Group for Earth Observation

The Independent Amateur Quarterly Publication for
Earth Observation and Weather Satellite Enthusiasts

Number 23
September 2009
Inside this issue . . .

The image on this pageshows Australia’s Lake
Eyre in March this year at
the peak of its most recent
flooding event: read more
about this rare
phenomenon inside ...

Luc van der Peer has been
constructing EUMETCast
systems from inexpensive‘barebones’ computerswith considerable success

The GOES-14 geostationary satellite is now
successfully in orbit. Fred
Piering provides an eyewitness account of thelaunch while Ed Murashie
gives us an overview ofwhat we can expect fromthis new orbiter

Marciano Righini takes anostalgic illustrated lookback to the era of Soviet
radar satellites

Two of our readers, Rob
Denton and Anders Höök
have been experimenting
with Double Cross
Antennas (DCAs). You canread about theirexperiences on pages 6
and 7

Plus much more ...

A typical DWDSAT GRIB file displayed in David Taylor’s GRIB Viewer(See Fred van den Bosch’s article on page 15)

The Royal Meteorological Society

Are you interested in weather and climate? ... Then why not join the Royal Meteorological Society?

The Royal Meteorological Society has
members from many different walks of life:
amateurs, professionals, academics andteachers. The one thing that connects them
all is their interest in weather and climate.
Some join the Royal Meteorological Society
to discover more about meteorology, and theSociety’s monthly magazine, ‘Weather’,
which is free to members, appeals to all who
have an interest in weather and climate. Its
articles cover all aspects of meteorology, andits illustrations and correspondence columns
present topical discussions and interesting
facts.
As a member of the Royal MeteorologicalSociety you will receive substantial discounts
on Society journals, books, weather
instruments and gifts, including the Society’s
calendar. Members are also eligible for
grants, innovation funds, and awards. The
Society runs a series of national and local
meetings and as a member you would be

kept up-to-date with the Society’s forthcoming
events.
In the membership welcome pack you will
receive a cloud identification guide,
membership card and pin badge, notepad
and pen.
Being part of the Royal MeteorologicalSociety means you will also be supporting thework of the Society with schools andteachers, offering career advice, hostingmeetings and providing evidence-based
advice to Government.
If you would like to join the Royal
Meteorological Society then you can join online atwww.rmets.org/join
Email us at info@rmets.org
Telephone: 01189 568 500

The GEO Quarterly

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September 2009
Editorial: Les HamiltonFor the second time in three months your GEO Quarterly has been published several
weeks later than planned. This is a disappointing trend following five years during
which members’ contributions were always sufficient to complete each issue in good time.
During these years, ‘overspill’ articles were always already making their way into thesubsequent issue prior to copy deadline.
ot so this time: GEO Quarterly 23 had barely crept past the halfway stage when its
copy deadline expired. An appeal on GEO-Subscribers in early August did bring infurther contributions, for which we are most grateful, but as GEO does not have full-timeeditorial staff, this inevitably delayed all aspects of production by the best part of amonth.
ith a new editor taking over at the start of 2010 it is important to ease his task by
providing articles and images in good time. Please note: the copy deadline is a final
date for last-minute news—general articles, particularly major ones containing large
numbers of diagrams and images, should be submitted at the earliest opportunity,
hopefully at least four weeks prior to deadline.
erhaps it’s time for a change of emphasis. When GEO first formed, APT still reigned as
the most popular form of satellite imaging—and the nature of the art meant thateveryone was striving to produce better images from more distant horizons than everyoneelse. Location played a major role: through factors such as the proximity of high ground,
pagers, reflecting artefacts, nearby power lines and so on. Constructing andexperimenting with hardware provided one of the kingpins of the hobby. But no longer!
EUMETCast has removed all the uncertainty and mystery from satellite imaging. Everyone
now receives identical images, generally of perfect quality, regardless of location. If animage is flawed, then everyone receives it so.
o maintain interest in our hobby, much more thought should be given to the images
themselves: identifying images of particular interest, and describing/explaining thefeatures shown in them. Many GEO readers download huge numbers of images every day,covering all corners of the globe (Metop and MSG-FSD). Food for thought indeed.
opy deadline for Quarterly 24 is October 31. So now would be the perfect time to start
the ball rolling. Check out your EUMETCast data, do a little research, and send us
interesting images with a few sentences of description.

N

W
P

T

C

Contents
GEO Report
Quarterly Question
Coming Events
Cover and Full Page Images
Lake Eyre Flooding brings Life to Australia’s HeartDCA v QFH
Experiences with a Double Cross Antenna
SAR on the USSR Weather Spacecraft
HRPT for Beginners
DWDSAT and GRIB Viewer Automation
Photographing Space Shuttle and ISS Trails
Remote Management of PCs by email messages
Mobile APT
Signal Plotter Plus
Communications from the International Space Station

Francis BellLes Hamilton
Rob Denton
Anders Höök
Marciano Righini
Rob Denton
Fred van den Bosch
Francis Breame
Giuseppe Cico
Terry Mullen
Fred Piering
David Simmons

2
3
3
3
4
6
7
9
12
15
16
17
18
20
21

GEO Shop
NOAA Satellite Predictions for the UK and Western Europe
Helplines and Internet Discussion Groups
Copy Deadline for the next issue of GEO Quarterly
GEO Membership Renewal Form

i
ii
iii
iii
iv

The GOES-O Launch - Being There
The Best is Yet to Come
Symposium 2009 Report
Novaya Zemlya
Turkish Delight
Tale of a Tree
Receiving MSG on a ‘Barebone’ PC
Computer Corner
Malaysia’s RazakSat Launched into Novel Orbit
Using a Netbook Computer for APT Reception
Feedback

23
24
28
33
33
35
36
38
41
43
44

Fred Piering
Ed Murashie
Francis Bell
NASA Earth Observatory
Francis Bell
Robert Moore
Luc van der Peer
Douglas DeansPeter Wakelin
Fred van den Bosch
Readers’ correspondence

GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009

Francis BellMy priority when writing my report for the Quarterly is towelcome new members. This time is no exception so asincere welcome to those for whom this may be their first
GEO Quarterly. I will risk saying, and I know I have said
before, that GEO is an organisation covering a broad
spectrum of interests and talents. You will read in the
Quarterly technical articles which are at the frontiers ofexperimentation and knowledge relating to weather satellite
reception and closely related topics; however, please notethat experiences and problems faced by absolute beginners
are equally important.
We all start off as beginners at some stage, hence to shareand illustrate these experiences is as important as work at
the frontiers of knowledge. In other words, please do nothesitate to send a contribution of any description with thepotential for publication in our Quarterly, either to myself or
to our editor. A note here about the quality of GEO
Quarterly, which is largely due to the skills and efforts ofour editor: so formal thank you editor; plus, in the
background, thanks to our printers, who I think produce a
quality publication for us.
A slight aside here may be to request materials fromschools or other institutions open to the public. I am
particularly interested in the perception and experiencesof young people when dealing with Earth observation
and weather satellites. Please do not hesitate in sending
material of any kind to myself or to our editor.
At this point I would usually report on GEO matters relating
to our legal status, any tax matters, our membership andfinancial status. However, these are covered in my report ofthe symposium and the AGM on page 29 so, with just one
exception, I will not repeat them here. This is my usual
request not to forget your membership renewal and keep our
membership secretary up to date with your personal details:
for example, a change of address or subscription payment
protocols. It takes much unnecessary effort for ourmanagement team to check these details for a failed
renewal. Don't renew if your interests have changed or you
don't think GEO membership is worthwhile but let that be apositive decision, not just forgetfulness.

National Hamfest
Members of the RSGB and readers of RadCom (August 2009
page 49) may have seen notices relating to a new event
which is being planned—a National Hamfest. This is to be a
two day event on the October 2-3, 2009. It so happens that I
know the location of this new event because I used to live
only a few miles from what used to be RAF Swinderby. This
was a very active airfield during the Second World War but
was vacated by the RAF at some time in the 1970's. The site
is now home for several exhibition areas and this is where
the National Hamfest is being held. There is easy access via
the A46 main road and plenty of parking spaces. GEO willbe there and we will endeavour to display live satellite
reception together with examples of the hardware andliterature we have available for our members. I will ask
EUMETSAT and BNSC for their literature as this is always
well received by the public at these events. For the latest
details visit
www.nationalhamfest.org.uk

Royal Meteorological Society Amateur Conference
From copies of correspondence I have received, I understandthat the Royal Meteorological Society is planning a
conference for amateur and educational users of
meteorological data. The planning stages will be in theautumn of this year with the event being held at Reading
University in the first half of 2010. GEO may well be able tocontribute to this conference with our skills and experienceof weather satellite reception. Also being considered ascontributors to the conference are the ClimatologicalObservers Link (COL) and the UK based Tornado and Storm
Research Organisation (TORRO). I can also think of othergroups whose contributions may be appropriate. Whendetails are confirmed we will publish them in GEO Quarterly
and on our website. In the meantime, we look forward in
anticipation to this conference.

