For more than thirty years, a tracking and command station has been operating at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication of Brno University of Technology. This unique facility maintains communication with experimental satellites, allowing students to gain hands-on experience in operating satellites and analyzing the data obtained. Currently, among others, this includes the CevroSat-1 satellite, which is part of the November Bandwagon-4 mission.
The tracking and command station at FEEC BUT serves for the development of satellite subsystems, processing of signals from satellite systems, as well as monitoring and commanding satellites. Similar facilities can be found at only two other locations in the Czech Republic – in Plzeň and at the Prague Planetarium. “Thanks to it, we maintain communication with experimental satellites. The station must know where the satellites are, so it calculates when a satellite rises and the direction in which it moves across the sky. Based on these calculations, we then point our antennas at the satellite and try to hear it. Because satellites transmit telemetry messages that tell us something about their condition,” describes Tomáš Urbanec from the Department of Radio Electronics at FEEC BUT, adding: “When we hear it, we can also send it commands, for example to provide us with additional information about its status. We can change its settings or download data from experiments.”
The station is used at the university for experiments and teaching. “We do not provide communication for commercial networks,” Urbanec confirms. It operates automatically and calculates passes for the selected satellites. “Typically, this amounts to four to six passes per day, and the communication window lasts approximately ten minutes. So over 24 hours we have less than an hour available during which we have to handle everything necessary. The station is configured to be able to cover multiple satellites simultaneously and switch between them. Currently, in addition to CevroSat-1, we are also tracking LASARsat and CroCube, which are satellites from the partner company Spacemanic. We participate in their tracking and downloading of telemetry so that the satellites are well covered and as much information as possible is known about them,” Urbanec explains.
Antennas of the ground station for tracking and commanding satellites on the roof of FEEC BUT. | Author: Václav Koníček The tracking and command station at the faculty was established more than thirty years ago by Professor Kasal, who also participated in one of the first missions. “Historically, one of the first controlled satellites was P3D. It was a satellite of the international organization AMSAT, and we were one of the commanding stations that controlled it. I personally took part in the PSAT, PSAT-2, BRICsat missions, and more recently we have been involved, for example, in BDSAT or CevroSat-1. In some older missions, we also participated in the construction of the satellites. Now we specialize more in operating the ground station and communicating with the satellite,” says Tomáš Urbanec, adding that further missions directly at BUT are already planned.
The aforementioned CevroSat-1 satellite is currently enjoying great interest. It is the result of cooperation between CEVRO University, ČVC Electronic, BUT, and Mendel University. It reached orbit a month ago as part of the Bandwagon-4 mission, during which SpaceX launched a large number of satellites. According to its creators, the primary goal of CevroSat-1 is to support amateur radio activities worldwide, and the satellite also serves educational purposes. Students from the participating universities are involved in operating the satellite and analyzing the data obtained.
The station is capable of covering multiple satellites simultaneously and switching between them. | Author: Václav Koníček BUT students can also experience the operation of the command station and communication with satellites as part of their studies. “I give lectures to students of electronics and communication technologies as well as to students of Space Applications. I introduce them to the history of the station and individual satellites. And when there is an opportunity, we demonstrate communication directly at the station,” adds Tomáš Urbanec.
