Two months ago I hooked up my VHF satellite receiver to the SatNOGS network. Since then, the receiver has been receiving many different satellites, including APT images from NOAA 15, 18 and 19.
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NOAA-19, Meteor-M N2 and the Thumbnet N3 SDR Nongle
Back in December 2016, Shaun Whitehead of ThumbNet sent me of their new rtlsdr-based N3 Nongles but I was too busy to do anything serious with SDR. Now that I got a 137 MHz turnstile antenna up for testing I had an obvious opportunity to try it with the weather satellites.
Meteor-M N2 LRPT downlink
Tonight I tested the turnstile antenna and Airspy on the Meteor-M N2 LRPT downlink signal. It was a good, high elevation pass and it looks like the signal is strong enough to decode the transmitted images.
My first weather satellite images with a 137 MHz turnstile antenna
Some time ago I got a 137 MHz turnstile antenna from Jørn OZ6TA. We decided to build an automated NOAA weather satellite image receiver using a modern SDR device. He also had an Airspy he wasn’t using and so it became the SDR radio we were going to use for this.
Using the RFSpace Cloud-IQ with CuteSDR on the Raspberry Pi 2
Few days ago, I have been playing with CuteSDR on Linux and Mac and came to think, would this work on a Raspberry Pi? While there is nothing conceptually impossible about running CuteSDR on the Raspberry Pi 2, I often run into obstacles trying to port Qt application to embedded devices, so here are my notes about how to make it work.
Cubieboard as Funcube-1 telemetry receiver
Following up on my not too successful first contact with the Cubieboard, I have decided to try it one more time. It has been annoying me to have a computer board lying on the shelf not doing anything and since I wanted to migrate my Linux-based Funcube telemetry decoder from a PC to a single board computer this was an excellent opportunity / excuse to try the Cubieboard again.
Updated fcdctl for the Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+
About a year ago I wrote about my modified fcdcontrol application that could be used with the Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+. The news back then was that it could be used on the Raspberry Pi to control the FCD instead of the continuously failing attempts at running qthid. Unfortunately, the fcdcontrol application often crashed due to a problem at the hidapi / libusb layer.
Listening to my IC-765 one last time
I decided to sell my IC-765 and start upgrading my shack with newer radio that better support remote operations. However, before doing so I turned it on just one last time and recorded this video to remember how good it sounds.
A 2-channel AIS receiver using rtl-sdr and gnuais
For some time now I have been in great need of small and cheap AIS receivers that could be used for guiding various tracking equipment during Copenhagen Suborbitals missions. AIS stands for Automatic Identification System and is used by maritime vessels for reporting various status, including position, heading and speed.
The Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+ on the Raspberry Pi
Although I have had a Raspberry Pi rev B for several weeks now, it wasn’t until last night that I got a chance to try it out. Since several people have reported failed attempts at getting the Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+ play nicely with the Raspberry Pi, I decided to take it as far as I could in those few hours. The result is this very brief tech note about how to make the Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+ work on the Raspberry Pi.