SUSU Antenna Array

SUSU Antenna Array
Status	Ongoing
Project Lead	User:TylerWard

SUSU Antenna Array

This project aims to build a new amateur radio antenna array to mount on the students union, along with an operating station within the building. This would be of benefit to SUWS as well as other societies.

Facebook Group

Current Status

• Currently in purchasing and refurbishment stage as well as final planning on assembly and connections

Task List

The task list can be found at https://github.com/SUWS/mast-planning/issues

Interested Parties

• SUWS (us) - General Amateur Radio operation / tracking high altitude balloons.
• Space Flight Society
  • Interested in helping us.
  • Interested in tracking satellite / high altitude balloons
• SUSUtv
  • Interested in directional Wi-Fi for live campus broadcast
• Surge
  • Interested in properly fixing their FM antenna
• Astronomy
  • Interested in 1GHz-2GHz (?) radio astronomy.
• ECS Sensor Network Research
  • 868Mhz omni for sensor network node
• There is still room for other interest should there be any

Antenna/Feature Ideas

Confirmed

• HF beam dipole
• triband 2m/70cm/6m omni
• 70cm+2m on dual-axis rotator
• SURGE FM broadcast antenna
• SOWN Wi-Fi @ coordinates
• 868 sensor net antenna on spur

Sensible

• 23cm on spur
• radio telescope (astrosoc)
• monitoring node (temp/wind ect)

Current Plan

From top of the mast to bottom.

• 6m/2m/70cm collinear (AR+satellites+HABs)

• Spur bar
  • FM Broadcast antenna (SURGE)
  • 868 MHz omni (sensor networks)

• Elevation rotator
  • 2m Crossed Yagi (AR+satellites)
    • eg. 8-ele Tonna
  • 70cm Yagi (AR+satellites+HABs)
    • eg. 19-ele Tonna (probably too long)
  • 5GHz Wifi Dish (SOWN+SUSUTV)
    • eg. 802.11ac Ubiquiti PowerBeam

• HF Dipole (AR)

• Azimuth Rotator

Timeline

• 80s/90s - Mast on SUSU with room at the end of B40 as operating room

• 2014 - June/July - Room in B40 converted to general use (start of mast planning)
• 2014 - Sept Created WIKI page
• 2014 - October - Initial plan for mast created
• 2015 - March - Applied for funding with SUSU and granted
• 2015 - March - SUSU H&S have given preliminary approval for the project
• 2015 - March - SUSU Facilities had no objections when spoken to
• 2015 - May - Informed that we had been told to speak to the wrong people and is being passed on to the correct people
• 2015 - August - Room in 40 re-purposed back into an office
• 2015 - August - Created feasibility report for B42
• 2015 - September - Union services discussing with E&F
• 2015 - October - VPDCI chasing up for meeting result
• 2016 - March - Informed that SUSU has been unable to get permission from E&F for the mast on 42. no more details provided
• 2016 - September - E&F didnt know why it was canceled from there end
• 2016 - September - Spoke to New VPDCI about project no progress made
• 2017 - September - Resumed communication with new SUSU VPDCI about the mast

Kit

• Statuses
  • Arrived - We have the item.
  • Ordered - We have ordered the item.
  • Approved - We are good to purchase the item but have not done so yet.
  • Awaiting Approval - We know what we need and are awaiting financial approval.
  • Pending - Something is blocking on us being able to approve this item.

All prices are VAT included, unless otherwise specified. "+ £X.XX" indicates additional costs, such as shipping.

