Seminar on Antenna Development by ACE GS team

An ISTE approved two weeks short term training program on "Recent Trends In Antenna & Wireless Communication" (14th June 2016 -24th June 2016) was organized by Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Atharva College of Engineering, Mumbai. 

The training program was targeted towards academicians, scientist, researchers, faculty members interested in the field on antenna & wireless communication to enhance their knowledge and research skills.

Atharva Satellite Ground Station team collaborated in the training program on 14th June, 2016, by presenting a session on:

• Working of an antenna
• Antenna parameters
• Yagi Uda antenna structure and working
• Design process of Yagi Uda antenna
• Fabrication process of Yagi Uda antenna

Apart from this, the distinguished alumni from Atharva College of Engineering and from the previous generation of the Ground Station team, Mr. Anoop Tiwari and Mr. Priyank Salot, presented a session on:

• Projects undertaken by Atharva Satellite Ground Station
• Plasma antenna structure and working
• Plasma antenna designing process
• Plasma antenna fabrication process

Also, the team showed the Ground Station setup to the audience of the training program to give an insight about our tracking and data acquisition process.

Mr. Anoop Tiwari giving insights on Plasma Antenna

Mr. Priyank Salot giving presentation on Antennas

Faculties from various colleges attended this seminar

Miss. Aishwarya Wahane giving presentation on Antenna Development

AD8302 Test Sucess and Visit to IIT-B

Date: 15th July 2016
A very important day for history of ACE-GS when the chip AD8302 which is used for detecting phase change for RF frequencies 145.98 Mhz and 437.455 Mhz was finally characterized and tested.
The day began with a warm welcome from the Pratham Team and discussion regarding the work of Pratham. Various thoughts were exchanged between teams about the project. Pratham team gave us insight on the launch of the satellite, their deadline and work they are conducting. After the discussion we carried on the testing procedure of our AD8302 chip. We started our tests with help of RF function generators, multi meters. We were able to get correct values as expected in datasheet of the AD8302 module. Both the chips were verified and tested at their facility and We would like to thank the whole Pratham team for facilitating this visit. Their immense support has helped ACE GS to be ready for Pratham Project.

Team working on the testing of AD8302 chip

RF function generator used for testing

AD8302 Chip and Function Generator used for testing

Tracking Satellite Success

We started the new year with a target to complete link by fabricating antennas for both VHF and UHF band.
Research was undertaken by Team. Team a lot of papers and gained lots of insights on the following topics:
1. Protection of antennas from weather and degradation.
2. Design of Yagi Uda antenna in various methods,
3. Fabrication of Yagi Uda antenna in various methodology.

Apart from these topics we sat down and fixed a method to fabricate the antenna and complete the link setup and start receiving beacons from satellites.

During this period we found out that the essential part of fabrication is accuracy. Also, for a good SWR and Bandwidth the dipole is an essential part. The folding was undertaken by the indigenous brains inside the team who can build a solution in minutes. The folded dipole was then constructed using a former.

We got to work and fabricated 2 Yagis- 1 Antenna for 145Mhz and 1 Antenna for 437 Mhz and tested it with SWR meter. We did open air test and found the bandwidth of our antennas being huge for 145 Mhz. We got 1:1 SWR for frequency range of 140 Mhz to 150 Mhz.

In a same way we fabricated the 437 Mhz yagi and found a good bandwidth in open air test from 433 Mhz to 440 Mhz. We also used our Kenwood TM-V71A radio to listen on VHF band. We heard a conversation of HAMs on 145Mhz (Matheran Repeater).

In pursuing this endeavor we would like to thank the faculties and assistants in workshop lab for helping out.

Tracking Swayam Satellite

Swayam is satellite initiative of College of Engineering,Pune which was launched by ISRO on PSLV-C34 Launch Vehicle from Sriharikota,India along with 19 other satellites.

