Tech Talk

May 2007

Smaller is better in satellite terminals

By Robert H. Williams

A digital technology that has been developed by Hypres Inc. of Elmsford, N.Y., for the project manager of Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems, promises to substantially trim the footprint of ground-based satellite stations.

Besides chopping the size of 60-foot parabolic dish antennas, the new X-band all digital receivers are expected to “slash the cost of acquiring a military satellite terminal in half from about $5 million to $2.5 million, by elminating up to seven racks of analog equipment and one 40-foot trailer,” says Stephen Larsen, a PM DCATS spokesman.

The key to the more compact system is a niobium chip that becomes a superconductor when chilled to nearly absolute zero.

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