Weather Satellite Reception
The idea to fetch weather images from overhead satellites had been on my bucket list for a long time. While I was acquiring the equipment needed to receive APT NOAA images, the NOAA constellation was unfortunately decommissioned.
However, discovering Jacopo Cassini’s blog over at A-Centauri was a breath of fresh air that gave me the confidence to keep going. Once I set up my hardware correctly, receiving images from Meteor M2 satellites over LRPT proved easier than expected (A-Centauri Guide).
This project had been living rent-free in my head for a long time, and the moment I finally pulled real data out of the sky was deeply satisfying.
The hardware I used is:
- V-dipole antenna: 54 cm, angled at 120°
- Low-pass SAW filter: To keep the RF noise floor from ruining reception
- RTL-SDR v3
For capturing the signal and decoding it into something human-readable, I used SatDump.
Special thanks to Naji for the advice and to Jacopo Cassini for the incredibly useful blog and for taking the time to answer my questions.
In the section below, I’ll be posting some of the captures whenever the pass timing and the weather gods align with my free time.
Gallery
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