Live testing with Telesat’s LEO satellite confirms advantages of new C-COM transportable antenna system
5 February 2020
C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. (TSXV: CMI; OTC: CYFNS), the world’s leading provider of commercial grade auto-acquire mobile satellite antennas, has announced the completion of its first live test of a low-cost, commercially available, 74cm parabolic, flyaway antenna system, with Telesat's Phase 1 LEO satellite.
C-COM’s fully automatic, highly compact, and easy to deploy iNetVu® FLY-74 Ka-band transportable antenna was used during the live testing at Telesat’s Allan Park facility in Ontario, Canada.
The iNetVu® FLY-74 has been tracking Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite over a six-month period. Full-duplex throughput data rates of up to 158 Mbps on the downlink and 158 Mbps on the uplink were achieved at extremely high spectral efficiencies, all while demonstrating the ultra-low latency capabilities (20-40 msec) of Telesat LEO.
The on-air tests were conducted using a Newtec MDM 6000 modem. The FLY-74 antenna acquired and tracked the LEO satellite at elevation angles as low as 10 degrees above the horizon.
“We are very pleased with the performance and high reliability of our FLY-74 antenna system and its ability to track and maintain connectivity with the Telesat LEO satellite,” said Bilal Awada, chief technology officer of C-COM. “A number of these flyaway antenna systems have already been deployed for tracking low orbit satellites, such as CubeSats and Smallsats, in Canada and in other parts of the world.”
“Telesat is working with high technology vendors such as C-COM to assure the availability of affordable antenna systems for Telesat LEO across a variety of applications,” stated Michel Forest, director, LEO Systems Engineering. “C-COM’s advanced antenna technology will enable Telesat’s customers to take full advantage of Telesat LEO’s capabilities, including high capacity and ultra-low latency.”
