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Sailor Antennas

S900 Specification | Standard BUC sizes (no options) | Single coax cable to antenna | Cross-pol and Co-pol LNBs capable of any LO. | Dynamic Motor Brakes | Shipped "Plug and Play" | Acronyms for S900 parts | With or without NMEA 0183 Gyro heading | Dual antennas require no arbitrator | Built in power meter in OMT | No maintenance required for 10 years | Designed to operate in temperatures up to 75 degrees C. |
Reflector 103cm
Weight 135 kg
8 Watt NewGenWave Extended mini BUC 12800MHz LO (No variations)
X-Pol/Co-pol LNBs (Any LO)
 
The S800 comes in one flavor fits all standard with a 6 Watt BUC and the S900 comes with an 8 watt BUC and more recently a  20W BUC High Power version. 

The 8 Watt NewGenWave extended mini BUC is non-inverting and has a LO of 12800 MHz.
A single coax cable carries the Receive signal, Transmit signal, Antenna control M&C signals, 10 MHz reference for the BUC, and the 48VDC power between the below deck, antenna control unit and the above deck antenna.

M&C Antenna up from ACU = 54 MHz
M&C Antenna down to ACU = 36 MHz
Rx IF Freq = 625 MHz (Bandwidth 300 MHz max)
Tx IF Freq = 950- 1700 MHz
 
Because the quad band Philtech LNB receive signals are downconverted to 625 MHz and then remixed in the ACU to a standard L-Band frequency, the LNBs can be made to emulate any standard LO frequency.

The LNB output before conversion is as follows:
13V 0Khz = 9.75 GHz
13V 22KHz = 10.25 GHz
18v 0KHz = 10.75  GHz
18v 22KHz = 11.25 GHz

I believe the antenna used only the 9.75 and 10.75 GHz (no tone) LNB LO's.
The S900 has dynamic motor brakes using the back EMF of the motor to restrict the movement of the antenna when power is removed. There is no need for brakes or shipping restraints.
The antenna is shipped plug and play, pre-balanced and aligned, with no shipping restraints required and, in most cases, no need to open the radome during installation.

It is shipped in a special slim line crate that allows economic shipping by air.
The S800 and S900 documentation uses many new acronyms for the various components. Even the regular iDirect satellite modem is refered to as a VMU, rather than simply calling it a "modem".

DDM = DC-motor Driver Module ( Three identical motor driver boxes that are interchangeable)
ISM = Inertial Sensor Module (equivalent of a level cage or sensor module for level and inertia)
PCM = Pedestal Control Module (PCU and the brains of the antenna)
ZRM = Zero Reference Module (hall effect sensor. Cross Level, Elevation, Azimuth and Polar)
PMM = Polarization Motor Module (pol motor control)
VIM = VSAT Interface module (DVB-S/S2 tuner and 300KHz narrow band filter) (Converts Tx, Rx, M&C and DC supply onto single coax.)
VMU = VSAT Modem Unit (Simply the iDirect  or other satellite modem)

 
The antenna will quickly find the satellite via sky search, if the gyro heading is not enabled. Even quicker if the gyro heading is enabled.
On installations where two antennas are installed to overcome blockage limitations, no arbitrator is needed to switch between the antennas. The receive and transmit signals from the modem are simply split to the two antennas and the antennas take care of the switch over.
The OMT has a built in power meter that is displayed at the top of the web GUI as a 4 bar power meter.

When the power meter bars show energy it confirms that the BUC is transmitting.
From what I have been told, the system is designed to be maintenance free for 10 years. No routine maintenance is recommended.