Receiving GOES Weather Satellite Images with a Small Grid Antenna and an Airspy Mini
GOES is an L-band geosynchronous weather satellite service that can be received typically with a satellite dish. It produces very nice full disk images of the earth. In the past we’ve posted about Lucas Teske’s work in building a GOES receiving system from scratch (including the software decoder for Airspy and RTL-SDR receivers), devnullings post about receiving GOES and also this talk by @usa_satcom on decoding GOES and similar satellites.
Over on Twitter @usa_satcom has been tweeting about his experiments where he has been successfully receiving GOES L-Band weather satellite images with a small grid antenna and an Airspy Mini. In a Tweet he writes that the antenna is an $85 USD Hyperlink 1.9 GHz 22 dBi Grid Antenna made by L-com. A grid antenna may be more suitable for outdoor mounting for many people as they are typically lighter, smaller and more suitable for windy and snowy conditions. As the GOES satellite is in geosynchronous orbit, no tracking motor or tracking mount is required.
GOES images from #AirSpy Mini + Grid Antenna test. Time for an adult beverage…. pic.twitter.com/9xywaDS0aQ
— USA SAŦC㊉M (@usa_satcom) 16 January 2017
Grid Antenna Test with @airspy_com Mini and GOES-15 LRIT and EMWIN, pic.twitter.com/EIyssdWhny
— USA SAŦC㊉M (@usa_satcom) 15 January 2017
GOES LRIT on small grid antenna? Sure, works just fine! Just a test setup for now. I'll post some FFTs and actual images later. pic.twitter.com/U6fALGCHl2
— USA SAŦC㊉M (@usa_satcom) 15 January 2017
What kind of LNB is in use here? Not seeing one (I don’t think) in the photos and there’s no documentation available. I’m REALLY curious about this due to the size constraints of a 1.2m dish. Any help pointing me in the right direction is MUCH appreciated!! 73 de KK4SBS
The cost of the antenna is $85 but the cost of the “boxes” after the antenna on that Tweet is roughly $450 without Airspy dongle. 🙂
ZX60-P33ULN+ LNA is using most probably PMA2-33LN+ e-phemt. Nice figures except the Rollet factor very close to 1.
I can remove the nice filter and signal is still good. All that is needed is good first LNA. Others have same antenna and are using down east microwave LNA – same results.
If you can remove the filter and have the same performance than you are lucky to live in RF clean environment. That filter really looks nice. Most interesting for me is the tripod you are using. Do not know if homebrew or commercial product but it looks nice. I have built mine several years back, almost identical but your tripod inspired me to convert mine design using some smart solutions that you have there.
I still haven’t gotten around to testing with my 76cm dish. But this is definitely encouraging!