137 mhz weather satellites software

I had always wanted to try and receive a signal from a satellite using my scanner. Building a simple and inexpensive satellite ground station part 1 by bob and jann koepke when we think of ground stations for satellites, large antenna arrays and dishes immediately come to mind, along with a lot of expensive electronics. I want to build one in a couple of weeks and thinking about how to deal with corrosion and extreme weather conditions. He also had an airspy he wasnt using and so it became the sdr radio we were going to use for this. For vhf apt weather satellites those operating at about 7 mhz the ideal bandwidth is in the 3545 khz range. Over on his blog adam 9a4qv seller of various rtlsdr related goods including the lna4all has just made a post detailing a build of a high performance super simple noaa meteor m2 weather satellite antenna. Pdf image data acquisition for noaa 18 and noaa 19 weather.

How to make an effective qfh quadrifilar helix antenna for receiving weather satellites in the 7 mhz band, using pvc pipe and coaxial cable. Complete text article will be published soon in the pdf format that will include background and a bit of theory how i. Significant contribution to atmospheric chemistry and space weather. Realtime observation of weather systems in your area, promotes understanding meteorological phenomenon such as lows and highs in colour. This home weather satellite receiver is a system of an fm receiver tunable to noaa weather satellite frequencies 7 to 8 mhz interfaced with a pc. We used an sdr software defined radio called a hackrf to do the work of interpreting the received signals and then decoded them with some. Apt weather satellite amplifier 7 mhz lna and filter. These satellites are operated at approximately 7 mhz. Use a tuning program to configure the rtlsdr hardware to receive audio at 7 mhz. Together with an rtlsdr and 7 mhz satellite antenna, these programs are used to receive, track, demodulate and decode meteor m. Meteorologists utilize this information to predict weather. Hardware a small sample of some of the receivers and antennas best suited to weather satellite reception. Wxtoimg will work with just about any receiver capable of reception in the 7 8mhz fm band but for best results requires a 30khz 50khz bandwidth. Around 800 km 500 miles above your head, weather satellites circle earth, continuously sending back what they see.

How to download live images from government weather satellites. We decided to build an automated noaa weather satellite image receiver using a modern sdr device. Quadrifilar helix antenna 7 mhz for noaa weather satellites. Get your weather images straight from the satellite hackaday. Setting up software is just as important as a good antenna, so this guide details software settings. They transmit in the 7 mhz range that seems to be receivable by the 2 meter beam. The data itself is encoded using frequency modulation fm, the same method that fm stations use to transmit audio. I use the same wrap center and braid around when i got no inclination to solder, aka almost always, does the job. This paper focuses on hardware and software implementation to receive and decode the. To receive signals from orbiting weather satellites, you need a receiver and antenna capable of receiving frequency modulation fm in the 7 mhz satellite band. Cost efficient design approach for receiving the noaa weather. I want to get into apt viewing on the 6 7 mhz range due to my intrist in the hf weather satellite frequencies, however, many pictures i decode on hf are charts, or other non satellite picture, but i did recieve a satellite picture at 8. In my beginner naivity, i hoped, that the antenna will work good also for 7.

Apt weather satellite reception decoding and display software overview. A right hand circularly polarized antenna tuned to 7 mhz. Every few hours a noaa weather satellite passes over your head, continuously transmitting pictures in visible light, infrared, and shortwave infrared. How to build a qfh quadrifilar helix antenna to download. Although expensive dedicated interfaces with accompanying software are available from commercial suppliers of weather satellite hardware, most enthusiasts these days decode the apt data from the noaa satellites using their personal computer and its associated soundcard. In addition, an antenna for the 7 mhz range had to be designed.

Each wire is 14 of the length of a 7mhz wave, while the pair together is 12 a wavelength. Satfax was designed for the occasional wefax monitor who wishes to use an icom r700, r7100, or aor 3000a also other receiverscanner that receive either 1691 mhz or the 7 mhz range and soundcard in his computer with wefax software to receive polar orbiting and geostationary satellites. Diy 7 mhz wx sat vdipole antenna this is a short version, the final of the article describing how to build the weather satellite 7 mhz vdipole antenna. With something like the nooelec sdr dongle, a computer, and a qhf antenna you can predict your own. The noaa apt weather satellites broadcast their signal at about 7 mhz, and their signals are also right hand circularly polarized rhcp, which means you will need a right hand circularly polarized antenna to properly receive the signals. Their relatively close height above the earths surface allows them to deliver highresolution images. How to pull images from satellites in orbit noaa 15,18,19 and. You can receive noaa weather satellites in the 7 mhz range, also use wxtoimg software that lets you decode the signal. Building a simple and inexpensive satellite ground station. Simply connect a 7 8mhz fm communications receiver, scanner, or weather satellite receiver to your soundcard and get stunning colour images directly from weather satellites.

