This bundle works like a charm. There is one drawback but I'll discuss that in a minute. Antenna assembly is pretty much straight forward. The LMR 400 coax is big and heavy but that's not a problem. It just takes patience to get it straight.
One basic firmware program is needed to get it working after the antenna is aimed. Additional coloring programs are available also. The software is available on the Internet and easy to find. An antenna aiming program, again, on the Internet is very helpful in aiming the antenna.
The weak point for me was the mounting hardware for the antenna. It's a 90 degree bracket that does very little for fine tuning elevation. It has little to no adjustment for skew if one is in the area that calls for skew. My area for GOES 16 called for -25 degrees. You can't get that out of a right angle bracket. I found a satellite TV mounting bracket that had the swivel head that allowed me to get that -25 degree skew. It also allowed me to fine tune elevation and azimuth. With an adjustable mounting bracket one can adjust and watch values change until the sweet spot is found. The LAN has an LED that goes in the direction of the Pi, not the antenna.
Weather proofing is a must as the LAN has a USB port on the end for injecting power. Fortunately the port isn't needed but it does need to be protected from the weather. Remains a mystery to me why the port was designed to be open to the elements and orientated skyward.
Overall, it's a great bundle that works and gives great satisfaction when that first packet is decoded and written and becomes an image.
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Reviews with images
Great bit of kit!
This is a great bit of kit to get you started capturing LRIT / HRIT from GOES satellites!First off, not a big fan of the included mounting bracket, making fine adjustments to the alignment can be finicky, however DIY mounting is feasible so its not that big of a deal. The included LMR400 cable is a long chunky cable, I probably would've been happy with half the length they provided, not an issue. As others said, just takes patience to straighten it out and a bit of space to wrestle with it. The rest of the kit is working perfect.Weatherproofing is essentially not-included. There's not really a one-size-fits-all solution to how people will set this up so that's fine in my opinion. Once you buy it, its an electronic device, protect it as you see fit. I ran with just electrical tape for a bit before I got a "outdoor power cord protector" from another Amazon order and used that to protect the SAWbird, another waterproof project box for the Raspberry Pi 4B+ hosting goestools with the SMArTee SDR plugged in. Added two additional temperature sensors to monitor the temperature inside and outside the box just for fun.An important thing to remember, the sun can affect your signal to noise ratio. It's a noisy ball of fire in the sky. If you're struggling to get good alignment during the day, wait for a cool clear night for your best opportunity. Once you're under 100 VIT, you are set.My VIT is stable around 75-80 VIT but that increases to around 200VIT during the day when the sun is high in the sky. Even with that signal degradation, if you are in good alignment with the satellite, you will be okay.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2021
This bundle works like a charm. There is one drawback but I'll discuss that in a minute. Antenna assembly is pretty much straight forward. The LMR 400 coax is big and heavy but that's not a problem. It just takes patience to get it straight.
One basic firmware program is needed to get it working after the antenna is aimed. Additional coloring programs are available also. The software is available on the Internet and easy to find. An antenna aiming program, again, on the Internet is very helpful in aiming the antenna.
The weak point for me was the mounting hardware for the antenna. It's a 90 degree bracket that does very little for fine tuning elevation. It has little to no adjustment for skew if one is in the area that calls for skew. My area for GOES 16 called for -25 degrees. You can't get that out of a right angle bracket. I found a satellite TV mounting bracket that had the swivel head that allowed me to get that -25 degree skew. It also allowed me to fine tune elevation and azimuth. With an adjustable mounting bracket one can adjust and watch values change until the sweet spot is found. The LAN has an LED that goes in the direction of the Pi, not the antenna.
Weather proofing is a must as the LAN has a USB port on the end for injecting power. Fortunately the port isn't needed but it does need to be protected from the weather. Remains a mystery to me why the port was designed to be open to the elements and orientated skyward.
Overall, it's a great bundle that works and gives great satisfaction when that first packet is decoded and written and becomes an image.
One basic firmware program is needed to get it working after the antenna is aimed. Additional coloring programs are available also. The software is available on the Internet and easy to find. An antenna aiming program, again, on the Internet is very helpful in aiming the antenna.
