Receiving Images From Satellites Part 2: Decoding and Demodulating NOAA and METEOR Transmissions

In a previous video we looked at how it was possible to receive images directly off of weather satellites as they pass overhead. In this video we look at the last steps of that process and how we can convert our audio recordings into beautiful images of the earth.For the purposes of this video, we only use tools that have a gui. The programs we'll use are:
Audacity: www.audacitytea...
WXtoIMG: wxtoimgrestore...
LRPTrx: www.dropbox.co...
LRPTofflinedecoder: 185.26.115.106/
Smooth Meteor: leshamilton.co....
LRPTimageprocessor: www.satsignal.e...
Instructable: www.instructab...
For the DIY GoogleEarth project, send your captures to: [e-mail]
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[@skinnyflea2628]

I did it :) your channel is so inspiring. it took me a moth but I received meteor m2 and noaa 19 using a 5db 3 element yagi

[@denni4941]

I am currently trying to do the same thing :D working from the UK

[@mikafoxx2717]

Rest in peace Meteor-M N2-2, got hit by a meteor and lost heat transferring gas. It wasn't even in space for two years after this video came out and just months after launch, severely damaged. It still powers up when it can get solar panels but its batteries were massively reduced in capacity from the temperature fluctuations. It still broadcasts at 1.7 and 8GHz, but no longer at 137MHz

[@crypto.7562]

LOL it got hit by a meteor A METEOR i guess it folled through with its name fate

[@Zubbbz]

Underrated Comment

[@DashcamDriversGermany]

You can directly record with WXtoimg and it does everything itself. Then you can see borders, citys and more. U only need to setup correctly

[@randomstuff-cu4of]

yeah all you need is a program called virtual audio pipe ad also you need to update the tle (sattelite orbit info) files of wxtoimg it allows many things (map overlay false color and more)

[@MilesCallisto]

I would reccomend VB Virtual Audio Cable. It's free and configurable. www.vb-audio.com/Cable/

[@crypto.7562]

@@randomstuff-cu4of yeah i always use vb audio cable for wxtoimg, like ALWAYS

[@Donaldo]

5m13s this is why Unix shells have the pipe operator

[@jamegumb7298]

Also why my 2200G has a 1920x as backup in a 1U case in a closet. Should have done that ages ago. Optimise for power draw, power handy somewhere for when neeeded.

[@BoomBrush]

holy moly this is a long process. i'd imagine the reward from doing all this work would be extremely satifying

[@tjsh02]

Opens audacity, *"Press Win+G to open Gamebar"* lol

[@namesbob118]

Windows makes me a little bit irritated when it does this...

[@whiteink1924]

TomTomcrafter 001 lol

[@aidanjt]

It gets even better when you combine it with GeForce Experience and Steam overlays spamming you with the same shit lol

[@puriap250]

This is INSANELY INTERESTING. I'm dying!!!

[@tennicktenstyl]

So where can I find the stitched image? Your website is totally dead, no content.

[@kaiezesi6630]

Facts I went and saw nothing

[@saheilaanarzee5552]

i guess that means that the project flopped?

[@crypto.7562]

@@quantum5026 proably just had other projects

[@alejandrosanchez9489]

His other projects are to overpowered

[@Hinto2win]

Wait, what?! Tallinn @ 00:01 :D Nice, greetings from Estonia!

[@pierre4857]

Tohoh? Veel Eestlasi kes sellistest asjadest huvitatud on? :D Oled proovinud juba järgi midagi, mis siin videos on olnud? Ise tahan osta endale ühe nn "dongel"-i, ja siis ehitada mingisuguse antenni et saada kah taolisi pilte kätte :D

[@xxx489Rockstar984xxx]

When you resample higher, have you seen how much the padding distorts the image?

[@maximus5113]

I loved your vid, you said that you would show a faster method of decoding with cli programs. I would love to know these (possibly for unix systems)

[@dertod1703]

Take this flat earth!

