QO-100 Uplink Transmitter - My First Contact

Here we take a look at my first QO-100 Transmit and Receive setup using a LimeSDR Mini.
Would you like to help me fund a new camera for the Channel?
Then visit my GoFundMe page here: www.gofundme.c...
Products used in my videos can be purchased through my Amazon storefront.
US ► www.amazon.com...
UK ► www.amazon.co....
Support This Channel by becoming a Patreon.
My Patreon ► / techminds
My Twitter ► / techmindsyt
My Amazon ► www.amazon.co....
My PayPal ► www.paypal.me/...
Merch Store ► teespring.com/...
If you enjoyed this video please help me out by subscribing and help me get to my next Milestone of 50,000 Subscribers!
Music: www.bensound.com
#TechMinds #LimeSDR #QO100

[@dxscotland5901]

Nice to hear you Matt,add a tcxo to your lime and it’ll be fine,I had same issue with my Pluto .Your signal was 59 with me

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Thank you for being my first contact on QO100! Next time I’m on QO100 will hopefully be with a modified Pluto and I’ll be stable! 73s and stay safe my friend!

[@Ken-gx4pr]

What was the type up and down converter you were using with the 9700?

[@oncydium]

Now THIS is amateur radio! Great job on both the project and your extemely good walk-through its construction.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Thanks and you’re welcome 😊 🙏

[@KarlKrogmann]

So damned refreshing to see someone else actually experimenting. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to an interesting new year.

[@TheElectronicDilettante]

Nice of Al-Jeezera to let us use their Satellite for person to person calls. Totally kidding. You should be super proud of yourself. You connected to a piece of human engineering, built by the lowest bidder that was placed in geosynchronous orbit, roughly 25k miles from the planet by a basically a stick of dynamite with a nozzle on one end. You’re a Rock Star!! Too bad you can’t place your dish in the field west of your location ( as indicated in the photo from video). You should find the channel from the guy the builds next level 2.4Ghz and above high gain antennas. I think his name is Andrew McNeil… if I messed that up apologies all around. Thanks for the video and can’t wait to watch your uplink to a Mars Rover of A Galileo . Keep up the good work!

[@TechMindsOfficial]

lol, my dish sizes are getting larger and larger. Watch this space!

[@jvljn8903]

Getting on QO-100 myself at last too :-) Tx Path: HackRF One to two cascaded 20dB LNA to 12m LMR195 coax to 8W(4W) Chinese amp to POTY on 1m dish Rx Path: Generic LNB to RTL SDR dongle to SDR Console for RX with Geostationary beacon tracking for frequency correction on RX path :-) Thank heavens for that! But only getting 20dB SNR where beacons are around 39db. And that is with a single tone. For SSB I barely get to 10dB SNR. So for now mostly doing RTTY, PSK, FT8 & little CW on QO-100 I think I can try a few more things before the obvious next step of more tx power: I'll try to align the dish better / I'll do some focal point analysis to see if there might be any betterment left there (maybe the POTY could be at a better location?) Best 73

[@TechMindsOfficial]

I’m just going down the Pluto route right now, going to get it modded for stability then hopefully I’ll be on air more :) 73 and good luck with the project

[@zsradioham]

Hi Jacques, Ill have to take up the setup and connections with you. Now ready for connection all the gadgets. Still need a few cables.

[@alzeNL]

Pretty good motivation to get the Full licence in the UK. The temptation to just build this and listen in is immense tho (M7ALU - Foundation Holder, Intermediate want-to-be)

[@TechMindsOfficial]

To be able to listen you really only need a dish, LNB, bias tee and a receiver capable of receiving around 739Mhz :) go for it! It’s great fun! Thanks for watching 🙏

[@hugov392]

Coming in years late, but why not lock the Lime to the TCXO reference out of the Bullseye aux (red) port? That way at least you don't have compound drifts.

[@radiosification]

Fascinating. Great video

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Thanks dude!

[@peters6601]

Thanks for a great video, hope the leaves don't block the path to the sat as spring turns into summer.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

To be honest, I think they will :-( I’m planning on raising the dish around 2m where it is now. If my receive gets blocked then I’ll use websdr for receive and then use brute force RF through the leaves with more power 😀

[@marcusyale3265]

Good video , would like to see the same attempt with a Pluto and your TCXO conversion .

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Thanks! I’m getting my Pluto modded next week so once it’s back I’ll be on QO-100 and making a new video :) thanks for watching

[@iulianiasi]

Bravos.So everyone is talking about this chinese RF power amplifier but no one is give us a link to this "miracle" amplifier :) So please feel free to share with us :) 73! de YO8SHP , Iulian.

