Mark Pentler

@Dark Starages ago you asked about zooming into the spectrum - you can't, it's locked by bandwidth selected. You always process the tuned signal in the middle, so no real need to move around and look at stuff. I'd use an SDR app to do that

I was out yesterday afternoon to do M2-4. Click to embiggen: 13:30 15:12 Lower res projection (but still 3500 x 3500...)

Fair to say nothing from me this weekend, we'll see how the weather is tomorrow when the worst of the storm has passed but not looking good.

Dark Star still seems to be on 1700 MHz today it seems and also dumps and telemetry on S-band apparently.

Looks like we got the same pass then! Here's N18 from just now, and an updated animation with appropriate delays to try and aid with the different time frames between images:

Been out this morning and may do more today, here's Metop-B, NOAA Natural Color, 60 odd degrees and blocked by the house to the south, included some other instruments too: Here's NOAA 19, 82 degrees, longer capture, but as this is an analogue signal with no error correction unlike Metop I get RFI issues, so I use the despeckle in SatDump to fix it: Finally, here's a little animation of the two centred on the UK, twenty minutes apart. I think NOAA 19 has a brighter AVHRR sensor maybe?

I keep meaning to get up early and fluffing it. Maybe I'll do some this afternoon but we have rain scheduled.

Gonna be a wet one! I may get out soon, bit windy though for dish holding!

pontiend I'm glad! Stick with it - I promise going forward it'll be worth it.

Dark Star it looks like a red dot for sure. Not sure thermal on 2-3 is calibrated yet but it may show up on that too. Mine was from day microphysics. Lovely stuff though, too windy for me to get the kit out!

Got the latest Iceland eruption on that!

Nice work all around, shame 2-4 is off still. Here is Meteor M2-2 HRPT today. It doesn't do LRPT anymore, and the MTVZA instrument is broken so the MSU imager is all you get, but it is well looked after and the calibration and detail is great, click for massive! 14:24 66 deg pass, 16.7 dB peak, 221/Ch4 Equ/Day Micrphysics/Precipitation 1603 27 deg pass, 15.6 dB peak, 221/Ch4 Equ/Day Microphysics/MCIR/Precipitation And a projection of the two, 221:

Tempted to go out tonight but night passes are kinda boring. Great captures! What's your average SNR on Meteors 3 and 4?

Just to be aware some of those composites use a pre-made map and separate the clouds out! MSA and MCIR definitely - SatDump should tell you if you click the info symbol next to the dropdown box. I did some captures this morning, here's NOAA 15, still trucking along on VHF despite a poorly scanning motor, 45 ish deg handtracked with a yagi, but I had issues tripping over the lead mid-pass so a bit noisy: And on the dish side I tested out a new coax lead this morning with just SMAs on the ends - no BNC to SMA adapters needed anymore. I had a much more stable noise floor with the 1.7 GHz signal. Here's two captures, firstly NOAA 19, channels 124 composite and then the NOAA Natural Color composite: And here is ESA's Metop-C satellite, with the Day Microphysics composite highlighting different cloud layers in stunning fashion: To give you a taste of the other instruments available on L-Band, here's a few other things. Some of these sensors have less resolution, but more precision than the AVHRR. From left to right here we have the Microwave Humidity Sounder showing an Airmass view, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit showing a false colour image of various temperature returns, the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer showing Low Level Water Vapour (good for seeing where clouds will form along with temperature gradients at various altitudes), and there are sensors doing radiation and surface wind changes that are a bit too dull to post. All of this along with 5 or 6 channels (depending on satellite) vs the 2 on APT or 3 on LRPT - usually 2 or 3 visible and 2 or 3 in IR. Some of these extra instruments look good when overlaid on top of an AVHRR image, and SatDump can do this with projections in various forms to make some fantastic images. Here is a projection of the above NOAA 15 and Metop C shots in Cloud Isolated mode, along with the snow cover composite from the MHS overlaid on the top: All in all a great morning!