Swayam had a overhead pass over Atharva Satellite Ground Station on Sunday 26th June 2016 at 21:50. The link setup for this includes a handheld yagi antenna and Kenwood TMV71A
The team developed a unique type of single plane yagi made up of Wood Boom and aluminium rods as elements. This design was simulated on 4NEC2 had an advantage of being lightweight. It was mounted on a pivoted stand and moved around manually. This handheld type yagi had a gain of 14dB and had 9 elements for frequency of 437 Mhz. The fabrication and design was done solely by members of atharva satellite ground station.

The beacon signal was in form of CW morse code and was recorded on kenwood tmv71a transceiver. The recording of the same you can listen to here: Swayam Beacon

This gives us the assurance of proper working of the complete link and antennas. The team is now planning to track many such satellites in near future. 

AGS visit to Pune

Pune visit team, from Left to Right: Ketkee Kambli,

Samuel Jacob Sir, Akshay Patil, Vikas Anaokar,

Pragnesh Panchal, Sandipan Das and Aishwarya Sansare

We the team members of Atharva Satellite Ground Station went to Pune on 4th August, 2015 with the purpose of visiting College of Engineering- Pune (COEP), Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) - Pune and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) to gain some knowledge pertaining to balloon satellites and atmospheric parameters measurement. We were a group of seven people including our project guide Prof. Samuel Jacob who accompanied us to the venture. Since the team is currently working on a balloon satellite project, APSARHA-1, this visit was necessary to understand the new technologies and methods used in advancements for a balloon satellite. We intended to meet experts and scientists in this field who could guide us to our way to launching our balloon. Also from visits and experiencing a live balloon launch if possible we would be sure that we are going on the right track. Visiting COEP was with the intention to have better contacts with other student satellite projects, know more about there ground and exchange knowledge amonsgt both of us.

As per our schedule, we visited COEP on the first day of our stay i.e. 4th August, 2015. There we saw their Robotics Lab, Fabrication Lab and also interacted with the SWAYAM team. We also went on to have a look to their ground station setup and had an interesting discussion on antennas, their characterisation techniques and their tracking mechanisms On-site, their team gave us a demo by tracking and recieving the beacon of a satellite that was passing by at range. We had a great time interacting with the students, they were very cooperative and helpful.

Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology

The next day i.e. on 5th August, 2015, we visited IITM, Pune. This was the most interesting and informative part of our visit. We met Dr. Chakraborty who told us about different atmospheric parameter measurement techniques, such as measuring the ratio of different isotopes of gases in the atmosphere. He showed us the equipment they use for the measurements. We also met Dr. G. Pandithurai who guided us and gave us information about the procedure to be followed for the launch of APSARHA. Luckily, we happened to witness the actual weather monitoring balloon's launch by IITM as well. It was quite a wonderful experience. Moving on, we also saw their data acquisition system which automatically plots the graphs of all the measured parameters.

On the final day of our stay, i.e. 6th August, 2015, we visited IMD-Pune, where we met Mr. Satish Banker. He showed us the ozonesonde and the radiosonde circuits that they use. Also, he explained to us briefly about the calibration process of the ozonesonde and its principle of working. We came to know that though the technology IMD uses is a decade old, it was very accurate in fulfilling the payload. Furthermore, we went on to see the pilot balloon launch which measures the wind speed, it was nothing but the Helium balloon with a long rope attached to it, the rope had two red flags on it, when the balloon was set uplift, technicians just had to track the distance covered by the red flags in equal intervals of time to get the speed of wind. This pilot balloon launch takes place twice a day. We got to know about various instruments for parameter measurement used on ground, such as the Stevenson screen, rain gauge, seisemometer. With this our visit came to an end.

Team at IMD-Pune

Thus this visit to Pune was very fruitful, where we got to know a lot of things about atmosphere parameters, their measurement techniques, ozonesonde, permissions required for the balloon launch etc. This visit also helped us build contacts and interact with very qualified scientists and like minnded students who are experts in their fields, including a healthy exchange of knowledge . We hope to make use of this knowledge gained in our projects and future ventures.

Seminar at I.I.T Bombay

The entire team of Atharva Satellite Ground Station was present at the workshop held at I.I.T. Bombay on the 21st and 22nd of March. The workshop was held by students of I.I.T- Bombay and ACE-GS with the purpose of involving more engineering colleges to their student satellite project PRATHAM. Students representing various engineering colleges throughout India were present during the seminar.

