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SatNOGs Station Construction and LNA Power Modifications

In September 2018 I built a remote receiving station for the SatNOGs project. This post describes the build process, and modifications I made to allow for coax power of a Mini-circuits ZX60-33LN-S+ low-noise amplifier.

SatNOGs is a distributed ground station network for amateur radio and university satellites. The idea is to spread a bunch of software-defined receivers around the world to help satellite operators downlink more data from their satellites. The open-source project, running on your local hardware, controls a software-defined receiver, moves directional antennas if you have them, and uploads the audio files and decoded data to a big database. Satellite operators, and other curious people, can see almost-real-time telemetry from the satellites.

As a historical aside, the concept of CubeSat teams sharing ground station resources has a long history, starting back with the first CubeSats launched in June 2003. Here's a partial list of CubeSat-specific networks that laid the foundation for the SatNOGs network:

Professor James Cutler, from Stanford and now University of Michigan, built the Mercury Ground Station Network for commanding the Stanford QuakeSat CubeSat. Presentation.
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