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!

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. 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.

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.

I've been wanting to copy the geosynchronous GOES satellite for quite a years. Gathering the receiver components and amp and cable seemed easy. Finding a dish and modifying a feed to work at 1700 MHz didn't. I a wanted something ready made for that Call me lazy, although antennas don't usually challenge me. This package comes with everything you need but one piece (more on that in a moment) and went together fast and easily. You need a steady base that won't move around and a pole that is relatively straight up and down. A level will be useful. At my location, the satellite is at 45 degrees in the sky, and in a clear direction, and I felt pretty good. I first built a Raspberry PI 4 and installed the GOES tools software, which takes the signal from the SDR connected to the antenna, demodulates the data, and renders that data into files (images, text, etc.). I was able to have this up and running in very short order, and the image is one of my first "false color" images, which are sent every 30 minutes, and are quite beautiful. Everything was fine till a rainstorm, which caused some water to infiltrate my SAWbird amplifer outside (remember the thing I said was missing? It's a waterproof enclosure of some type for that device, since it must install at the antenna). Once I dried it off, it appeared to be no worse for wear, but I could not get signal to return, even when I could see the signal from the satellite on other devices. After 3 days of work troubleshooting, it turned out to be nothing to do with this kit, but with the GOESTools software, which apparently decided not work work anymore after a rebuild. Once I tried the software from USA Satcom (which is not free, but worth the cost for peace of mind and utility IMO) I realized that I continued to have strong signals from the Nooelec dish, and have been happily receiving images again. During this time, i worked with Danielle of Nooelec support, who was very response and patient. This is a good company with strong customer centricity. Moral of the story is this is a great value, includes everything you need (except that little waterproof enclosure for the Sawbird amp/filter) and works very reliably. Coupled with (working) software, it offers a fascinating way to see all sorts of weather and no-weather images from the GOES satellites. Worth the price.

I bought this kit with the intention of receiving signals sent by the GEO-KOMPSAT-2A satellite. It works great with no problems, I am able to receive transmissions at a solid 17 SNR. However, adjusting the setup is where I ran into issues. Elevation and azimuth adjustments were no problem, just loosen the bolts a little, and you’re good to go. But the skew adjustment was an absolute pain. Adjusting the skew requires you to remove the entire antenna from its mount, as shown in the photos. When you remove these bolts, not only does the dish come off, but the boom detaches from the dish as well. This means that when adjusting the skew, you have to keep the boom upright while simultaneously holding the dish in place, almost impossible if you can’t put your hand in front of it without losing the signal. The fact that I was installing this on a slanted roof in 34°C heat might have added to the frustration, but nevertheless, the skew adjustment should not be this difficult to rotate.

Very easy to assemble and set up-- pretty much the same as a tv satellite dish. Fortunately, my Longitude is close enough to that of the Satellite, that skew and polarisation wasn't important. Just had to point the dish south and match the elevation to my latitude. Works just fine, and now that I have a permanent mount and my VIT sits around 60-100 all day, except when the sun passes behind the dish and satellite, which is to be expected. It even survived 160kph sustained winds,, from the south, right on the face of the dish. VERY impressed with that

Because of the way I wanted to set things up this required climbing a learning curve for me (eg re-learning Linux because I wanted to use a Raspberry Pi.) like many projects that require a lot of open-source software, getting going required a lot of googling. YMMV, if you’re able to just hook it up to a Windows machine or a Mac. The documents are a little scant, but adequate. I had a glitch with the receiver, but Kayla in customer support was excellent, and got it sorted out with me via email. I am going to have fun with this. Highly recommended.

Well packaged, easy to assemble and get working. You need a good mount for the antenna, although you can still receive a signal by holding the antenna.

Great product. Went together easily. I have a Raspberry Pi 4 I use with it but I find you really need a beefier computer than the Pi to get better and faster storage and processing.