Satdump software & wxsat reception

[Analoguesat]

Ive spent the last couple of weeks playing with the new satdump software for wxsat reception. Unlike the old way of doing things where you have multiple bits of software all talking to each other & which cease to talk to each other as soon as you turn your back on the computer (or sneeze too hard) this does it all for you. And despite a steep learning curve I have to say Im rather impressed with it

This is the new MeteorM2-4 on an afternoon pass today



The snow on the Norwegian mountains is fantastic, but look at the edge of the ice way up north.


This was achieved with the following equipment:

RTL-SDR tv dongle
137MHz turnstile antenna
At least 12 year old i3 computer with 8GB ram. (a bit underpowered for this- it needs something more modern, but it does work)

software:
Satdump freeware
win10 on the computer.

 

[pontiend]

Most odd .I have just been advised on the netweather forum to try the Meteor M2-4 satdump software and here it is.
If I can get the last three Brain neurons that I have firing all at the same time. I may have a go at this.

 

[Analoguesat]

@pontiend

The satdump site is very comprehensive with its help - well worth having a good read of it. As you can see Ive got the main part working but thanks to work I havent had a chance to figure out the post processing available yet.If your computer is set up with zadig driver swap already on it for an RTL-SDR dongle you can just install the satdump software & start playing.

If youy get stuck feel free to post & we will figure it out together.

 

[Analoguesat]

The list of options available in Satdump is impressive - you can try decoding all sorts of satellites & their telemetry across all sorts of frequencies from VHF right up to past UHF into the GHz ranges if you have the antennas. I'll play with some of those when Ive set a better computer up.

 

[Analoguesat]

This afternoons M2-4 pass. North Africa to the arctic ice

 

[s-band]

Superb pics, I've put it on the list of stuff to try.

I've only used it for Syracuse beacons, Stereo A & Osiris Rex.
I found it works very well with Satdump on a local PC and SDR++ server on a remote Pi4 .

 

[Analoguesat]

The actual pics are much better - I have to reduce their size & jpg them for the forum. The original png image for this afternoon's pic was over 70meg!


BTW there is no post processing of that image apart from flipping it round 180 degrees, resizing it, & turning into a jpg. Apart from that the image is exactly as it creates within satdump

 

[Analoguesat]

Heres a crop from the 70meg image I havent resized to give you an idea of the resolution

 

[Analoguesat]

A rather nice MeteorM2-3 north Atlantic pass this morning showing Svalbard, Greenland, Norway & Iceland plus the day/night terminator over Greenland.




Meteor M2-3 images are normally marred by lots of lines across them but shes behaving herself today

 

[Terryl]

OK, a bit confused, I have downloaded SatDump and do not see how to connect to the SDR module, am I confused? Dose this software only processes a data stream from other software connected to the SDR module, or am I missing something in the setup????

 

[s-band]

@Terryl Under the 'Recorder' tab select 'Device' and you should see your SDR in the list. Choose frequency, sample rate, decimation etc as required.
Under 'Processing' choose the pipeline wanted.
Under 'Recording' record baseband if you want to post process later (can be useful if you don't know what you want to process it as)
The attached (Stereo A on 8.4GHz) doesn't show the SDR in the same way as I was using a Pi4 server. The top console is the server and the bottom from Satdump. You have to start Satdump in a console to get that. I am not sure how it behaves on Windows.

<edit> It's normally best to download the 'nightly build'

 

[Terryl]

Well after playing around I think I got it to look at my Dongle, but I don't see how to lower the receive threshold, it stops at -120 dB.

This is what I get after playing around. But will have to wait till the satellite is overhead again, that's sometime tomorrow.

 

[Analoguesat]

In windows you need to set up the satellites in the TRACKING - SCHEDULE & CONFIG tab


Set the satellite up - if you are using later than 1.1.4 you can click the multi box for multiple vfo's

 

[s-band]

I don't see how to lower the receive threshold, it stops at -120 dB

Set FFT max to something like -40 or lower and I think you'll then see the noise floor more clearly. You've only got 8 bits dynamic range with an RTL-SDR. Try it on 88-108 to get a feel for it.

In windows you need to set up the satellites in the TRACKING - SCHEDULE & CONFIG tab

It's the same in Linux but I've never used that feature, I use WXTrack for Earth orbiters and F1EHN for DSN.

 

[Analoguesat]

If you set it up like me once you have set the satellites up update the passes (initial TLE update is in SETTINGS) then ENGAGE AUTOTRACK. You cant make any changes whilst ENGAGE is ticked so if you do need to change it untick, make your desired change & retick it. This is how Ive set it up.



For the NOAA's you need to goto CONFIGURE & set the satellite number.

RECORD saves the baseband output - you dont want this box ticked unless you want to do extra post processing as it will soon fill the drive up!

 

[Analoguesat]

Meteor M2-4 is still being commissioned so the transmissions arent continuous atm. Shs not been radiating any images most of today.

 

[Analoguesat]

See the little + below the satellite names? This is clever - tick that and you can do an extra frequency & pipeline for that satellite. So if you click the + below NOAA19 you can add the following

137.770 / NOAA DSB

which will decode the DSB telemetry output, The images arent very exciting but its an easy one to test the additional capabilities.

 

[Terryl]

OK, I got it to work the way I want to, tracking the NOAA satellites as they pass over, except for one thing, how to get it to display frequency's above 999 MHz??

I'm looking at the GOES 18 satellite, it has a down link frequency of 1.6866 GHz, my SDR can go that high and I have the antennas for it, but I can't go above 999 MHz.

Looked at all settings and don't see how to.

 

[Terryl]

Never mind I found it out.

 

[Terryl]

Well something is fubar, it keeps crashing, and it also wont decode any satellite, so I might dump this program instead of pulling out the remains of what hair I have left.