Category: Satellite

SDR4Space: Software Tools for SDR Based Satellite Ground Stations

Over on Reddit we've seen that SDR4Space, a provider of a satellite ground station receiver hardware and software has released a free feature limited lite version of their embedded software over on their GitHub page. In the Reddit comments the software is explained as follows:

It's a command-line tool using scripts, for SDR users. You can write your own scripts to: record IQ samples, predict satellite passes, start a record for a specific satellite and correct doppler at the same time.

It's also useful to record narrow subband IQ streams ( example: 48kHz wide instead of 2.048 MHz on rtlsdr, a single signal on HF is only few kHz wide).

You can work on IQ files: cut, resample, merge, convert formats and so on.

Having said that you can recognize features from predict, rx_sdr/rtl_sdr ,rtl_power/rx_power.

Regarding installation, a Debian package is provided, installing application and some examples in /opt/vmbase directory. Most of dependencies are installed by the package. But you should install SoapySDR and Soapy drivers for your SDR device first by yourself if not yet done !

To understand how it works, the best is perhaps starting download TLE and print a passes list, using scripts in ./sat/ directory.

For the next SSTV event I'd try to run unattended reception of ISS (from ./sat/sat_receiver directory).

From the examples, it appears that you can script a fully automated doppler corrected satellite signal receiver with the SDR interface connecting through Soapy, and all the DSP handled by the SDR4lite library.

SDR4Space Logo

Frugal Radio: How To Decode L band Satellite ACARS and CPDLC messages with JAERO and your SDR

In the latest episode of his YouTube series on Aviation monitoring Rob explores how to decode L-band satellite ACARS (Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System) and CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link Communications) messages using JAERO, an SDR like an RTL-SDR, and a appropriate L-band antenna such as our RTL-SDR Blog Active L-Band Patch (currently out of stock).

In the video Rob shows examples of what you might receive such as CPDLC ATC instructions, digital ATIS information, arrival information and suggested landing data configuration instructions. He goes on to show satellite coverage maps, what hardware is required to receive these signals, and finally how to setup the receiving and decoding software.

How To Decode L band Satellite ACARS and CPDLC messages with JAERO and your SDR

Decoding NOAA on an Debian Chrooted Android Smartphone

Over on Reddit Ian Grody (u/DutchOfBurdock) has posted about his success in using a modded Android smartphone to run an RTL-SDR Blog V3 and NOAA decoder software all within the phone itself.

In the past we posted about Ian's work in getting rtl_power scans to work in conjunction with the Tasker app, in order to generate automated frequency scans on his phone on the go. His more recent work from the past year includes showing us how it's possible to install Debian chroot on an Android phone, and run Linux software like GQRX, GNU Radio, DSD, rtl_433, multimon-ng and dump1090 directly on the phone with an RTL-SDR.

His latest Reddit post shows that the NOAA-APT decoder also runs well on the Debian chroot, leading to a truly portable NOAA decoding setup. He notes that he is now working on the possibility of Meteor M2 decoding on the phone.

Below is his video from last year demonstrating SDR GQRX and GNU Radio running on the Debain chrooted phone.

GQRX, GNU Radio, Rooted Android

Tech Minds: Remote SDR V2 with Orange Pi and Transmit Capable

In his latest YouTube video Tech Minds explains and demonstrates Remote SDR V2, which is software that allows you to easily remotely access either a PlutoSDR, HackRF or RTL-SDR software defined radio. It is designed to be used with the amateur radio QO-100 satellite, but version 2.0 now include multiple demodulation modes, NBFM/SSB transmission capability, CTCSS and DTMF encoders, modulation compression and a programmable frequency shift for relays.

In his video Tech Minds shows how to install Remote SDR V2 onto an Orange Pi via the SD card image, how to access the web interface, and how to access and use the connected SDR.