It is with pleasure that I bring to your attention three new
events which we are anticipating in the next few months.
EUMETSAT Annual ConferenceThis year, the EUMETSAT annual conference will be held in
the UK. The conference venue moves around member states
but this year it is to be held in the UK between September
21-25. The conference will be hosted by the UK Met Officeand the venue is the Assembly Rooms, Bath. I am in touchwith EUMETSAT and the UK Met Office organisers as I hope
we can provide all delegates with a GEO information pack.
GEO will not be making a formal presentation at theconference as I did last December at the NOAA conference in
Miami but we will make the effort to ensure that delegatesare up-to-date with GEO via the information pack, plus a
copy of a recent Quarterly. For details of the conference visit
EUMETSAT's web site atwww.eumetsat.int

2

Quarterly Question 22
The question posed last issue, on how satellite receiving
antennas were protected from frost and snow, brought aneclectic postbag of responses. Five readers took the trouble
to respond. David Williams’ comprehensive letter isreproduced in ‘Feedback’, on page 44. Other replies camefrom:
Darrell Robertson
Supervisor, Satellite Data Services TeamNOAA / NESDIS Direct Services Division

The answer to your question is that we use heaters on ourdishes. A lot of antennas use de-icers which are heaters thatkeep the snow and ice from sticking. De-icers have theirown issues so we tend to just use fire hoses or liquid deicers to spray into our dishes if they every get that bad.

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2009

However, I did actually see amaintenance guy on the roof knocking
the ice and snow out of a dish with theend of a broom handle. Not
recommended. They now have dents inthat dish.
Andreas Lubnow
Having once visited one of the big
Usingen-like dishes not far from where
I live in Hameln, Germany, I seem toremember they do it by electric heatingof the entire dish and that there is a
substantial power consumption
associated with this heating process. I
noted the nuclear power plant nearby
but still, the cost of the dish heatingmust be substantial.
Thank you for your efforts with GEO. I
am a little preoccupied at the moment
because my wife has just given birth toour first baby daughter and family
matters are high on our agenda.
Ian Leitch
Despite not having any real first-handexperience of the subject, I have afriend Google. Snow cover protection ofsatellite communication dishes andfeeds can be achieved by theemployment of covers, coatings or
heating: alone or in a sensiblecombination. Heating can be hot air orelectrical heating elements built into
covering materials such as domes,
fabric face-covers or by components ofthe dishes/radiating elements
themselves.
Surface coatings can be used to makethe antenna parts or covers slipperyand less likely to retain snow. Coupledwith heating, a high degree ofprotection can be expected. Snow will
land, but any build-up of snow isprevented as it either melts or slides
off relatively quickly. As always, thebalance is between cost on one handand operational requirement on theother.
Andy Eskelson
There will be many ways to protect
antennas from snow, and it will
depend on the size of the antenna. Forvery large dishes and domes I would
guess that heating is the only way.
However, for smaller antennae, thenormal method is to use and inflatable
bladder. if the dish snows or ices up,
the bladder is inflated and deflated.
This cracks any ice and snow whichthen falls off.
The cover over a dish means that snow
and ice cannot collect on the bowl of
the dish, so just using a cover solves a
lot of problems. I have somephotographs of the antennae on the
London BT tower showing their covers.
Ice bladders are also available for
shipboard radar systems, which iswhere I first encountered them.

Group for Earth Observation

Quarterly Question 23
On July 23 this year, at the ThreeCounties Amateur Radio Club’s field
day, I set up my laptop and mobile
APT station on a hilltop location on theSouth Downs, in east Hampshire, at asite reputed to be a good take off andreceiving location for RF. The mostinteresting image I received was fromNOAA-19, at a maximum elevation of
13° to the west. I judged the reception
to be outstanding for that elevation
and received an image, mostly of theAtlantic Ocean but more interestingly
Greenland and, at the lower left of theimage, the island of Newfoundland. I
thought this was as good as you canget from Hampshire. The NOAA-18
footprint shown on the WXtrack screen
below suggests that a considerable
area of Canada should be accessible.

GEO Quarterly No 23

Cover and Full Page Images
Front CoverThis Landsat-5 image dating fromMarch 22, 2009 shows Australia’s Lake
Eyre in flood following record monsoon
rains in northern Queensland.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data
provided by the United States Geological Survey

Inside Front Cover
A typical DWDSAT GRIB file displayed inDavid Taylor’s GRIB Viewer.
Image © EUMETSAT 2009

Inside Back Cover
The Aral Sea was imaged by the MODIS
instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite
on July 20, 2009.
Image: MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA/GSFC

Back CoverThis superb NOAA-18 AVHRR image of
the British Isles was downloaded by David
Taylor, via EUMETCast, at 12:55 UT on
May 30 this year, and processed with
HRPT Reader.
Image © EUMETSAT 2009

Page 26
The light from engine ignition is reflectedin the water near Launch Complex-37 atCape Canaveral, Florida as a Delta IV
rocket carries the GOES-O satellite aloft.
Photo: NASANOAA 18 image acquired from the south ofEngland, showing Greenland and Newfoundland(largely hidden by cloud at lower left).

Page 31
The first visible image to be received from
GOES-14, on July 27, 2009
Image: NASA

Page 32
Novaya Zemlya, imaged by the MODIS
instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite
on July 27, 2009.
Image: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team,NASA GSFC

Page 40
This screenshot from a NOAA-18 pass at 10°W
suggests strongly that a considerable area of
eastern Canada should be accessible in APT
images, providing the western horizon is good.
Image taken from David Taylor’s WXtrack

The Question
Can any reader, located on mainland
Europe, Great Britain or Ireland,
submit an APT image clearly showing
detail from the eastern seaboard of
Canada?
A selection of the best images submitted
to the editor by next copy deadline willappear in the December Quarterly.

Forthcoming events
September 12-13
The Leicester Amateur Radio Show. In thepast GEO has attend this show but thechanges of dates and venues has left us

The MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s
Terra satellite imaged these fascinating
whorls of sea ice off the southeastern
coast of Baffin Island on July 11, 2009.
Image: MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA/GSFC

with a degree of uncertainty about thisevent. We will try to be there.
September 21-25, 2009
EUMETSAT’s international conference inBath, hosted by the UK Met Office. See the
EUMETSAT website for details. GEO are
preparing information literature fordelegates.
Sunday September 27, 2009
The West London Radio and Electronic
show at Kempton.
October 2-3, 2009
The RSGB National Hamfest to be held
near Newark. This is a new event and GEO
will do its best to attend.

3

GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009

Les Hamilton
Almost two years ago [1] we carried a feature on the Aral Sea,
explaining how Man’s activities have resulted in catastrophic
water loss over the past half century. Another major inlandsea, Australia’s Lake Eyre, has suffered a similar fate, albeit
through natural causes. Up until around two million years
ago, Lake Eyre was well supplied with water and surroundedby forests; but the basin became increasingly arid as Australia
drifted closer to the equator. Nowadays, Lake Eyre spends
most of its time as a flat desiccated salt pan, famously selectedby Donald Campbell as the location for his 1964 land speedrecord attempt in Bluebird. But occasionally it does fill withwater, most recently during the austral summer of 2009.
Lake Eyre takes its name from explorer Edward John Eyre
who, in 1840, was the first white man to visit it. Lake Eyre, thelowest point on the continent, lies fifteen metres below sea
level and usually consists only of salt pans stretching as far as
the eye can see. In flood years, though, Lake Eyre undergoes atemporary period of rapid growth and fertility when the waters
return, prompting the arrival of enormous flocks of waterfowl
and the reappearance of dormant marine creatures.
Australia’s Lake Eyre drainage basin embraces over a
million square kilometers, stretching from Northern Territory
to South Australia. Such rain that falls in this area drains
inward, through the Simpson Desert and into Lake Eyre.
Lake Eyre consists of two sections, Lake Eyre North andLake Eyre South, joined by the narrow Goyder Channel.
From 10000 to 5000 years ago, the northern section was apermanent saline lake but during the subsequent 2000
years it dried out, leaving a playa (salt pan). In some parts,
the salt crust is up to 460 mm thick but can dissolve
completely after major flooding.
Average annual rainfall in the Lake Eyre basin is only
125 millimetres and the bulk of any water reaching it isgenerally provided by the river systems of inland
Queensland, in particular the Georgina and Diamantina.
Indeed, until the major flood of 1949—its first recorded
filling—it had been thought that Lake Eyre was permanently
dry. In the years since its discovery, the lake has filled to its
brim only three times though there have been numerous
partial floodings. The highest recorded flood occurred in
1974, when 34 km3 of water entered the lake, filling it to adepth of six metres.
The 2009 Flooding Event
From the first week of January through to early March
2009, an active monsoon season brought two tropical
cyclones, Charlotte and Ellie, as well as numerous additional
low pressure systems to northern Queensland. The result
was a period of sustained and exceptionally heavy rainfall
throughout January and February, particularly south of the
Gulf of Carpentaria. The first flood warnings were issued formoderate to major flooding in the Gulf Rivers and theGeorgina and Diamantina Rivers in Western Queensland
and as the heavy rains persisted, these remained in force fornine weeks until March 7. By then, the extent andmagnitude of the flooding were estimated to have been
second only to the record flooding of 1974 during the past
century. Many stations in the Gulf recorded record daily andmonthly rainfall totals for January and February. The townof Cairns for example experienced some 300 mm of4