The weak point for me was the mounting hardware for the antenna. It's a 90 degree bracket that does very little for fine tuning elevation. It has little to no adjustment for skew if one is in the area that calls for skew. My area for GOES 16 called for -25 degrees. You can't get that out of a right angle bracket. I found a satellite TV mounting bracket that had the swivel head that allowed me to get that -25 degree skew. It also allowed me to fine tune elevation and azimuth. With an adjustable mounting bracket one can adjust and watch values change until the sweet spot is found. The LAN has an LED that goes in the direction of the Pi, not the antenna.
Weather proofing is a must as the LAN has a USB port on the end for injecting power. Fortunately the port isn't needed but it does need to be protected from the weather. Remains a mystery to me why the port was designed to be open to the elements and orientated skyward.
Overall, it's a great bundle that works and gives great satisfaction when that first packet is decoded and written and becomes an image.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
Some assembly is required, but there is a link to a guide provided with the unit and multiple third-party guides online for setting it up. I ended up wiring it to a Raspberry Pi and using goestools and Sanchez (both on Github) to decode and process the images. Each satellite sends about 550 MB and hundreds of files in an hour, but the 5424x5424 images are worth it. You might even get images from the old GOES-15 sat and the japanese Himawari 8 satellite, which orbits over Australia and relays some of its imagery through the GOES satellites as well.
Words of advice:
1. The dish is quite focused, so you need to really dial it in, but the DishPointer site was a great help with helping me find the satellite.
2. I would not worry too much about precise skew/rotation of the dish. While it is necessary to get the right horizontal azimuth and vertical elevation angles, the polarization is not as critical. This unit comes with a mounting unit that is only capable of rotating in 45 degree increments; thus in the worst case you'll be off by 22 degrees. Even being off by 45 degrees only means a loss of 3 db which is bad but recoverable, so I'm confident in the 45 degree precision and I'm not pursuing a replacement mount.
3. It is critical that the front reflector be vertical, as shown in the attached pictures and shown in the guides. The reflector can be upside down and its fine, but it cannot be at a 90 degree angle or it will be severely out of phase with the linear polarization coming from the satellite.
4. The low-noise amplifier (LNA) unit is necessary, as I didn't have any luck when I wired the SDR directly to the short piece of coax coming out of the dish.
5. The LMR-400 cable is surprisingly stiff and clumsy, but it can be looped or stretched out and shouldn't be a problem.
6. I would also recommend waterproofing the LNA, since it has an unused USB port that faces upwards. I'm going to use some electrical tape I think.
But really, these are all minor things, and the unit works very well out of the box. You'll get some amazing pictures, no matter where you are!
Absolutely phenomenal, I have recommended it several times!
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
This unit comes with everything you need to receive pictures from GOES-16 and GOES-17. I have personally pointed the dish at both and received absolutely incredible pictures. I captured the full disk of earth in different wavelengths and saw pictures of the fires in California, weather updates, and assembled them into a video of Hurricane Ida slamming into Louisiana.Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
Some assembly is required, but there is a link to a guide provided with the unit and multiple third-party guides online for setting it up. I ended up wiring it to a Raspberry Pi and using goestools and Sanchez (both on Github) to decode and process the images. Each satellite sends about 550 MB and hundreds of files in an hour, but the 5424x5424 images are worth it. You might even get images from the old GOES-15 sat and the japanese Himawari 8 satellite, which orbits over Australia and relays some of its imagery through the GOES satellites as well.
Words of advice:
1. The dish is quite focused, so you need to really dial it in, but the DishPointer site was a great help with helping me find the satellite.
2. I would not worry too much about precise skew/rotation of the dish. While it is necessary to get the right horizontal azimuth and vertical elevation angles, the polarization is not as critical. This unit comes with a mounting unit that is only capable of rotating in 45 degree increments; thus in the worst case you'll be off by 22 degrees. Even being off by 45 degrees only means a loss of 3 db which is bad but recoverable, so I'm confident in the 45 degree precision and I'm not pursuing a replacement mount.
3. It is critical that the front reflector be vertical, as shown in the attached pictures and shown in the guides. The reflector can be upside down and its fine, but it cannot be at a 90 degree angle or it will be severely out of phase with the linear polarization coming from the satellite.
4. The low-noise amplifier (LNA) unit is necessary, as I didn't have any luck when I wired the SDR directly to the short piece of coax coming out of the dish.
5. The LMR-400 cable is surprisingly stiff and clumsy, but it can be looped or stretched out and shouldn't be a problem.
6. I would also recommend waterproofing the LNA, since it has an unused USB port that faces upwards. I'm going to use some electrical tape I think.