Remote SDR V2 with Orange Pi and Transmit Capable

We note that the code is designed to be run on Orange Pi boards, which are low cost single board computers similar to Raspberry Pi's. However over on Twitter @devnulling has indicated that his own fork of the code should run on x86 systems. Aaron @cemaxecuter is also working on including it into a DragonOS release.

The image below demonstrates a typical Remote SDR V2 transceiver setup with two HackRFs.

A full QO-100 Transceiver Setup with Remote SDR V2 and two HackRF's.

Frugal Radio: A Review of the NooElec Inmarsat Patch Antenna Bundle

In his latest video Rob from Frugal Radio has reviewed the NooElec Inmarsat Patch Antenna Bundle. The US$79.95 bundle includes a PCB patch antenna, Inmarsat SAWBird LNA, SMA DC Block, SMA Barrel adapter and SMA pigtail. In the video Rob tests the bundle out on various AERO signals using the JAERO software, before moving on to compare the bundle with our own RTL-SDR Blog Active L-Band Patch antenna. The comparison results show that our $49.95 L-band antenna is better by about 5-6dB in SNR.

Our RTL-SDR Blog Active L-Band Patch antenna set is available on our store. However, please note that this antenna is currently in short supply due to the global electronics supply chain shortage. We expect to be sold out within a few days but we are aiming to be able to restock within 1-2 months from now.

Review : NooElec L Band Inmarsat Patch Antenna Bundle

Building an Automated NOAA and Meteor Weather Satellite Image Collector with RTL-SDR

Over on his YouTube channel saveitforparts has uploaded a video showing how he has built an automated weather satellite image collector for the NOAA APT and Meteor M2 LRPT satellites. The video shows a time lapse of him building a QFH antenna, and how he's mounted a Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR inside a waterproof enclosure attached to the antenna mast. He goes on to show how he's automating the system with the Raspberry-NOAA V2 software

Automated Home Weather Station (Satellite Image Collector)

Raspberry-NOAA V2: Raspberry Pi Automated NOAA and Meteor Weather Satellite Capture

Raspberry-NOAA is open source code and a set of scripts that allows you to set up a Raspberry Pi as an automated NOAA and Meteor weather satellite station with an SDR like an RTL-SDR. The software makes use of the Raspberry Pi version of WXtoIMG and meteor_decoder for decoding the satellites, a program called predict for predicting satellite passes, and various automatically generated cron scripts to schedule recording and processing.

Recently V2 has been released by Justin Karimi who builds on the work of the original creators. It seems that the webpanel has been upgraded and made mobile friendly, as well as many more enhancements that can be seen on the Release page notes.

Raspberry-NOAA V2 Web Panel

Two reviews of our new L-Band Patch Antenna + Stock Update

Last month we released our new L-band active patch antenna for sale, and not too long after we had a review from Frugal Radio praising it. We now have two more YouTube reviews available to share.

The first is from Tech Minds who does a teardown and demonstrates it receiving and decoding the Inmarsat STD-C NCS channel, receiving and decoding GPS and receiving Iridium signals. The second is from Mike Ladd from SDRplay, who tests it with an SDRplay RSP1A software defined radio. He shows that the patch works perfectly with an RSP1A, and demonstrates it receiving and decoding STD-C while mounted on the dash of his vehicle.

L-Band Patch Stock Availability Note: We note that we are already close to selling out of the first batch of these units as they sold much faster than expected! New sales of this patch are currently backordered but we expect to have a few more units from this first batch available by the end of next week. Also the freighter with Amazon USA stock should be arriving any day now, but it could still take a few weeks to get through the port and reach the warehouse due to the current port delays.

The second production batch of this antenna might still be a while away due to the electronic component shortage crisis occurring now, so if you were thinking about picking one up, please order ASAP.

RTL-SDR BLOG L-BAND Patch Antenna Version 2 - Inmarsat - Iridium - GPS

SDRplay RSP1a - RTL SDR Blog L-Band Patch antenna