NOAA Weather Satellite Images

[Firehawk85]

Since I am an amateur radio operator, I managed to record and decode signals from a few NOAA sats in polar orbit. These images date from September of last year, to a week ago. These images help determine cloud cover, sea temperature, thermal imaging, vegetation, and so on. If you want to know exactly how I got these, please ask, I got the time. If any of you live on or near the Eastern Seaboard and want an image of a certain time, please send a request. These satellites make passes a various times during the day, and the whole process can take up to an hour. I also can record SSTV images mainly from the ISS, but I will have to know ahead of time of when these will occur. Please go to my imgur here:

http://imgur.com/a/2XQR1

[Starwhip]

*raises eyebrows*

This sounds mildly against the law...

Is it?

[Firehawk85]

No....

No I am definitely sure it isn't, the frequencies are public for everyone to see.

I've seen others do the same and they aren't in jail.

There shouldn't be anything wrong about this, and I thanked NOAA publicly as well.

[Stargate525]

*raises eyebrows*

This sounds mildly against the law...

Is it?

If it is, then NOAA and NASA really should encrypt their broadcasts better. You know, the ones they're sending broadband at enough power that a civilian radio can intercept.

And those pics are really neat-looking. I love the noise.

[Starwhip]

Well, that's good.

Be careful about what you're listening to, though, or the KGB might be after you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judica-Cordiglia_brothers

(Maybe not the KGB, but yeah, you get the idea)

[Firehawk85]

Well, the obviously this here isn't illegal. It's the same as receiving SSTV signals from the ISS as many other operators including myself have done. And thank you these images took quite a while to work with, and denoise as much as I could.

- - - Updated - - -

I have listened to many other sats out there, it's quite interesting I must say.

[LordFerret]

Not illegal. NOAA and the ISS (NASA) have publicly posted the frequencies used. This information is also available from some of the other hams out there through ARRL.

Looks like you've a bit of noise / data drop-outs there. The NOAA site provides these same images, although they are a bit cleaner.

QSO?

WA2MHA here... but now Silent Key.

[Firehawk85]

Not illegal. NOAA and the ISS (NASA) have publicly posted the frequencies used. This information is also available from some of the other hams out there through ARRL.

Looks like you've a bit of noise / data drop-outs there. The NOAA site provides these same images, although they are a bit cleaner.

QSO?

WA2MHA here... but now Silent Key.

I am not licensed, as you know I cannot transmit. Although, I am working on getting my license currently. And it seems you live in NJ as well, we might have to talk again sometime.

[LordFerret]

I am not licensed, as you know I cannot transmit. Although, I am working on getting my license currently. And it seems you live in NJ as well, we might have to talk again sometime.

I can't xmit either, no license. That QSO was my dad's... it's still on hold if I want it, thanks to all his ARRL friends. Maybe one of these days I'll study up and take the test. I still have all the equipment (ICOM & Yaesu), 2-meter packet and mobile/hand-helds too. If you really get serious about it, check out the ARES group - very good people.

[Firehawk85]

My deepest condolences to your father, he had a great hobby that you should really look into. These images came through my handheld on the 2 meter band. I am working on putting an antenna on my roof for my base, I don't want to stand in the cold much longer. What got me into ham radio was the satellites, then I looked into repeaters, which is what is motivating me to get my license.

[lajoswinkler]

This is amazing, well done!

To ones claiming it's illegal, it is obviously not. What you do with radiowaves that penetrate your house is your own bussiness.

[magnemoe]

This is amazing, well done!

To ones claiming it's illegal, it is obviously not. What you do with radiowaves that penetrate your house is your own bussiness.

Yes, if you want to protect you transmuted signal you simply encrypt it, people outside the country would be free to record and publish anyway.

Many countries has some laws who make it illegal to listen to some frequencies like police radio but they are old dating back before encryption become practical.

[LordFerret]

I know NASA uses special bands for transmissions they don't want public to have access to, data streams and command and control stuff.

If you've not found it already, you might find this interesting...

http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/monitoring%20nasa%20and%20space%20communications.pdf

This is 5 years old already. I'll suppose there is a *newer* listing, but I'd have to dig further for it...

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/Spectrum_Use_Summary_Master-06212010.pdf

...in further checking, this is the 'current' edition. lol

And then there's this, even older, but some of it might still apply...

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/nasa_strategic_spectrum_plan_nov2007.pdf