RESEARCH CONCEPTS RC2000C Manual page 43

RC2000C Polar Tracking Antenna Controller
The Simultaneous Az/El Enable CONFIG mode item is not relevant in TRACK mode as no movements
in TRACK mode occur about each axis simultaneously. This item is only applicable to movements which
occur in AUTO mode.
The Geo Elev Position CONFIG mode item must be initialized to a non-zero value to initiate a track on
an inclined orbit satellite. The significance of this CONFIG mode item is discussed in section 4.3.6. The
Geo Elev Position should be initialized during system installation. This is described in section 3.6.
The Rotating Feed Present, Rotating Feed CW Limit, Rotating Feed CCW Limit, and Rotating Feed
Jog Duration CONFIG mode items do not directly affect the tracking system. The Rotating Feed
Present item should be configured during installation.
The azimuth and elevation drive options consist of the Az/El Drive Options Enable, Az/El Fast Slow
Threshold, Az/El Auto Retry Attempts, Az/El Fast Deadband, Az/El Slow Deadband, Azim Coast
Threshold, Azim Max Position Error, Elev Coast Threshold, and the Elev Max Position Error
CONFIG mode items. These items are described in section 5.10. For inclined orbit tracking, it is
generally best to set the Max Position Error CONFIG mode item to 0.
The Time and Date are entered via CONFIG mode. The use of time and date information by the tracker
is described in section 4.3.4. Note that once a track is established for a satellite the Time and Date
should not be changed. If this is a problem, the user might set the Time and Date to Greenwich Mean
Time (GMT). Please refer to section 4.3.4.
The AGC Polarity Flag, AGC C Band Threshold, and the AGC K/L Band Threshold CONFIG mode
items are discussed in section 4.4.1. Please refer to that section for more information on these items.
The Antenna Latitude and Antenna Longitude are required by the tracking algorithms to predict the
apparent motion of the satellite. The data is entered in a degrees.tenths_of_degrees format. Most maps
show latitude and longitude data in a degrees.minutes format. Below is a table of minutes versus
tenths_of_degrees.
minutes
06
12
18
24
30
The polar mount type is specified via the Mount Type CONFIG mode item. Two dual axis polar mount
configurations are possible - motorized declination adjustment (fixed latitude angle) or motorized latitude
angle (declination angle fixed). The various types of polar mounts are discussed in section 3.4.2.
The latitude and longitude data entry must also specify a direction. For latitude the options are North or
South, and for longitude the options are East and West. Locations in North America and South America
have westerly longitudes, while locations in Asia have easterly longitudes. Section 2.1 describes the
keys used to specify the direction associated with latitude or longitude data entry.
The Antenna Size parameter specifies the antenna diameter in centimeters. Use the table below to
convert feet or meters into centimeters.
Feet
5.9
8
10
12
15
20
23
24
The initialization of the Azim Constant and Elev Constant CONFIG mode items are used to specify
scale factors, and were described in Section 4.4.2.
Research Concepts, Inc. • 5420 Martindale Road • Shawnee, Kansas 66218-9680 • USA
Chapter 4
degrees minutes
0.1 36
0.2 42
0.3 48
0.4 54
0.5
Meters Centimeters
1.80 180
2.44 244
3.05 305
3.66 366
4.57 457
6.10 610
7.00 700
7.32 732
Inclined Orbit Satellites
degrees
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
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