Before I start, I'd like to share a joke with you that I found on the wall of Professor Gallant's Facebook group.
Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love, and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.
Wocka wocka!
Ahem... moving on...
While checking my email in the N205 computer lab today, I found an exciting, yet somewhat unexpected, email from Professor Rector. In a nutshell, he had to go up on the roof of the N building to take some photos of the existing antenna tower. As I've previously posted, there's already an antenna up on the building. We know two things, however; first, it's not being used at this time. Second, it's was designed for HF frequencies, whereas we'd require an antenna which is designed for VHF frequencies. Apparently, Professor Rector has contacts with a tower company he worked with some years ago who can help us get the antenna we need attached to the tower.
Anyway, it was roughly 2:50 when I got this email, asking Gino and I to meet him at screening room B at 2:30. I got pretty darn excited when I got the email, until I noticed the time. I was sure that I was too late! I managed to catch him, though, and before I knew it, we were up on the roof of the school, braving the -15 degree cold. Unfortunately, due to some previous obligations, Gino was unable to join us. I'm sure it won't be the last time we're up there, though. While we were up there, we did a bit of an inspection of what was already up there. I was impressed with the size of the antenna tower, myself. The tower itself is roughly thirteen feet high, with two dipole antennas, an HF Yagi-Uda, and a whip antenna on top of everything. We also noticed that there was a rotator motor at the base of the tower. At this time, though, we have no idea how old it is, or if it still works. I suspect that will be one of the things we check out when the snow thaws. The plan for what we're actually going to with the antenna tower is still up in the air at this point. We're going to have to do some more research into this project before we can really decide the best course of action. We know, though, that we will need a new antenna. That will be figured out a little later.
I now have the task of figuring out the path the space station will take while it flies above us, as that will determine how and where the antenna gets attached to the tower. We also need to get busy filling out our application! We're going to talk about the application after our midterms are done, and I'll be doing some more research about the ISS in the meantime. I'm also waiting for the pictures that Professor Rector took so that I can post them up here! As well, on Friday a group of us will be meeting up and discussing what we'd like to do with the club now that we're officially sanctioned.
Soon, I'll be posting some of the technical requirements we're going to need to take into consideration so that all my dorky readers can really appreciate the complexity of this project. Things are getting really exciting!
