Ground Station
The Mobile Subaroo Ground Station (MSGS), as it was affectionately known, was our base station for the LV0 flight. We set up a modified sine wave inverter (YEEUCH!) and ran everything off of it (including two 12V switching power supplies!). For future flights, we have a pure sine wave inverter (Exeltec's 250W model) to reduce inverter noise. The ground plane antenna fed the signal into a purchased ?downconverter and then was fed into the Antenna-in of a standard VCR (tuned to CH3). The video out went to a small 12V B&W TV we used as a monitor, and the audio signal went out to a our ?modem (demodulator only, actually) which converted the audio tones back into digital data. This serial stream then went into the serial port of a pathetically outdated 386 laptop which used a freeware terminal emulation program to log the data coming in.Cheap, but very effective.
Launch Stand
The LV-0 rocket requires minimal ground support.
The rocket uses 2 cylindrical launch lugs epoxied to the side of the airframe. These lugs are 0.5 inches in diameter and allow the rocket to ride up a steel rod for approximately 6 feet. This fixes the rocket in a perfectly vertical orientation until it reaches the top of the rod. When the rocket leaves the launch rod it should hopefully have enough airspeed to allow the aerodynamic forces to stabilize the rocket in flight
Other than a simple launch stand the LV-0 requires no other ground equipment except for a remote electrical impulse to fire the motor's igniter.
For more information on all of this junk, feel free to contact us at info@psas.pdx.edu!