Automated ground station with customized rotator for antenna pointing using compass sensor

The antenna pointing system is very important to obtain an optimum received signal level. To achieve it, the pointing mechanism has to be set in automatic mode. In this research, the automatic antenna pointing system is developed by using compass sensor CMPS10 as a feedback. Beside CMPS10, the angle estimation has been calculated by TLE orbital satellite to predict the movement of tracked satellite. This system has been tested to track NOAA19 with differences between the prediction angle with the real satellite angle about 5 degree on the average. On the rotator system, by using 2 gears and 2 DC motors with customized frames, the system has been realized and tested. There are 3 tests to be done: the test of power supply circuit, the elevation and azimuth power requirement tests, and the mechanical tests. The design of the customized rotator system resulting the azimuth speed is 7.3 degree per second on the average, while the elevation speed has 7.7 degree per second on the average. The rotator also has been tested with some loaded-unloaded schemes to clarify the ability of rotator system. The load-tests show that on the average 98 kilograms-load for azimuth movement needs 58.8 Watts supply; and 54 kilograms-load for the elevation movement needs 198 Watts.