The colleges included:

1) Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

2) National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Surathkal

3) National Institute of Technology, Bhopal

4) University School of Sciences, Ahmedabad

5) Thapar University, Patiala

6) University Collage of Engineering, Kota

7) Yadavrao Tasgoankar College of Engineering and Management

8) Government Engineering College, Gandhinagar

9) Vishwakarma Government Engineering College, Chandkheda

The seminar started with an introduction on PRATHAM by Shantanu Shahane, the  project manager of PRATHAM. He covered many the important points like the payload and other sub systems and its history and currents status. This was followed by a presentation on communication overview, different modulation techniques used for PRATHAM and the power link budget estimations presented by Ayush Yadav, a member of the PRATHAM team.

Post lunch, the session commenced with a presentation on antenna basics by team members of ACE GS- Priyank Salot, Aishwarya Wahane, Pragnesh Panchal, Shweta Palande and Anoop Tiwari. The topics covered by us included an introduction and background of Atharva Satellite Ground Station, a detailed explanation of the block diagram of our setup, types of antennas and antenna parameters, designing, fabrication and characterization of antennas. Many of the participating students present in the seminar came to us with their doubts post the presentation and we are glad that we were able to solve their queries.This was followed by a presentation on mechanical aspects of a typical ground station by Ratnesh Mishra, a team member of the PRATHAM.

On the second day, Rachna Agarwal from the PRATHAM team gave a presentation on HAM communication, transceivers and the phase measurement chip AD8302.

The seminar was a great opportunity for us as we presented a seminar along with I.I.T. Bombay in front of many universities all over India, which gave a lot of exposure to Atharva College of Engineering. We are also glad that we along with I.I.T. Bombay could spread your knowledge to other colleges helping them to setup their own ground station and bring up healthy virtues between different colleges.

MUMBAI TIMES ARTICLE

Article in Mumbai Times section of Maharashtra Times Newspaper on 20^th October 2015

FOR MORE INFO CONTACT US AT 5^TH FLOOR PHASE 1 BESIDE IMAC LAB

ATHARVA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Website: acegroundstation.blogspot.in Email: groundstation14@gmail.com

Seminar on "Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition"

Atharva Satellite Ground Station presents a seminar on "Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition" intended for interested F.E. Students and the faculty members. Registration desks will be setup on the first and the third floor on 17th, 18th and 19th September.
Certificates will be awarded to the attendees.

Date - 22nd September, 2014
Time - 1 pm to 4 pm

Venue - circular hall, ground floor

IEEE R10 Congress.. The Hyderabad Visit!!

IEEE R10 Student/Gold/WIE Congress in co-ordination with Lab – X foundation had organized an International Poster & Prototype Presentation Competition with an initiative to empower Indian students to represent themselves at an International platform. As we felt our project has a opportunity to receive an international acclaim, we decided to participate in it.

We submitted two abstracts pertaining to the systems used in our Ground-Station, Satellite Ground-Station: TEC measurement & Communication on VHF & UHF bands and Antenna Rotor Mechanism & Satellite Tracking system. Two days later, we received the call all of us were eagerly awaiting. We had been selected as one of the finalists in the competition!!! The abstract selected was ‘Antenna Rotor Mechanism & Satellite tracking system’.

 We worked hard on preparing the poster which was then reviewed by our seniors & submitted. We also worked on honing our presentation skills. Finalizing the contents, getting ready all the paper work in place, preparing for the journey, there was lot of work to be done.

Poster Presented

We embarked on an exciting expedition; the journey to the city of Pearls, Hyderabad! On 11^th of July our team departed from Mumbai with our poster.

13^th July was the D- day! The day of Presentation. The presentation was at Hotel Taj Krishna. Along with us, there were teams from all over the world representing their respective colleges and universities, showcasing innovative ideas extremely commendable. It was a really nice exposure to team Ground-Station. Along with the competition, there were conferences by International speakers on various topics like Human Centric - Technology & Research, Energy and Environment Conservation, Sustaining the Future, Start-up ideas and young Entrepreneurs, etc.

