HRIT and LRIT Low-Cost System

[RSP2user]

It appears that supply vs demand (or possibly a new tariff) has increased the price on all major components originally listed in this article, since it was first posted. Perhaps as others find new low-cost solutions, these will be posted here. If you come across alternative viable antenna solutions, feel free to let others know. By the way, the Loop Yagi antenna in the following article can be built fairly inexpensively, if one is willing to put in several hours of construction time and has adequate skills to build it: https://www.sdrplay.com/community/viewt ... f=5&t=2674
Unfortunately, the once readily available at low cost (< $60) telescope mounts used for alt-az antenna control in the article have become a lot harder to find and when these become available are hard to get for less than $120. However, if you do not need to reposition the antenna, such as for GOES 15, 16, 17 LRIT/HRIT reception repositioning or for orbital satellite HRPT use, then the Loop Yagi antenna described in the article will work well as a fixed antenna and if built well has better performance than the ANT-GRID-24DBI antenna at 1.69 GHz.

An additional note: Nooelec now offers two versions of the SAWbird GOES LNA and one version is not the same as the original engineering prototype version applied in this article. The new version of Nooelec SAWbird GOES LNA likely has better performance, but its current draw is 180 mA, which is greater than can be supported on the Bias-T from the RSP2, so it will require an additional power source if used with the RSP2. The version with the single RF shield uses around 30mA at 5V for operation which can be powered directly by the RSP2 Bias-T port. Verify with NooElec that you are ordering the correct version for your needs, before purchasing.

[rdale]

Building from scratch might exceed by patience and skill level Shopblt.com says they will be in stock within two weeks and are < $50 so I jumped on that. Thanks for your advice.

[rdale]

The antenna is back in stock from Provantage as the cheapest spot. Of course I didn't want to risk it But that means mine is coming in today.

[RSP2user]

Hurricane Florence full disk and mesoscale images received from GOES 16 this morning:

GOES 16 FD and Mesoscale - Hurricane Florence September 2018 - 2.jpg (155.9 KiB) Viewed 56948 times

[rdale]

Potential changes to HRIT... https://www.dropbox.com/s/1iv63wmmewh3z ... l.pdf?dl=0

[rdale]

In the United States for GOES 16, the polarity that works best is a diagonal polarity from bottom right to upper left when facing the satellite.

Can you clarify this? I'm behind the antenna looking south through the mesh, so I put the right side lower and the left side goes up. But in your pictures it appears to be the other way?

[RSP2user]

Rob,

The "right side being lower" is referring to the position of the feed element, not the primary reflector. The polarization angle plus skew angle should look like this for GOES 16. Even though the specified polarization for GOES 16 is vertical, a diagonal position has been found to work better based on the skew angle and location for many users. Try adjusting for the skew angle to see what works best for your setup. To determine the location to point the antenna and the skew angle, you can use the following site to locate GOES 16 at 75.2W: http://www.dishpointer.com/

IMG_3271FA v2.JPG (40.81 KiB) Viewed 56305 times

Once you have the antenna positioned, and the LNA hooked up and properly powered you can use SDRuno and the RSP to verify you are receiving the GOES 16 HRIT signal on 1.6941 GHz. Use 4 MSPS sampling rate for SDRuno. You should see the following signal:

Initial Test - NooElec SAWBird GOES using SDRuno on G16.JPG (118.7 KiB) Viewed 56303 times

[rdale]

Got it. I finally noticed that we were behind the antenna in that picture. Everything is assembled and the software ready, but I ordered one wrong connector so anxiously awaiting Amazon tomorrow to finish this!

[tnsley]

I been trying to contact USA SAT Com for a copy of XRIT. I tried 3 different browsers and no luck.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Terry
N6AJ

[RSP2user]

Success in contacting USA-Satcom has been accomplished using the Chrome browser with Gmail e-mail accounts and filling in the form at: https://usa-satcom.com/contact_form/. That being said, you can follow USA-Satcom on Twitter and then USA-Satcom can direct message you. USA-Satcom on Twitter: https://twitter.com/usa_satcom?ref_src=