Purchase Tracking

Item	Cost	Link	Budget	Status	Ordered / Acquired By	Notes	Actions Required
Triband Vertical	£87.95	[1]	Mast	Arrived 2015-04-21	TylerWard
Lithium Grease 500g	£7.95	[2]	Mast	Arrived 2015-05-11	TylerWard.	Datasheet
SSD for APU board	£32.39	[3]	ECS Networks	Arrived 2015-05-11	ECS
868 Antenna	£23.44	[4]	Mountain Sensing	Arrived 2015-05-14	Kirk
2M Crossed Yagi	£89.95 + £4.99	[5]	Mast	Arrived 2015-05-15	TylerWard
Separation kit G5400	Free (Thanks Yaesu)	N/A	N/A	Arrived 2015-05-15	Nsefan	Purpose: To mount the elevation on a pole
Horizontal mast section	Already owned by SUWS	N/A	N/A	Arrived	DavidNewman	Needs 32-43mm diameter	needs cleaning
Fast Ethernet 16 port managed switch (with gigabit uplink)	Free (Thanks ECS)	N/A	N/A	Arrived 2015-05-20	DavidNewman
Dual Axis Rotator	£40	[6]	Mast	Arrived 2014	M0NSA		Awaiting invoice for reimbursement
HF Dipole Beam	Already owned by SUWS	N/A	N/A	Arrived 19??	Craag		Refurbishment required. Replacement parts will be required
Ubiquity Powerbeam PBE-M5-300 and accessories	£66.46	[7]	TJC's Services Rendered	Arrived 2015-05-19	ECS
Screws For Rotator (M6*20)	£5.03	[8]	Mast	Arrived	Muzer		Awaiting invoice
Nuts For Rotator (M6)	£3.78	[9]	Mast	Arrived	TylerWard
Washers For Rotator (M6)	£1.19	[10]	Mast	Arrived	TylerWard
70cm Yagi	£52.96 + £10	[11]	Mast	Approved			Awaiting Purchase (Waiting on ML&S order)
Loctite 243 (for securing the bolts)	£8.27+VAT	[12]	Mast	Approved			Needs Ordering (awaiting a onecall order)
Loctite 262	£3.99	[13]	Mast	Arrived	Tyler-Ward
HF Balun	£29.95 + £4.00	[14]	Mast	Approved			Awaiting order from walters and stanton
0.5in x 1 metre long aluminium tube (1.6mm thick)	£7.38	[15]	Mast	Approved		Replacement for broken EG component of HF beam	Date to be approved/ordered: Approve ASAP. (May check if anything else needs to be ordered from same supplier before ordering).
Vertical mast section	£52.95	[16]	Mast	Pending		Needs to be between 38-63mm in diameter	To be approved later need to confirm appropriate length
Mast Thrust Bearing (Yaesu GS-065)	£47.61 + VAT	[17]		Approved			Need to confirm wall mounting
Rotator and Bearing Wall Mounts	£59.23 + VAT	[18]		Pending		Yaesu BE645Y, Pair including both rotator and bearing bracket	Need to confirm wall mounting
Rack Cupboard	£180	[19]		Pending		21U 600mm Deep Data Cabinet/Data Rack	Pending SUSU approval for wall mounting

Open Orders with suppliers

Supplier	Items	Delivery Cost	Minimum Order	Notes	Actions Required
onecall.farnell.com	Loctite 243 (£8.27+VAT)	FREE	£20
http://wsplc.com/	1:1 400W Balun (£29.95)	£4	NONE
screwfix		£?	NONE	Can buy directly in Southampton store

Other parts known to be needed

• Extra Mounting hardware

• Dual axis Rotator Parts SUSU_Antenna_Array/rotator

• Internal patch panel parts
  • panel [20]

• Parts for HF dipole
  • lots of bits
  • See HF Yagi

• Coax parts
  • coax
  • connectors
  • Per Antenna Feed (5 required)
    • 2x weatherproof Flex-8 Connectors
  • Per Room Feed (5 required, 8 ideally)
    • 1x Weatherproof RG-213 Connector
    • 1x indoor RG-213 Connector

• connection plate
  • ?* weatherproof N through connectors [[21]]
  • ?* N blanking plates
  • Mounting frame (suggest stainless or aluminium)
  • Connector box [[22]]
    • 2* ethercon panel connectors [[23]]
    • 2* XRL7 male panel [[24]]
    • 2* XLR7 female panel [[25]]
    • 2* ethercon cable [[26]]
    • 2* XLR7 female cable [[27]]
    • 2* XLR7 male cable [[28]]
    • potting compound [[29]] / lots of silica gell
    • D connector mounting plate [[30]]
    • weatherproofing ans sealant [[31]]

Coax Info

Information sourced from Coax Data and ML&S

Prices sourced from ML&S inc. VAT

	Diameter	RF Loss	Max Power Handling	Cost	Datasheet
	mm	dB/100ft @ 400MHz	W @ 50MHz (1:1 SWR)	/25m Reel
RG-58	5	10.5	450W	£20.70
RG-213	10.3	4.5	1500W	£32.25	http://www.romkatel.ro/cataloage/pdf/eupen/RG213.pdf
Ultraflex 7	7.3	3.59	1820W	£29.70	http://www.messi.it/dati/immagini/RGAC7PLUS-All1_EN.pdf

Note: Connectors for Ultraflex 7 are uncommon, and so may add significantly to the expense.

History

Previous mast installed in this location

photo from: http://2009.igem.org/wiki/images/f/fa/Hartley_web.jpg