The competition judges were present and IEEE Presidents Moshe Kam, Roberto de Marca, Peter Staecker and Michael Lightner and delegates of the congress included IEEE Presidents from various regions. 

Few of the projects / prototypes displayed were:-

Team with the Poster.

    1. Bio-energy And Bio-plastic production by Lignocellulosic Market Waste.

    2. Cognitive Humanoid Autonomous Modular Platform.

    3. Cognitive Learning Assisted Robotic Arm (CLARA)

    4. Weather Station Data analysis using MATLAB.

    5. Solarian Effect: Trapping of Sun’s Energy for Fresh Drinking Water.

    6. The Humanoid Robot.

    7. Infinity Printer.

    8.  Low cost handover in Leo - Satellites.

The judges and dignitaries appreciated our work at college level & were glad to see and advanced communication project. They appreciated the presentation and also gave us suggestions for further development. We had a very good discussion with most of the dignitaries. Many universities currently working on launching Student Satellites took great interest in our project.

Ground - Station Team

This conference proved to be a excellent learning exposure for the team. The response and appreciation we received there was simply overwhelming and motivated us to stay true to our motto....

‘We Innovate Communication,

                                                                     We Communicate Innovation!!!”

Looking forward for an interactive response....

Team Ground Station,

Atharva College of Engineering.

IMD and Rs/Rw Visit

         We visited the Regional Meteorological Department, RSRW Observatory, Vile Parle on the 14^th of February 2013. Our objective in visiting RMD was to understand the weather monitoring system used in the observatory. Prior to this we had also visited the Indian Meteorological Department on 8^th February 2013, Colaba, for the very same objective.

  

