Custom Cyberdeck For (Legal) Satellite Hacking

After doing a number of satellite and radio astronomy experiments, I finally got tired of my old briefcase full of tangled radio gear. I dug through my collection of broken computers, old wires, spare parts, and other junk, and assembled an all-in-one space cyberdeck!

This system combines most of my satellite and software-defined-radio gear into one portable platform. The hardware includes:

- Touchscreen computer
- RTL-SDR radio
- Various filter / amp modules
- Various WiFi modules
- Satellite Meter / digital video player
- PTZ control for my older dish pointers
- LNB power injector
- King-Dome / Vuqube control
- Panel-mount port interfaces

Software includes:
- Q4OS (simple, low-resource Linux)
- GQRX (standard SDR software)
- Gpredict for satellite tracking
- GOEStools, WXtoIMG, etc for weather satellites

The system is fairly modular and expandable, with most major components simply stuck in with velcro tape. If I want to swap modules for a different experiment, I can just pop them out and replace with something else.

Some of the parts I used include:
- Datalux Tracer computer (found for $1.00 at a police auction).
- RTL-SDR Blog v3 (https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-RTL2832U-Software-Defined/dp/B0129EBDS2)
- Wideband LNA (https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-Wideband-Amplifier-Powered/dp/B07G14Q6XX/)
- Talentcell 12v 6Ah battery pack (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ME3ZH7C)
- Snpurdiri 60% keyboard (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097T276QL)
- AC600 Wifi adapter (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z31W68W)
- GTMedia v8 Satellite Meter (https://www.amazon.com/GT-MEDIA-Satellite-Measuring-Adjusting/dp/B0B4B84SLV/)
- Old Dell PCMCIA wifi card
- Old Broadcom Mini-PCI wifi card
- King-Dome remote
(None of these were sponsored products and I bought all of this myself)

I'm planning to do a variety of projects and experiments with this system and my various 2nd-hand satellite antennas in the future. Stay tuned to see what I come up with!

*Please note that my use of the term "hacking" refers to using hardware and software for unintended or experimental purposes, not anything unauthorized! I am not breaking, pirating, or transmitting anything. I'm simply poking around at old satellite hardware to see what can be freely and legally done with it!

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