06 / Club / Aug 2025 - Present
Ground Station Development
Ground-station software and onboard communication that keep telemetry flowing between FrontierSat, a 3U CubeSat, and the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory.
- CubeSat
- 3U
- Crossed-Yagi ground antenna
- 15.5 dBic
- Onboard GOMSpace AX100 link
- UHF
Overview
CalgaryToSpace is the University of Calgary's student satellite team. Its FrontierSat mission is a 3U CubeSat, and a satellite is only as useful as its link to the ground. I work on the communications that carry its telemetry, both at the ground station and on board.
Ground station
I design and manage the Python software that runs the ground station at the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory, enabling reliable uplink and downlink through an M2 Inc. 15.5 dBic crossed-Yagi antenna with polarization switching.
The ICOM IC-9700 transceiver is integrated with GNU Radio and GPredict for automated satellite tracking and signal processing, while an AlfaSpid RAS rotator and ROT2 controller point the antenna as the satellite passes overhead.
On board FrontierSat
On the satellite, communication runs through a GOMSpace AX100 UHF transceiver connected to two 2.15 dB dipole antennas and an onboard RF switch. I manage that link with a C/C++ framework in STM32CubeIDE on the STM32-based on-board computer, which handles telemetry transmission.
I also take part in acquiring, testing and verifying the RF hardware for the ground-to-satellite data links, including the USRP B210 software-defined radio and RF switch modules.