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Chris Hazlitt's SATCOM Notebook -

A collection of technical articles I have found helpful for both myself and coworkers while supporting the US Army's satellite network in Afghanistan as their SATCOM engineer and site lead from 2008 through 2010. This web page is purely non-commercial in nature, if you are the owner of anything on this web site and object to my presenting the information here, upon notice, I will remove the material or if you prefer simply provide links to your web page instead. - Some sections are my own notes regarding equipment I have worked with.

- Chris


Date(s): July, 2009. 1 - 13 of 13 Total. Hidden
RF Impedance Match Networks
1. RF Impedance Match Networks 
Collection of antenna tuner and RF impedance matching designs.
2 Images
Shared Album
 Hawkeye III and Ranger 1200 Opr. Files.
2. Hawkeye III and Ranger 1200 Opr. Files. 
1. Airbus Ranger 1200 Operating files
2. L-3 Hawkeye III Operating Files
34 Images
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iDirect Files
3. iDirect Files  (January 1, 2020)
iSite and upgrade files Jan 2020.
1 Albums
Shared Folder
Vendor Manuals (click here)
4. Vendor Manuals (click here) 
This collection of manuals as well as the web page sections is a work in progress, additional manuals will be added on a regular basis as I have time to find them and upload to this web site. Have suggestions?

1. Antennas - 2.4, 3.9 Meter Antennas and Control Equipment (more being added later).
2. Common Equipment (i.e. upconverters, LNB, PA) and Satellite Modems.
3. Digital Network Equipment - Canoga, Cisco, Codem, Systech and more.
4. Feedline - Coax, Waveguide and RF Connector Specifications.
5. Generators - Onan, Kohler, Yanmar.
6. Power Supplies, Inverters & UPS, Wire Specs.
7. Temperature Control - ECU.
8. Test Equipment - Data and RF.
9. Tech Notes - Unofficial data resources and instructions compiled and or written by field tech's.
10. ViaSat Linkway Manuals.
11 Albums
Shared Folder
SATCOM Engineering Ref. (click here)
5. SATCOM Engineering Ref. (click here) 
Lots of reference data regarding satellite telecom, antennas and measurements. Includes several Excel RF calculator tools.

Online satellite link budget calculator: Satellite Link Budget Calculator  

Excellent online RF engineering resources are at these links:

http://www.satellite-calculations.com

http://www.radioing.com/eengineer/index.html

http://www.rfcafe.com/references/calculators.htm

Link to: Microwave Spread Sheets and Excel Calculator Docs. - Lots of RF .xls calculators you won't likely ever need to use but some can be very useful for RF link work.

Download: RF Units Converter Program.exe - This is a very small program which downloads quickly and well worth having if you work with RF voltage and power levels.

Intelsat COB - Intelsat Center Of Box Ephemeris Data: Find your region (Afghan uses Indian Ocean Region), use the drop down menu to go to your bird and then click the "view" box to see predicted COB data.

Telesat COB - Anik F1, Anik F1R, Anik F2, Anik F3, Nimiq 1, Nimiq 2, Nimiq 4, Telstar 11N, Telstar 12, Telstar 14, Telstar 18
27 Images
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Satellite & Tech Articles (click here)
6. Satellite & Tech Articles (click here) 
Satellite telecom training and technical articles.

1. Handbook of Satellite Communications. ITU. PDF.
2. The Satellite Communication Applications Handbook. PDF.
3. Earth Orbits DOC.
4. Satcom Course - Links.ppt.
5. Satellite Communications.ppt.
6. SATCOM Link Budgeting.ppt
7. Parabolic Dish Antennas. PDF.
8. Introduction to Antenna Basics for Parabolics. DOC.
9. Satellite Comms Overview. PDF.
10. Tutorial of Satellite Communication by Kamran Ahmed, Institute of Information Technology. PDF.
11. Satellite Comms Orbital Perturbation.pdf.
12. Satellite Comms Radio Wave Prop.pdf
13. Satellite Comms Polarization.pdf
14. Satellite Comms Antennas.
15. Satellite Comms Link Budget. DOC.
16. Satellite Comms Interference. PDF.
17. Satellite Comms Channel Char. PDF.
18. Satellite Terms Glossary DOC.
19. C-N and Eb-No Measurement Tutorial.pdf.
20. Basic Antenna Theory.doc
21. Antenna fundamentals W1GHz
22. Parabolic Antenna Gain Basics.doc
23. Antenna radiation patterns.pdf
24. Beamwidth.doc
25. Offset-fed parabolic dish antennas.
26. Electromagnetic Horn Antennas. Tutorial. DOC.
27. Parabolic Dish Feeds - Performance Analysis.
28. Polarity Mismatch Levels.
29. Satellite TVRO G/T calculations.
30. Near field vs Far Field.

and much more...