precipitation in just 24 hours on January 12 and manyother stations experienced over 400 mm!
By mid January, major floods were already making their
way down the Diamantina and Georgina river systems which
feed Lake Eyre but it was not till almost a month later,
advancing at a mean velocity of 12.5 km per day, that thefirst trickles of water finally started entering its parchedbasin. By March 22, shallow water covered much of the lake
bed as illustrated by the Landsat-5 image on the front cover.
The water is colourful, tinted green and blue by sedimentand algae. The southwestern lobe of the lake is darkest incolour.
The 2009 Lake Eyre flood peaked at a depth of 1.5 m in lateMay, as illustrated in figure 1 on the facing page. Acquiredby NASA’s Terra satellite, it provides a wider, natural-colour
view of the region, with water from the Diamantina pouring
into the lake through one of many channels that drain thedesert during the rainy season. The muddy brown water
spreads into Lake Eyre via a triangular delta.
Although the recent infill reached only a quarter of thelake’s maximum recorded depth of 6m, it represented nine
cubic kilometres of water crossing the Queensland - South
Australian border, most of it coming from the massive
Georgina River floods. Much of this water simply soaked into
the desert or evaporated en route and only 10% of the flow,which covered an area of 800 square kilometres, actuallyreached Lake Eyre.
Transformation
Normally inhospitable to wildlife, Lake Eyre is transformed
into Australia’s largest lake when the waters flow. Alongwith surrounding river channels, lakes, and lagoons it
becomes a wildlife oasis brimming with flora and fauna.
The desert becomes transformed. Wildflowers spring up andthe lake becomes a breeding ground for thousands of birds.
As many as 60,000 waterbirds had arrived in the Lake Eyre
region by mid May, flocking to nest on the floodplains ofsouthwest Queensland and take advantage of the best
conditions for twenty years. Numerous ducks, spoonbills,
egrets, cormorants, pelicans, gulls and terns were all taking
advantage of the floodwaters to breed. In years whenflooding fills Lake Eyre to 80% of its capacity, it is likely thatover 80 different species of birds will descend on the area
making it one of the most spectacular places to visit inAustralia. Golden perch, which arrive on the floodwaters,
quickly start to spawn, providing birds with a feast of
fingerlings (young fish).
But it will all be short lived. In the heat of South Australia’s
north, water evaporates at a prodigious rate. Even on
occasions when the lake reaches more than two metres in
depth, the water would almost certainly be gone by October.
When the waters get deeper than this, the lake can last for
approximately 12 months. In 2009 however, the water in
Lake Eyre were already well in decline by July, as
evaporation exceeded the diminishing flows of the rivers.
Figure 2 shows the situation on July 19, 2009.
Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Eyre_Basinwww.geo-web.org.uk

September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 23

Figure 1 - A May 22, 2009 Terra MODIS image showing Lake Eyre in flood - Image: NASA/GSFC MODIS Rapid Response

Figure 2 - A July 19, 2009 Aqua MODIS image shows Lake Eyre drying out again - Image: NASA/GSFC MODIS Rapid Response

www.geo-web.org.uk

5

GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009

Rob Denton LZ/G4YRZ - g4yrz@wxsat.org
After reading so many articles about APT antennas, I
decided to put some to the test. I had tried simple verticals
and dipoles but knew that, if I wanted a quality image, I
must use a dedicated antenna. It’s the same as withreceivers: you can use a scanner but you need a dedicatedweather satellite receiver for the best results.
The antennas I decided to compare were the turnstile, thequadrafilar helix (QFH) and the latest concept, the double
cross antenna (DCA).

The QFH Antenna

The DC Antenna

I don’t want to start any ‘antenna wars’ as I know our Dutch
friends, in particular, like the QFH. But many readers have
emailed me asking about the results of my tests after
building a home-made DCA.
This photograph clearly shows the QFH and DCA on the author’s roof

At my previous location in UK I had already been successful
using the turnstile. I starting first with a simple run-of-themill crossed dipole, then later switched to the WIMO design
with its sloping elements. It was the WIMO antenna on
which I received the ‘How far east?’ images in previous GEO
Quarterlies.
That left me with two more antennas to try, the QFH andthe DCA. I received a Dartcom QFH from a fellow GEO
member, and this seemed to be pulling in the satellite
signals very strongly—but there was much interference on
the images. Adding a ferrite bead and shortening the coax
lead soon cured this problem and I was very pleased with
the images. The antenna seemed to work very well. I haveread many write-ups about the QFH but wanted to see ifwhat I read was the same as in the real world.
I connected the R2ZX to both my QFH and DCA, enabled its
antenna diversity feature and watched. For the main part ofthe pass, the QFH was chosen more often than the DCA as
it produced a much stronger signal. But I was needing astronger signal at the start and end of the pass, where it
counted most.
That’s where the Double Cross Antenna came into a leagueof it’s own. The R2ZX chose the DCA for both the start andend of each pass, where I needed it most, long before the
QFH had found and lost the signals. I tried each antenna
separately and, although the QFH was stronger for thecloser, main part of the passes, the DCA out-performed it at
low elevations.

6

The turnstile type antennas such as the DCA are also lessprone to pagers than the QFH. If I were to choose a general
single-purpose antenna, it would be the DCA; but forruggedness and for windy locations, portability, maritime
mobile, even car mobile, the QFH is a more robust antenna.
I might also add that what works for me is not necessarily
the same for everyone. Antennas perform differently at
different locations; there are so many things to take into
account: obstructions, pagers, soil types, height of antennaetc. You just have to try it for yourself. Also, there is thecost factor. My home-built antenna cost me around £20, a
lot cheaper than a commercial antenna, but saying that, my
QFH was a gift. Thank you, I will never part with it. In fact I
will use it for portable use.
I hope I haven’t stirred up a hornet’s nest or offended
anyone. I’m just expressing my own personal point of viewand honest account of my findings. It’s what many of you
asked me try out, and I did it for my own peace of mind.
You must decide for yourself which antenna is best for you,
It will be interesting to run another test next time I movehouse.
I wrote this in the hope that it will help others. Remember,
we are all in the same team here, and all learning throughtrial and error—so let’s help each other. Enjoy the hobby.
References
A QFH antenna is available from the GEO shop
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/shop.html
For Jerry Martes Double Cross Antenna, see GEO Q20 page13.
You can download the PDF document ‘DCA Assembly Hints’ fromhttp://www.poes-weather.com/media/DCA-Assembly-Hints.pdf

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 23

Anders Höök
Double Cross Antenna
In the first days of June, I was ready with my Double Cross
APT Antenna, described in GEO Q20. The crucial point there
was what ‘was left to the ingenuity of each individual
constructor’. I couldn’t find the slim plastic pipes andespecially not appropriate T-pieces that the photos seemedto show; so I worked with 32 mm waste pipe and T-pieces
that I placed in a 110 mm pipe. The result was the rather
crude construction illustrated in figure 1.

Flooded Russian Rivers
I know that in GEO Q15, a really splendid image of theflooded Russian river Ob was published. I neverthelesscannot resist attaching one that I received recently. It is an
APT image, NOAA 18 from 2009-06-26, 08:23 UT, maxelevation 13 degrees. I have of course used the DC and QFHantennas in diversity reception. Most of the time the DC
antenna has delivered the signal, decoding and processing
with Patrik Tast’s APT Decoder (figure 3).
Besides the rivers Ob and Taz, which flow to the same ice
jammed estuary, the river Yenisei can also be seen to havean estuary jammed with ice. This phenomenon with ice
jamming of arctic Russian rivers, I already learnt at school,
it is very nice to be able to se it in reality, now at old age.

Figure 1 - The Double Cross Design

I read somewhere that the really crucial point was theharness. This I happened to prove by mistake as I wrongly
made the difference between feeders to the dipole pairs
about 300 mm (instead of 360 mm). The result wasinteresting in the way that usual radio signals, e.g. aircommunication, were received quite well, but the polarised
signal from the satellites were very noisy. After correcting
the length everything became better.
The good old QFH antenna (Paul Hayes’ design) is still in
use and both can be seen here, mounted on my roof. It isvery good that both antennas can be used with the help of
the diversity reception of the R2FX receiver.