[@yuridecastro9496]

Ruined nothing, your video is stupid and have no practical experiments whatsoever.

[@yuridecastro9496]

Yes, because believing the earth is flat while ignoring hundreds of years of facts proving the exact oppose and commenting in a vídeo about satelites that only would work on real word is pretty smart.

[@transgrl]

Der Tod :D

[@jeoffb4476]

@True Conspiracy Wow can you explain a bit more about what power source keeps a balloon in the air 24/7 for 365 days per year, and that decades long?

[@aidanjt]

+True Conspiracy: Balloons don't travel at ~7.8km/s, or at a 160km+ altitude with a predictable orbital period.

[@F59465swl]

Video cool, The way to decode is completely obsolete for 2-3 years for LRPT Meteor Mn2 ! For a while we use this method more complicate, we decode with only the plugin QPSK demodulator & LRPTonlinedecoder.

[@SEEVCar]

I just use a gnu radio based demodulator and artlav's meteor decoder and I have a fish script that takes the pass data from gpredict and sets schedule times for both to run.

[@thethoughtemporium]

I'll be doing a followup in the near future and i'll show how to use Artem's meteor_decoder software. It's even simpler and works in like 1 line of script. I'll also show how to use the plugins.

[@SEEVCar]

Here's what I have so far. gist.github.com/linuxsocist/d262ec7eeaad9f8af3d48bba640ce83b

[@noahs.1091]

@@thethoughtemporium When?

[@crypto.7562]

@@noahs.1091 i think it was a plan, but never followed through

[@victormendoza3295]

Listening to your videos then listening to someone talk about some super hero show is just no comparison.

[@nobertsingh4747]

Can you make tutorials on this topic which includes detailed explanation of theory and practical so we can get around our own problems while attempting the project . I didn't get what you were doing it seemed like magic to me.

[@Jack-zk6mr]

I’m going to try this!

[@tnowroz]

I built a QFH antenna... That works really good.

[@amithmallawaarachchi7627]

Wow 😃 Thank you for the informavie vedio. This helps a lot😊

[@actionnew]

great video , should be in the top 10 on youtube... is the image the satellite transmit an image relative to where the satellite and you are ? is like a multicast signal?

[@DoktorSchaedel]

Hello. I'll try this soon. Greetings from germany

[@boahneelassmal]

if you took two antennas and record the signals of each of them seperately.... would this help to minimize glitches?

[@connorjackson5037]

You might be able to take the average of the two signals, and that could help with small random hickups, but it would solve any issues stemming from just basic bad placement

[@nerdytech7287]

i am in. ill get started right away.

[@Lu1s_]

Thanks alot! i will try this.

[@memoriasIT]

amazing Chanel good job

[@Roust7]

Well done

[@user-qe3fh9lw5y]

Did you use the METEOR tracker in this video? or just record the base band? got confused in the video. Dont know what ladder means lol Thanks alot!

[@jirkasvitil2762]

I do not know too, I also do not understand how did he got 2gb file, I cannot record raw files with bandwidth bigger than 9khz

[@TheJamster1234567]

@@jirkasvitil2762 make sure you are recording just the base band. the audio band is much smaller. Also I could never find part 3 of this series.

[@joflo5950]

Wow, this is amazing! Do you have tutorials on how to build the antenna?

[@thethoughtemporium]

Yup, this is part 2 of the series. And part 3 looks at more advanced satellites

[@maninthemiddleground2316]

Hi! Been hooked watching SDR stuff viewed your channel and i like it alot. Keep it up! 👍🙂 I have a quick question, is possible that I used a Satellite TV dish instead of making my own antenna? Many thanks!

[@tatzecom]

Using a satellite dish isnt a good use case for this scenario. You want an omnidirectional antenna for this since the satellite orbits at just 300km or so The satellite dish comes in handy if you want to build a radio telescope or if you want to pull data from a geo-synchronos satellite like GOES-16 that The Thought Emporium also made a video about I know im kinda 3 months late to the party, but i still hope I could help you with this ^^

[@Robonator14]

Man, i wish i had friends to do this with.

