η1 exp [0.17 (1 − rt )] 290η1 exp [0.41 (1 − rt )]
+ 2 · g (f, 557) + · g (f, 752) +
(f − 557) (f − 752)2
!
8.3328 × 104 η2 exp [0.99 (1 − rt )]
+ · g (f, 1780) · f 2 · rt 2.5 · ρ × 10−4
(f − 1780)2
(D.2)
Where:
η1 = 0.955 · rp · rt 0.68 + 0.006 · ρ (D.3)
η2 = 0.735 · rp · rt 0.5 + 0.0353 · rt 4 · ρ (D.4)

f − fi
g(f, fi ) = 1 + (D.5)
f + fi
ρ is the water vapour density in g/m3 .
Calculation of the Equivalent Height for dry air

and water vapour
There is an equivalent height for dry air, ho , and an equivalent height for water
vapour, hw . Both are calculated using Equation D.6 and Equation D.10.
6.1
ho = (1 + t1 + t2 + t3 ) (D.6)
1 + 0.17rp −1.1
With:
" 2 #
4.64 f − 59.7
t1 = exp − (D.7)
1 + 0.066rp −2.3 2.87 + 12.4 exp (−7.9rp )
Ap.8
Appendices
0.14 exp (2.12rp )

t2 = (D.8)
(f − 118.75)2 + 0.031 exp (2.2rp )
0.0114 −0.0247 + 0.0001f + 1.61 × 10−6 f 2

t3 = f (D.9)
1 + 0.14rp −2.6 1 − 0.0169f + 4.1 × 10−5 f 2 + 3.2 × 10−7 f 3
With the restriction that ho ≤ 10.7rp 0.3 for operating frequencies below 70 GHz.
For water vapour, at frequencies below 350 GHz:
1.39σw
hw = 1.66 1 + +
(f − 22.235)2 + 2.56σw
(D.10)
3.37σw 1.58σw
+ +
(f − 183.31) + 4.69σw (f − 325.1)2 + 2.89σw
2
Where:
1.013
σw = (D.11)
1 + exp [−8.6 (rp − 0.57)]
Calculation of the Gaseous Attenuation

The total attenuation in dB is obtained using Equation D.12
Ao + Aw
A= (D.12)
sin θ
Where:
Ao = ho · γo (D.13)
Aw = hw · γw (D.14)
For elevation angles, θ, between 5◦ and 90◦ .
Calculation of the Gaseous Attenuation of

Vienna’s INTHFT Ground Station
For Vienna’s INTHFT1 ground station calculations, a few parameters were re-
quired:
1
Institute of Communications and Radio-Frequency Engineering of Vienna University of Tech-
nology.
Ap.9
Appendices
The average atmospheric pressure in Vienna for the last year, p, was 1004.1
hPa. In order to obtain the average temperature, another recommendation from
the ITU [42] was consulted. According to Recommendation P.1510 from the
ITU-R [42], the annual average temperature for Austria is 10◦ C.
Furthermore, the water vapour density, ρ, can be calculated by means of the
relative humidity , obtaining a value of 6.088119 g/m3 .
The specific parameters required for the calculation of gas attenuation are
shown in Table D.1. Moreover, the results obtained for the gaseous attenuation
are presented in Table D.2.
Table D.1: Gaseous attenuation parameters of our ground station at 2.4 GHz.
Parameter Unit Value

Frequency GHz 2.4
p hPa 1004.1
t ◦
C 10
ρ g/m3 6.08812
γo dB/km 0.00705
γw dB/km 8.2828 × 10−5
ho km 5.20356
hw km 1.66594
Ao dB 0.03668
Aw dB 0.00014
Table D.2: Gaseous attenuation of our ground station at 2.4 GHz.
Elevation Angle degrees 5 20 45 90

Agas dB 0.42244 0.10765 0.05207 0.03682
Ap.10
Appendix E
Rain Attenuation using the ITU
Model
Calculation of long-term rain attenuation
statistics from rainfall rate
In order to be able to calculate the rain attenuation, a few parameters are re-
quired:
R0.01 in mm/h is the rainfall rate for the location for 0.01% of an average
year. In Recommendation ITU-R P.837-1 [44] there are maps of the world,
divided into zones containing a value for the rainfall rate in each zone.
Vienna belongs to Zone K, that, for a percentage of time of 0.01%, gives a
value of 42 mm/h.
hs in km is the height of the ground station above sea level. The antenna of
our ground station will be positioned on the roof of the old Electrical En-
gineering building of the University of Technology of Vienna, which is 35 m
high. Regarding that Vienna is at 170 m above sea level, that makes a total
of 0.205 km.
ϕ in degrees is the latitude of the earth station. For our ground station, this
parameter’s value is 48.22◦ .
Re in km is the effective radius of the Earth. According to the ITU recommen-
dation, this value is 8500 km. According to other publications, its value is
8470 km [49]. However, because the ITU model is the one being used, the
value chosen for the calculations is 8500 km.
Detailed below are the steps to follow to calculate the rain attenuation for a
certain frequency, for different elevation angles.
STEP 1 Determination of the rain height, hR . In order to do so, in ITU rec-
ommendation P.839 [45], it is stated that hR = ho + 0.36 km. ho can be
obtained from the maps given in the recommendation, obtaining a value of
ho = 3 km. As a result, hR = 3.36 km.
Ap.11
Appendices
STEP 2 Determination of the slant path length, Ls in km, below the rain height.
This value depends on the elevation angle, θ. For elevation angles greater
than 5◦ , Ls = (hR − hs ) / sin θ. On the other
q hand, for elevation angles, less
2
than or equal to 5 , Ls = 2·(hR − hs ) /
◦
sin θ + 2 (hR − hs ) /Re + sin θ
STEP 3 Calculation of the horizontal projection, LG , of the slant-path length

using LG = Ls · cos θ in km.
STEP 4 Obtaining the specific attenuation, γR , in dB/km using Equation E.1.
γR = k · R0.01 α (E.1)
Where:
k and α can be calculated by means of the ITU recommendation 838 [46]
as follows:
k = kH + kV + (kH − kV ) · cos θ2 · cos (2τ ) /2 (E.2)

α = kH αH + kV αV + (kH αH − kV αV ) · cos θ2 · cos (2τ ) /2k (E.3)

αH , αV , kH , kV are frequency dependent and can be obtained from tables.