Figure 2 - Twin antennas for diversity reception

Figure 3 - Ice-jammed Arctic river estuaries

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Keith Fraser sent in this NOAA-18 APT image dating from 16:30 UT on June18, 2009. The central feature is the island of Newfoundland. Keith wrote:‘About 200 km southeast of Nova Scotia I saw a pixel that intrigued me andhave circled it on image. I looked up the 500 m resolution Aqua/MODIS image

Robert Moore provided this fascinating image ofthe Mississippi river. Robert writes: ‘Between the
Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians, North
America drains into the Mississippi River, which
discharges into the Gulf of Mexico. On the July 24,
2009, the Metop-A image of the Mississippi was
exceptionally clear and cloud free, showing the full

8

September 2009

for the same date and identified it as Sable Island—of wild horses renown.
This is the first time that I have noticed it, as this area is always under fog orcloud because of Gulf Stream warmth meeting the cold water from the Davis
Strait.

3,730 km length of the river. In the lower reaches,
the river runs through flat terrain, creating
meanders: loops that become near-circular. Erosion
and sedimentation can cut these loops off to form
oxbow lakes. These may remain as lakes, or dryout to leave curved depressions in the landscape.
The image shows the middle and lower parts of the

www.geo-web.org.uk

Mississippi; the twists and turns are clear to see, as
are many oxbows. The inset shows detail from thelower part of the river, and whilst perhaps overzoomed, nevertheless shows the oxbow lakes veryclearly. The flood plain (which regularly floods) may
also be seen in both images.’
Metop-A Image © EUMETSAT 2009

September 2009

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GEO Quarterly No 23

Marciano Righini, I4MY
On a satellite carrying SAR (Synthetic
Aperture Radar) equipment (figure 1) there
is an altimeter to determine the altitude of
the spacecraft as it advances along its
orbit. At the same time, a radar shoots
microwave bursts sideways towards the
Earth surface where they suffer reflection.
Every echo consists of a great number ofreflections from thousands of single
structures. The backscattered signal ischaracterised by the delay (distance) andthe Doppler shift (wavelength). Moreover
the echo strength depends on the
inclination of the structures, on theirroughness and on that electromagnetic
property of the material known as its
dielectric constant. All these elements are
combined in order to create a coherent
image of the terrain below.

VIS and SAR images taken over Antarctica
in 1986. The most legible of the series isshown in figure 2, showing a part of Victoria
Land between 160° and 170° east ofGreenwich, and from Cape North (71°S) to
about 77°S. The SAR sensor emphasises
the mountain range running south withpeaks up to about 3000 metres high. This
range rises abruptly from the sea or fromthe Ross Shelf Ice.
It is the chain of mountains sighted by the
expedition of Capt. J. Clark Ross on

January 10, 1841 and formally claimed forQueen Victoria.
As Cosmos-1500 could store 6.5 minutes ofimage and transmit it later when flying overeastern Europe, I received the swath of
figure 2 twelve hours after it was taken.
Okean
The Cosmos on the 137 MHz band werepart of a system named Resurs
continued on page 11 ...

The USSR satellites with SAR downlink on
the 137 MHz band were named Cosmos,
Okean and Sich.

Figure 1 – To create a Synthetic Aperture Radar
image, the altimeter determines thealtitude above the ground and a
microwave train is beamed towards
and reflected by the Earth’s surface.

CosmosThere were four Cosmos satellites with a
SAR downlink (1500, 1602, 1766 and1869), which were launched between 1983
and 1987. On the last one, Cosmos 1869,
a 12 metre long antenna failed to deploy
making its SAR unusable. The mostinteresting satellite was Cosmos-1500,
from which I was able to acquire a series of

Figure 2 – A Cosmos-1500 VIS and SAR swath received on March 27, 1986 between 12:10 and
12:16 GMT, about 12 hours after it was taken over Antarctica. The minute count (inverted)says that at 00:12 GMT, Cosmos-1500 was over latitude -76° and longitude 176°E, and at
00:18 GMT it was over latitude -56° and longitude 196°E. The SAR image (right) shows
Victoria Land from Cape North to about -76° with its mountain range rising from the sea. Also
the VIS image (left) shows the mountainous coastline of Victoria Land and the Ross Sea.

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Figure 3 – An Okean-2 descending pass from September 8, 1990 at 13:14 – 13:25 GMT.
The 8 mm microwave sounder image is on the left and the 32 mm SAR image
on the right. The pass goes from the Norwegian mountains to the Libyan
Sahara. As rough surfaces produce a high degree of backscatter, a great
number of cities and towns can be identified. Note that the Sahara terrain
gives highly varied reflections.

10

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September 2009

Figure 4 – A SAR swath from Sich 1 transmitted on
March 30, 1996 between 15:38–15:48 GMT,
descending from southern Finland to western
Egypt. This was a single image when Sich-1
sent direct readout data. As usual, the rugged
terrain stands out in great relief. The Sahara
desert shows threadlike structures which are
difficult to interpret.

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GEO Quarterly No 23

Figure 6 – This Sich-1 image was received in Europe on March 19, 1996 between 15:36 and15:42 GMT. The first edge number in one of the blocks says that it was taken 836
minutes after Moscow midnight, i.e. at 13:56 MST = 10:56 GMT = 18:56 in thePhilippines. In fact the SAR picture shows several islands of the Philippine
archipelago: the southern end of Luzon, Samar, Leyte, Cebu, and Bohol.

(Resources), or informally Okean-O, where the letter ‘O’ meant ‘optic’. The four
Okean satellites launched from 1988 to 1994 continued the Okean-O programme.
Besides APT, they carried a 32 mm SAR and an 8 mm microwave sounding unit. In
figure 3, the SAR image (right) stretches from North Cape (Norway) to Africa andgives prominence to mountains and cities, as rough surfaces produce a high degreeof backscatter. Okean-4, the last of the series, launched in 1994, was built in
Ukraine.
Sich
In 1995 the Ukrainian Space Agency launched a spacecraft named Sich which wassaid to be another name for Okean, but the SAR sensor of Sich-1 produced imagesof a different kind. When it transmitted real time data, there was a single picture on
the line; on the other hand, when it transmitted stored data (figure 6) the SAR
image was similar to that of Cosmos-1500: narrow and with a numerical code.
Figure 5 – A SAR descending pass from Sich-1
transmitted on April 4, 1996 between
14:19–14:27 GMT. It shows part of Russia, theBlack Sea, Turkey, Cyprus and the Sinai
peninsula.

Monitoring the Russian spacecraft was sometimes frustrating because they wereseldom active, but now and then beautiful images rewarded the hours spent in frontof a dumb receiver.

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September 2009

Rob Denton LZ/G4YRZ
Since the loss of direct WEFAX reception from Meteosat,
things have never been the same for me with this hobby.
Although we now have exceptional images from EUMETCast,it takes away that satisfaction of direct reception. Whereas I
used to really enjoy the hobby, having it on a plate now withEUMETCast seems to take away the pleasure I once enjoyed.
Don’t get me wrong! I’m grateful for what we have withEUMETCast and excellent image quality and resolution suchas we’d never seen before, but being a radio ham with acurious mind, I prefer the satisfaction of direct reception. Asof lately, I seem to have reverted more to APT but, here in
Bulgaria, the location is not ideal: there’s much interference
from pagers and especially overhead power lines, a far cry
from my location in the central part of the UK which had
trouble free reception.
After much thought, and searching for alternatives to relayed
images, I came up with the idea that maybe HRPT was theway to go. And so it was. In this and future articles you will
follow my adventures in setting up an HRPT station andreceiving images: not just the good points, but the downfalls
too, exactly as it is in this real world.
What is HRPT? Well, HRPT stands for High Resolution
Picture Transmission. The more familiar APT is a derivativeof HRPT but, whereas APT provides 4 km resolution(figure 1), HRPT has a whopping 1.1 km resolution (figure 2).
HRPT is received from the same polar orbiting satellites thatbring you your APT images, NOAAs 17,18 and 19.
Equipment
What equipment is needed to receive HRPT? We are looking
at a dedicated HRPT receiver. A normal APT receiver will notwork as the HRPT signal uses a wider bandwidth, so you
must have a dedicated receiver. Then you need a decoder,amplifier, downconverter, dish and feed, rotator andcontroller. It all sounds rather complicated but, taken one
step at a time, it’s not so difficult as it seems.
Receivers
The main choice of receivers I liked were available from
Nuova Elettronica, Quorum, and Dartcom. There are othersuppliers of HRPT Receivers but I favoured these because I
had a bad deal with after-sales on one leading brand which
only seemed interested in selling me a new system rather
than supporting me with my existing one—and who makefalse claims on their website that no other commercial HRPT
receiver is available. The receiver I chose was from Nuova
Elettronica in Italy, which currently sells at 220 Euro on
their website at time of writing this article. The model
number is LX1495 (figure 3). This receiver was once
available in kit form but now, at this price, it is only
available ready built. I bought my receiver second-hand fromanother GEO member up in Scotland.
Decoders
There are several HRPT decoders on the market but I chose
the Rob Alblas design (figure 4). This unit can be built as aseparate module or included inside the HRPT receiver.
I chose Rob’s decoder because it looks like it meets all myrequirements and it’s simple to build. Yes! I said build. If
you want to do this on a shoestring then it involves homeconstruction, although such items can also be bought
ready-made. Having a tight budget, I decided I would

