"JeroenK" wrote in message
...
Michael schreef:
Weather fax is fun to play with, but getting the actual satellite
transmissions is much more fun.

There are no satelites though on shortwave, are there?

Or maybe some retransmissions of wetaher imagery for shipping maybe?

If you have some freqs, I would love to play with it.


--
JeroenK

Hiya...

The NOAA satellites have their APT downlink on high frequency. NOAA 12 is
on 137.5, NOAA 15 is on 137.5, NOAA 17 is on 137.62 and NOAA 18 is
currently on 137.9125. It is in FM and you will need a receiver that has a
filter width of about 50kHz. The ICOM PCR-1000 is perfect for the task. It
has a 50khz filter setting in FM. You'll also need some kind of an antenna
that is good for high frequency. Although a quick dirty and cheap homebrew
quadrifilar helix antenna would be ideal, like the one in this link,
http://va6bc.no-ip.com/jerry_pix/Qua...ix_antenna.htm
you don't need to have one. A simple discone or any antenna tuned for high
frequency will work. I have a 200ft homebrew roof wire that I built to use
as a scanner antenna. It also happens to work great for receiving the NOAA
satellite images.

If you don't want to rig up a satellite ground station and you would still
like to get your own satellite image, you can always decode the satellite
image that is sent via shortwave wefax stations. You wont receive it
directly from the satellite in real time, you'll just get the image as
retransmitted by the NOAA station.

For instance... If you are located in the northeastern part of the US, you
can receive the NOAA wefax of the recent NOAA satellite pass from Halifax Or
Boston. Take a peek at the link below. You will see a comprehensive
listing for all of the NOAA shortwave frequencies/locations and schedules.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/rfax.pdf

Once you have set up a program like WXSat and plugged your receiver into
your PC's sound card, set your sw radio on the proper frequency during the
time when the satellite image is scheduled to be transmitted and viola, your
own satellite image. If you use WXSat, make sure you've got the FM tuning
and the modulation set first. Also.... It is always better to record the
transmission first and then feed it into your program.

Hope that helps....
--
Respectfully,

Michael

Location: NJ
Primary Radio: ICOM IC-R75 (full Kiwa mods)
Antennas: G5RV & 200ft "Frankenstein" Roof Wire
Additional Radios: Icom IC-PCR1000,
Sony 7600GR, Grundig YB400,
Tecsun PL-550, Kaito KA1101, Kaito KA1102
GE SR-III, Westinghouse H-104 (seven tube)