Netanya, Israel, September 30th, 2014 – ORBIT Communication Systems, a leading provider of mission and business critical communication solutions for air, sea and land platforms, today announced that it has won a contract to upgrade a ground station for a leading US aerospace engineering system integrator.
The project includes an upgrade of a governmental agency legacy analog ground station to state-of-the-art digital technology with a dual-band antenna assembly. Located in Alaska, the ground station is used to command and track LEO satellites involved in earth observation and remote sensing activities. After weighing various alternatives, including an upgrade to the legacy vendor’s own digital tracking solution, the integrator chose ORBIT’s innovative and cost-effective upgrade solution package.
This solution is based on ORBIT’s specially designed Pedestal Interface Unit (PIU), which enables the integrator to upgrade the analog ground station to digital technology without having to replace the legacy pedestal. This significantly reduces the downtime and cost of the overall upgrade project.
Moreover, ORBIT’s solution also allows for the replacement of the existing S-band feed with ORBIT’s S&X dual-band auto-tracking equipment. This enables the operator to achieve the functionality of two antennas with a single, high-accuracy antenna using dual feeds.
As the system is to be deployed in Alaska, ORBIT’s proven ground station performance in extreme environmental conditions, such as heavy winds and cold temperatures as low as -40ºC (-40ºF), was also a key factor in the selection process.