WUT students build ground station for receiving satellite data

Students from the Antenna Design Student Research Group at the Warsaw University of Technology have designed and built their own ground station for receiving data from satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). The project was carried out with funding awarded through the Rector's grants programme for student research groups for the 2025/2026 academic year. The group received nearly PLN 47,000 to build the station under the project entitled Adaptive Beamforming Antenna Array for Receiving Signals from Low Earth Orbit Satellites in the L-band.

The Antenna Design Student Research Group operates within the Institute of Radioelectronics and Multimedia Technology at the Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology under the supervision of Grzegorz Bogdan, PhD. Although the group has been active only for a relatively short time, its members are already undertaking ambitious engineering projects in the fields of modern terrestrial and space radio communications.

Combining theoretical knowledge with hands-on engineering experience, the students design original antenna systems, develop technologies for high-tech applications, and participate in international engineering challenges. Their work demonstrates that even during their studies, future engineers can create advanced solutions addressing real-world scientific and industrial needs.

Rector's Grant Supports an Innovative Project

The system designed and built by the students enables the reception of data from satellites operating in low Earth orbit, including the MetOp constellation managed by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The ground station receives satellite imagery captured from an altitude of approximately 800 kilometres, providing up-to-date information on cloud cover and the Earth's surface.

With a reception range exceeding 1,000 kilometres, the system can collect images covering an area stretching from Spain in the west to Kazakhstan in the east. In addition to imagery, the station receives detailed meteorological and environmental data, including atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, soil moisture, snow and ice cover, ocean wind speed and direction, and concentrations of atmospheric trace gases such as ozone, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide.

Europe, 25 July 2026. The photo shows smoke blown away be wind from a fire close to Bordeaux

Distribution of Earth’s surface temperature on the basis of data received on 3 July 2026 at 21.30

Designed and Built by Students

The ground station features a 1.9-metre parabolic reflector mounted on a dual-axis rotator. The entire structure is installed on a lifting trolley, making it easy to fold and transport.

At the heart of the system is a receiver module designed entirely by the students and housed in a weather-resistant enclosure. Its key components include a circularly polarised patch antenna operating at 1.7013 GHz, a selective surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter, a 40 dB low-noise amplifier, a HydraSDR software-defined radio, and a Raspberry Pi 5 single-board computer.

Thanks to its modular architecture, the station can be further expanded and adapted to receive other transmissions in frequency bands of up to 11 GHz.

Parabolic reflector antenna mounted on a lifting trolley – a key component of the satellite ground station

"The Polish space sector is developing rapidly, with domestic teams and companies achieving increasing success in advanced space technologies," says Mateusz Bielawny, President of the Antenna Design Student Research Group. "Our activities are part of this trend. In June, we completed the Warsaw University of Technology Rector's grant project, during which we designed an antenna system for receiving data from MetOp satellites. In the next stage, we plan to further develop the station by implementing a planar phased array with electronic beam steering, replacing the current mechanical tracking system."

The project was carried out by a 13-member international student team comprising Michał Bandych, Mateusz Bielawny, Antonina Bieryt, Oskar Dąbrowski, Łukasz Koźlik, Wojciech Królak-Kurkus, Li Hang, Radosław Rytyl-Kuc, Stanisław Słowiński, Xin Yang, Jinrui Wu, Duan Zekai and Chongwen Zhu.

The achievements of the Antenna Design Student Research Group will soon be presented during the 23^rd KONIK Student Research Groups and Student Organisations Fair and the 15^th Night at the Institute of Aviation. At both events, the students will showcase their projects and original solutions in antenna engineering and their applications in terrestrial and space radio communications.