But really, these are all minor things, and the unit works very well out of the box. You'll get some amazing pictures, no matter where you are!
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2021
Pi build time: About an hour. Mainly downloading libaries/compiler/compiling goestools. Guide link below.
Kit build time: 20 minutes.
I build the Raspberry Pi 3 the night before I received the kit. I followed this guide for the most part: https://gist.github.com/lxe/c1756ca659c3b78414149a3ea723eae2#file-goes16-rtlsdr-md
The kit itself is pretty simple. It comes in pieces which overlap and bolt together. I had to look at pictures here to make sure I was doing it right as I didn't have any directions. I get it, only 8 bolt/nuts, but I didn't want to mess it up.
The coax cable is.. impressive. Incredibly thick, reminds me of pulling fiber. Holds it's shape for sure as getting the bend out of it was a task. It makes the little SMA connectors look tiny. Be prepared to have to drill some large holes if you plan to route it into a house. I trust it much more than cheap, thin cables found on Amazon. I tried it and some cheap coax and didn't see really any difference.. but I feel like it'll weather better outside.
The GOES+ saw filter is not waterproof and I wish it was. I've managed seal it inside a container and wrapped that container with reflective tape in an attempt to reduce solar heat (Florida.) This is my second filter from NooElec and I believe it's working fine. I'm getting 80-90 VIT on this setup.
The SDR works as described. Be cautious when planning where you will install it. Without a cool location/active cooling the SDR will likely overheat. Just playing with it outside, using my shed to shelter it from the sun, my VIT went from 90 to 400 over 10 minutes. Moving it back indoors resolved this issue.
Ultimately this is a step forward on my goal to build a proper weather monitoring setup. I'm currently monitoring weather balloon launches and now downloading weather satellite data without an Internet connection. Starlink aside as a future Internet service, I live in a location where weather and hurricanes are a concern. Loss of connectivity is an absolute possibility and having the ability to gather weather data offline is a pretty cool idea.
4.5 stars - Great kit, wish the filter was waterproofed. Directions would have helped slightly
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2021
TL;DR: Equipment is good. Simple to setup. If you use a RPi3 don't expect to run much else as it'll throttle (I've tried different RPi3's, occurs on all) due to power draw.Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2021
Pi build time: About an hour. Mainly downloading libaries/compiler/compiling goestools. Guide link below.
Kit build time: 20 minutes.
I build the Raspberry Pi 3 the night before I received the kit. I followed this guide for the most part: https://gist.github.com/lxe/c1756ca659c3b78414149a3ea723eae2#file-goes16-rtlsdr-md
The kit itself is pretty simple. It comes in pieces which overlap and bolt together. I had to look at pictures here to make sure I was doing it right as I didn't have any directions. I get it, only 8 bolt/nuts, but I didn't want to mess it up.
The coax cable is.. impressive. Incredibly thick, reminds me of pulling fiber. Holds it's shape for sure as getting the bend out of it was a task. It makes the little SMA connectors look tiny. Be prepared to have to drill some large holes if you plan to route it into a house. I trust it much more than cheap, thin cables found on Amazon. I tried it and some cheap coax and didn't see really any difference.. but I feel like it'll weather better outside.
The GOES+ saw filter is not waterproof and I wish it was. I've managed seal it inside a container and wrapped that container with reflective tape in an attempt to reduce solar heat (Florida.) This is my second filter from NooElec and I believe it's working fine. I'm getting 80-90 VIT on this setup.
The SDR works as described. Be cautious when planning where you will install it. Without a cool location/active cooling the SDR will likely overheat. Just playing with it outside, using my shed to shelter it from the sun, my VIT went from 90 to 400 over 10 minutes. Moving it back indoors resolved this issue.
Ultimately this is a step forward on my goal to build a proper weather monitoring setup. I'm currently monitoring weather balloon launches and now downloading weather satellite data without an Internet connection. Starlink aside as a future Internet service, I live in a location where weather and hurricanes are a concern. Loss of connectivity is an absolute possibility and having the ability to gather weather data offline is a pretty cool idea.
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Andrew Forber
Setup may take a while, but the results are worth it and the customer support is excellent.
Reviewed in Canada on February 12, 2024
Jeremy Clark
Awesome Pictures from Space
Reviewed in Canada on September 7, 2021
Jeremy Clark
Reviewed in Canada on September 7, 2021
Images in this review
