How To Receive And Decode L-Band Weather Satellites
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- People often ask me to do step-by-step how-to videos on some of the satellite projects I show. While I'm still not a real expert on this, I've done my best to show the basics of L-band signals. These can be received with a simple small dish, a Software-Defined Radio and LNA/filter, and some free software.
The process is a little more complicated than VHF satellite reception (which I showed here: • How To Get Live Satell... ). However, it's not terribly complex, and the images are a little better than what's available on VHF.
Here are some other great guides that can help with this:
usradioguy.com...
gist.github.co...
sgcderek.githu...
@dereksgc also has some great videos about this on his channel.
Nooelec sells an all-in-one hardware bundle, including antenna, SDR, and LNA. This is everything you need (other than a computer and software) to get started!
amzn.to/4ah2WQt
You can also buy parts individually, and make your own antenna. I personally like the RTL-SDR Blog series of Software Defined Radios:
amzn.to/4a4AjWI
If you buy an SDR separately or already have one, you will also need a SAWbird GOES LNA:
amzn.to/49TtI1k
If you already have a Wifi grid dish, you can modify it like this:
usradioguy.com...
If you're building your own dish, the sgcderek link above has some good info. Or you can go REALLY cheap the way I did with some of these projects:
• Can I Get Satellite Da...
• Satellite Antenna Made...
You can find the right position for your antenna feed on the dish here:
www.analyzemat...
And you can find 3D printable helical antenna parts here:
www.thingivers...
Free software that I use includes:
Gpredict: oz9aec.dk/gpre...
SDR++: www.sdrpp.org/
SatDump: www.satdump.org/
I also use Stellarium, which isn't free and is somewhat flaky, but was the only thing I could find for Android that gives an AR tracking view:
play.google.co...
Websites I use for satellite finding and tracking include:
www.n2yo.com/
www.satdump.or...
If you'd like to support videos like this, buying from the Amazon links above will give me a small commission (at no extra cost to you!). Or check out the links below!
Saveitforparts t-shirts and other merch at saveitforparts...
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @saveitforparts
Or support me via Patreon at / saveitforparts
Check out gadgets and devices I like at www.amazon.com...
the bot comments are CRAZY (i cant wait to see this video ive had a MASSIVE old radio antenna outside my house ive been wanting to do something with)
Oh they are gonna get SO much worse
Oh hell yea. A video on the automatic tracking would be awesome.
I can totally see the fascination with satellites. In an unexperienced person's eyes, it looks like literal magic, being able to send/receive images from seemingly nothing.
We’ve always associated radio with sound, not pictures. So the idea of getting images through a radio would seem like magic.
But images through radio is nothing new, amateur radio have been using SSTV (sending images) for ages.
are you real?
Same
I feel like a collab between you and "Technology Connections" would be a hit, been watching a while love the content.
This needs to be the pinned comment
And the signal path
Absolutely invested in the development of your channel over the last year. Keep the great work going dude!
When I played with this a few years ago (downloaded Meteor M2 images), all I used was a small "August DTA240" hdtv antenna with TV "rabbit ears" connected to it. I did not move the antenna(s) to track the satellite, it just sat there stationary. I also was receiving the signal indoors lol. Lots of errors in the image, but it was mostly "proof-of-concept", just to see if I could get an image. I did!! I was actually surprised it worked as well as it did.
But the images that Gabe received are just stunning. COOL BEANS!!
this is your best satellite explainer video yet. thank you for the key information.
11:00 thank you so much for quickly explaining the adapters as well. It's these little details that help a lot! Great video, thank you :)
Like the umbrella idea for a rainy day, with a bunch of bright daylight LED strips to make your little area a sunny day. A portable power brick would be ideal.
I like the idea of collecting my own satellite imagery, sounds like a great project.
I’m happy I stumbled upon your channel, just subscribed.
NOAA was using 100 foot dishes when we built the turnkey system for Wallops Island.
Encryption uses more power aboard a satellite, so it doesn't make sense.
@saveitforparts >>> Great video...👍
That USA-only military satellite sounds interesting.
I still can't believe how much different the live satellite cameras are than these public cameras.
I mean the first time I saw the live cameras on every satellite my mouth dropped open.
We were told never to look at these cameras, so every time I worked alone, like on Christmas, I watched them, and they were just mind-blowing.
