[amsat-bb] S signal source

[Jim White <jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
>
>VE2ZAZ posted information about a real simple and inexpensive signal 
>source for 2.4 GHz a few weeks ago.  I have a need to accurately position 
>feeds on dishes and it seemed like an interesting and quick project.  So I 
>built one yesterday afternoon and modified it a bit today.  Sitting on the 
>bench in the lab I hear it about 20 dB out of the noise when I point the 
>4.5 dish at the building (about 70 feet away).  Seems just about right for 
>testing and tuning.  I'll just hang it on a pole in the pasture a couple 
>of hundred feet away and can fiddle with feed positioning and alignment 
>all day.  Note that it puts out a nice signal for tuning on L band as 
>well.  The antenna really doesn't matter all that much, but one that that 
>shown in the photos would take about 20 minutes for build for L.
>Might also fire up a program I wrote some time ago to read and record the 
>S meter readings from the R7100 via it's serial interface.  Put the source 
>due south of the dish, start the program, spin the dish all the way around 
>and stop recording.  Then import the recorded data into Excel and do a 
>polar plot and I have the dish pattern.  Similarly, I can hang the source 
>from the nearby 60' tower and move the dish vertically 0 to 90 and get the 
>vertical pattern, or at least the important part.
>
>Some pictures and notes are at 
>http://www.coloradosatellite.com/SSource/SSource.htm
>
>Jim
>jim@coloradosatellite.com
>

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