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Satellite Tracking

The document describes setting up a basic satellite tracking station. It includes an antenna, receiver, decoding software, and satellite tracking software. An omni-directional quadrifilar helix antenna was built to receive signals. A software defined radio was used as the receiver to receive signals from NOAA weather satellites, Nayif-1, and JY1-Sat. Orbitron software was used to track satellite positions and passes. The received signals were decoded using WXtoimg for NOAA and custom dashboards for Nayif-1 and JY1-Sat. Weather images and telemetry data were successfully received and decoded from each satellite.

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229 views11 pages

Satellite Tracking

The document describes setting up a basic satellite tracking station. It includes an antenna, receiver, decoding software, and satellite tracking software. An omni-directional quadrifilar helix antenna was built to receive signals. A software defined radio was used as the receiver to receive signals from NOAA weather satellites, Nayif-1, and JY1-Sat. Orbitron software was used to track satellite positions and passes. The received signals were decoded using WXtoimg for NOAA and custom dashboards for Nayif-1 and JY1-Sat. Weather images and telemetry data were successfully received and decoded from each satellite.

Uploaded by

Bindhu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SATELLITE TRACKING

Introduction:- To track the different satellites by receiving the signal from satellite and
decode the data. The initial step is to build a simple ground receiving station at the roof top.

Description of the set-up:-

To have a simple ground station we need a minimum of an antenna, a receiver, decoding


software, and a satellite tracking software. In this setup Antenna is one of the important part
through which electromagnetic signals are received and converted to electrical signals and
sent to the receiver. There are various kinds of antenna available for different purpose. We
choose Quadrifilar Helix Antenna (QFH) because it’s simple, easy to design, high gain Omni
directional antenna. We built the antenna by using house hold skinned out electric wire and
wooden structure for the support along with LMR-400 cable for from roof top to the lab. As
per the design we made the structure of the antenna by making three ’+’ structures of wood
as per the arm lengths and fixed to the central wooden axis as show in the fig 1. Connection
is made by joining the one arm from big loop and one from small loop to the positive
terminal of the coaxial cable and remaining two arms are joined and connected to the
negative terminal of coaxial cable.

Figure 1:- Antenna installed on the roof top


Figure:- Block diagram of ground station setup

Receiver is the device which receives the electrical signal sent by the antenna. We used
‘NooElec NESDR. Smart RTL-SDR software defined radio (SDR) to receive the signal with
SDR# for interface and control of the SDR. There are lot of SDR dongles and SDR
controlling software available out there. NESDR Smart works in the frequency range of
25MHz-170MHz and demodulate all major modulation techniques. SDR# requires drivers to
run SDR on windows software.

After receiving the signal we have to decode the signal. Every satellite uses their own
encoding techniques so decoding for every satellite is different depends on the encoding
employed. Some of the satellite uses Morse code for beacon, some of them release their
official decoding software. For Nayif-1 and JY1 sat officially launched their software which
in available on their website. For NOAA weather satellites images can be decoded using
WXtoimg software.

Satellite tracking:-

To receive the signal first we need to choose the satellite from which we want to receive the
signal. After choosing we need to know where the satellite is and when it will come over the
horizon this is known as tracking. We are using Orbitron software to track and getting
prediction of the satellites regarding the pass over the horizon. It’s an offline user friendly
software, user interface software and need some initial setup. N2YO website is also a very
good online website to get the exact satellite location. The image of the orbitron satellite is
shown in the figure 3.
Figure:- Orbitron Software

Procedure to track the satellite:-

 Choosing the satellite:- There is a pool of satellites in space from which we have to
choose the satellite. To receive and decode the satellite we require transmitting
frequency of the satellite, TLE data, modulation technique and decoding software to
decode the received signal. So choose the satellite for which all the above
information’s are available. In our case we chosen Nayif-1, JY1 sat and NOAA
weather satellites.
 Tracking and Prediction:- Track the satellite which was chosen to know where it is
moving now and get the prediction that when it will be available on the horizon using
orbitron software.
 Tuning, Receiving and Demodulation:- After knowing about the time,
note down the transmitting frequency, modulation technique used and make
sure that the decoding software and all other software are working properly.
At the same time when the satellite is over the horizon turn the transmitting
frequency of the satellite. Select the modulation technique used, for Nayif-1
and JY1 sat use USB(Upper Side Band), for NOAA use WFM (Wide Band
Frequency).
 Decoding:- Transmit the received signal to decoder software using virtual
audio cable(VB audio) and start decoding in the decoder software. The
satellite data in case of Nayif-1 and JY1 sat is obtained, and in case of
NOAA satellite weather images are obtained.
Tracking of NOAA 18 satellite

 Transmitting frequency  137.91MHz


 Modulation technique  WFM (Wide band frequency)
 Decoding software  WXtoimg

To receive the signal from NOAA 18 satellite, RTL SDR software is used. The received
signal is shown in the figure.

Figure:- Signal received from NOAA 18 satellite

To decode the signal we need to send received signal from SDR# to decoding software. For
NOAA 18 the decoding software is WXtoimg the received weather images are shown in the
figure.
Figure:- NOAA 18 weather images
Tracking of Nayif-1 satellite
 Transmitting frequency  145.96MHz
 Modulation technique  USB (Upper Side Band modulaion)
 Decoding software  Nayif-1 dashboard software

To receive the signal from Nayif-1 satellite, RTL SDR software is used. The received signal
is shown in the figure.

Figure:- Signal received from Nayif-1 satellite

To decode the signal we need to send received signal from SDR# to decoding software. For
Nayif-1 the decoding software is Nayif-1 dashboard the received weather images are shown
in the figure.
Figure:- Decoded data of NAYIF-1 satellite
Tracking of JY1-Sat satellite
 Transmitting frequency  145.85MHz
 Modulation technique  USB (Upper Side Band modulation)
 Decoding software  JY1 sat dashboard software

To receive the signal from JY1 sat satellite, RTL SDR software is used. The received signal
is shown in the figure

Figure:- Signal received from JY1 sat satellite

To decode the signal we need to send received signal from SDR# to decoding software. For
JY1 sat the decoding software is JY1 sat dashboard the received weather images are shown
in the figure.
Figure:- Decoded data of JY1-Sat satellite

Received image of JY1-sat satellite is shown in the figure.

Figure:-Received image of JY1-Sat satellite


CONCLUSION:-
The weather images of NOAA satellite and beacon signals of Nayif-1 and JY1-Sat satellites
are received successfully.

REFERENCES:-
1. SDR# software https://airspy.com/download/
2. Nayif-1 dashboard https://download.funcube.org.uk/Nayif-1_Dashboard_1040_installer.msi
3. JY1sat dashboard https://download.funcube.org.uk/JY1sat_Dashboard_1040_installer.msi

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