So detailed. So clear.
Like looking at Google Earth in real time.
I really miss that job
I saw so many cool feeds
why they tell you not to look at them??
you keep making GOES 16 look like the easy choice! I hope to have my rig working before hurricane season. It's a hobby to track them.
I use it as my baseline a lot, for testing and aligning antennas. I've manage to pick it up with some pretty marginal gear, although I'm not always able to decode good images with the flaky antennas!
@@saveitforparts my brother in law gave me an 8 foot dish in 2008. finally have a use for it!
Been watching your channel now for sometime and decided to subscribe! You put stuff together and hopefully inspire young people to continue the quest to explore electronics and physics!
Excellent explaining of everything. Thank you.
Those are Amazing Stroopwafels! I will have to receive some satellites the coming month. Your enthusiasm is catching!
A very comprehensive and interesting video about my favorite topic, satellites. There were also some things in there that were new to me, better to use an umbrella than no satellite dish at all. Perhaps there will also be a video about amateur radio satellites, as there are several in orbit, and even the ISS now has an X-band repeater that receives on 145.990 MHz and retransmits it on 437.800 MHz. It seems that very few people know that receiving weather images and decoding them is completely legal. I look forward to every new video on the subject.
Good stuff. This is a nice introductory video that I can share when telling my friends about your channel.
I was talkin' to one of the homies in old school runescape and he mentioned you. Told him I was already a fan. Love your stuff dude
Another great video Gabe! I've been getting some pretty good results from the 137Mhz NOAA 15, 18 and 19 sats using a modified V dipole antenna, RTL SDR V3 dongle, SDR ++ and WXtoIMG. I've never had ANYTHING from Meteor M2-3 though.
I'm dying to have a go at getting HRPT images, so your videos are proving really useful and inspirational. Greets from the UK.
This is pretty cool Gabe. I didn't even know this was a thing. Thank you!
This is cool. I think I need to re-up my Ham ticket. 73s.
Great vids lately, really enjoy the detailed longer format! 👍👽
The geekery here is 11/10. Nice work, Gabe. I wonder if a larger diameter shallow mesh dish would be something that you could build. I know it would take a lot more to keep stable, and to aim, but I'm betting you'd get a much cleaner signal. I suggest a mesh to keep the weight down, and also to give a clean reflecting surface. I suppose it just needs to be dense enough so as to reflect signals properly. I'll bet there's a tool out there that will permit calculating mesh density for a given signal spectrum, etc. Just a thought that I think would be cool, but probably a bit spendy and cumbersome. Maybe a larger motorized mount for it? Have fun! :)
For your antenna scafolding, move your bottom and middle support braces up to equally split the distance (height wise) on the calculator.
I had the same problem with mine. They were 30 turn antennas.
very cool, i like your approach on the gain question.
Thanks Gabe, excellent video, it turned out to be very informative.
This is awesome. A complete guide for dummies like me.
Thank you so much! I desperately want to try this myself and this is a really useful video.
Thanks for this video, it answers a lot of my questions about this.
Thanks for the sdr++ info, I just installed it and it looks pretty feature packed! 👍
Short Backfire antennas work quite well at L band, and dont need pointing at the sat.
Interesting, I'll have to watch for those at the surplus store :-)
Excellent video Gabe, very interesting and comprehensive!
bro is doing so much content recently 👍
thanks : 18'20s : this is BPSK modulation. It could explain why the RX agc gain value has few effect: With numerical modulation you have a big threhold effect : if your are above this threshold the average gain dont improve reception . Bit 1 ou zero remains 1 or 0. ( basic explanaion ) If you see 4 points : this is QPSK modulation : better datarate but higher SNR needed.
Would be awesome to see the eclipse from that perspective.
Hey, keep going you have the right to receive the signal like radio receiver, so you're fine. I like satellites to .
11:08 1000% for your cable modem at home or any catv connection as well.... keep that braiding out of the way as well... need em clean and level and tight.
Nice ! Lots of useful information here, thanks a lot 👌🏻
Great tutorial. I am trying to get into this stuff. I have an old dish from 2014. To be fair it is a large one (bit over 3 feet). So this is very helpful. I live in Norway so I doubt that I will be able to get GOES data unless I get a much bigger one. I hope that the European weather satellites also are L band satellite, then I could get data with the same method.