Here's a page you may both like, it taught me a lot about interpretation of images and what the other instruments than just the main imager does: Weather predictions from satellite data | Jacopo's Lair WWW.A-CENTAURI.COM A tutorial on how to make your weather predictions, weather science and more using data you received from satellites yourself.

The above is an image from an ESA Metop satellite @ 1.7 GHz. The best thing about Metop is that it has error correction! The downside of this is that the signal is 5 MHz wide! I use an RSP1a to do my captures and a Nooelec GOES Sawbird+ LNA powered off a USB battery as a preamp. The quantity of data is ridiculous. MetOp has 10 instruments in the package, all doing different things with different sensors. Here is a Meteor HRPT shot. Same resolution as LRPT Dark Star, but much less compression. With more channels sent down you can do lots of fun composites, like this Meteor M2-3 Microphysics view: Dark Star not entirely sure if you can but it will be in FFT options, I wanna say second panel.

Fantastic! Tomorrow morning I have all to myself! So, the plan is to test a newly-made up lead which has much more solid connections and should lower my noise floor. I will primarily do 1.7 GHz HRPT, but for lower elevations the signal doesn't go through buildings. Luckily 137 MHz is a bit more reliable so I'll be doing APT and LRPT for the lower passes. I shall make some wide projections, maybe even some animations too.

As an aside, there are people doing this on X-Band (8 GHz ish) as well with 2M+ dishes and getting incredibly detailed captures. These folk are the real maniacs, because it is very difficult to get a stable setup at this high a frequency. But the results are worth it. X BAND Weather SATELLITE RECEPTION | Michael Margaras SV1CAL – Amateur Radio and Electronics SV1CAL.COM I got inspired by reading an excellent GEO-Quarterly article describing Jean-Luc Milette's pioneering work on X band weather satellite reception. Then came across Alan's @Aaang254 extraordinary for every... L-Band can be done for about 60-70 pounds including preamp and feed, but a 3D printer helps to print the helical antenna frame. This is the best guide: Beginner's guide to HRPT reception SGCDEREK.GITHUB.IO VHF? two bits of wire and a cheap SDR will do it Dark Star Hit me up with Qs here. I am in the SatDump discord as well.

I've actually got a very small amount of code in SatDump so I'm technically a dev, but my contribution was so infinitesimally small it seems ridiculous to have my name in the About tab. I can help with anyone's software queries, anyway. Good thing about SatDump: tracking, recording, processing, viewing, all in one app. Supports most SDRs and is very cross-platform. Dark Star - fantastic M2-4 image! I've been pointing my Yagi at it for a few days and the signals are much stronger than 3 with the broken antenna. I'm yet to give it a proper go on 1.7 GHz yet but will do this weekend.

Looks like that uses WxtoImg which isn't in active development anymore, but I still prefer its overlay features to be honest. Anyway, fantastic and good to see an image!

Dorsetbred Well, that's a totally fair comment. If you're not interested in the radio or tech side of these things then it may not hold your attention for long. But when something comes in with an antenna you made yourself it feels very good.

pontiend nice! I've been doing VHF for years but usually with a Yagi. Have you done Meteor LRPT yet? Any plans to move to 1.7 GHz? Not as hard as you think, I promise PS: you really need to try SatDump... ditch these older app for something in active development: www.satdump.org

i just checked the latest GFS for 2100 - am I reading it right? 944 mb? Very new to this, but that is pretty nuts, isn't it?

Before I bang on about it in any further detail, I just wondered if there was anyone here doing weather satellite reception? I was surprised to see no hits for it on the forums, but am aware it's more a radio-focused hobby. APT, LRPT, HRPT direct broadcast reception. Receiving images like this in your own back garden (just one instrument of many on some sats): HRPT Satellite Captures - Google Photos PHOTOS.GOOGLE.COM 118 new items · Album by Mark Pentler I'd love to see if anyone here does it as I try and learn more about meteorology and attempt to actually predict weather from the data I capture. This is my first post here, so hopefully it'll go well and maybe some folk want to actually get into this kinda thing. The initial outlay isn't too expensive.