Nooelec GOES Weather Satellite RTL-SDR Bundle - Includes NESDR SMArTee XTR Software Defined Radio, & Everything Else Needed to Receive LRIT, HRIT & HRPT Satellite Weather Images Directly from Space!

This is not a quickie project, be prepared to tinker. It is pretty cool though.1. For a permanent install, you will NEED an SMA lightning arrestor, ground wire, and ground rod - unless you like the idea of bringing Thor into your house... I used this one from Amazon (CAREFUL, SMA is fragile to too much abuse!): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K25Y1JW2. For the Sawbird LNA, you will need a waterproof housing. I purchased this one off Amazon, and some 1-3/8 conduit straps which screwed directly to the back with the included screws (My antenna mast is chain link top-rail, 1-3/8" galvanized steel): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RPNWD47. The Sawbird and the Lightning arrestor BARELY fit inside - had to finagle the cable glands to get it to work.3. For the cable glands on that box, it was necessary to bore out the glands to 9/16" to fit the substantial cable ends that come on the LM400 cable included. Once that was done, they fit perfectly. That cable is robust, but the connectors are fragile. USE CABLE TIES! Torquing the cable will break SMA connectors. Just the weight of that cable might...4. DO NOT USE A PHONE to locate the satellite, use a real high quality lensatic compass and the info from Dishpointer. With my phone, and Satellite Director 2.6.4, I was about 5 degrees off on the azimuth, so much so that it gave me bad signal-to-noise. Once I re-set the azimuth with my lensensatic compass, I got real images and data-dumps. About doubled my SNR (signat-to-noise).5. I used a plumb-bob on a protractor to set the elevation, but "Clinometer" app on my Android phone was easier and gave decimal degrees. Held the phone against the LNB boom.6. Skew sucks. My location called for 30.1 degrees - all you get is horizontal, 45, and 90. I picked 45 because it is closest, but the mount REALLY should be redesigned!!!I have it installed on my PC running ZorinOS 17.2 (Ubuntu fork) - Satdump was ok to install - nothing too crazy but Linux dependencies are always an issue. I used "DeepAI" to tell me what the error messages meant, and how to resolve them.Take it slow, Google is your friend. Tinker.I am happy!

The media could not be loaded. 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.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!

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.