10GHz update - August 2025

KN3G controller

The combination of the KN3G controller and slew drive have been working well but occasionally I need to peak the dish on sun or moon noise. When I built the controller I didn’t use any manual switches - all of the main functions I need are available through the Nextion touch display.

I’ve now added two SPDT biased switches to the front panel. They’re wired directly to the motor controllers and by uncommenting a line in rotator_features.h I can now make fine adjustments to azimuth or elevation without affecting the heading readouts on the display. David, G4YTL uses a similar setup for his 1.8m dish.

rotator_features.h

#define OPTION_PULSE_IGNORE_AMBIGUOUS_PULSES

Moon noise meter

The Arduino based 10GHz sequencer/controller I built last year has a 3-way divider on the IF receive line. Two of these outputs are used for the IF transceiver (IC-705) and RSP1A SDR. The third port has a PGA-103+ 20MHz - 3GHz LNA connected to it that provides around 20dB of gain at 432MHz. I’ve now connected my Moon Noise Meter to this output and checked linearity with a 0-12dB stepped attenuator. Sun noise measurements on 8 August 2025 were 10dB on the meter (20dB full scale), the same as measurements taken using SDR Console continuum mode.

SFU @ 10 GHz = 305