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“After building my QFH antenna, I became more interested in satellite communications. The QFH antenna works great for circularly polarized signals like weather satellites, but something like a yagi or log-periodic antenna is better for most sats, because it can be pointed directly at the sat. After a short break where I interned at Keysight Technologies then finished my last semester at school, I built a tape measure yagi for 145.8 MHz to receive ISS SSTV broadcasts. It works great for that, but after a few passes I started to wonder if there was a better way. Ideally, some way to track the sat with a computer, automatically. Commercial solutions exist of course, like the Yaesu G-5500. This is a bit expensive for my tastes, and meant for more permanent installations. SatNOGS is a great open-source solution, if you have access to a 3D printer and some parts. I still want to build the SatNOGS rotor, but first I wanted to see if I could build my own version cheaper.”

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