Ground Station to Remote Radio
First RF Link in Under 30 Minutes

Your Explorer Dev Kit contains two fully commissioned SCK-915 boards. Each board left our bench after a complete end-to-end test — bootloader flashed, radio application installed, RF link confirmed, and image transfer verified. Check the stickers on each board before proceeding.

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  2× SCK-915 radio boards — stickered 0001 and 0004
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  2× 915MHz SMA antennas — hand-tighten only, do not over-torque
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  1× USB to serial adapter — for Board 0001 ground station connection
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  2× 5V 3A power supplies — one per board

The OpenLST Ground Station is a self-contained Windows application. The installer includes everything it needs — no separate .NET runtime installation, no Visual C++ redistributables, no prerequisites of any kind.

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  Download the installer
  From the SpaceCommsKit GitHub repository or from the Software page. File: OpenLST_Ground_Station_Setup_v1.0.0.exe
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  Run the installer as Administrator
  Right-click the .exe → Run as Administrator. If Windows SmartScreen appears click More info → Run anyway. The application installs to C:\Program Files\OpenLST Ground Station
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  Launch the application
  OpenLST Ground Station appears in your Start menu. A desktop shortcut is created during installation.

Board 0001 is your ground station — it connects to your PC via USB-serial and communicates with Board 0004 over the 915MHz RF link. Board 0004 needs only power — no PC connection required. Place the boards at least 0.5 meters apart to avoid receiver saturation from the TX signal.

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  Power on Board 0004 first — remote radio needs to be listening before ground station transmits
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  Power on Board 0001 — ground station board
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  Connect USB-serial adapter to PC — Windows installs driver automatically
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  Note the COM port — Device Manager → Ports (COM & LPT) → note the COMx number

Start with the local ground station connection before testing the RF link. This confirms your USB-serial connection is working and Board 0001 is responding.

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  Open the ground station application
  The header bar shows Port, Baud, and HWID fields.
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  Set Port to your COM port — e.g. COM5
  Select from the dropdown. Baud is pre-set to 115200.
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  Set HWID to 0001
  This addresses Board 0001 — the board physically connected to your PC.
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  Click Connect
  Status bar turns green. The log panel shows the connection timestamp.
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  Click Get Telem on the Home tab
  Board 0001 responds with its telemetry. All panels update.

Expected telemetry response from Board 0001:

With Board 0001 connected and responding, change the HWID to address Board 0004. Board 0001 will relay your commands over the 915MHz RF link to Board 0004 and return its responses. You are now commanding a remote radio over RF.

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  Change HWID to 0004 in the header bar
  All commands now address Board 0004 via RF relay through Board 0001.
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  Click Get Telem
  Board 0001 transmits the request at 915MHz. Board 0004 receives it, assembles a telemetry response, and transmits back. Board 0001 receives the response and forwards it to the ground station over serial. Round trip takes approximately 200–400ms at 7.4 kbaud.

Expected telemetry response from Board 0004 over RF:

Run these three commands with HWID set to 0004 to confirm full bidirectional RF link operation. All three should return responses from the remote board.