The Regional Meteorological Centre, Mumbai is one of the six Regional Centres of India Meteorological Department. This Centre was established in April 1945 for providing weather related services to the states of Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat excluding Vidarbha region of Maharashtra State. These centres are under the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a specialized agency of the United Nations. WMO provides the framework for international cooperation on weather data. WMO promotes cooperation in the establishment of networks for making meteorological, climatological, hydrological and geophysical observations, as well as the exchange, processing and standardization of related data, and assists technology transfer, training and research.        Forecasting Services done by the observatories in India are :    §  Cyclone Warning Services for Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat states and Arabian Sea. §  Services to Aviation. §  Services for Shipping & Fisheries, and  Ports. §  Inland Warning Services to District revenue, Irrigation, Railway. §  Services to Public by issue of weather bulletins and warnings. §  Services to Agriculture and Farmers. §  Hydrometeorological and Flood Forecasting Services. §  Supply of Meteorological data to members of public, Government Agencies and Industries for research and planning.         The setups at both the places were similar. They used both primitive and modern techniques for measurement and compared the readings obtained. The modern equipments were good but the primitive techniques of weather monitoring and data acquisition were mind-blowing. We were amazed to see how highly efficient the ancient techniques were inspite of having less resources and technology in those days.        The weather data from IMD and Rs/Rw is given to a geostationary meteorological satellite (METSAT) system devoted totally to meteorology which was launched in 2002. It has been renamed as Kalpana-1 and is currently the operational satellite system being used by IMD.        We saw the live recording of an earthquake on ritcher scale at IMD Colaba. The earthquake occurred at Santa Cruz Islands, USA, magnitude 6.9 (which is quite high), at the same time. It also has a Doppler radar imaging setup.          Following  equipments  are currently in use at the Rs/Rw observatory:  1.      Stevenson’s Screen – Used for temp Measurement. Four types :         i. Dry Valve – Used for Humidity and Dew point measurement.  ii. Wet Valve – Used for Humidity and Dew point Measurement.  iii. Max Valve – Similar to Doctors thermometer. It doesnot allow back flow of mercury.  iv. Min Valve – It is permanently calibrated once in a day. The dumbles within it falls back as per the temperature.The first 3 thermometers are mercury thermometers and the last one is an alcohol thermometer as its freezing point is below mercury and thus becomes useful in colder regions.   2.  Self-Recording Rain Guage – Measures average rainfall without   manual help...... and hence known as self recording. It consists of a funnel of fixed diameter depending on  the scale used. Once the funnel is filled with water upto 10 mm the water gets drained from the funnel and is collected in a jar. Its accuracy is around 98 %.         3.   Ordinary Rain Guage – Measurements here are done manually every 3 hours. It is highly accurate with accuracy 100 %.         4.   Barograph – Used to measure pressure. Barographs are of 2 types – Direct and Q- pattern. In Direct, the height should be known and the one being used at Rs/Rw is  the Q  pattern barometer. Readings are taken every 24 hours and the graphs are plotted accordingly.         5.    Thermograph – Used for temperature measurement. It is based on a simple concept; the bimetallic plate in it expands and contracts proportionally with temperature.        6.      Hygrograph – Measures humidity. Uses wet horse hair since hair expands on getting wet and contracts drying.        7.      Sunshine recorder – It uses a convex lens. Rays are focused at a particular point after they pass through the lens and is focused on a curved metallic strip. The strip length is long, short and straight for different seasons depending on the length of the day.        8.      Wind Vane- It is used to measure wind direction. It consists of  three Anometers which are circular in shape. The wind speed measurement is done manually.        They also have a fully automated weather station which is very much similar to the one installed by Atharva Satellite Ground Station in our college. The data from their automated weather station is transmitted to Kalpana using a stationary crossed Yagi Antenna of 401MHz.        These equipments were well maintained. We were lucky to see a live demonstration of all these equipments.        Moreover….. The observatory launches 4 hydrogen balloon of 70gm at different time intervals to measure height(12km-14km), wind speed and direction. It also ascends two hydrogen balloon of 800gm with a payload to measure overall weather data at different atmospheric levels upto a range of 30km. The hydrogen filled in the balloon is prepared in the hydrogen shed. The chemicals used are ferrisilicon, caustic soda and water which is mixed in  large cylinders kept under 100 atm pressure. The payload used for 800gm balloon consists of a thermistor, humidity sensor(hygristor) , transmitter, a capsule filled with vacuum which expands as pressure increases and a  battery. The battery, aquasonde is a 22V, water activated battery which has to be immersed in water for 5 minutes before use. Its advantage over other batteries is that it is cost effective and comparatively lighter in weight. The total weight of the payload of the balloon is about 1kg. The antennas used for tracking the balloon were helical antenna, 2⁰ and 5⁰ beam-width radar.

The YLs and OMs of Atharva Satellite Ground Station

Amateur radio is a community of people who use radio transmitters and receivers to communicate with others Amateur radio operators. Amateur radio operators are often called Ham Radio Operators or simply "HAMS". Amateur (HAM) Radio is truly a hobby but often what makes a difference is during emergencies and natural disasters. It is an activity of Self -Learning, Inter-Communication & Technical Investigation carried on between Amateur Radio Operators. HAMS often communicate over the radio waves using a hand-held transceiver, communicating digitally with packet radio to exchange personal messages or vital information or talking to other hams in space which clearly shows there is something for everyone.

Our technically inclined team thought HAM radio as a very good opportunity in order to get themselves well acquainted with communication so that they themselves could make use of the radio frequencies when it comes to communication with satellites. With this very thought they appeared for the Amateur HAM Radio exam conducted by Ministry of Communications, Government of India.

On November 10^th, 2012 the team acquired their HAM licences and became international HAM’s. The boys are called Old Men(OM) and the girls are called Young Ladies(YL) in Amateur Radio terms. The licensed HAMS of the team are :-

Anuj Tiwari VU2THN Aniruddha Khadye VU2THE Divya Achar VU2BKR Gaurav Shukla VU2JCF Nikhil Joshi VU3JID Nirali Khandhar                                                                              VU2THS Pranav Athalaye VU2BKQ Ishan Kapse VU2JHO Saurabh Sanghai VU2THH Siddharth Trivedi VU2BKJ

Now as most of the team members are a licensed HAM, we can make use of the radio frequencies for communication. Even the current team is pursuing their course for appearing the HAM exam to acquire their licences at the earliest. We also hope to contact all base stations on Radio spectrum and spread our motto –

“We Innovate Communication...

