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Nooelec GOES Weather Satellite RTL-SDR Bundle

Comments

8 comments

  • Jim Minter

    Great guide!  One important note: in my location, DishPointer indicated a high LNB skew angle was necessary for both GOES16 and GOES17.  Following the guide verbatim to mount the antenna horizontally, I couldn't get a high quality signal at all.  I re-attached the antenna/boom rotated 45 degrees to the L plate, i.e. putting the 4 longer bolts through the other four holes in the L plate, and immediately got a good signal.

    I recommend updating the guide to instruct people to check the LNB skew angle before assembly, explain if a clockwise or counter-clockwise rotation is required, and factor this in at the point of attaching the L plate to the antenna/boom.

    Thanks for a great product.

    1
  • John Davidson

    Great point Jim, we will pass it on and update the guide accordingly :)  I'm glad you got things up and running!

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  • Parsoli 69

    I purchased the bundle approx two weeks ago and have been struggling.  Haven't been able to receive a single packet via goestools.  in play are:

    Ubuntu virtual machine loaded with Goestools per linux installation instructions

    Nesdr Smart XTR and Sawbird+ NOAA

    Goesrecv see's the SDR, knows when it's plugged into USB or not.  I have dish LNB direct into Input side of Sawbird, NO POWER to Sawbird....as I'm told the XTR handles that (no power light on Sawbird LED either) and then the Sawbird plugs into the SDR.  SDR into USB, etc...

    2022-10-23T14:54:15Z [monitor] gain: 55.68, freq:  -437.3, omega: 2.374, vit(avg): 2198, rs(sum):    0, packets:  0, drops: 33

    I've taken the Sawbird out of the wiring path, no effect.  Should I be looking at my hardware?  Literally every day and night, fine-tuning my antenna angles with zero results.

    I hope someone has some great advice for me and my budding child scientists!

    Steve

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  • John Davidson

    Hi Steve!  Your SAWbird should have the light on if it is powered.  There might be something wrong, either with your installation or the LNA itself.  

    The easiest thing to do is open a support ticket with images of your installation so we can get this resolved for you ASAP :)  Thanks!

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  • Gordon Shephard

    Just getting started with this and have a question:

    Given a choice between:

    mounting the GOES LNA and SMArtee dongle together in a weather-proof box right at the antenna, with a long usb cable to the computer,

    or,

    connecting the dongle at the end of a long coax cable to bring it closer to the computer, 

    is there a preference (as far as signal quality)?  (And, will the dongle have enough heat dissipation if it is enclosed in a sealed box?)

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  • John Davidson

    Hi, Gordon, great question!

     

    All cables will have some loss that are proportional to their length.  There is no such loss once analog data is converted to digital data.  So, theoretically, your best bet for signal quality is the former.

     

    However, the caveat here is that you need to ensure your weatherproof box has sufficient cooling for the SDR, or you run the risk of damaging the device.  The SDR is cooled by convection current, which is negligible inside a sealed environment.  Secondly, you may need to use an active USB cable, as the cable length limit is 5m (15').

     

    Fortunately, either way you should have sufficient signal reception for decoding GOES without error, so the choice is yours!  Thanks for your support :)

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  • Nicholas Klein-Baer

    Is the USB extension cable included in this kit active? I was able to get set up quickly and get good results (vit <400 and no essentially no dropped packets)  by attaching everything directly to the cable coming off the feed-arm. But when I tried using the usb extension to in between the SmarTee and my RasbPi my vit spiked to >1300 and I was barely able to capture any packets. 

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  • John Davidson

    Hi Nicholas!  It is great to hear you are set up and were already able to get good results.  

    The USB cable in this kit is not active.  Active USB cables should only be needed for USB runs over 5m (15').  

    It sounds as though the USB extension might be defective.  If you are refering to the one in the kit, please contact us using the support tools on this site and open a ticket so we can get you a replacement.  If you are referring to a different USB extension, please try another (passive should be fine if under the specified distance) and contact us should the issues persist.  Thanks!

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