Steve Anderson wrote:Very interesting Harry. So all that's needed is a receiver, an antenna and a PC with the appropriate software. As their life-span is limited it's probably a good idea to start considering setting up for the digital versions. I've no idea what's required for that.
Its very easy Steve to pick them up ! you need an antenna you could use any thing really but if you want a noise free image and a long pass image you have to work on that and use a circular polarised antenna of some sort tuned to 137 mhz . i am using a home made turnstile antenna but the Quadrifilar Helix Antenna is more than likely the best all round omnidirectional ...if you want to track it crossed yagis would give the best signal ....having said all that if you wanted to test the pass for a starter my little scanner Telescopic Antenna on the scanner would pick it up for a while as well.
You would have 10 years i think still for the old noaa APT satellites left if they work they leave them alone as noaa 15 has been going for ages and has out lasted noaa 16 and 17 ! its been going since 1998! bit of luck there's still 10 years or more worth of APTs in them .But yes they are the last
So the system for APT sats is antenna to scanner set at 137.100 mhz say for noaa 19 and just record the sound or a live viewing and either use WXtolmg to decode the sound wav file (just like NBTV or SSTV !) have not tried a live to computer screen with it yet but that was how i used to do it with jvfax way back when !
Now it gets very interesting and for me i was very surprised as i looked into what the Russian meteor satellites which do images 12 times greater than the Noaas these days and if they were still being received by those interested .
No more scanners that's old school they use USB SDR doggles as cheap as 20 dollars and free software ,The Software Defined Radio SDRs started out using TV usb sticks as radio recievers they are now just that a scanner in a usb stick most 25mhz to 1700mhz amazing ! and for the meteor satellites satellite work over all thats great also a wide bandwidth 150khz needed for the digital meteors my scanner can just do up to 50khz...they use these on Noaa satellites as well easier and cheaper than having to buy a scanner .
I was thinking of getting a newer scanner for work just under 1.7Ghz and have a doggle on the way to try might even go up to the better at
$50 that will do all shortwave bands to 2GHz
That's today's 4pm pass of noaa 19 below by me and what a meteor image is like not mine .
By coincidence I'm also working on a receive-only satellite project. This one is for GPS. Most use GPS to find their way around in the car or record their track on a hike or similar. But I also use it as a very precise time measurement.
OH yes they transmit at 1.5 GHZ yes ? bit below what my scanner can pick up but the signals must be strong as tiny antennas are picking it up .
That's a lot of information you can download from the satellites with your gadget !
I had a look at the program that looks interesting , i saw another that does PC clock to sync to the time from the GPS receiver the NMEATime program not sure its the one you use don't know if its shareware that would be good for my satellite tracking as the timing is only as good as you setting of your computer clock .
But yes good work there Steve one thing always leads to another wonder where that will take you !
These days down here small satellite dishes are being dumped you can pick them up with an LNB for 25 dollars ,for me i picked one up for future work on the GHz frequencies always liked picking up satellites and making dishes and stuff like that .
The electromagnetic spectrum has no theoretical limit at either end. If all the mass/energy in the Universe is considered a 'limit', then that would be the only real theoretical limit to the maximum frequency attainable.
rather old school scanner but does have its advantages .