τ depends on the polarization. It is the polarization inclination angle with
the respect to the horizontal, with a value, for instance, of 45◦ for circular
polarization.
STEP 5 Calculation of the horizontal reduction factor, r0.01 , for 0.01% of the
time.
1
r0.01 = q (E.4)
LG ·γR
1 + 0.78 · f
− 0.38 · (1 − exp−2LG )
STEP 6 Calculation of the vertical reduction factor, v0.01 , for 0.01% of the time.
1
v0.01 = √ ·V (E.5)
1+
sin θ
√
LR · γ R
(E.6)
−(θ/(1+κ))

V = 31 · 1 − exp · − 0.45
f2
Due to the fact that the latitude of our ground station is greater than 36◦
κ is equal to 0 degrees.
Moreover, LR , depends on another parameter, ξ, measured in degrees.

hR − hs
ξ = arctan (E.7)
LG · r0.01
Ap.12
Appendices
(
LG ·r0.01
If ξ > 0
LR = cos θ
hR −hs
(E.8)
sin θ
Otherwise
STEP 7 Calculation of the effective path length, LE in km.
LE = LR · v0.01 (E.9)
STEP 8 The predicted attenuation exceeded for 0.01% of an average year in
dB, is obatined from Equation E.10.
A0.01 = γR · LE (E.10)
Finally, in Table E.2, are shown the results of this method applied to our
ground station at 2.4 GHz and circular polarization. In Table E.1, a list of the
parameters used can be seen.
Table E.1: Parameters used to calculate the rain attenuation for our ground
station.
Parameter Value Unit

Frequency 2.4 GHz
R0.01 42 mm/h
ϕ 48.22 ◦
hR 3.36 km
hs 0.205 km
Re 8500 km
τ 45 ◦
kH 0.0001321
kV 0.0001464
αH 1.1209
αV 1.0085
Table E.2: Rain attenuation of our ground station.
θ ◦
0.1 2 5 20 90
γR dB/km 0.00737 0.00737 0.00737 0.00737 0.00737
LE km 580.03703 17.74824 7.00773 1.68841 0.59792
A0.01 dB 4.27406 0.13078 0.05164 0.01244 0.00441
Ap.13

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Diploma Thesis

under the supervision of

Dipl.-Ing. Michael Fischer

Institute of Communications and Radio-Frequency Engineering

Adria Ainhoa Solana Esteban

Vienna, July 2010

2 The Project MOST 2

3 The COROT Satellite 4

4 The BRITE Constellation Mission 7

5 The GENSO Project 15

6 Concept of a Multi-Mission Ground Station 21

7 Building Blocks Analysis and Selection 29

7.5 Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

List of Abbreviations B.1

List of Figures C.1

List of Tables D.1

A Beam Spreading Loss using the ITU Model Ap.1

B Refraction and Fading using the ITU Model Ap.2

C Focusing and Defocusing using the ITU Model Ap.6

D Gaseous Absorption using the ITU Model Ap.7

E Rain Attenuation using the ITU Model Ap.11

2.2 MOST Satellite

2.3 MOST Orbit

Figure 2.1: The MOST Satellite, [2]

2.4 MOST Communications

Table 2.1: Frequency and data rates of the MOST satellite.

COROT’s main tasks are:

3.2 COROT Satellite

Figure 3.1: COROT Satellite. [5]

3.3 COROT Orbit

Table 3.1: Summary of the main characteristics of the COROT satellite.

Satellite Specification Value

3.4 COROT Communications

Why a constellation and not a single satellite?

allowing measurements of stellar variability on the order of hours to months. The

incorporating a high-performance Attitude Control System (ACS). It was desig-

Is BRITE a mere copy or improvement of MOST?

4.2 BRITE Constellation Satellites

Each satellite has a cubic structure with a size of 20 cm × 20 cm × 20 cm, made

Figure 4.2: Structure of a BRITE Satellite. [12]

Attitude Determination and Control (ADC) Subsystem

Figure 4.3: Attitude control hardware of the BRITE satellite. [8]

On-board Computer Subsystem

The satellite will carry three computers [12, 7]:

The communication subsystem is responsible for receiving commands from the

Figure 4.4: Patch antennas mounted on the BRITE satellites. [12]

As mentioned before, the satellite will carry a photometer instrument that

4.3 BRITE Orbits

4.4 BRITE Communications

Figure 4.5: Components of the GNB BRITE satellite. [12]

4.5 Summary of BRITE

Table 4.1: Summary of the main characteristics of the BRITE satellites.

Satellite Specification Value

Central Server or AUthentication Server (AUS). The central server would

Figure 5.1: Components of a GENSO network.

Figure 5.2: Diagram of a standard GENSO ground station.

5.2 Typical Educational Satellite Features

Table 5.1: Classification of small satellites.

Figure 5.3: AMSAT-OSCAR 51 (Echo AO-51) microsatellite. [19]

5.3 Educational Satellites Orbit

Table 5.2: Common amateur satellite frequency allocations.

Band Frequencies (MHz) Approximate Wavelength