12

construct what I could and save money rather than buying
ready-made. It is really not as difficult as you may think. I
was a little daunted at first but, step by step, it can be done.
I’m not going to go through all the details of this board as
it’s already available on the internet at the website of Rob
Alblashttp://www.alblas.demon.nl/wsat/hardware/hardware_frm.html
http://www.alblas.demon.nl/wsat/hardware/files/hrptpdf.zip

Rob is a member of Werkgroep Kunstmanen (the Dutch
equivalent of GEO) who support GEO tremendously. I’mtruly grateful for their participation. You may have met someof GEO’s Dutch members at an annual GEO Symposium,
often held in Leicester. This decoder was the first item I
built towards my step of owning and using an HRPT station.
The PCB (printed circuit board) was a gift to me from theretailer in USA (Far Circuits)
http://www.farcircuits.net

to set me off in my venture. The board normally costs 25 US
dollars. The Xilink chips and EPROM plus postage weregenerously donated from Rob Alblas.
http://www.alblas.demon.nl/wsat/index.html

The other components were ordered for me by my friend
Tony from JRW Electronics in the UK—from Farnell
Electronics—and some items came from his own stock. The
total cost of purchased components was around £5. I might
add it would have cost me much more (maybe over £100)
were it not for the generosity of my friends.
Assembling the Rob Alblas Decoder Board
Before you make the same mistake as I did, stop and think
before you start assembly. I didn’t have any assembly
instructions and hastily soldered on the IC holders first,
later realising that some wire links had to be soldered
underneath them! First lesson learned! This resulted in me
having to put PVC coated link wires under the board to getround this problem. So let’s start correctly.
First, make sure all the drilled holes in your PCB are
unblocked; failure to do this can easily damage a component
by bending the pins or breaking them off, rendering it
useless. Once the board has been inspected, double checkeverything; also, if possible, label every part so there are noerrors. Now you are ready for soldering. Be sure to groundyourself first by touching earth somewhere or using special
earth straps to prevent static build-up. I would recommend
starting with all the link wires first, then the pins. This will
get you used to soldering before you start with the heatsensitive components.
I would like to add that, if anyone does not feel confident at
soldering the components to the board, I will be happy to do
it for them for the cost of the return postage. Despite myshaky hands and failing vision, there’s life in the olddinosaur yet. However, if you are prepared to wait, I maysoon be back in the UK.
Whilst I was assembling the PCB I had an image of theboard and components on my computer monitor, so I could
see where all the components went. Also, I had the second
ready assembled PCB by my side for comparison. Believeme, it was a great feeling of satisfaction when I had soldered
the last component in place. What always seems

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GEO Quarterly No 23

Figure 1 - A APT image (4 km/pixel)

Figure 3 - The Nuova LX1495 Receiver

Figure 2 - An HRPT Image (1.1 km/pixel)

Figure 4 - The Alblas Decoder
photo: Rob Alblas

Figure 5 - The 1.7 GHz Amplifier

Figure 6 - A WEFAX Downconverter

Figure 7 - The Downconverter and 1.7 GHz Amplifierwww.geo-web.org.uk

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September 2009

Figure 8 - Block diagram of system

overwhelming at first can be quite simple. I remember thewords of one friend when I was sharing a truck journey withhim on my way to Bosnia on an aid mission and we werediscussing overcoming adversities.
He said: ‘How do you eat an elephant?’‘I don’t know?’, I replied, to which he answered ‘One
piece at a time’.
I can’t begin to tell you how many times these words ofadvice have helped me in my life when overcome withproblems.
The 1.7GHz Amplifier
My amplifier was a commercial ready-built Pseudomorphic
High Electron Mobility Transistor (P-Hemt for short)purchased second-hand from a fellow GEO member for thebargain price of £25 (figures 5 and 7). I also received one
similar amp designed by Sam Elsdon thrown in for freewhen I purchased the HRPT receiver: very handy if one amp
goes down due to lightning strikes, which are quite common
here in Bulgaria. The amplifier is placed directly behind thehelical feed in the centre of the satellite dish for maximum
signal gain. The P-Hemt field effect transistor tends to givehigher gain than the normal FET’s due to the way it’s made,but for the moment let’s keep things simple.
Downconverter
Remember the days of WEFAX? Remember that old
downconverter you had that became obsolete?
(figures 6 and 7). Well, it’s not any more. You can give it a
new lease of life as part of your HRPT system. Used inconjunction with the NE receiver it can cover all the HRPT
frequencies! That’s going to save you a lot of money. How
can it do the job I hear you ask? Well, let me explain. The
downconverter is broadband so it will cover from 16901710 MHz and the NE receiver covers from 135-155 MHz
and that’s how it’s done! All the frequencies you’ll ever need.
The receive frequency on the Nuova Elettronica receiver isalways 1557 MHz lower than the satellite’s HRPT frequency.
For example, an HRPT satellite frequency of 1691.0 MHz
downconverts to 134.0 MHz on the Nuova Receiver.
1694.5 MHz converts to 137.5 MHz
1698.0 MHz converts to 141.0 MHz
1707.0 MHz converts to 150.0 MHz and so on.
This took a bit of thought and an email to Gerald before I
finally grasped it.
Dish Antenna
The most common and suitable antenna for HRPT seems to
be a prime focus dish. You don’t want anything too heavy
for fear of overloading the rotator but yet you needsomething large enough to capture the signal. I decided totry and find something midway and settled on a 1.5 metre
prime focus dish made from aluminium to reduce the weightand stop rust, although offset dishes have been used forsuch purposes, see
http://members.inode.at/576265/index.html

which is the homepage of Gerald Ihninger and which I findvery informative (well done Gerald) I know there are many14

mesh dishes about but I read that they are not as efficientas solid ones. I can’t confirm this as I haven’t done any
tests. Maybe that’s a chance for some GEO member to study
and write about the results to enlighten us all.
Dish Feed
The dish feed of course must match the HRPT receiving
frequency of around 1.7 GHz. The signal is circularly
polarised so we need an antenna to receive such signals,
which usually involves a helical feed. This again can behome made. Gerald Ihninger’s website includes antenna feed
specifications. I am not yet experienced enough in thissubject but by reading this article along with the web pagesof Rob Alblas and Gerald Ihninger you will have a pretty
good idea of what is involved. I myself can only relate myown experiences.
Rotator/Controller
Believe it or not, this is the most expensive part of the setup—if purchased new anyway. You can of course build yourown and save money but I felt this was a bit out of myleague. It seems to me that the most common antenna
controller/rotator is the Yaesu 5500 which retails about£450-£500 although I have had no experience whatsoever inusing one. At the moment my antenna is still turned by
hand! Remember, you need a an Az/El rotator to keep theantenna pointing at the satellite, moving the dish both
left/right and up/down in order to track the moving polarsatellite.
There is a way round this expensive problem. I was recently
in communication with Ed Murashie from the USA and hehas found a perfect solution at a lot less cost. Instead ofusing the ham radio rotator, why not use a CCTV one? And
so it was. I decided to follow Ed’s advice and settle on the
Pelco brand, which is very much cheaper (starting around£100 second-hand) and also much quieter. Ed wrote anarticle on this in the June 2009 issue of GEO Quarterly.
I’m still in the process of setting up my HRPT station but,due to ill health, and rather than wait until all thisinformation is out of date, I thought I would send it in now.
It’s not nearly as informative as I wanted it to be but I hope
to follow up this article with the results of my final
installation once I obtain all the equipment; so watch out forthis in a future edition of GEO Quarterly.
To sum up: if you were to ask me the way to go, I would
definitely recommend asking in the GEO group for secondhand equipment. And don’t be afraid of having a go at
making some of it yourself: there are always people aroundwilling to help. Of course, if you have the money, there are
new commercial systems available but at a cost. I’m afraidthat path is out for me!
Thanks to Rob Alblas for the donation of IC’s and postage,and his help, inspiration, expertise which got me started in
this; to Far Circuits USA for the donated PCB board; Tim
Holdsworth for the amplifier; Brian Sheriff for the HRPT
receiver, down-converter, and donated amplifier withdecoder board; JRW Electronics UK for supplying thecomponents via Farnell Electronics UK and anyone else I
forgot. Thanks to David Taylor for supplying figures 1 and 2.

