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A screen shot of the GUI. |
A screen shot of a LabView connection |
The
South Pole, Antarctica,
2002 to 2003 Season
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"Men wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small
wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return
doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success. - Ernest Shackleton"
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| I found my job in Antarctica on the internet in February of 2002. Raytheon Polar Services was looking for a Satellite Technician. They supply contractors to the National Science Foundation to staff various research facilities, including the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where I now work under a one year contract. My job as a Satellite Technician is to keep the satellite communications equipment at the station in working order. This equipment is used to provide broadband data links to the 'outside world'. The links provide for internet access and scientific data downloads for the various research projects here on the 'ice'. |
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| The heart of
the satellite system at the pole is a nine meter Vertex prime focus dish. This dish is
used to link to two satellites in inclined orbits, MARISAT 2 and GOES 3.
These satellites can only be 'seen' from the South Pole when their orbit
goes below 8 degrees from the equator. When pointed at MARISAT 2 we are able to acquire a link with a T-1 bandwidth of 1.544 MBPS for the duration of the pass, approximately 6 hours. The MARISAT link is L-band with a 1.6 GHz uplink and a 1.5 GHz downlink. This satellite is located at 34 degrees west longitude and has an inclined orbit of about 13.2 degrees. When pointed at GOES 3 we link at T-1 speeds downstream, and 512 kbps upstream, for the duration of its pass, about 5 hours and 45 minutes. The GOES link transmits on a 2.0 GHz uplink carrier and receives on a 1.6 GHz downlink. GOES 3 is located at 105 degrees west longitude and has an inclined orbit of 13.8 degrees. This dish is operated with a monitor and control system from ILC, Industrial Logic Corporation. A series of macros are written that acquire the satellite via TLEs (Two Line Elements provided by NASA). After acquiring the satellite these same macros are used to switch to beacon tracking, adjust frequencies, power levels, etc. The system allows for automatic tracking and control of the satellite system equipment via a java GUI (graphical user interface) running on a networked computer. Another satellite system on station consists of two, three meter dishes in a fixed position. They are used to connect to TDRSS F1 for a little less that five hours a day. This system is mainly used to connect through White Sands, New Mexico, via both S and Ku band frequencies. The S band uplink is at 2.2 GHz and the downlink is at 2.0 GHz. The Ku band uplink is at about 15 GHz, there is no Ku band downlink. A store and forward server at the pole is used by the scientific community as a repository for the data they collect. During the satellite link, the data they have collected and put on the server is transmitted to another server at White Sands, where the various sponsoring agencies have access to the data stored on the server. |
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A screen shot of the GUI. |
A screen shot of a LabView connection |
| Most of the satellite control systems and equipment used at the pole can be accessed from networked computers using LabView executables that were written to specifically provide remote access to the equipment. Using these LabView executables I have access to spectrum analyzers, SSPAs, modems, etc., from the comfort of my desktop, an important consideration when the weather can reach temperatures of 100 degrees below zero. |
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We are currently installing an IRIDIUM rack in our RF building. In the rack we will have five IRIDIUM LBTs (L-band tranceivers) that will allow us narrow band and multi band data connectivity 24 hours a day. |
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