Low-Cost system design for tracking satellites in geosynchronous orbit

Geosynchronous satellites do not hold a fixed position in the sky like geostationary satellites, but trace out a certain path over the course of a day. This paper presents a design of a low-cost tracking system for keeping track of such satellites. More specifically, the work was inspired by the goal to track relatively small orbital inclinations of the Alphasat. Without such a system, the received signal strength oscillates, especially if a narrow beam antenna is used. The presented design is based on an of-the-shelf camera control unit - a PAN/TILT positioner. While the mechanical characteristics of the system are satisfactory, its control protocol suffers from certain limitations, leading to inaccurate positioning. To compensate this effect, an iterative closed-loop tracking algorithm has been developed. We show experimentally that the proposed system presents an effective solution.