1 Introduction

The sat-nms L-band beacon receiver manufactured by SatService GmbH is a measurement tool which measures the RF input level and provides this information as output signal for control systems. The main application of this receiver is in antenna tracking systems where the receiver provides the tracking signal level to the antenna step-track controller. Other applications can be pilot measurement and control loops like uplink power control.

The beacon RX receives a satellite beacon signal which is down-converted to L-Band by a PLL stabilized Low Noise Converter (LNC) at its L-band interface input. The beacon RX does not demodulate any satellite because the satellite signals are sometimes CW signals but also very often modulated in FM or BPSK form. Due to this fact the best implementation is a non-coherent receiver which measures the input level in a user selectable defined bandwidth and provides this as a dB-linear and calibrated analogue output voltage and digital information.

The level output is provided by three different and parallel available interface types: a HTTP Web Interface via an internal Web Server, a RS232 interface or the analog voltage output. The sat-nms beacon receiver is controlled remotely by a monitoring and control application through the TCP/IP interface. All communication with the power sensor is made with HTTP get requests. The beacon receiver implements the 'Hypertext Transfer Protocol' (HTTP, RFC-1945) both, for the user interface and for the M&C interface.

This document is the user manual provided with the sat-nms LBRX beacon receiver. It contains all necessary information how to install, setup and operate the receiver. The user manual is available as a printed document and for on-line reading on the beacon receiver itself as well.

The paragraphs below give a short overview to the contents of the documentation. A subset of this documentation is stored on the device itself, the complete documentation is available on the sat-nms documentation CD and at www.satnms.com .

• Installation : The installation chapter guides through the installation and setup of the LBRX beacon receiver. It describes the mechanical concept of the receiver box and the assignment of the receiver's connectors. Finally you learn in this chapter how to set the receiver's IP address, which is a essential precondition to operate the receiver by means of a web browser. This section is available in the printed version only.
• Operation : The sat-nms LBRX beacon receiver is operated using a standard web browser like the Internet-Explorer on MS Windows based computers. The user interface design is straight forward and clearly structured. Operating the receiver is mostly self-explanatory. Nevertheless, the 'Operation' chapter outlines the map of web pages which make up the LBRX user interface and elaborately describes the meaning of each alterable parameter.
• Remote Control : The LBRX beacon receiver provides a versatile remote control interface. A monitoring & control software may fully operate the receiver either through a TCP/IP network connection or through the RS232 interface of the receiver. This chapter describes the communication protocol used for remote control and lists all parameters accessible through the remote interface.
• Theory of Operation : This chapter gives a short overview how the receiver works. This not only includes a description of the receiver's electronic concept and the methods of temperature or frequency response compensation implemented in it. It also describes the the algorithms which implement the 'frequency tracking' and 'noise measurement' functions of this device. Knowing about the theory regarding this functions helps to find the best parameter settings for a given application.
• Specifications : At the end of the document, the specifications applicable to the sat-nms LBRX beacon receiver are summarized in this chapter.

Support and Assistance

If you need any assistance regarding our LBRX beacon receiver, don't hesitate to contact us. We would be pleased to help you by answering your questions.

 SatService GmbH
 Hardstrasse 9
 78256 Steisslingen
 Germany
 phone +49 7738 99791-10
 www.satnms.com