Small satellites were once thought of as being futuristic, but several small satellites are now in orbit and they're bringing communications to new places on Earth on a daily basis.
Small satellites typically operate from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) or and offer extreme wideband digital communications with lower latency than Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) satellite systems. Because these new small satellites are located in LEO and MEO, they must communicate with tracking antennas while visible from Earth for only short periods of time.
AvL has developed a family of MEO tracking Ka-band earth station antennas with reflector sizes of 0.85m, 1.2m and 2.4m. These transportable antenna systems will enable users to realize the benefits of MEO technology with the ability to move and rapidly deploy a MEO network’s capabilities. Each transportable terminal antenna system includes two antennas with make-before-break communications. Each system is designed to be transported in durable transit cases and to be set up and on-the-air within two hours.