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Design and Performance Evaluation of Software Defined Radio Architecture for Low-Cost Satellite Ground Station


Authors : Chichebe M. Akachukwu; O. O. Mabogunje; S. A. Zakari; N. Abba-Gana; L. E. Ijomanta

Volume/Issue : Volume 11 - 2026, Issue 9 - September


Google Scholar : https://tinyurl.com/mb2fdsk2

DOI : https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/26sep349

Note : A published paper may take 4-5 working days from the publication date to appear in PlumX Metrics, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate.


Abstract : The increasing deployment of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and CubeSat missions has created a growing demand for affordable satellite ground stations capable of receiving telemetry and beacon signals without the cost and complexity of conventional dedicated radio systems. This paper presents the design and performance evaluation of a low-cost Software Defined Radio (SDR) architecture for UHF satellite ground-station applications. The proposed receiver consists of a crossed Yagi-Uda UHF antenna, low-noise amplifier (LNA), band-pass filter (BPF), and RTL-SDR receiver connected to a computer-based digital signal-processing platform. The crossed Yagi-Uda antenna provides directional gain and polarization diversity, while the LNA compensates for feeder and front-end losses and improves receiver sensitivity. The BPF provides RF selectivity by suppressing out-of-band interference before the signal reaches the RTL-SDR.

Keywords : Software Defined Radio, RTL-SDR, Satellite Ground Station, Crossed Yagi-Uda, UHF, Low-Noise Amplifier, BandPass Filter, Cubesat, LEO Satellite.

References :

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The increasing deployment of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and CubeSat missions has created a growing demand for affordable satellite ground stations capable of receiving telemetry and beacon signals without the cost and complexity of conventional dedicated radio systems. This paper presents the design and performance evaluation of a low-cost Software Defined Radio (SDR) architecture for UHF satellite ground-station applications. The proposed receiver consists of a crossed Yagi-Uda UHF antenna, low-noise amplifier (LNA), band-pass filter (BPF), and RTL-SDR receiver connected to a computer-based digital signal-processing platform. The crossed Yagi-Uda antenna provides directional gain and polarization diversity, while the LNA compensates for feeder and front-end losses and improves receiver sensitivity. The BPF provides RF selectivity by suppressing out-of-band interference before the signal reaches the RTL-SDR.

Keywords : Software Defined Radio, RTL-SDR, Satellite Ground Station, Crossed Yagi-Uda, UHF, Low-Noise Amplifier, BandPass Filter, Cubesat, LEO Satellite.

Paper Submission Last Date
30 - September - 2026

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