University Class Open Ground Station (UniCLOGS)

The University Class Open Ground Station (UniCLOGS) is a scalable, low-cost, and open-source satellite communication system designed to be implemented by universities and low resource organizations. Designed and tested by students of the Portland State Aerospace Society at Portland State University, UniCLOGS is a system designed to be adaptable and accommodate most budgets and most low earth orbit satellite communication link budgets. Our project took our existing and operational Version 1 station and did a significant upgrade to a Version 2 system. Upgrades include adding a 2.4 m dish antenna capable of X (10 GHz), S (2.4 GHz) and L (1.2 GHz) band reception and transmission, significant structural redesign assisted by Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), RF propagation analysis with ANSYS’s High-Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS), and a substantial overhaul of the RF electronics. All the redesign required testing to ensure our design would withstand real-world conditions and documentation so that other universities could replicate and build on our work. After work was completed during the internship period, construction is now underway, including implementation by other organizations.