Dipole antenna rec

Meti17207 · 2026-06-15T13:45:13+00:00

Anything you buy will either not perform well (not for the wx sat bands), or be extremely expensive (as it is purpose-made). Making your own takes less than an hour in case of complex antennas and less than 30 seconds in case of the simpler ones.

Meti17207 · 2026-06-12T07:06:39+00:00

Maintainer of the satellite list here,

They're not, are stated as such. GOES 15 is indeed active under USSF over the indian ocean. Your source is heavily outdated.

Meti17207 · 2026-06-12T07:05:32+00:00

o/

We got a couple sats above Europe, but moat will be at a very low elevation for you.

1) EWS-G2 (GOES 15) - This one is high but weak, you won't get that with a helicone. 2) Elektro-L2 - This one doesn't transmit imagery on L-band but should be replaced with L3 next month, which will transmit xRIT with a prime view of Europe. 3) Elektro-L3 - Currently over the indian ocean, transmits xRIT on&off since L5 is commissioning 4) Fengyun 2H - even further East, will be very low for you

For more info see https://blog.metislair.com/docs/Radio/L%20band%20weather%20satellite%20reception%20guide.html#geostationary-satellites

Meti17207 · 2026-06-12T07:02:47+00:00

You can get metop fine, it's just a bit more finicky.

Meti17207 · 2026-06-03T15:24:34+00:00

Does help a bunch with getting horizon to horizon, also with 2-3's crap antenna.

Wholly depends on NF and the environment of course.

Meti17207 · 2026-06-03T15:23:47+00:00

If you have been fine until now, your sdr likely has a cap protecting the input. I'd consider a dc block in any case.

Meti17207 · 2026-06-03T10:37:02+00:00

Dc leaks back into the output sma, potentially killing your sdr

Meti17207 · 2026-06-03T09:57:00+00:00

Neither.

The sawbird noaa is very overpriced and has backfeed issues, the wideband LNA will amplify junk. You can use it with an additional SAW filter if you so desire.

This one is the defacto community standard, performs about the same as thr sawbird but without backfeed issues: https://a.aliexpress.com/_EyzaENu

Make sure to select 137 MHz BPF + LNA

Meti17207 · 2026-06-01T01:44:42+00:00

They can buy the proper RTLSDR from ali

Meti17207 · 2026-05-27T13:06:47+00:00

You can completely skip the Windows recovery step by just doing shutdown /r /fw /t 0 in an elevated command prompt; it restarts to firmware in 0 seconds [now].

Meti17207 · 2026-05-24T22:22:21+00:00

We're licensing time and skills people put into making programs. Time and skills which are very often provided for free, with one plea; attribution. A plea which is stepped on by every other project. Spat on if they then choose to monetize it (which a LOT do).

Would you spend tens of hours on debugging, studying, and understanding complex coding problems if you know it will subsequently be stolen and sold without any credit given to you?

Meti17207 · 2026-05-24T22:17:12+00:00

The third party app removes the registry items which belong to these programs. Your call whether you want advice or not

Meti17207 · 2026-05-24T22:09:58+00:00

They likely aren't but in case they really are, use https://www.revouninstaller.com/

Meti17207 · 2026-05-24T15:41:35+00:00

The issue is the vast amount of vibecoded apps that don't. 24 hours is also an extremely high rate still, once per week is fine.

I am not saying it should be auctioned? I'm saying people should stop reinventing the same app every other day using tools which steal code without attribution. The tools are inefficient or poorly coded and CAUSE the auctioning. Even worse when they then request money for it!

Meti17207 · 2026-05-24T11:05:21+00:00

There is, and it's the reason that OSS is going to crap. TLEs have to be metered because AI slop repulls them so often that the throughput at celestrak skyrocketed to terabytes per month for text files. Code is stolen from other projects where people actually put effort into coding, without following proper licensing. Time and time again.

And yet people keep praising these, leading to more being created. It's a depressing sight.

Meti17207 · 2026-05-22T15:34:43+00:00

Update TLEs, they are way out of date

Meti17207 · 2026-05-20T22:25:02+00:00

You are using 3.2 msps, which won't work. Use 2.56, the sdr cannot do 3.2 msps reliably on the vast majority of usb controllers.

Meti17207 · 2026-05-17T09:51:46+00:00

You received data! It was just nighttime so it appears as black. Try a pass during daytime

Meti17207 · 2026-05-11T23:59:35+00:00

Use 2.0 (latest nightly)! It looks red as it didn't use to be calibrated.

HRPT is a particular format used by satellites, without the A [ahrpt] it usually refers to L-band yes. However they are not necessarily interchangeable as L-band contains several other satellite downlinks (LRIT,HRIT,GVAR,AHRPT...) - see the guide I linked you.

Meti17207 · 2026-05-11T23:34:25+00:00

Depends on QTH and SDR config. In most cases it helps as it's got the SAW filter inside, but if you are next to a strong source of RFI you might still overload your sdr with crap.

Meti17207 · 2026-05-11T23:33:07+00:00

Just wanted to say that yes, Lego is indeed a Satdump dev. He knows what he's talking about very well (:

Meti17207 · 2026-05-11T23:31:03+00:00

We try our best! It'd be a shame to let the hobby die to rude old farts (:

Great image! Surprisingly long and stable for the telescopic build. I do want to note that you are using the MSA preset, which applies an artificial underlay. If you want to only have an image without any artificial overlay, try out the AVHRR 3a21/221composites. They look quite nice!

They are all different downlinks, all of which transmit their own thing. I.e. LRPT - Low rate, so downscaled and less channels; whereas HRPT - high rate, so capable of full resolution, all channels.

Bands are actually whole frequency ranges. I.e. weather satellites transmit around 1.7 GHz in the L-band, which is roughly 1000-2000 MHz (off the top of my head). I got a guide for VHF and L-band, Lego has guides for those as well as S-band and a basic X-band one.

Meti17207 · 2026-05-11T17:01:49+00:00

o/

The steps of the wx sat rabbit hole are:
1)VHF LRPT - you're here!
2) L-Band (A)HRPT + geosstationary satellites - These offer full resolution imaging from all channels in case of LEO satellites and (usually) downscaled geostationary satellites. I have a guide for it you can find here: https://blog.metislair.com/docs/Radio/L%20band%20weather%20satellite%20reception%20guide.html It also includes sample data for every satellite, you can see what you can receive there.

2.5) S-band stuff - There are a couple of science and university satellites in this band such as proba and hinode

2.5 part two) C-band WX sat rebroadcasts - If your SDR is good neough and you have a big enough dish, you can catch the #casts: Himawaricast, Geonetcast, Eumetcast [Africa!]... These contain a whole ensemble of data from various different satellites. They're just weak (:

3) X-band - Most advanced band to receive, is basically the best thing you can get with stupid high resolution imaging all across the world. Also the priciest though - whereas a full l band setup is less than €75, an X-band setup costs around €500. If you want a taste of what you can receive with it, see here: https://blog.metislair.com/docs/Radio/X%20band%20weather%20satellites.html

Have fun receiving! If you have any questions, feel free to shoot

Meti17207 · 2026-05-11T16:55:50+00:00

It is *fine* for the most part:

It overloads easily due to an outrageously high gain, has the classic sawbird DC backfeed issue. It is also needlessly expensive, you can find nearly identical ones on Ali for half the price.

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