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GEO Quarterly No 23

Fred van den Bosch
Robert Moore came up with the question of whether it was possible
to automatically convert the grb-files that collect in the DWDSAT
folder [1] into images. This seemed to me to be a nice challenge so
I set about doing some testing. Eventually it proved to be not allthat difficult.
On initially reading in a file with GribViewer [2] it is evident thateach file consists in fact of 13 different images. An example isillustrated on the inside front cover of this issue. Each of these isshown in a separate tab. I will explain how you can build acommand line so that making and storing all images can be started
up as a batch. All lines are made with Notepad. The eventual file issaved as a text-file and stored with the extension '.bat'. See [2] foran example.
The syntax of a line for processing a file with GribViewer looks likethis [3]:Program Param-1 Param-2 Param-3 Param-4 Param-5
ProgramThis is the complete path, including the file name, of the program'GribViewer.exe'. This must be placed between quotes if the pathcontain space characters. The line can include up to fiveparameters.
Param-1
This is the name of the file to be processed. Wild-card characterssuch as ‘*’ may be used. But please note that you must be careful
to ensure that the part of the filename between the ‘*’ characters is
unique. Otherwise, only the first file that contains these characterswill be opened! In a particular example, `000’ gave me the wrong
file and I had to change it to `_000_’.
Param-2
This must be - SAVE<folder> or - SAVE<filename>. Here you canmake use of %YY, %MM etc. to include the year, month etc. in thefilename. This last one is particularly significantly if using my
POVIM Presentation Manager [4] as it provides an automatic link.
See all other options in the GribViewer guide. It is recommended
for this application to save images from each tab in a separate
folder. This way, simple animations can be made.
Param-3, -4 and -5
For these parameters there is a choice from the following options:-MIN

Starts the program minimised-ZOOM or -NOZOOM

Determines whether the program
starts zoomed in or not-BOUND(none | dark | light>

Produces borderless images orimages with dark/light borders-Select: 0,2,3

Make images from the tabs 0, 2
and 3. The first tab is 0. If all tabs
must be processed, thisparameter is omitted.

At least 3 parameters must be present. If fewer are actuallyneeded for a certain application, dummy parameters ‘xx’ should besubstituted.
Finally, the file can be written as a single line, as illustrated below.
“C:\Program Files\David J Taylor\GribViewer\Gribviewer.exe“
Y:\DATA\DWDSAT\*_000_*.tar-Save:C:\temp\ %%YY%%MM%%DD%%HH00-.jpg-MIN -SELECT:0 -BOUND:LIGHT

Note: this is one continuous line with a space character between
each of the separate parts. This line reads all the files by filling theappropriate times into *_000_*. For hour = +6 the programchanges the expression to *_006_* etc.
It goes without saying that each file name is dependent on yourfolder structure. Save the batch file under a significant name.
The batch file can be run automatically by incorporating it in the
System Scheduler [2]. Because data is received for 00:00 and
12:00 each day, the batch file must be started up twice daily. I
myself do that at 06:00 and 18:00 hour. The files are then pretty
well always completely received.
In this article I have treated only those parameters, which werenecessary. The GribViewer guide describes still more parametersand how to use them [3].
References
1
2
3
4

DWDSAT, GEO Quarterly No 20, December 2008, page 6
System Scheduler, GEO Quarterly No 22, June 2009, page 8
GribViewer, David Taylor, www.satsignal.eu
POVIM PM, GEO Quarterly No 21, April 2009, page 19

NOAA Frequency Change
On 23 June 2009, the APT transmission frequencies of the
NOAA-18 and NOAA-19 satellites were switched. NOAA-19'soperational frequency is now 137.1 MHz while that of
NOAA-18 is now 137.9125 MHz. If you missed theannouncement on GEO-Subscribers and have been
wondering what’s happened, now you know.

LARS
Since the publication of GEO Quarterly 22, the Leicester
Amateur Radio Rally (LARS) has been relocated fromDonington to Loughborough University. This has
necessitated a change in dates; the rally now takes place on
Saturday and Sunday run from September 12-13.

The Aral Sea - Latest NewsThe December 2007 issue of GEO Quarterly carried a MODIS
image of the Aral Sea on its front cover, showing clearly how
it had separated into two regions, the North Aral and theSouth Aral.
In the intervening two years, the North Aral Sea has
maintained its area, thanks to water conservation measureson the Syr Darya river and the Kokaral dam across its
southern outflow. The South Aral, however, has continued
to dwindle and split into distinct western and eastern seas.
At the present time, the eastern Aral basin has all but driedup, as the MODIS image on our inside back cover, acquiredon July 20 this, year starkly reveals.
Reference
Aral Sea - GEO Quarterly No 16, December 2007 - page25

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September 2009

Francis Breame - email: vf0123@btinternet.com
Although viewing passes of theInternational Space Station, as well as
the Space Shuttle, is routine thesedays, I’ve recently achieved a longstanding ambition and caught a Space
Shuttle pass immediately after launch.
I realise that many people have done
this before, but orbit, timing andespecially weather have always
conspired against me in the past. The
particular feature of this view is ofcourse that the external tank has not
yet re-entered the atmosphere and canbe seen trailing the orbiter. Being
located in Hampshire puts me justabout at the northern extremity of theorbit—I don’t know how successful
things would be further north.
This opportunity occurred during the
STS127 flight to the ISS, which had
already been postponed twice due toweather in Florida. Funnily enough, if
it hadn’t been postponed, the launchwould have been about an hour later,thus making it invisible in England
due to the sun being lower. The tank
was noticeably reddish and slowly

The track of the space shuttle over Hampshire at 23:21 BST, 18 minutes following its launch on July 15.

The track of STS119 about two hours prior to docking with the ISS, at 19.10 GMT on March 17, 2009.

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GEO Quarterly No 23

faded out and in due to its tumble, unlike theorbiter itself which was the usual star-likeobject.
The upper photograph, which I took from
northeast Hampshire, was taken on July 15
using a Canon 400D camera with an 18 mm
wide-angle lens, theexposure being about
20 seconds at f4 and ISO
1600. This was about 18
minutes after launch. The
pass wasn't very long as it
was some time after sunset
and probably reached about 25 degrees elevation
before going into eclipse.
Photography of these passes is very easy
providing you have a camera which can be set to
manual (‘bulb’ or B) exposure, manual focus,
and will take or can be zoomed to a wide-angle
lens. It will of course need to be tripod mounted.
A remote shutter release is also really needed to
avoid disturbing the exposure.

Giuseppe Cico
I have two EUMETCast receiving
systems running unattended for mostof the day while I am at work or awayfor holidays. One issue I have now
solved is how to manage themremotely. Both systems have VNC
installed, and one is connected to the
web just for software updates. But
because of a security policy, VNC is
not enabled from outside, nor
permitted from inside my company’s
network; so I studied another solution.

I cannot act directly using VNC, as I
explained, so I had an idea: to write
an email with instructions about ‘what
to do’. Crude but effective. Briefly, thePC has Outlook running and looking
at a dedicated email address. I havea personal domain, so have noproblem setting one up. Anyway any
free account could be useful. Rules
are set in Outlook <Tools → Message
rules … → Mail> to manage only
some particular emails, controlling

I have MRTG running, so I created aprotected page on my website
showing certain parameters (CPUload, memory usage, and some
EUMETCast related data). Some of
the graphics are similar to thoseshown on David Taylor’s ‘EUMETCast
Europe’ page.

sender, syntax etc for security anddeleting anything useless; forexample something like

So how to go about it? (These notes equally apply
to ISS passes, or indeed to any other reasonably
bright satellites, e.g. Iridium flares).
Set the lens to maximum aperture and focus on
infinity (remembering to set it to manual focus).
Set the camera to its maximum speed rating—ISO 1600 in my case. Using a wide-angle lensmeans that that the camera doesn’t have to be
pointed too accurately. Using the viewfinder isn’t
really possible—just point roughly in the
expected direction and elevation for the start ofthe pass (using predictions from Heavens Aboveor whatever site you prefer). As soon as you see
the object by eye, hold the shutter open. If it is along pass, take a guess at when it will move outof the lens view and quickly realign the camera
for another shot. This sounds very inaccurate
but in fact works remarkably well because of thewide-angle setting.
A light sky can be an issue if the pass is too
soon after sunset. Even if the sky looks quite
dark it will soon saturate the picture at theselong, fast exposures. The best timing is probably
between 1 hour (a dark enough sky) and 2 hours(the pass becomes too short because the shuttle
eclipses) after sunset, but earlier passes can be
photographed as long as you keep the exposure
to less that 30 seconds or so (the speed setting
can’t be reduced, otherwise the shuttle won’t becaptured). Even then the contrast will be low, sosome image manipulation may be needed
afterwards to improve things. To assess the
maximum exposure possible, just take some test
pictures before the shuttle arrives to see howlong an exposure you can make before the sky
becomes too bright (one of the great advantagesof digital photography).
An example of this is found in the lower photo,taken on March 17, using the same setup, again
a 20 second exposure. The sky and house didn’t
look anywhere near this bright! It shows STS119
when shuttle was about two hours from docking
with the ISS. The objects are moving from rightto left: the brighter one is the ISS, followed
closely by the the shuttle, just below it. Again,
far from unique, but I was pleased to capture it!

