From technical monument to teaching instrument

The Neu Golm project is not simply a restoration of old machinery. It connects several generations of technology:

• a 1970s satellite earth station;
• drive electronics and control systems modernised during the 1990s;
• a Raspberry Pi and microcontroller-based tracking computer;
• current web APIs and networked software; and
• modern software-defined radio reception.

For the Robert-Havemann-Gymnasium, the installation provides an unusual learning environment for physics, astronomy, electronics, programming and radio technology.

Students are not just reading about control loops or orbital motion. They can see a 40-tonne antenna respond to calculated coordinates, observe the status of the safety chain and examine the radio signals arriving from the direction in which the dish is pointing.

The reactivation took more than two years and required the combined work of students, teachers, amateur radio operators and makers. Each group contributed different skills, from interpreting old circuit diagrams and repairing hardware to programming interfaces and testing radio equipment.

The result is a historic communications system with a new purpose: helping a new generation understand how electronics, software, mechanics, radio and astronomy work together.

Project hardware

Tracking computer: Raspberry Pi
Relay control: Sequent Sixteen Relays HAT
Interlock inputs: Sequent Sixteen LV Digital Inputs HAT
Analogue commands: Sequent Sixteen 0–10 V Analogue Outputs HAT
Signal conversion: Custom four-channel 0–10 V to ±10 V converter
Position acquisition: Arduino and existing azimuth/elevation encoders
Controller software: Python background daemon
User interface: Python and Tkinter
Tracking data: NASA/JPL Horizons API and CSV files
Communication: Ethernet, TCP/JSON and UDP
Radio reception: SDRplay software-defined radio

Credits

We thank Dr. Andreas Fischer, owner of the antenna installation, which stands on the premises of his company SENSYS Magnetometers & Survey Solutions. Without his commitment and continued support, the project would not have been possible.

Safia Ouasi and Dr. Alexander Stendal are physics teachers at the Robert-Havemann-Gymnasium in Berlin and the initiators of the project. Over a period of more than two years, they brought together a team of students, makers and amateur radio operators to reactivate the historic antenna installation.