The PersonalTelco group hopes to shortly acquire a used satellite truck from KOIN (Channel 6). This page will serve as the coordination point for all issues pertaining to the vehicle. --ErikWalthinsen

Known Stats

KOIN is selling this van for $500. It'll be bought by my KOIN contact, photographer Dean Barron, and sold to the PTP group. NigelBallard has agreed to buy the van itself, and quite a few others have pledged $50 which will be used for all the refit work. (original plan was to get 10 people with $50 each, then Nigel offered to buy it outright).

SamChurchill has dug up a picture of a much newer van:

The van we're getting doesn't have a bulge in front, and has the pneumatic mast where the big satellite dish is.

Suggested Uses

There are any number of bizarre things we as a group can think of using such a van for:

Refit Requirements

In order to make the van usable for our needs, a fair about of refitting must be done. Some stuff is required, some stuff is necessary for it to be of any use, and some is just plain blue-sky.

Refit Volunteers

ErikWalthinsen is spearheading the project, which is ironic since he doesn't drive...

NigelBallard has offered to buy the van in its entirety.

JeffZurcher can help out on the mechanical end (I am a qualified truck/heavy equipment mechanic), I have the tools and I should be able to come up with a battery if needed. I also have access to a machine shop should the need arise!

DonPark I have some knowledge of engines from working on my VWAP. Id like to help evaluate the status of the engine. I can also help document and test the on-board AC eletrical systems. Getting in there with pine-sol and a vacuum cleaner I can help with, too.

AaronJohnson I like to have used car purchases checked out by a mechanic. I think it might cost $100. Does anyone else think its worth it to have a baseline on what repairs may be required and condition the truck is in? Also, can we get all service/repair records for the vehicle from the seller. I'd like to help but need to know when and where.

SamChurchill I'll do whatever you want and contribute at least 50 bucks. Here are [http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/MobileInternet?action=highlight&value=CategoryVendor some satellite and mobile links] as well as some [http://www.dustyfoot.com/Dish.html construction projects]. This is SO cool I can't believe it!

Project Details

There are a large number of sub-projects involved in getting this van into a usable state. We have to decide what we want to do and what the best ways are to do them.

Antenna Aimer

The antenna aimer is one of the things stripped off by KOIN, because it's still worth something. This means that we need to buy or build our own in order to have the ability to actually get link to a node without manually aiming the antenna before putting the tower up.

The top of the tower appears to be about a 6-inch diameter pipe. I'm not sure whether the pipe is hollow or capped, so we should assume for now that it's capped (which would make sense since it's a pneumatic tower). We have roughly the following requirements:

I haven't been able to find any satellite-dish aimers that appear to be what we need for the job, which I believe is mostly because satellite dishes only need to be aimed on one axis along the horizon, typically. If anyone can find an appropriate device, please add it here.

The [http://www.motosat.com/twoway_001.htm two-way Motosat dish] (below) automatically finds the DirectWay consumer satellite service ($70-$90/mo) on the road. --SamChurchill

Homebuilt Design 1

(design by ErikWalthinsen)

The base of the aimer has to be a flat plate that sits on top of the tower and has tabs down the side that screw into the tower. It must be removable because we have to put screws in from the bottom of the plate. A raised circular section in the middle has the four screw holes for the motorized turntable. The main aimer assembly plate has a matching hole and fits over the fixed plate leaving a flat surface. A [http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=400&item=DCM-178&type=store motorized turntable] ($32) from [http://www.allelectronics.com/ All Electronics] sits on top, the center rotating plate screwed to the top of the tower, the outer stationary ring screwed to the aimer base plate.

The main body of the rotating assembly has to take into account the motor sticking up from the middle, the box necessary to house the electronics (access point, amplifiers, aimer control), and the tilt mechanism. This is where the most creativity will be necessary.

The tilt assembly would consist of a pivoted mount attached at the far edge of the platform, capable of tilting 10-20 degrees back, and 90 degrees down. The directional antennae would be mounted to to this, probably two antennae side-by-side (2.4GHz and 5.8GHz). The actual tilting is done by a [http://www.satshop.com/actuator.htm linear actuator] (12" for 99DM, about $50) designed for the purpose. The actuator is connected with pivot mounts to both the main platform and the antenna mount (via an offset bracket). You can see a variant on the design in [http://home.t-online.de/home/vanderVen/sat03.jpg this picture], the actuator is the brownish device with the blob on the back (the motor).


[CategoryHardware]