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Set up a weather satellite ground station with Satdump


 Set up a weather satellite ground station


For this I am going to use a Linux VM, you could also use an old laptop or PC. Equally you can do the same project in Windows 10 or 11 or even older versions.


So I am using Linux Mint 21 as it is popular, stable and easy to use. I did try Linux Mint 22 and had issues, so 21 it is.


Hardware 


  • Nothing fancy needed. I used a NooElec Smart SDR (yes it’s about 10 years old and has a faded case), or an RTL-SDR BLog v3 or v4 will do also.

  • A NooElec SAWBird NOAA (137 Mhz) this is a preamp and bandpass filter for 137 Mhz

  • A V-dipole tuned to 137Mhz https://www.rtl-sdr.com/simple-noaameteor-weather-satellite-antenna-137-mhz-v-dipole/ or other aerial

  • Some RG58 cable and PL259 plugs

  • An SO239 to SMA male adaptor

  • A USB extension lead

  • An old computer or laptop with Minimum 4Gb memory and 2 cores (I used a Dell Optiplex 3050 Micro, i3-7100T with NVME SSD installed computer hosting Proxmox)


My NooElec Smart SDR amd SAWBird

Software


  • RTL-SDR drivers

  • SatDump

  • Optionally SDR++ or other SDR software for looking around other frequencies, do to forget to remove the SAWBird as it filters out everything either side of 137Mhz.


Now I soon realised that the instructional videos were either not narrated or explaining things, so I’ll make my own!


I won’t show the Linux Mint 21 set up as it is totally standard unless you wish to dual boot with Windows, and there are plenty of videos for both types of installations.

I personally used a Proxmox virtual Machine on a Dell Optiplex 3050.



My v-dipole for 137 Mhz


Drivers

First we need to install the drivers as shown at https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/

“First, if you already have some other drivers installed, please purge them from your system using the following commands:

sudo apt purge ^librtlsdr

sudo rm -rvf /usr/lib/librtlsdr* /usr/include/rtl-sdr* /usr/local/lib/librtlsdr* /usr/local/include/rtl-sdr* /usr/local/include/rtl_* /usr/local/bin/rtl_*


Next you can install the RTL-SDR Blog drivers using the following.

sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev git cmake pkg-config build-essential

git clone https://github.com/rtlsdrblog/rtl-sdr-blog

cd rtl-sdr-blog/

mkdir build

cd build

cmake ../ -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=ON

make

sudo make install

sudo cp ../rtl-sdr.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

sudo ldconfig

After installing the libraries you will likely need to unload the DVB-T drivers, which Linux uses by default. To unload them temporarily type "sudo rmmod dvb_usb_rtl28xxu" into terminal. This solution is only temporary as when you replug the dongle or restart the PC, the DVB-T drivers will be reloaded. For a permanent solution, create a text file "rtlsdr.conf" in /etc/modprobe.d and add the line "blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu". You can use the one line command shown below to automatically write and create this file.

echo 'blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu' | sudo tee --append /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-dvb_usb_rtl28xxu.conf


Now you can restart your device. After it boots up again run "rtl_test" at the terminal with the RTL-SDR plugged in. It should start running.”


SatDump installation


What is SatDump?


Well it combines SDR receiving software, Satellite tracking and Antenna rotator software as well as decoding profiles for just about every satellite out there, more info on their excellent website https://www.satdump.org/about/.


It is available for Windows, Linux, MAC and Android, my type of software, oh and it is free!



1- You can download either the nightly build (not recommended), or the latest stable software.(recommended)

https://www.satdump.org/download/


2- Now I had issues and ended up compiling it, just follow this https://github.com/SatDump/SatDump#linux

Or just enter these lines into the terminal. These are the basic commands, see the link above for a fuller list.



# Install dependencies on Debian-based systems:

sudo apt install git build-essential cmake g++ pkgconf libfftw3-dev libpng-dev \

                 libtiff-dev libjemalloc-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev

sudo apt install libvolk-dev                                                      # If this package is not found, use libvolk2-dev or libvolk1-dev

sudo apt install libnng-dev                                                       # If this package is not found, follow build instructions below for NNG



git clone https://github.com/nanomsg/nng.git

cd nng

mkdir build && cd build

cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr ..

make -j4

sudo make install

cd ../..

rm -rf nng


Setting up Satdump


I could not have completed this setup without USARadioGuy’s advice, SatDumps GitHub does not give enough updated information.

So a big shout out to https://usradioguy.com/satdump-for-meteor-noaa-decoding/


I will not reproduce his help here, rather I will incorporate it into my video.


I seriously recommend only setting up NOAA 15, 18, and 19 only. They are the only live NOAA satellites and each has multiple feeds, you want the feeds in 137Mhz range labelled NOAA APT. 


You can try other satellites and feeds when you have the more practice and the right gear such as aerials, SAWBird etc for other bands and get used to it, same with Meteor satellites. The same SDR should be ok with the right SAWBird for those channels. Aerials are easy to make from scrap copper wire, aluminium foil or sheet and some co-ax and basic tools, yes the highter the frequency the easier it gets towards 1700 Mhz.


To set up Meteor Satellites this will be most useful https://usradioguy.com/meteor-satellite/#status


Instructional Video

I have done a proper video on how to set up SatDump here - https://youtu.be/CrMdsfKu5Ys




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