One additional item is thisscreenshot, uploaded every 15
minutes with MRTG data, so I cantake a look at ‘what’s happening
there’. This task is done with
IrfanView (www.irfanview.com), used
in a scheduled batch file containing acommand like<irfanview path>\i_view32.exe/capture=0 /convert=<screenshot
path>\eumetcast1_screen.jpg

This image is uploaded with MRTG
graphics in the same way as I
described in GEO Q16 about my‘Auto-FTP: Upload Images…’. Now I
have a remote view on the system—
but what happens if I see any
misbehaviour?

www.geo-web.org.uk

Rule 1
if sender is ME and object is
BATCH-1 then execute<path>BATCH-1.batthen delete the email
Rule 2
if sender is ME and object is
BATCH-2 then execute<path>BATCH-2.batthen delete email
Rule 3delete email
For example, I have a batch file set tokill hung ftp sessions
taskkill /im FTPVoyager.exe /fand another one to do a remotereboot (for fatal errors)
SHUTDOWN -r -f -t 5
and of course, you can set up others.

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GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009

Terry Mullen
I first became involved with weather
satellite imaging more than twenty
years ago at the school where I worked
as a physics teacher. This was when
NOAA 11 was newly launched and long
before the days of the Internet, when amouse was only a small rodent and a
website somewhere you might findspiders! Finding out what I needed toknow was tough going but withpractical and financial help from a
local company we eventually set up avery worthwhile ground station. We
used a steerable antenna for NOAA
APT, to help avoid problems withinterfering signals from a nearby mast,and also had animated Meteosat
images on permanent display in theschool science corridor. This became
known as the ‘weather telly’ and wasparticularly of interest towards theweekend for some amateur forecasting.
The physics courses, especially atA-level, were greatly enhanced byaccess to up-to-date images, with some
captured ‘live’ during a lesson.
After retiring a year ago, I became
interested in revisiting satellite imaging
and wanted to be able to collect images
while away from home. My wife and I
had plans to travel around Europe aswell as the UK using our caravan, andto spend time in North America and
New Zealand. I settled on a home-madeQFH antenna of Chris van Lint’s
design [1], an R2ZX receiver and a
Samsung NC10 netbook computer as
the basic system. I had to add anexternal soundcard since the audio
output would not give satisfactory
results straight into the microphone
input, although this approach had
worked perfectly well for a Toshiba
laptop. The only additions to the QFH
design were to add some insulating
tape to the cable loops so that they
were not chafed when they were
pushed into the support arm notches,
and to extend the vertical pole withpush-fit connectors which allow theuse of extra lengths of plastic pipe. The
software I used was WXtoImg.
This was all tested in the back garden
and then packed to go to Canada at
the beginning of June in a cloth bag
made by my long-suffering wife. I had
been enjoying views of western Europe
but couldn’t wait to see North America
instead. I took the documentation for
the receiver and the article describing

18

June 4: NOAA 18 from Banff, Alberta, my first effort!

the QFH in case there were awkward
questions at international borders, but
this did not prove to be a problem. We
flew to Calgary and collected a rented
motorhome to tour the Rockies. I
downloaded my first image (above) from
Banff in Alberta, on a hot afternoon,
and was soon looking at a superb view,
reasonably cloud-free, of British
Columbia and Alberta with the snowcovered Coast Ranges and Rockies

www.geo-web.org.uk

clearly visible. The scan extended from
the Mexican border to Alaska andshowed frozen lakes in the North West
Territories. We were soon to appreciate
the changeability of Alberta weather
when, two days later, we awoke tosnow!
This first image made the whole project
worthwhile but there were many more
to come. We travelled as far as Jasper

September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 23

June 25: NOAA 19 from Banff, Alberta, showing the Great Lakes and a still-frozen Hudson Bay.

A camping chair props up the QFH at Bow Lake, Banff National Park

Local wildlife inspects theantenna at a camp sitewww.geo-web.org.uk

and explored four national parks,
spreading the trip over fourweeks. We saw the mostspectacular scenery we have everencountered anywhere, enjoyedwatching the wildlife—including
bears—and went canoeing, horseriding and walking. Wheneverpractical, we would stop in theearly afternoon and I would set up
the equipment and collect a passor two, usually from NOAA 18 and
NOAA 19, conveniently keeping
me away from lunch preparations!
I soon built up a set of images
showing the continent from thewest coast to the Great Lakes andHudson Bay. I was interested tosee that Hudson Bay was still... continued on page 20

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GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009

Fred Piering
Patrik Tast and Jerry Martes created a very helpful tool that wasadded into Patrik’s free APT Decoder program. The operation of
the new tool was covered last December in GEO Quarterly No 20.
If you were fortunate enough to have an R2FX or any of the ICOMPCR series of receivers, you could automatically capture and plot
the performance of any antenna that you had attached to thereceiver.
For my station, I use a receiver that is of my own design andfabrication. I had talked to Patrik some time ago about providing analternate method for those of us that do not have computer
controlled radios including a Received Signal Strength Indicator
RSSI). We took a short try, but did not complete it. Recently there
had been a flurry of inquiries about using the signal plotter with noncomputer-controlled receivers, either home built or commercial
such as the R139.
Patrik once again took on the task and has provided a new andfunctional feature that I have also evaluated. For ingest of the
RSSI, the program has a new receiver option: Custom. In addition,
the program has been changed so that it will read data from a
DATAQ Instruments DI-194RS 4-Channel Data Acquisition Module.
This module is available at http://www.dataq.com for $24.95 plus
shipping. It is a four-channel unit and the price includes a serial
cable, software and screwdriver as well as the module.
In order to use the signal plotter with a non computer-controlled
receiver, the DI-194RS should be attached to the RSSI or signal
level point in your receiver. The input impedance of the DATAQ is
only 200k so care must be taken to not load down your RSSI
measurement point. For my receiver, the RSSI signal is developed
across a 51k resistor, so I used a LMC7111 Single Supply
Operational Amplifier to buffer the signal. I had earlier
characterised the RSSI volts per dB and wanted to maintain that
accuracy. To use this feature, you can set up the program inaccordance with the instructions in the December 2008 GEO
article, except, you should chose the ‘Custom’ receiver (below)

Figure 2 - Radiation plot for the commercial turnstile antenna

Figure 3 - Radiation plot for the home-built DCA

Note
You will need to update your APTDecoder software toversion 2.0.5.88-alpha 9.

Mobile APT(continued from page 19)

mainly frozen but, as June progressed, it was possible to see
clear water appearing at the Bay’s western edge. I could also
see weather systems coming in off the Pacific, much like ourfamiliar ones in the UK.

Figure 1 - The ‘Custom’ recording screen

Once you have made this selection, click on the yellow dot to theright of ‘Start Recording’ to start recording. You will be asked if you
want to record all passes in a small text box. After the pass or
passes have been made, opening the signal plotter and selecting
the file will provide operation as discussed in the GEO article.
I plotted passes using a home made double cross antenna (DCA)
and a commercial turnstile. These were attached to the same mastand used the same coax and receiver (I just swapped out
antennas). A comparison of the two antennas is shown in Figures 2
and 3. As you can see, the DCA antenna performs better at thelower elevations while the turnstile appears better overhead—but
not as well at the lower elevations. The variability in the DCA iseither due to my construction or the nearby interferences such as
houses, trees, etc. In both cases, the antenna is approximately
8 meters above ground level at an elevation of 25 meters above
sea level. There is no high ground in Florida.
I have found this a very interesting tool and plan on using it toevaluate antennas for Amateur Satellite reception also.

20

I only encountered minor difficulties, like a plug falling off acable and WXtoImg changing its mind about a suitablesignal level. My horizons were often limited by the height ofsurrounding mountains—the signal would be suddenly cut
off as the satellite disappeared behind a wall of solid rock,but this was only to be expected. I would certainly
encourage anyone who has considered taking equipment
away from home to give it a try—it definitely adds to theinterest of a trip and gives an extra dimension to the usual
viewing of holiday photos.
I would be happy to hear any comments or questions andcan be contacted atterrymullen@yahoo.com

Next trip is New Zealand, early 2010!
Reference
1 Portable/Collapsible Quadrifilar Helix Antenna
Chris van Lint—GEOQ Launch issue

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September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 23

David Simmons
The Three Counties Amateur Radio Club (TCARC) is a small
but active radio club which meets in Liphook. Liphook isclose to the county boundaries of Surrey, Hampshire andWest Sussex, hence its name. Several of the club members
are also members of GEO. However, a longer establishedinterest by club members is the support of local youth
organisations, particularly the Brownies, Girl Guides andScouts, by trying to bring to these groups first handexperience of radio communication and, more recently,
Internet skills.
There are, by international agreement within the Scout,
Guides and Brownie movement, two dates identified eachyear for direct international communication. One is called
Jamboree on the Air, which traditionally takes place in
October each year. During this event young people canspeak to each other across the world by radio using amateur
radio frequency allocations, supplemented in recent years byuse of the Internet. There is a second rather similar day in
February each year for Brownie and Guides called Thinking
Day.
TCARC has supported these events with a Brownies groupin Alton, Hampshire. Of course, the use of amateur radio
frequencies means not only having available the necessary
equipment capable of transmitting and receiving but also alicensed amateur to supervise all transmissions. TCARC
covers both of these requirement for the Alton Brownie
group.

