SatNOGS Ground Station 1404

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Greetings! I'm excited to share with you some information about my SatNOGS ground station located in the UK. I built it from scratch, using a self-built UHF/VHF turnstile antenna and a Raspberry Pi for data processing. In this blog post, I'll provide you with a comprehensive overview of my SatNOGS ground station, including the satellite signals it receives, and how it receives and decodes those signals.

First, let's talk about the satellites that my station has received. The satellites that I've managed to receive data from include NOAA-19, FOX-1A, and the International Space Station (ISS). NOAA-19 is a critical weather and environmental monitoring satellite that provides valuable data for forecasting. It orbits the Earth in a polar orbit, passing over the poles at an altitude of approximately 870 km. The data that I've received from NOAA-19 has been useful in helping me to better understand the environment and climate around me.

FOX-1A, on the other hand, is a small Cubesat that's used for scientific research and communication. It operates on amateur radio frequencies and is operated by AMSAT, an organization dedicated to advancing the science of satellite communication. Receiving data from FOX-1A has been a thrilling experience for me, as I'm passionate about scientific research and technology.

Finally, the ISS is the most iconic satellite that I've received data from. The ISS is home to astronauts and cosmonauts who are conducting experiments and research in space. Receiving communication from the ISS has been an incredible experience, and I feel honored to be part of a community that can facilitate this kind of communication.

Now that you have an idea of the kinds of satellites my station has received data from, let's talk about how my SatNOGS ground station receives and decodes these signals. The heart of my station is the self-built UHF/VHF turnstile antenna. This antenna is perfect for receiving satellite signals because it's omnidirectional, meaning it can receive signals from any direction. The two perpendicular dipoles that make up the antenna are fed out of phase to produce a circularly polarized signal, which is ideal for picking up signals from satellites.

The signal received by the antenna is then amplified by a low-noise amplifier (LNA) and filtered to remove any unwanted noise. Once the signal is clean, it's fed into a software-defined radio (SDR), which converts the analog signal into a digital format that can be processed by a computer. The SDR is connected to a Raspberry Pi, which is responsible for data processing.

To decode the received signal, specialized software is used. The software that I use is called GNU Radio, which is an open-source software development toolkit that provides signal processing blocks to implement software-defined radios. With this software, I can decode various satellite protocols, including Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS), Automatic Identification System (AIS), and Meteor-M2 weather satellite data.

In conclusion, operating a SatNOGS ground station has been an amazing experience for me. Through my station, I've been able to receive data from various satellites, including critical weather and environmental monitoring data and even communication from the ISS. Building my own UHF/VHF turnstile antenna and learning about the other components of the ground station has been a fun and rewarding experience, and I'm excited to continue to explore this hobby and see what else I can learn.

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