ph7at.net - portable (satellite) station description

My portable satellite station

I have always been interested in putting together a portable satellite station which would be easy to take with me on holidays.

My current portable setup:

Icom IC-R20 multimode receiver (100 kHz - 3.3 GHz)

Yaesu FT-817ND

Arrow antenna 2m/70cm

K5GNA AIDC3731 13cm->2m downconverter

home-made 13cm hybrid quad antenna

Yuasa NP7-12 12V 7Ah lead-acid battery

I tested the Icom IC-R20 communications receiver with the arrow antenna for receiving AO-7, FO-29, AO-27, AO-51 and VO-52 and with the downconverter and the hybrid quad for AO-51 mode V/S and was very pleased with the results.

Some features of the IC-R20:

AM, FM, WFM, LSB, USB, CW

LSB, USB, CW only below 470 MHz!

150 kHz - 3.3 GHz

internal 32MB audio recorder

1000 memory channels

With the internal audio recorder up to 10 tracks with a total duration of 4 hours (depending on quality) can be recorded. This is a very usefull feature when working satellites!
You can listen to a recorded track later on using the IC-R20 or download the audio file to your PC. You will need a conversion utility however to be able to listen to the recorded audio on your PC.

Icom IC-R20 all mode receiver

The basic portable setup in one picture.

Arrow portable satellite antenna

Arrow antenna, 2m 3 elements, 70cm 7 elements, built-in duplexer

IC-R20, K5GNA downconverter, hybrid quad antenna

IC-R20 receiver, K5GNA 13cm downconverter, 13cm hybrid quad antenna