The signals were fed to a sdr sharp generic software of rtlsdr and were decoded to receive. Receiving noaa weather satellites with an sdr and a. It was designed with software defined receivers sdrs in mind, which are notorious for performing poorly where there is a high density of signals in close proximity. I should start out by saying that there are many ways to go about doing this. After some research i found that i may actually be able to pick up the noaa weather satellites as they pass overhead. Apt signals come directly from weather satellites in polar orbit noaa 12 and 15 on. Noaa satellites transmit live weather fax pictures that can be copied with the sdr radios at the w2mmd site. This project was completed for my senior design project along with two other members.

Satellite antennas are also designed to receive best from signals coming from the sky. The only other item youll need is an antenna for receiving the circularly polarised signals. Many vhf scanning receivers can receive fm in the 7 mhz satellite band. Xw2d has a cw beacon transmitting with 50 mw and a 100 mw, 20 khz wide linear transponder. The image below was captured today from noaa19 at 7. The wxtoimg software supports computer control of several models of. The noaa weather satellites are some of the easiest satellites to receive. In situations where the kx 7 may be too big or striking, e. These satellites transmit images at 7 mhz, which is relatively close to both fm radio transmissions 90 mhz to 110 mhz and 2meter amateur radio transmissions 144 mhz. Alternative to electrical tape is well chewed chewing gum, leave it to dry overnight, works wonders. Then life came in continue reading my first weather satellite images with a 7 mhz turnstile antenna.

Software such as wxtoimg for decoding the apt signal. Select this device in the console receive dsp pane and. Many translated example sentences containing meteorology satellite germanenglish dictionary and search engine for german. Install a virtual audio cable vac, either vbaudio or virtual audio cable. I had for some time being receiving apt from noaa and meteor weather satellites and had noticed various other signals emitters showing up at other. Apt weather satellite amplifier and filter, model lnau07648, is a 7 mhz lna and filter combined into a single device. Offset frequency on noaa 18 satellite signal reception, a 7. Receiving images from passing weather satellites noaa and. Currently, there are three active polarorbiting satellites, the most recent of which, noaa19, was launched in 2009. For polar orbiting weather satellites on 7 mhz you also need of an if filter 30 to 50 khz wide, neither narrowest or wider. Apt signals come directly from weather satellites in polar orbit noaa 12 and 15 on 6. Weather satellites software for about 25 euros you can receive a weather satellite image like this one. My first weather satellite images with a 7 mhz turnstile. This is a build i did on a raspberry pi to receive noaa weather satellite signals and process them into images on a raspberry pi 3 model b.

Pictures from weather satellites with a usb tv tuner. Receiving images from passing weather satellites noaa and meteor m2. Many multimode decoding software also support this mode of transmission. Rendezvous with noaa polarorbiting weather satellites. Software used was wxtoimg and gpredict for pass prediction and sdr sharp for reception. In 1986, there was an article by greg roberts in jesaug entitled satellite transmitting status that listed over 40 satellites that were reportedly transmitting in the vhf band of 6 to 8 mhz.

This is large enough to accommodate the modulation on the satellites carrier plus frequency variation due to doppler shift as the satellite passes overhead. A somewhat specialized antenna is required to receive the right hand polarized transmissions from noaa weather satellites, but with a few bits of. There are two types of weather satellite from which it is possible to receive images. Actually i want to ask hows the antenna doing today, still works. Quadrifilar helix antenna 7 mhz for noaa weather satellites may 16th, 2010 i had always wanted to try and receive a signal from a satellite using my scanner.

Falsecolor visible light image from noaa 19 on february 2, 2017 on 7. All about software defined radio sdr all about software defined radio sdr. Below you can see a screenshot of my sdr application receiving the downlink of xw2d microsatellite. The kx 7 provides best omnidirectional reception results for polar orbiting satellites in the 7 mhz band.