---
title: Project Journal
description: The ongoing story of reverse-engineering Winegard satellite dishes for amateur radio
sidebar:
  order: 0
---

import { LinkCard, Aside } from '@astrojs/starlight/components';

This section is different from the rest of the documentation. Where the guides and reference pages tell you *what* and *how*, the journal tells you *why* and *when* — the story of how this project came together.

Each entry captures a discovery session, a debugging breakthrough, or a design decision as it happened. They're written close to the moment, with the rough edges left in. Some entries document dead ends. Some document surprises. All of them are part of the record.

<Aside type="note">
This is a living section. New entries are added as the project evolves. The most recent entries reflect the current state of the project; earlier ones reflect what we knew at the time.
</Aside>

## Entries

<LinkCard title="Origins — Standing on saveitforparts" href="/journal/origins/" description="How Gabe Emerson's open-source work made this project possible." />

<LinkCard title="Finding the G2 Protocol" href="/journal/g2-discovery/" description="Connecting to the Carryout G2 for the first time and discovering it speaks a different dialect." />

<LinkCard title="The Prompt Termination Bug" href="/journal/prompt-termination-bug/" description="How a one-character parsing bug in console-probe led to understanding the firmware's serial protocol." />

<LinkCard title="GPIO Mapping Session" href="/journal/gpio-mapping-session/" description="Walking every GPIO pin on the K60 MCU live over serial to map the hardware." />

<LinkCard title="Console Probe Evolution" href="/journal/console-probe-evolution/" description="From a 1,044-line monolithic script to a proper two-package architecture." />

<LinkCard title="Radio Telescope Mode" href="/journal/radio-telescope-mode/" description="Discovering azscanwxp and what a satellite TV dish can do as an RF imager." />
