[GCARC] FW: Images from the GOES geostationary satellite

[Jonathan Pearce]

If you’ve been to the clubhouse over the past couple of weeks you may have seen the BBQ grill-type antenna that’s tie-wrapped to one of the picnic tables. That’s a 1.7 ghz antenna that we’re using to try to copy the images transmitted by the GOES series of weather satellites that are in geostationary orbit 23,600 miles above the equator. We’ve been challenged by issues with antenna aiming, working at microwave frequencies and rain, but K2QA and I finally achieved some success yesterday in copying high-res images from GOES-16. Two are here https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8NcMeVFs9TM/W6_UBRQRycI/AAAAAAAAStI/gSSA3rNDne4ZhP-4obi7sX4gf6ZEhzGpgCLcBGAs/s640/GOES16_M1_FC_20180929T191126Z.jpg  and here https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zAYG8cclQCU/W6_UdLHe6rI/AAAAAAAAStQ/lN_s0-RLKcgP-9UUC7c19GPj_VtXeqVUQCLcBGAs/s640/GOES15_NH_IR_20180929T170018Z.jpg, and checking the files tonight shows about 700 more pictures downloaded from the satellite over the last 2 days.

GOES satellites transmit beautiful high-res shots of the entire earth, which we’re hoping to receive by leaving the decoder running (it runs on a Raspberry Pi), so hopefully by Tech Saturday we can show some more stunning images, but given that this satellite is further away than anything on Earth can possibly be we’re claiming the GCARC SWL DX record with these pix! More info is at the W2MMD satellite blog at http://w2mmdsatellite.blogspot.com/2018/09/goes-satellite-reception-project.html if you’re interested in this project.

73 de Jon WB2MNF