There are some interesting things you can get in Norway, a lot of low-earth-orbit satellites dump their full orbital data when they pass over Svalbard. I only see one that does L-band (according to www.satdump.org/Satellite-List/), and you'd have to aim the antenna somehow. www.youtube.com/@dereksgc has a lot of good info on that!
@@saveitforparts Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Glad to know where to start :D
The constellations your seeing in SatDump is probably a representation of the signal's modulation. Many satellites use what is called Phase-shift keying to modulate a digital signal. I don't know that much about it but here is the Wikipedia page for further reference: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-shift_keying
Thank you for this great video.
Not that I think you will need suggestions for a video, but if you has plans to revisit the cheap parabolic antenna subject. You may try to vacuüm form a antenna dish with mylar around a round mortar tub. Or other round sealed container. And a vacuum cleaner
You may want to paint the mirroring surface though otherwise you will burn your receiver.
I'm going to have to download this for study, might have to watch it 5x too. 🤣🤣 Smooth brain.
I ment to send this last video
I mean, i wasn't looking for a direct answer for the LNA I just wanted to know if something like that would even work or if it would destroy the diodes on my rtl-sdr v3. And thank you for making me realize I haven't updated sdr++ in 4 months😢.
Really appreciate these videos! Thanks!
Sma Cable and connectors are the RG 174 standard Try getting some cables and Connectors that use the standard. They are much better quality
Hey dude! This is so cool! Great video again man.
As always, top notch content.
Thank you for moderating your comment section
I try to at least delete the spam bots and the flat Earth trolls!
Great video. I need the amplifier/ filter and a dish. I already have the V3
Solid video! Isn't it great to get data without the middlemen? Edit: I love that your feedhorn is a plastic funnel with 12ga and a cookie tin lid. Horses for courses.
Your videos are awesome, man. 📡
i´m fairly new to SDR radio but what i have started doing to keep the centre pin from moving around when soldering SMA connectors is to first solder the signal wire to the centre pin and then putting a drop of super glue on the base of the pin before assembling the connector and soldering the screen to the connector body.
Amazeballs! Satellite tracker paying dividends.
Back in the Mid 1980s, ANTIC Magazine plublished a project for Atari computer owners on how to receive & processs WeFAX data.
SMA connectors are not intended to be used in the way we use them, they are supposed to be inside equipment and connected once and never messed with again. I like to support the SDR so there is not so much load on the fragile connector. I like the scientific method of doing this so hot glue and a piece of wood.
love this channel 💚
good video
I think You tube deleted my last comment because i mentioned some other platform which would be good for us all interested in this hobby commenting helping each other very annoying ! Any case if you do with a bit a bit luck and big brother AI does not pick this up i might be talking about some platform which would be much better than here to help others interested in chatting to each other .....i don't know i can but try ! But love the videos and the help experiments on the dishes feed horn antennas great work i will try your ideas here in Australia hope to show my work when i can do it .
Encryption would also add a thick layer of potential problems if there is noise. Unencrypted is easier to get something from even on a bad signal. Even with error correction etc, those are just solutions to work around problems with encryption of non sensitive data.
I am not saying it isn't solvable, but the technical house of cards would get unnecessary big.
... As far as I know. Correct me enough and I'll remove this comment :)
Always check the phone specs as OTG capabilities of many phones are either permanently disabled or crippled by the manufacturer with very few capable of being activated. Amongst those that do function fully some just are not powerful enough to run SDR applications and in some battery drain with SDR receivers is so high that they become useless. If you are not sure or can't find the information give it a go as you may be pleasantly surprised when it works.
Thank you, keep working.
Woah, i can see my house !!!
Great tutorial. Thank you.
Forgot got to mention as an idea i am about to try using a pair of free geared DC motor driveway car gate openers i am going to use instead of actuators on my 2m C band mesh dish they seem to be very strong and do the job easy once mounted
Cool! That sounds like a fun project.
Yes i was lucky as they were free i was not expecting to be able to move the dish via any thing i would have placed my dish pole a little forward to move up down any direction than just the geo belt ...OH well ! keep up the good work on the satellite dishes and different feed ideas so helpful know what can work and what can't ! Your very inspirational on all this and very good at it ...
Have you tried the heavens-above app (available on Android)? It doesn't have the full "AR" view but it does have an aiming view that uses your phone's angle. I haven't had issues with it.
