Decoding Meteor Satellites with RSP Receivers and SDR Sharp via RTL_TCP server
Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:22 am
The launch of a new Meteor satellite on July 5th perked my interest in finding a new way to decode Meteor imagery with the SDRPlay line of receivers. I previously had been doing this through ExtIO and old versions of SDRSharp (<1361). RTL_TCP server makes it possible to connect current versions of SDRSharp to SDRPlay to do automated decoding of NOAA and Meteor APT. NOAA APT satellites can be also be decoded easily with SDRUno. Meteor however cannot, as yet. I have been tinkering with RTL_TCP this evening and was able to connect with the RSP2 via SDRSharp v1583 (it should work with newer versions as well) through RTL_TCP server.
Some setup work is required however:
For NOAA and Meteor Sats the SDRSharp DDE tracking plugin is required to receive tracking data from Orbitron via WispDDE. Orbitron is used to provide AOS/LOS times and to do doppler correction of the tuned VHF frequency.
During initial testing I was concerned with my systems ability to pass NOAA satellite audio data to wxtoimg. Other than getting RF and audio levels set to usable values no other issues were encountered. (I was expecting to see some data loss due to audio glitches). NOAA satellites can be also decoded easily with SDRUno. The primary purpose of this setup is the realtime decoding of Meteor satellites.
For Meteor the QPSK Demodulator plugin is also required to demodulate Meteor's QPSK/OQPSK data stream. The data stream is then decoded into 3 channels of color by a standalone program (Meteor MNo2 LRPT Analizer) launched at AOS . These 3 color channels are then combined and saved as an image (BMP or JPEG). Further processing of the saved image to correct image proportions can be done with additional software.
Here are some screenshots of the initial tests connecting to Meteor M_2 (the old one)and NOAA19:
SDRPlay/SDRSharp locked on to Meteor's QPSK signal :
Some setup work is required however:
For NOAA and Meteor Sats the SDRSharp DDE tracking plugin is required to receive tracking data from Orbitron via WispDDE. Orbitron is used to provide AOS/LOS times and to do doppler correction of the tuned VHF frequency.
During initial testing I was concerned with my systems ability to pass NOAA satellite audio data to wxtoimg. Other than getting RF and audio levels set to usable values no other issues were encountered. (I was expecting to see some data loss due to audio glitches). NOAA satellites can be also decoded easily with SDRUno. The primary purpose of this setup is the realtime decoding of Meteor satellites.
For Meteor the QPSK Demodulator plugin is also required to demodulate Meteor's QPSK/OQPSK data stream. The data stream is then decoded into 3 channels of color by a standalone program (Meteor MNo2 LRPT Analizer) launched at AOS . These 3 color channels are then combined and saved as an image (BMP or JPEG). Further processing of the saved image to correct image proportions can be done with additional software.
Here are some screenshots of the initial tests connecting to Meteor M_2 (the old one)and NOAA19:
SDRPlay/SDRSharp locked on to Meteor's QPSK signal :