Attempting to Build a Radio to Receive Pictures From Space

In this episode, I try to build everything I need to downlink wearher satellite images from space.

NOAA (used to) have these weather satellites up there in the sky that constantly beamed down what they saw on a low bandwidth VHF channel. In the early 90's, computers had caught up enough that decoding these images on a regular PC was feasable. With NOAA just about to shut the last of these satellites down that transmitted on VHF, I figured I should take this opportunity to receive some pictures with old 90's technology.

I use jvfax to decode the images, and start by building the demodulator device it requires. Thereafter, I design a radio receiver using an MC3362 using EEdraw on MS-DOS for schamtic capture, and a demo version of Protel for Windows to lay out the PCB. Finally, I etch the PCB and build it up, with a small program on the PC side to set the PLL in order to tune it in to the satellite.

Finally, I poorly follow some instructions in Finnish to build a cross dipole antenna for my radio.

When the signal isn't strong enough, I build an antenna pre-amp out of a project book, and I'm able to verify that I'm actually receiving picture data from the satellite.