Typical Ka band Satellite Beacon Receiver Design for Propagation Experimentation

Subject Areas : Circuits, Sensors and Devices

Reza Bahri ¹ , Hossein Yarmohammadi ² , Mohammad Reza keshavarzi ³ , Gholamreza Moradi ⁴

1 - Iran Telecommunication Research center
2 - Tehran University
3 - ITRC
4 - Amirkabir University

Received: 2015-01-23 Accepted : 2015-04-21 Published : 2015-05-01

Keywords: Satellite communications, Satellite wave propagation, Satellite beacon receiver, Beacon signal,

Abstract :

This paper presents the design and simulation of a typical Ka band satellite beacon receiver for propagation experimentation. Using satellite beacon signal as a reference signal in satellite wave propagation study, is one of the most important methods. Satellite beacons are frequently available for pointing large antennas, but such signals can be used for measuring the effect of natural phenomena such as atmospheric gases, water vapor, oxygen molecules, clouds, rain, dust and fog existing in different layers of the atmosphere, including troposphere and ionosphere.In recent years, different designs of satellite beacon receiver (analog and digital) are proposed and implemented. Beacon signals are used for various applications including precise orientation of the earth station to the satellite, automatic frequency control and satellite propagation research. These cases demonstrate the importance of using the reference beacon signal. To receive satellite beacon, an appropriate receiver is needed. Locking on satellite beacon signal is hard. Though conventional satellite receivers are also generally able to track the beacon signal, the nature of the signal is led to create a special receiver. In this paper, the design and simulation of a satellite signal beacon receiver have been done in Ka band.

References:

[1] Allnutt, J. E., Satellite-to-ground radiowave propagation, IEE Electromagnetic Waves Series 29, Peter Peregrinus Ltd., 2011.
[2] Gardner, F. M., Phaselock Techniques, John Willey & Sons, 1966.
[3] Allnutt, J. E., and J. E. Goodyer, “Design of receiving stations for satellite to ground propagation research at frequency above 10 GHz,” IEE J. Microwaves, Optic & acoustics, Vol. 1, 1977, pp.157-164.
[4] Kikkert, C. J., “A digital signal processing based Ka band Satellite Beacon Receiver/Radiometer,” Signal Processing and Communication Systems, ICSPCS 2008, 2008
[5] Kikkert, C. J., “A digital signal processing based Ka band satellite beacon receiver, Information, Communications & Signal Processing,” 6th International Conference on ICECS 08, 2008.
[6] Crane R. K., and et al, “ACTS Propagation Experiment: Experiment Design, Calibration, and Data Preparation and Archival,” Proc. of the IEEE, Vol. 85, No. 6, 1997
[7] Yamamoto M., “Digital beacon receiver for ionospheric TEC measurement,” E-LETTER, Earth Planets Space, 60, e21–e24, 2008.
[8] Gonzalez, G., Microwave Transistor Amplifiers: Analysis and Design, 2nd Edition, 1996
[9] www.norsat.com
[10] http://www.analog.com