The parabolic dish antenna must have a minimum of 15 times Lambda diameter to be effective. 😀for 1.7GHz this is 2.7meter
Wow great video once again (and for providing all those links) in the description. Saved Me tons of time not having to find it my self. (Did you ever try this Dish) On the GOES 16 Satellite. This way you Don't have the hastle of tracking it. Perhaps the result would be a clearer set of images. (Less Static)
Thanks again 73s 📡👍
This dish is a little too small for the GOES satellite, I think I tried it in a previous video. I keep meaning to set up a bigger dish for that, but I'm lazy and haven't figured out exactly where to bolt it to the garage!
@@saveitforparts To describe yourself as "Lazy" 👎 I Disagree . (With all these Videos) And a Book in the works.. When do you Sleep?? 🛌
The physics would say that the parabolic dish will reflect all signals at the focus point of the. Parabolic dish, which is most likely at the horn, not sure your helix which isn’t at the focus is making the most of the parabolic reflection. Have you ever tried a double helix antenna, just two springs mounted side by side, one left wound, one right wound and point them at the sat? Curious if it gets more signal and would eliminate the amp
His focal point hits the tin lid which is 1/4 wave behind the helical antenna.
Weird question: how long could you expect to keep receiving useful data from weather satellites and such like this with your kit, in the event of a disaster that takes out their ground stations?
very unpredictable, but the only thing that will take these sats out will be collisions and space rocks, i hope that by the time the apocalypse comes, theyll have figured out how to automate that...
NOAA 15 is over 25 years old and still trucking
There are multiple control ponts for the NOAA system. What usually ends a satellite's ueful life iswhen it runs out of fuel for course corrections.
What I'm wondering is how you would track them without the help of these internet based services
Maybe the timing and path through the sky are really consistent though, I don't know
@@maxscott3349 Their path is well known and maintained. Satellite terminals handle the tracing. What id more fun is tracking then on a ship in rough water. It has to both track, and compensated for the ship's shading and rolling. A friend of mine retired from the Merchant Marines as a radio operator in the '80s. Large cargo ships were installing first generation satellite communication.
So, any plans for an antenna mast/tower? Be pretty cool to have ham band antennas, lora, and a dish above the tree line.
What about sticking one out at Sandland? (That’s the name, right?) Maybe set it up with backup power and remote administration and redundancy. You could make multiple video series about something like that!
Appreciate the content and sharing the knowledge!
Sandland is getting the radome and radio telescope. I'm too lazy to put up a bit antenna at home right now, I don't even have space for a real ham shack!
I like your vedios very useful 👍🏻
I see clear difference between lower and higher resolutions. But can you tell us, since you have those png images, what megapixels are we talking about.
Thanks for video!
I'm trying to pick up the Australian Himawari 8 & 9 weather satellites, but I'm struggling to receive anything. Apparently they transmit on 18.1 - 18.4ghz. I have managed to pick up a signal with a QFH antenna on 18.1 but it doesn't sound anything like what I was expecting. Unfortunately I bought the QFH antenna for this but it suits the NOAA satellites (137mhz), not Himawari 🙄Any suggestions would be great! (I am struggling to find what would be appropriate for the given frequencies)
I don't have much experience with that frequency range, maybe a Ka-band TV or internet dish would work? Antenna sizes and designs are usually somewhat specific for the frequency / band, so a VHF antenna for 137 won't get anything in the microwave frequency range.
I wonder which SDR device would be best for these satellites? I have several different types, but have only used the RTL-SDR for satellite reception. It seems kind of weak. Most of mine are $300USD or less. Im sure a $2,000 unit would be great! Lol
If you can get one with super high bandwidth that can see more of the radio spectrum, I've seen some interesting stuff done with those! There are a few satellite signals that need much more bandwidth than the cheap SDRs can handle.
What about having multiple dishes running at a pass. If you manage to "average" the raw signals together it would reduce the noise (random fluctuation should cancel out statistically and signal should add up). Even two instead of one dish at a time should give a proof of concept.
"Very large backyard array"
I tried doing a "Very Small Array" once, but it was too hard to sync the signals through the hardware I have. Maybe if I had a KrakenSDR or something else that could time-match multiple inputs, but for now all it does is amplify the noise!