[@steventhebrockwell]

Really cool. But why do you have three different 2.4GHz amps? I understand the CN pre-amp, but why are the next two different types of devices? Do I understand right that the second amplifier is just so that the signal, can go out into your garden, 2.4GHz not being coax-friendly?

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Exactly, the second black amp is because I was using really lossy coax and by the time the signal got to the dish it was only around 35mw. I then fed that into the amp next to the dish which gave me around 1w out at the patch antenna :) I’m completely changing this setup as this was just a proof of concept to start with. Thanks for watching! :)

[@dr.varnickgaming6980]

@@TechMindsOfficial Is RG223U good for this?

[@MKhanfar-MWK]

Great job 👍

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Cheers! 👌

[@mohammadrezamim272]

Is it possible to make pictures in waterfall by changing transmit frequency? It would be nice 😊 But makes people angry

[@TechMindsOfficial]

SDR console does have the ability to put text in the waterfall :)

[@joefrancalanza9995]

9H1GT How can i change the frequency ready out on the SDRplay to ready the frequency of the QO-100

[@kokokaka5250]

just 738 MHZ and search around that with a little zoom in even if there is no transmission or activity listen to the beacon

[@Mr549er]

that is awesome Matt good job

[@TechMindsOfficial]

You’re welcome buddy 👍

[@jamiewalmsley5413]

Great video - only bit im puzzled on is whats the 20db attentuator on the RX path for? Does the rx power need reducing before it gets to the SDR?

[@jamiewalmsley5413]

found my answer in the comments section on your pluto video. the lnb output is quite strong.

[@SopanKotbagi]

could you please tell me how you measured the output rf power after every stage?

[@vadymfedyukovych8660]

XTRX is GPS-stabilized, if you still considering what's next. Also having faster (low-latency) bus, so needs PCIe to communicate to the host. Any chance to use (benefit from) MIMO?

[@titoaugustopu2ozk984]

Please! Take a class demonstrating how to update the Lime Sdr Mini firmware on Windows 7 and 10. Also with all the necessary configurations of the Lime Suite Gui to operate the QO-100. Thank you! 73 from PU2OZK

[@unclejj13er75]

Where can i get just the parabola for the dish set up? Looks like a fun experiment. Maybe a N American version of this soon?

[@danevans9433]

Did you ever get that drift worked out with your voice? Looking at this and thinking I would like to do something like this. Have you tried any other relatively inexpensive SDR Transceivers?

[@TechMindsOfficial]

I have some more videos on this topic where I modified a plutoSDR with a better TCXO, tests on QO100 prove it’s very stable :)

[@joshbloom9646]

Very cool! Is this a geostationary satellite? What's the total cost (beyond your Icom 9700) for the setup? upconverter and antenna, receiver, etc?

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Yep it’s a geostationary satellite :) I wasn’t using my icom to transmit, I was using a LimeSDR mini and SDR Console software. Cost is hard to put together because there are a few ways you can achieve the same thing. If you don’t want to go down the SDR route, checkout DXPatrol website, they do upconverters, downconverters and amps so you just use a 2/70 SSB radio. :)

[@dr.varnickgaming6980]

so, from the 8W chinese wifi amp you drive your tx to an other amplifier that needs 24VDC? I dont know, i think ive lost you.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

That was purely because there is so much power loss with the type of cable I was using and the length of it. So I can to amplify the weak signal once it got to the dish.

[@SopanKotbagi]

wow so with just 1 watt of effective radiated power this is possible? I bet it might not even take that much from India. Gotta try it out...

[@jantravels8936]

amazing.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

@TechMindsOfficial >>> Great video...👍

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Glad you liked it!

[@SirsenduGhosh1989]

How to improve the audio modulation? My audio is like your's, quacky sound. I'm using 120cm prime focus dish, POTY LNB, 10W PA, Adlam Pluto (modified TCXO) and SDR console software. Many people has very good bass in audio, but how to get that?? 73 de VU3WTJ

[@thyggus]

to watch tv channels via ku band i use green???

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Yes

[@kirknelson156]

that's very cool :)

[@TechMindsOfficial]

It is indeed :) thanks for watching 🙏

[@ve4mm]

Cool

[@Hex-Mas]

What kind of TXCO? 0.1?

[@TechMindsOfficial]

I’m not sure tbh, but not suitable for 2.4ghz. There is a way to use an external TCXO but I’m going down the ADALM Pluto route next week.

[@Hex-Mas]

Cant wait for that Im thinking about getting two plutos for lon range chat or 2 dream catchers.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Well, the Pluto still needs a better TCXO for 2.4ghz but the Pluto can be networked which is something I like. On the subject of Dreamcatcher chat, there is a new version of that, it’s web based, hopefully be doing a video on that soon too :)

[@Rees3901Gmail]

that was gleaming, didn't understand half of it, but still really enjoyed the video