Usb tv antenna no software software#

You see, the “scanning” is the cylindrical satellite spinning around, nothing more. That’s it! Pictures taken just hours ago? Totally incorrect! You are actually receiving the data milliseconds after it is gathered, there is (or, was) absolutely no data storage or buffering. Hardware? A single cable connecting the radio earphone jack to the laptop audio input jack. Helical antenna, circular polorization? Hogwash! I used an actual bent coat hanger whip antenna, and got very nice images, thank you very much. I used a very cheap little radio, sold by Radio Shack, for listening to aircraft talking to ground control, subsequently thrown in the trash by a bored user. Actually, no hardware “decoding” is needed. ‘Funny seeing this coming ’round again! I did all this about 30 years ago. Posted in Radio Hacks Tagged RTL-SDR, RTLSDR, software-defined radio, weather satellite Post navigation ’s use of a USB TV tuner to receive the transmission from NOAA satellites is a lot easier on the pocketbook, though, with the largest expense being an investment in time to build a helical antenna.

Usb tv antenna no software software#

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen images from a NOAA weather satellite downloaded with a software defined radio last year did just that with a somewhat inexpensive Softrock SDR. A somewhat specialized antenna is required to receive the right hand polarized transmissions from NOAA weather satellites, but with a few bits of wood and wire, made a helical antenna to listen in on the weather satellites transmitting around 137 MHz. After gathering a whole bunch of data from the satellites with SDRsharp, used an image decoder to turn an audio file into a picture taken from space just hours ago. To get these near real-time satellite pictures, used one of those USB TV tuners we’ve grown so fond of.

These transmissions aren’t encrypted, and given the requisite hardware it’s possible for you to download these images from space as shows us in a tutorial video. Several times a day, a NOAA weather satellite passes over your head, beaming down pictures of weather systems and cloud formations.