I thought of just recording the two signals (with two sets of hardware) and then later on letting an algorithm combine these two. Combining them based on timestaps from GPS time or just with an algorithm thats aligns them. But sounds complicated and time intensive.
Thank You😁😁😎😎
military satellite listening? Sign me up !
is it necessary to have WIFI connection while recording the static signals using SDR ++ with RTL - SDR ? cuz I have a weak WIFI signal outside the house
You shouldn't need Wifi at all, unless you need to update your software or something.
Stroopwafels 👍👍
what about doplar shift of the receive frequency?
It doesn't seem to matter as much for L-band, as long as you have an SDR with wide enough bandwidth. The Doppler drift is more noticeable at lower frequencies like VHF.
OH NO! Gone is the Giorgio A. Tsoukalos crazy hair! 😥😥
Sorry :-(
Would be interested if you can get anything from the eule sat just launched today 32° East set to give Africa TV
I don't think I'll be able to see it once it's in geostationary orbit, and not sure what frequencies it would use during transfer orbit. I can really only see stuff from about 60W to 130W
I just walked in from my NOAA-19 pass and was starting to wonder how Meteor works
And just to think that L-Band satellites orbit between 400 to 620 Marlboro miles high!
Mint is good 😊..
NOAA 15 was launched in 1998.
Another super informative video, thanks! I notice that with your tracker setup, it's forced to rotate horizontally 180 degrees when it passes overhead. Would it be possible to just keep using the pitch motor to continuously track it without having to rotate, or does the mount have a mechanical limitation that prevents it?
The mount doesn't have a physical limit, although it does have a little slop in the internal gearing so it "flops" slightly when the center of gravity goes over the top. I'm using code written for TV antenna rotors, so this is just the way they programmed it. I'm currently struggling with updating some of the code for the thing so it can be a radio telescope, but I'm not actually much of a programmer myself so I'm not sure how easy it is to change that feature.
Also, has anyone tried USB over Ethernet adapters? So you can put the SDR on the antenna and run Ethernet to the building where the computer is located.
I haven't tried that exactly, although I do have a Raspberry Pi with SDR right at an antenna, that's accessible over my network.
Is there a websdr that could listen to these frequencies?
I'm not sure if anyone has that set up. It would be kind of interesting!
A lot of people seem to have old dish and directv dishes on their houses that are no longer used. Are those good candidates for a project like this?
I guess I'll have to do a follow-up with one of those small ones! I haven't actually used one for these low-orbit satellites, but I know they're too small for geostationary weather sats.
hey! i'm from India and i want to decode signals from INSAT-3D maybe 3DR satellites, we have LNBs that go from 3.7GHz to 4.2GHzhow do i modify the LNB to receive on 4.7GHz band? and what size of dish is suitable for this?
I don't actually know about that one, sorry!
@@saveitforparts alright! thank you!😊
Have you looked into setting up a Satnogs station? Its a very cool community.
I've heard about it and occasionally look through the website, but I'm honestly still a little confused about how it works. I'll have to see if someone has a simple how-to guide on the whole project.
I was told does a T12 fluorescent tube was just the right size to wind a helical around for a certain frequency but I don't remember which one?
Interesting! I haven't seen one of those for a while, even at work we've gone to all LEDs. I usually use PVC pipe since I have a lot of scraps hoarded.
What is happening to the comments 💀💀💀
Cool video still!
Dead Internet Theory was a prediction, not an observation
@@personzorz what are you talking about
Thank you for your videos. What android sdr app do you recommend?
I've been using SDR++ on Android, it's a little kludgy and hard to see without moving the side window around, but it works pretty well.
Would it be possible to use moving head as antenna holder and DMX protocol for control ?
Maybe, it depends how much weight / torque they can handle.
but how is that antenna moving on its own? does it run on a software or something?
there's small lizard people inside it moving the dish
@@gorak9000 make sense :/
Oh no, you gave it away! Now PETA is going to come free my antenna lizards 😢
Sentences I never expected to type when I started this channel.... 😂
But yes, I have a software-controlled motor, I showed it in a previous video: ua-cam.com/video/8Gz17Mv7RU0/v-deo.html
@@saveitforparts oh now its clear! but i'll keep eye on your antennas coz, those r still sus.
Can you use an old Direct TV type dish for L band?
I believe so, although they're a little heavy and clumsy. I haven't tried one for that myself.
❤❤❤❤