[@rickyoswald]

>i wish i had friends

[@unexplainedmysteries9540]

The music is awesome. I subbed +1

[@Ilovelazers]

Why not just pipe the audio from SDR# to WXtoImg using Virtual Audio Cable or VB?

[@j69chevelle]

That works for NOAA APT but LRPT still needs to use the additional plugins and software.

[@seraphina985]

@@j69chevelle This is always going to be something of an issue with digital signals you have a wave that has been modulated into a radio wave somehow but then needs to be interpreted via some algorithm. Even after demodulating it is about as much use as reading the 8 trillion bit long number from a full 1 TB hard drive in pure raw it is utter nonsense until you figure out what numbers should be put through what algorithms. There is a reason why we need so much metadata encoded into digital storage devices after all the computer needs to know which function to pass the read number to in order to produce something remotely helpful.

[@iApiqh]

Awesome project! Someone already tried this with the GOES-16?

[@mosesmundall]

Hey, Im located in australia and would love to at least attempt to make one!! if and when Im successful ill send though the images pronto!! :)

[@aldobernaltvbernal8745]

Seems you weren't sucessful

[@victorboesen3837]

Please make a part three!!!!!

[@GrahamTruman]

This is definitely a long way of doing it. Surely be easier to use a sound pipe to pass the audio from the sdr to wxtoimg directly.

[@crypto.7562]

ik just use vb audio cable, you get the images live

[@doggo00]

9:29 amigos

[@catfun1854]

This guy will make a rocket with a satellite and launch it, I swear. He already knows how to receive the signals.

[@KingJellyfishII]

Getting my image ASAP!

[@tjwiets6691]

Is it possible to calculate the speed of the satellite based upon the observed Doppler shift? Or perhaps that could be a side note in your future video discussing the Doppler shift correction?

[@thethoughtemporium]

Yup! It was something we've been talking about but never got around to trying. I'll see if I can do something with that in the future

[@crypto.7562]

use orbitron traking dde like in meteor m2

[@crypto.7562]

​@@thethoughtemporium have u tried the tracking dde client in ur meteor m2 setup

[@Zorgoban]

I was missing the links to the original build instructions for the antenna. I did find them eventually. But since you were anyways writing a tutorial I doubt it would have been that much more work. I generally like your content but I find your videos a bit shallow and fast for my liking. But of course It's up to you, what you do with that kind of feedback.

[@crypto.7562]

u can slow it down

[@brent847]

last time i was decoding noaa sats all you had to do is get the signal and start a program that instantly was decoding the image. so much less complicated that this.

[@crypto.7562]

ik

[@ashishkamble4464]

Really cool video ! Thanks for sharing your work Hey I want to know , do we need some LNA (Low noise Amplifiers) with rtlsdr to do the same ? Or is it possible to recieve data without them ?

[@thethoughtemporium]

You won't need an LNA. I did this without one and an rtlsdr, and it worked just fine.

[@ashishkamble4464]

Okay ! I shall try this soon

[@bruhdabones]

Bruh you forgot to use VBCable. IMHO this is actually easier.

[@isaac3909]

i would like to learn more on how to replicate signals using a sdr and creating, programming, and making transmission my self. is this possible??

[@dioszegizoltan4493]

Can I use a normal radio for this?

[@crypto.7562]

not an fm radio, but a ham radio for noaa, but not meteor

[@AlexBoler]

Four dots? This never needs to be more than one dot.

[@antares1694]

I WILL mess wizh time!

[@crypto.7562]

yes, 4 dots constallation its QPSK Q q quad quad 4 of course its 4 dots

[@treyg855]

Has part 3 ever been released? I'm not finding it.