  We Communicate Innovation..."

We look forward for some interactive inputs…

Team Ground–Station,

Atharva College of Engineering.

IPGP Visit to ACE - GS

22nd July, 2012 was another day of remembrance at Atharva Satellite Ground Station.
The Research team from Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris(IPGP),France in collaboration with IIT -B visited Atharva Satellite Ground Station in order to learn about our Ground Station and also to share details of their Ground Station.

The French team from included-
1. Mr. Pierdavide Coisson ( Professor - IPGP, France)
2. Hai Nguyen Van ( Team Member -IPGP, France)
3. Sofiaine ( Team Member – IPGP, France)
We also had two members of ‘Pratham’ Satellite team-
Tushar Jadhav.
Pushakar Godbole.

•The major topics discussed that day were complete functioning of our Ground – Station, project review taking into consideration progress made by all 3 teams.

•Different ways adopted to implement Ground- Station at IPGP- France, IIT-Bombay & Atharva Ground-Station and their benefits and limitations.

•Atharva Satellite Ground-Station team was exposed to Atmosphere & Ionosphere radio communication by Mr. Pierdavide Coisson ( Professor - IPGP, France) and Data acquisition techniques by the French team.

•Our team gave a full-fledged demonstration of satellite tracking using rotator system and different interfacing techniques.

•They appreciated the Weather –Station setup which is an additional feature to our Ground-Station.

•The French team & IIT- Bombay Satellite team acknowledged our efforts and the Ground-Station setup since ours is the only Ground-Station which is at the moment functional for ‘Pratham’.

Overall the day was one from which we learned many new things and also got to share our knowledge with others.

We hope for many such visits of research dignitaries to our ground station in the near future...

--
Team Ground-Station,
Atharva College Of Engineering.

Becoming Radio-Active

15th March was a big day for Atharva Satellite Ground-Station.Two years before, we the new team became a part of this project and now here we were exhibiting the grand level it has reached. 

The day began with our project overview followed by a message from Dr Gunther, Head of communication Sub-System, DICE Satellite, SDL, Utah State University; an interactive session; APRS presentation/demo; a few words by Pioneers of project Piyush Garg who was present and Varun Joshi who joined fron Ohio through the net and ended with a demonstration at the Ground-Station set-up.

Sitting amongst the many dignitaries was our principal Dr Anupama Deshpande, feeling proud of her students. For the first time we had a Scientist from Vigyan Prasar, Department of Technology, GOI, Mr Sandeep Baruah at our College- his demonstartion and presentation on APRS was the highlight of our symposium. And for us who would sit and watch Vakil sir in amazement as he lectured, watching him sit and listen to our presentation was overwhelming!

IIT-B Pratham team made their presence felt- Tushar and Pushkar stayed till the very end and left with appreciation and congratulations. And so did the many amateur radio enthusiasts present at the symposium from Sandeep sir a HAM himself (VU2MUE) to our constant support VU2IVV who demonstrated HF communication with a Five9 radio link established from Atharva to Russia, Jordon, Saudi Arabia and Germany! Also present were VU2MGB (former PhysicsHOD Bhavans college), VU2HOT,VU2CMI,VU2JOY,VU2HIT, and Neurosurgeon Dr Ashish Mehta, Mr Anand Kezecutt (Thales Aerospace) who are awaiting their ham licences to name a few! Not forgetting Satish Sinnarkar Editor of TOI and Prof Dosani.

Whew! that's one big list! But then so was the day..

Being the day Atharva Satellite Ground-Station had its first satellite contact with VO-52 , communication being established with Dehli via the Satellite, 15th March 2012 was truely an "inauguration".15th March marks the day we became radio-active. 15th March 2012 is the day that epitomises our motto...

"We Innovate Communication...

        We Communicate Innovation..."

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