RadioClub EIT - Automated Weather Satellite Ground Station

Based on this project made by nootropicdesign.

Automated Weather Satelite Ground Station. Automates the reception of weather satellites on Linux using spyserver and rotctld. Even if you don't have groundstation you can connect to a sdr on spyserver directory.

Features:

• Powered by bash, python3, orbit-predictor, wxtoimg, spyserver_client, doppler, demod, meteor_demod, meteor_decoder and Linux (Ubuntu and Debian tested).
• Works with NOAA 18, NOAA 19 and NOAA 15
• Doppler correction
• Radio reception through spyserver. Allows to multiple users to use the sdr at the same time.
• Antenna positioning through rotctld. Allows to other users use the antenna control when is not receiving.
• Upload wav, iq and images to a FTP Server.

Dependencies (Mainly for Linux)

Some linux dependencies

$ sudo apt-get install autoconf
$ sudo apt-get install cmake
$ sudo apt-get install sox
$ sudo apt-get install at
$ sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev
$ sudo apt-get install imagemagick
$ sudo apt-get install telnet

Doppler

Follow install instructions from here: https://github.com/cubehub/doppler

Demod

Follow install instructions from here: https://github.com/cubehub/demod

Rotor

Follow install instructions from here: https://git.radio.clubs.etsit.upm.es/Meteor-automated/rotor

Wxtoimg

Link

$ wget https://wxtoimgrestored.xyz/beta/wxtoimg-amd64-2.11.2-beta.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i wxtoimg-amd64-2.11.2-beta.deb

Spyserver_client

Link

$ git clone https://github.com/erikd/libsamplerate.git
$ cd libsamplerate
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake ..
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ../..
$ git clone https://github.com/miweber67/spyserver_client
$ cd spyserver_client
$ git checkout ee20bcaf908fc859
$ make
$ sudo cp ./ss_client /usr/bin/ss_client

meteor_demod

Link

$ git clone https://github.com/dbdexter-dev/meteor_demod
$ cd meteor_demod
$ make
$ sudo make install

meteor_decoder

Link

$ sudo apt-get fpc
$ git clone https://github.com/artlav/meteor_decoder
$ cd meteor_decoder
$ source build_medet.sh
$ sudo cp medet /usr/bin

orbit_predictor

Link

This project calculate satellite orbit with python3 using orbit-predictor. You can create a virtualenv (recommended) or use python3 with pip3.

sudo apt-get install python3-pip
pip3 install orbit-predictor

Install

Setup environment variables

Complete environment variables on .venv with your station data. Export them or put it on ~/.bashrc for example. Make environment variables efective with source ~/.bashrc

Configure wxtoimg

Write the next variables under ~/.wxtoimgrc. Here is an example .wxtoimgrc.

Latitude: 40.438
Longitude: -3.708
Altitude: 666.0

Configure project

Execute configure.sh. The configure.sh script sets the installation directory in the scripts and schedules a cron job to run the satellite pass scheduler job at midnight every night.

How it works

Powered by bash this program calculate the satellites orbit with python3 and orbit-predictor. It schedules the radio record and the antenna positioning when its passing with schedule_all.sh. On receive_satellite.sh a Linux pipe is used for receive, correct doppler, demodulate fm and export to wav, something like ss_client | doppler track | demod | sox. Then the wav is decoded with wxtoimg and upload the results to a FTP Server.

Everyday the next pipeline is executed:

• schedule_all.sh Starts the pipeline with the supported satellites. Calculate when the pass is starting and finishing and then it schedule receive_satellite.sh passing the timeout in args.
• receive_satellite.sh Connect to spyserver the amount time specified on arg (timeout). It receive, correct doppler, demodulate fm and export to wav. Then decode_satellite.sh is executed.
• decode_satellite.sh Use wxtoimg to decode NOAA images. Then upload.sh is executed
• upload.sh Upload the results to a FTP Server.