[@Yungtubo88]

Will WXtoIMG software work with just a radio transceiver that can cover 137 Mhz or does it have to be an SDR?

[@slendy9600]

i hope there are other Australians in this community cause as much as i want to do this i dont have the time or spare cash right now... some day

[@raduhabinyak6860]

Is there any way to do this using a Arduino?

[@edgeeffect]

No... Arduino wouldn't have the processing power. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bafLp6GXjLqNoKc

[@crypto.7562]

@@edgeeffect not that it would be easy even if it did

[@georgewalker1206]

Did they ever go through all those plugins?

[@silvervens]

Why dont you find da abandon broadcast tower and try to use it with clipping

[@tractix5379]

Hello, I have a couple of questions. Are there any pre-made , cheap and higher quality antennas that I could buy? Also can you use amplifiers to make the signal better? If yes then what cheap amplifier I could get that improves the quality of the received signal? I am just want to get a better quality picture from Meteor and NOAA. (I also plan to use the NooElec NESDR SMArt)

[@MilesCallisto]

www.nationalrf.com/satellite-tenna.htm Turbo-tenna, made with stainless steel wire, QFH style. Designed for marine environments, but will work anywhere. www.antennas.us/store/p/404-UC-1374-531-4-dBic-VHF-APT-Weather-Satellite-Antenna-WXSAT.html Enclosed QFH for WX sat reception. As for amplifiers, the lna4all.blogspot.com/?m=1 is a versatile low cost, wide range amplifier which can be powered with "phantom power" or bias-t through the coax.

[@skinnyflea2628]

Making an antenna is always better :)

[@crypto.7562]

use a cheap v dipole

[@NearbyFoxi]

This is awsome since i am in Australia would there be any satellites I've been looking into the himawari satellites since i know on of them dose Australia and the east side. Anyway cheeres and thanks and your work is awsome and I'd love to see more.

[@crypto.7562]

try gk-2a i think idk

[@Motoxlight]

Count me in.

[@benjaminpountney5457]

Just wondering, Is this legal or data stealing?

[@thethoughtemporium]

Totally legal. They actually encourage amateurs to do this.

[@sunnyneko3769]

Hmm it seems like something cool for spyi-

[@MilesCallisto]

noaasis.noaa.gov/NOAASIS/pubs/Users_Guide-Building_Receive_Stations_March_2009.pdf

[@cartanfan-youtube]

does anyone know his into song, its such a banger

[@dalmynroets1534]

i wish i could but i dont nearly have the funds for the hardware (SDR)

[@eggaweb]

Could you perhaps, set up a more permanent solution above your TV antenna?

[@crypto.7562]

i have a permenat antenna, its the one that came with the sdr

[@randomstuff-cu4of]

turning up rf gain all the way up at least on the rtl-sdr really boosts signal quality i can recieve great images even with the dipole that is included in the rtl-sdr official kit (noaa false color i.imgur.com/Me4Coys.jpg meteor true rgb i.imgur.com/xDXSC5G.jpg recieved with official rtl-sdr kit ground station latvia)

[@therealdohos2607]

imma write my reaction in frecnh canadian... te un esti de malade toi serieux avec ca. c trippant en calvaire !! mets en PLUSSE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@int16_t]

I believe ffmpeg can be used than using audacity.

[@Chrischi3TutorialLPs]

How far are you along? also, are european satellites also okay? If yes, id like trying it once the weather gets better.

[@crypto.7562]

theyre encrypted the geostationary ones are like 500$ for a key

[@j69chevelle]

Can you make a vid for processing NOAA POES HRPT imagery?

[@thethoughtemporium]

It's on the list! I think I'll be going for one of the GOES satellites next, but after that I'll be building a new tracking rig for things like NOAA and meteors higher frequency stuff

[@j69chevelle]

Eagerly awaiting... :D

[@macpclinux1]

"only programs that use a gui" why? a terminal would seem so cool!

