The Aerospace Department Satellite Dish

de N5XU

The Department of Aerospace Engineering has installed a three meter dish antenna on the roof of the eastern penthouse of WRW.

The antenna system is still incomplete. It lacks feedline, control cables, and a feed for the dish. According to Gary Raney KM5TY, the dish will use a feedhorn that students are building now in a lab inside the building. Some UTARC members have already been heard speculating on how the dish could be used by UTARC for EME operations. A three meter dish might be suitable for some microwave bands for EME.

The new dish on WRW.

Another antenna support structure is also mounted on the concrete roof of WRW. It is a Glen Martin Engineering free-standing four-legged roof mount. Gary reports that it will probably be used with VHF/UHF antennas, whereas the dish will be used for microwave communications. The smaller antenna support structure appears to be ready to take a mast, but does not have a rotor plate at the moment.

Another antenna support structure.