Av-Comm Awarded a Multi-Antenna Contract to Upgrade the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s Crib Point Satellite Earth Station

24 January 2017

Av-Comm has been awarded a multi-antenna contract by the Bureau of Meteorology to refurbish and upgrade four 3.7m earth station satellite antennas at their Crib Point facility in regional Victoria.

The contract includes refurbishment of the existing 3.7m parabolic antennas and feedhorns, and the installation of solid state antenna controls and satellite tracking equipment. Once upgraded the 3.7m antennas will form part of a network of antennas used to range the Chinese operated Feng Yun constellation of weather satellites orbiting in geostationary orbit. The ranging conducted at the Crib Point facility is used to pinpoint the location in three dimensions in real time providing critical information to the constellation’s TT&C.

In addition to the ranging activities, the antennas will be used for the downlinking of raw weather information and imagery used by the Bureau to make periodic weather predictions for a wide variety of stakeholders.

The contract represents a significant milestone for Av-Comm who, in recent years, has built itself to be one of Australia’s leading suppliers of satellite communication solutions and services in the Asia Pacific region. The multi-antenna project represents Av-Comm’s ability to successfully leverage its engineering and technical resources to win projects in new and complimentary markets.