[@recklessroges]

Make this accessible to more people. Obviously command line is better, but it scares most people.

[@bunya303]

waiting for emacs table drawing of your findings. :D

[@ThomasPlaysTheGames]

I'd like a command line version just so it can more easily be automated start to finish.

[@crypto.7562]

@@ThomasPlaysTheGames ik u can actually RUN them in scripts and they feel more packed, unlike gui which feels like a whole bunch of extra junk

[@Akshay-pc3yc]

what kind of antenna was it????

[@SqualidsargeStudios]

so then where is that earth image thing on your site? if it took off that is

[@Euphorb1um]

Any of this possible on a mac?

[@lisongueguen73]

Hey guys ! We are currently trying to make one but we would like to have some help (especially for software) so do you know any people/forums where we can adress our questions ? Thanks :)

[@kaseelee6994]

When I click on WXtoIMG link it says this website has been removed or has been renamed, please help.

[@devinbrewer2818]

web.archive.org/web/20171209052450/www.wxtoimg.com:80/downloads/ has an archived version of WXtoIMG where you can download the files from.

[@kaseelee6994]

Devin Brewer ok thank you so much this really helps me! Thanks

[@noahs.1091]

use this wxtoimgrestored.xyz/

[@jamesn0va]

Would it be possible to use this (on a much larger scale) to view signals from mars orbiters? Is it possible to decode that information?

[@TheJamster1234567]

lol. well yea but if you have a 10meter antenna dish. remember the signals are very week by the time they get back to earth.

[@crypto.7562]

@@TheJamster1234567 yeah theyre proably encoded, on a verrrry high frequency and very painful to get

[@Stufireman]

Ok, I give up, where do I get the nesr smat dongle you featured in this video. Google doesn't know nor Ebay?

[@zukworld669]

took 5 seconds and the correct spelling - www.nooelec.com/store/sdr/sdr-receivers/nesdr-mini-rtl2832-r820t.html

[@edgeeffect]

People in the comments section asking about Linux software.... you might like to have a look at: www.5b4az.org/ (bit of an annoying website design, doesn't let us link to specific pages... but the software is easy enough to find in the menu)

[@noahs.1091]

when is the updated video for faster methods?

[@crypto.7562]

there isnt any

[@itsnotanevo2112]

When will you be making a video on GOES 16?

[@thethoughtemporium]

Soon, check out my instagram posts. Just finished building the antenna to give it a try.

[@arcsmith4115]

Is there any way to do this automatically so it spits out the images automatically, not in real time or anything but just so that all the images will be saved to a file,

[@crypto.7562]

yeah just use vb audio cable

[@jrjtube1708]

How much time it will take to get a photo to earth from a weather satelite

[@thethoughtemporium]

A fraction of a second. They're not that far away. Does take a couple minutes to download though as they don't transmit the image very quickly. But travel time of the signal itself is short

[@jrjtube1708]

@@thethoughtemporium Thanks😃

[@tractix5379]

Does the satellite have to pass direcly above me for me to access it? I live in Europe and no one of the satellites go above my country.

[@thethoughtemporium]

so long as it's above 30 degree over the horizon you should be able to pick it up

[@randomnessx3597]

yeah im just gonna use the noaa satilties X3

[@nicholascarr6251]

Why not use a dish?

[@thethoughtemporium]

Makes it too hard to track the satellites without a motorized mount. Much easier to just make a double cross antenna and hold still. Signal comes in just fine and there's less to break

[@nicholascarr6251]

Ok that makes sense, I was all puzzled and that fixed my confusion. Thanks for the extremely fast reply.

[@thethoughtemporium]

happy to help :)

[@sidharthcs2110]

Aren't they highly directional?

[@suryasekar97]

The Thought Emporium We use dish to track geostationary satellite but what type of data tramitted in it and how to decode.