More RF related information can be found at these links: http://www.rfcafe.com/references/electrical.htm - http://www.microwaves101.com/content/calculators.cfm -
http://www.rfwireless-world.com
56 Images
Shared Album
Data and RF Coax Connectors (click here)
7. Data and RF Coax Connectors (click here) 
Data connector pin-outs and RF Connector Specifications.

1. V.35 ITU-TSS Serial Connector Pinout.
2. RJ-45 Ethernet Connector Pinout.
3. RJ-45 RS-232D Serial 8 pin Connector Pinout.
4. RJ-48 CSU/DSU Network, T1, Fractional T1, T3 line
5. RS-232 PC Serial DB-9 Connector Pinout.
6. RS-232 Serial Port Pinouts.
7. RS-422 (EIA-422).
8. RS-449 (EIA-449) Serial 37 pin Connector Pinout.
9. RS-485 (EIA-485) Serial Connector Pinout.
10. RS-530 (EIA530) Serial 25 pin Connector Pinout.
11. Video Connector Pinouts.
12. Apple iPod iPhone Pinout.
13. Ethernet Crossover.doc
15. RJ11, RJ14 and RJ25 pinouts.
15. T568A B Ethernet.doc
16. T568A B RJ45.doc
17. RS232 Null Modem Cable Pinout.
18. Great article with coax connector specifications such as upper frequency limits for many types of coaxial connectors.
19. Microwave Coax Connectors.pdf: Some theory about microwave coaxial connectors as well as a graph showing their upper frequency limits and photographs of each connector type.  

The following web site is a great resource for pinouts: http://www.allpinouts.org/index.php/Category:Serial_Connectors
24 Images
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Ku-Ka 6.3 M DKET Photo's (click here)
8. Ku-Ka 6.3 M DKET Photo's (click here) 
SN. 001 General Dynamics DKET Antenna assembled in Duluth, GA Nov. 2009.  I left Afghanistan for close to a month to be part of a three man crew assembling and testing the antenna. I also took photo's to document the assembly procedure for when the antenna was later delivered to me in Afghanistan.

CLICK ON EACH PHOTO TO SEE IN LARGER SIZE.
35 Images
Shared Album
Ku-Band VSAT Photos (click here)
9. Ku-Band VSAT Photos (click here) 
Photo's from a project I was responsible for in 2010 installing telephone and internet connectivity for several UAV bases in Afghanistan consisting of eight Patriot 1.2 meter Ku-band VSAT TDMA systems using iDirect modems.

iDirect 5150 Satellite Modem.
CODAN 8 Watt BUC.
LNB: 1209HCF 10 GHz LO. 10.95-11.7 GHz.

A Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), is a two-way satellite ground station with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3 meters. Most VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m. Data rates typically range from 56 Kbit/s up to 4 Mbit/s.

More about VSAT systems here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_small_aperture_terminal

http://www.comsys.co.uk/vsatinfo.htm
10 Images
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AT&T Ku-Band VSAT (click here)
10. AT&T Ku-Band VSAT (click here) 
This section is a resource for technicians working on the AT&T Calling Centers in Afghanistan. (2014 Now closed).

I worked as AT&T's project manager/engineer/technician on this system for about a year and took the following photo's and notes on their system, creating this page to help the contracted on call technicians who worked on the system when I was unable to reach their location.

Andrew 1.8 Meter - FDMA Toll Telephone Calling Center. NOTE: This page is set up to display six photo's horizontally before the next line. If you see less scroll to the right or adjust your display. The photo's are a mix of BAF, Dwyer, Delaram, Kandahar and Shank's Calling Centers. For programming information and other documents scroll to the bottom of the page below the photo's. The photo's showing measurements inside the center were for Kevin Nelson's use to draft plans for a second generation version of these buildings with improvements which will be built in the future. Please excuse the obvious low quality photo's when viewed at their highest resolution, when clicking on them. All photo's were taken using a cell phone camera. For the Calling Centers which use AnaCom Satcom equipment here is a link to a manual for the Supervisor 7.7 software used with the SSPA/RF package as well as download links for the software itself: http://www.anacominc.com/prod_sw.html
138 Images
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Jammer Alert
11. Jammer Alert  (March 27, 2014)
Photo's of equipment I designed and built for the USAF on Bagram Air Base to reduce RFI jamming from the US Army's MRAP trucks operating on base. Sometimes the operators would come in from the field and forget to turn off their jamming equipment, severely affecting RF communications on base. U N D E R   C O N S T R U C T I O N....
1 Albums
Shared Folder
Experimenters Folder
12. Experimenters Folder  (January 6, 2010)
Experimental and unique antennas, amplifiers and other cool stuff. High power amps & high gain or broadband antennas must be viewed with a gleam in your eye to have much interest in this section.
6 Albums
Shared Folder
GMDSS
13. GMDSS  (May 25, 2016)
1 Albums
Shared Folder

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