Av-Comm Completes 13.1m C/L-Band ESA Install in New Zealand

In early 2023, Av-Comm Space & Defence was engaged by CPI’s San Jose-based engineering and project management team to complete a fault finding and verification and validation program on a 13.1m C/L-Band ESA at the Spark NZ teleport, in Warkworth, New Zealand.

When the Av-Comm team arrived on site, they noticed that the antenna was illustrating significant RF losses in the feed. This then required the Av-Comm technicians to undergo fault-finding by delicately analysing sections of the RF chain by process of elimination. Ultimately, Av-Comm’s technical team was able to determine that the losses in the feed were being caused by water ingress into the rigid waveguide through a minuscule hole in the antenna feed. As water pooled over time, it slowly began to enter into the waveguide, hence the disruption in the performance of the antenna. Water and oxygen contribute to the gradual oxidation of the waveguide’s components, which compromises the integrity of the perforated surface and leads to increased power loss.

Av-Comm’s technicians drained the water, disconnected the feed, cleaned and re-connected the waveguide, and created a drainage hole at the feed of the feed to ensure water would not continue to pool in the feed.

The final piece of the puzzle to be worked out by Av-Comm’s technicians was how to complete L-Band Receive patterns with an Inmarsat spacecraft that was highly inclined. To overcome this final obstacle, Av-Comm’s technicians calculated the degree of inclination held by the Inmarsat spacecraft, determining that at 2am local time, a small window of opportunity would open, allowing for the smallest correctional movement of the antenna to lock on to the inclined spacecraft. Av-Comm’s technicians not only mobilised the antenna during this time, but also managed to conduct the operational testing in order to limit anomalies to the testing procedure.

Av-Comm completed verification and validation in November 2023 and passed on to the end customer.