Antenna Tracking

Ground Station Antennas Track High Altitude Balloons

Space Data Corporation of Chandler, Arizona operates a constellation of high altitude balloons that act as communications relay stations throughout Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, as well as portions of New Mexico, Arkansas and the Gulf of Mexico. Space Data offers data communications for applications such as SCADA, field communications and oil well monitoring, as well as GPS-based asset and vehicle tracking services.

The balloons relay communications between ground stations, which track the balloons with small Yagi antennas mounted on two-axis gimbals. Sagebrush Technology provides Model 20 gimbals customized with internally routed antenna cables for the tracking application.

(Photo courtesy of Space Data Corporation)