VSC-501 Satellite Communications System

Spent a year working at Racal Research in Reading, England, working on both the hardware and software aspects of the RF Modem part of this system.

Responsibilities on the hardware side involved the design and development of RF circuit boards (70 MHz) which performed the intermediate frequency (IF) interface. This required design of analog (RF transistor) amplifiers, filters, and phase-locked loops. Used the Spice circuit analysis program to determine the theoretical performance of my designs.

On the software side, developed software using Whitesmiths ‘C’ to control the phase-locked loops and to interface with the dedicated displays and keyboard.

Performed system tests at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE) in Malvern, England.

This involved using a real geostationary satellite (Intelsat IV) to perform BIT error tests and comparing the actual error rate with the theoretical rate for the coding method employed.