By popular request, here's my attempt at a "simple" how-to starter guide for weather satellite decoding. This was surprisingly difficult to put together, taking me several days and multiple attempts to get it right. It also ended up being over 20 minutes long! According to my recent polls, you the viewers want more satellite stuff and longer videos, so hopefully this fits the bill!
The satellites we're looking at in this video are NOAA's polar-orbiting series, NOAA 15, 18, 1n 19. More information about these can be found at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_O...
The satellites transmit data on a variety of frequencies, the easiest for us to use are in the 137mhz VHF range. You can hear these with most ham radios, police scanners, or certain handheld radios that cover VHF bands. You can also use a software defined radio (SDR) connected to a computer. A basic antenna works fine, but a slightly better antenna are the old TV "rabbit ears" set sideways in a "V" shape.
The video has two methods for receiving and processing satellite images. You can just use a cheap handheld radio and your cell phone (method 1), or you can use an SDR and computer (method 2). I'll include some more links to all the hardware and software involved, as well as other walk-through guides.
(I find it helpful to read multiple guides and watch multiple videos when learning a new hobby or skill like this, as one source might miss a detail or be hard to understand).
Hardware and gadgets I mentioned:
- Baofeng radio: www.amazon.com/Baofeng-UV-5R-...
- Fancy antenna for Baofeng (optional): www.amazon.com/Authentic-NA-7...
- Software Defined Radio and antenna kit: www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-R...
- SAWbird+NOAA AMplifier / Filter (Optional extra): www.amazon.com/Nooelec-SAWbir...
Software:
- Android Wave Editor: play.google.com/store/apps/de...
- SDR++ (Windows, Mac, or Linux): www.sdrpp.org/
- GQRX (Alternative to SDR++, Linux only): gqrx.dk/
- SDR# (Another alternative, supposedly easier to use but more hassle to install): airspy.com/download/
- SatDump (for decoding recorded signals): github.com/SatDump/SatDump
- NOAA-APT (alternative to Satdump): noaa-apt.mbernardi.com.ar/
- WXtoIMG (Another alternative decoder): wxtoimgrestored.xyz/
- Raspberry-NOAA v2 (For Raspberry Pi, advanced option!): github.com/jekhokie/raspberry...
Alternate pre-installed image version: www.qsl.net/do3mla/raspberry-...
Website for calculating future satellite passes:
www.n2yo.com/
Website for decoding wav recordings of satellite signals:
apt.open-weather.community/
Here are some additional helpful resources and guides:
- NOAA APT Satellite guide: noaa-apt.mbernardi.com.ar/gui...
- Another guide: usradioguy.com/noaa-apt-recep...
- Official NOAA howto guide: noaasis.noaa.gov/NOAASIS/pubs...
- And another walkthrough document: www.rtl-sdr.com/wp-content/up...
- V-dipole antenna setup: rfelektronik.se/manuals/Datash...
- QFH Antenna build (advanced option): usradioguy.com/wp-content/upl...
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