111 lines
4.5 KiB
HTML
111 lines
4.5 KiB
HTML
<div style="display:grid; grid-template-columns: 2fr 1fr">
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<div>
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<p>Early in quarantine I saw <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjClTnZ4Xh4">
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this wonderful video</a> on how to grab images from satellites, and I was super
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interested in the idea. The idea is that there are satellites called NOAA-15,
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NOAA-18, and NOAA-19 that orbit the earth roughly every 102 minutes. They are
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broadcasting through their entire journey and anyone can listen in and receive
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images of earth that they are broadcasting.</p>
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<p>The biggest problem is getting the images where I live (the suburb). There
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is just so much <i>stuff</i> in the way to block the signal. Compared to other
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satellites, its signal is pretty strong, but still not strong enough to go
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through the concrete jungle. Therefore, I did a few months of research into how
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to get a good signal from where I am. And thankfully, alot of people have
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gotten good results with easy to make/buy antennas. I chose to buy a dipole kit
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off of amazon to start, then attempted (but failed) to build a cross dipole out
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of stuff from Home Depot, and some printed parts.</p>
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<p>The other tools required were pretty easy to source (for me at least). The
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hardest one would be the SDR, however I already owned a HackRF, so that was
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pretty easy. If you don't have one already I would just get a RTL-SDR, they're
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only 30 bucks and operate on a pretty solid range of frequencies. They also
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have the biggest aftermarket support out of any of the SDRs I have seen.</p>
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<p>Beyond those two and the miscellaneous bits (SMA/Coax, places to mount the
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antenna, measuring tape, etc), all you need is the right software. I used
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CubicSDR to receive the talk with the SDR
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because it was simple and worked with the HackRF out of the box (at least on
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windows), and WXtoIMG to convert the audio to an actual image.</p>
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<p>So more of the technical details:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>NOAA-19
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<ul>
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<li>Broadcast : 137.1 Mhz</li>
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<li>Bandwidth : 37.5 Khz</li>
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<li>Period : 102 Mins</li>
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<li>Inclination: 98.7 Deg</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>NOAA-15
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<ul>
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<li>Broadcast : 137.62 Mhz</li>
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<li>Bandwidth : 37.5 Khz</li>
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<li>Period : 101.2 Mins</li>
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<li>Inclination: 98.7 Deg</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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<div>
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<figure>
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<img src="../img/NOAA-19.jpg" class="fig-img"></img>
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<figcaption>NOAA-19 before it was launched</figcaption>
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</figure>
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</div>
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</div>
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<br />
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<div class="">
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<div class="">
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<p>Here are some example images before we get into a how-to:</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div style="display: grid; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;">
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<div class="">
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<figure>
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<img src="../img/noaa-19-08072254-pris.jpg" class="fig-img"></img>
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<figcaption>NOAA-19, 08-07-20, 22:54 UTC</figcaption>
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</figure>
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</div>
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<div class="">
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<figure>
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<img src="../img/noaa-19-08252244-pris.jpg" class="fig-img"></img>
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<figcaption>NOAA-19, 08-25-20, 22:44 UTC</figcaption>
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</figure>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="">
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<div class="">
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<p>You can pretty clearly see the mitten of Michigan in both (its upside down
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in the image on the left). The orientation of the image is determined by the
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direction that the satellite is traveling when it flys overhead.</p>
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<p>Hopefully you find this cool enough that you want to try this out
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yourself. Its alot of fun and feels great to see the progress over time.</p>
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<p>To get started with this hobby you won't need much, just a
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laptop/desktop/raspberry pi, an SDR, and a decent antenna (sometimes comes with
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the SDR). I've provided some amazon links to the hardware I've actually used.</p>
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<ul>
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<li class="link-list-item"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-RTL2832U-Software-Defined/dp/B011HVUEME">
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All in one kit</a></li>
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<li class="link-list-item"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/NooElec-Software-Defined-Antenna-Adapter/dp/B01K1CCHR0">
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HackRF (SDR)</a></li>
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<li class="link-list-item"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-Multipurpose-Dipole-Antenna/dp/B075445JDF">
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Dipole Kit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<p>With this I would watch some of the tutorials on youtube, or maybe I'll put
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a tutorial up myself at some point. It's suprisingly easy to do and only takes
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maybe 10 mins to setup each time.</p>
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<p>A full repository of every attempt I've had can be found
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<a href="https://git.clortox.com/tyler/satellite">here</a>.</p>
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</div>
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