[@TheJamster1234567]

HAs anyone found Part 3, i have looked all over and cant find it

[@technicmasters7936]

Please can use this decode images from NOAA-18 and NOAA-16 (the HRPT High ressolution picture transmition at 1698.0 MHz because the APT transmition is off en.allmetsat.com/frequencies.php ) Too? If not please tall me what program can. PLEASE

[@cartanfan-youtube]

it should be able to

[@lucapadovani7396]

Im in europe so is the process the same for metop-b and meteosat-10 ?

[@edgeeffect]

I was wondering what soft of stuff comes down from the European satellites myself... If you find out, let us know. Of course, NOAA and Meteosat satellites are polar-orbiting, so they cover the whole world anyway.

[@christianderbyshire744]

Would it be possible to receive an image in Japan Nagoya to be specific

[@crypto.7562]

yeah anywhere in the WORLD the big globe

[@AnaoDoEmbu]

you are from Brasil?

[@KingJellyfishII]

I want to take some images from a satellite, any tips on finding my horizon? (from where can I see the satellite)

[@aldobernaltvbernal8745]

Hi

[@crypto.7562]

turn on orbitron footprints and add your location

[@rogue_spirit]

Music @2:00?

[@HarrisonMartinson]

I'm just replying so I will get a notification for this too

[@Rubikorigami]

I'mma do my best to follow your project of a map, but right now, it's finals time...

[@wallytuescher2175]

Great info. I would love to try this however i would have watch it many times. That's not possible because of the background noise.

[@chicomachado]

Amigos, vcs sao brasileiros ? De onde ? Abraço

[@NikHYTWP]

When the satellite takes another picture, does it just interrupt it's previous transmission? I'm asking this because I was wondering if it is possible for you to be halfway through your recording and then the satellite changes the image it's broadcasting and your recording gets messed up.

[@MsSomeonenew]

No, it only sends out full images. If you catch the full image or not however is your problem.

[@davidmcgill1000]

NOAA provides a continuous image strip, but the satellite does change its sensor at certain times. You'll know when this occurs by the right strip inverting color.

[@crypto.7562]

yes noaa will switch day and night for me, it will be day d d d d day mode vis and ir then it will be like d.d d.d d.d night mode ir

[@crypto.7562]

@@davidmcgill1000 and u can hear it

[@saheilaanarzee5552]

so is this plan still running?

[@NickFarrow]

Can't you just use webSDR to get the audio Data?

[@crypto.7562]

yeah, u actually can

[@alexlandherr]

Is it active as of January 2020?

[@crypto.7562]

yeah

[@SongsFromMyHead]

Please post a link to Part 1.

[@kirkhamandy]

lazy sod, just look in his list of videos, ffs, people just want things given to them, I blame Google

[@SongsFromMyHead]

No need to be rude, Andy. I searched for it before posting this polite request. I finally found it; had a different title, so not obvious it was related. BTW, I used google to finally locate it. Thanks, though, for your valuable addition to the conversation. Take care!

[@metalbill2007]

How to do this with Linux Ubuntu...

[@edgeeffect]

I've just found this: www.5b4az.org/ His software looks very easy to use... let all the rest of us know how you get on with it.

[@MrSquaresville]

It is spelled "reference".

[@MrSquaresville]

@ 6:00

[@chemotrail7160]

great video. i have 2 questions though 1:where can i buy a satellite finder in argentina and 2:will this dish i found in the trash work,it's a bit bent imgur.com/3Ld1ZB2 also i'm very busy with high school and other stuff probably won't have time until the last 2 weeks of july.

[@thethoughtemporium]

If you have a version of mercado livre in argentine, then I would look there. If the antenna is bent it won't work properly. You need them to be basically perfect. Luckily they're in such high use that finding one in better condition shouldn't be too hard.

[@chemotrail7160]

thanks i'll try my best.

[@D3h93]

Adorei o nome hahahaha

[@hunterdixonrickthewalkingd6567]

If I go to International Space Station, that easier for me ....