An SSTV image taken through the space station’s windowand showing cloud about 100 miles west of Ireland

The building where the Brownies meet is purpose built andquite modern, with a meeting hall, a kitchen area and siderooms adaptable for particular use. TCARC are usually
established in one of the side rooms. Twice a year, tocorrespond with Thinking Day and Jamboree on the Air, andwith tight security, the Brownies will 'sleep over' for one ormore nights. A delightful experience for them.

An SSTV image showing the interior of the ISS

USA. Richard is an enthusiastic radio amateur operator withhis own call sign and during his stay on the ISS there wereplanned scheduled voice contacts between Richard andschools in the UK plus the transmissions of Slow Scan
Television (SSTV) from the ISS showing views inside thespace station and views through a window.

Enthusiastic Brownies gathered around the receiving station

It just so happened that Jamboree on the Air in 2008
overlapped with the visit of Richard Garriott to theInternational Space Station (ISS) as a self-funding tourist.
Richard was born in England but currently resides in the

The details of the scheduled contacts between the ISS and
UK schools was unknown to us but at least one special
event station had been arranged via the RSGB, Carlos Eavis
coordinator of GB4FUN and assisted by other dedicatedmembers of AMSAT-UK to schedule a contact with the ISS.
I'm not 100% sure, but I expect the RSGB's mobile
demonstration station GB4FUN was used by the school forthe contact. The uplink frequency was not known but the

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GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009

down link was expected on 145.80 MHz narrow band FM; soat least we could listen to the ISS's transmissions, either
voice or SSTV, whenever the station was in the sky oversouthern England. The times of the high elevation passes
were determined using the web site Heavens-Above.com .
Their prediction showed that the ISS would pass oversouthern England on both the Friday and the Saturday of
the Brownies' weekend. This was just too good an
opportunity to miss with Richard Garriott on board andpromising radio contacts and SSTV.

There is another dimension to GEO's relationship with
Richard Garriott. Richard was visiting the UK and attended
the BROHP space conference at Charterhouse this year. He
visited the GEO display stand and meet Francis Bell.
Richard expressed genuine interest in our group and said hewould like to join GEO [1].

With an appropriate antenna in position and using my
Yaesu FT 847 receiver and the program MIXW32 running on
my computer to display the SSTV images, the first expectedsignals from the ISS were received on time: firstly voicecontacts and then SSTV. During the passes, the girls wereclustered around the main indoor receiver, listening intently.
We could not monitor the uplink because the frequency was
unknown but from the clear downlink from Richard on the
ISS there was a very successful contact with about six ormore girls from a school which I believe was in Rochdale.
During this pass, some of the Brownies were given myhandheld Yaesu FT817 receiver to go outside and listen to
the radio contact.

Reference

The following orbit coincided with the Brownies’ lunch but
there was a unanimous decision to postpone it and listen to
the next pass. During this pass only SSTV was received. The
following day, the ISS again took precedence over thenormal routines of food and chores. Again only SSTV images
were received but everybody seemed happy with the views
from inside and outside the space station: they provokedinterest and discussion.
Francis Bell often brings his EUMETCast receiving
equipment to the Brownies weekends and this occasion wasparticularly appropriate because, at about the same time as
the ISS sent a SSTV image of the clouds and weather below
the space station, Francis' images using the high resolution
visible channel from MSG2 gave a reference position for the
space station's image. Without a reference image it would
have been difficult to identify the areas covered by the SSTV
image. It turned out that the cloud patterns shown on the
ISS image were over the Atlantic Ocean, about a hundred
miles west of Ireland. In fact that is just where predictions
indicated but it was great to have the correlation with areference from MSG2.
We did try direct voice contact with the ISS but without
success. The standard uplink frequency of 145.200 MHz
was used but no contact was made by our station although,from time to time, other stations were acknowledged by theISS—so some people were successful. However, the imagesof men floating in space did stimulate the Brownies into allsorts of activities trying to demonstrate the properties ofweightlessness and questions about space and the purposeof the ISS. Thanks must go to Richard Garriott for
stimulating interest in these bright young girls.
On a previous occasion with the Brownies, the ISS passed
overhead at twilight and was clearly visible for some of its
pass but then, even thought it was at quite a high elevation,
it suddenly disappeared. When asked why this had
happened the Brownies quickly said: 'Its gone into the
Earth's shadow'. Well, I think for youngsters aged 7,8,9
years old you have to be pretty smart to work that out
correctly.
I haven't listened recently for SSTV from the ISS but it’sworth trying. Obtain the orbital prediction times fromHeavens-Above.com and listen on 145.800 MHz. The SSTV
signals sound like rapid bleeps or tones at a rate of several
per second. Software to decode these signal is freely
available via the Internet, for example MIXW32. Each single
SSTV frame takes about 30 seconds to receive.

22

Richard is now a GEO member and hopefully will write
some articles for GEO Quarterly in the future. I'm sureFrancis will remind him in due course.
GEO Quarterly No 22, pages 10-11.

Fred van den Bosch
BackgroundIn the last issue of De Kunstmaan, Ben Schellekens posed thequestion: ‘could something be developed to store APT signals
directly to an SD-card?’ As far as I know one of our members iscurrently working on this possibility. A problem here is that thechosen micro-controller cannot go higher than 12 bits and Craig
Anderson, the author of WXtoImg (our favoured APT software)
recommends 16-bits for recording satellite WAV files.
However, WXtoImg [1] does offer the choice of saving WAV files as
either 8-bit or 16-bit recordings. The advantage of 8-bit recording is
the smaller file size while 16-bits gives better quality. And 8-bit
recordings would be compatible with the aforementioned
microcontroller. Therefore, I set out to perform a test to compare
the 8-bit and 16-bit signals from the same satellite pass.
The Test
To examine the difference in quality between recorder 8-bit and16-bit WAV files, I had to record WAV files using both options. And
to make a fair comparison, I did so on the same PC and during thesame satellite pass. My reception installation consisted of the
PADAT antenna, R2FX receiver and an Acer laptop. The signals
were received and decoded with WXtoImg.
Here's a short step-by-step plan of what to do
1. Make a second copy of your WxtoImg folder, but under a different
name (e.g. WXtoImg2).
2. Start your original version and select the 16-bit option, under<Options → Recording options → Sample bits>.
3 Choose <File → Record → Autorecord>.
4 Next, start the copied version of WXtoImg.
5 This time, make sure that 'sample bits' is set to ‘8’. If necessary,place WxtoImg into Expert Mode.
(<Options → GUI options → Enable expert mode>).
6. Go to <Options → File names and locations> and set all filelocations to point to a different folder from the original version.
7. Do not use <Options → Save options>!
This will make the saved options for both the original and copiedversions of WXtoImg the same. Also, do not shut down the program
otherwise steps 4-7 will have to be repeated.
8. Choose <File → Record → Autorecord>.
9. As soon as a satellite appears, both versions of the program willrecord the pass at the same time.

If everything goes to plan the 16-bit wav-file will be approximately
twice as large as the 8-bit version.
I have placed both files on my Internet site [2]. And the difference inquality? Well, download the files, decode them and judge foryourself.
References
1 WXtoImg, http://www.wxtoimg.com/
2 http://www.fredvandenbosch.nl/satellites_polar.html

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September 2009

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GEO Quarterly No 23i

GEO Quarterly No 23

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September 2009

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The Copy Deadline for

GEO Quarterly No 24
is Saturday, October 31

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GEO Quarterly No 23

Fred Piering
In the previous issue of GEO Quarterly, Ed Murashie
described the preparations for the latest GOES satellite
launch. With the satellite now safely in orbit as GOES-14,
Fred Piering provides us with an eye-witness account of theactual launch, while Ed enlightens us about further details of
the satellite and its capabilities.
Thanks to NOAA, NASA and especially to Cynthia O’Carroll,
Public Affairs Officer for NASA/Goddard Space Flight
Center, and the Boeing Corporation, I was an ‘invited guest’
for the GOES-O launch. The launch, originally scheduled forApril 2009 was finally rescheduled for June 26, 2009 onlaunch Pad 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
I was travelling that week, but cut the job short to arrive at
the Cocoa Beach Hilton Hotel on Thursday night. The main
operations, led by Boeing, were headquartered in the Hilton.
The first order of business was to get registered, easy
enough, and was further enhanced by the receipt of a ‘goodybag’ which included the latest press release, the schedule
for Friday’s launch day and a few gratuities, such as a pen,small flash light, various decals, etc.
There was a considerable list of planned activities for
Launch Day, beginning with a bus tour of Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station along with a short tour of the Kennedy
Space Center. Since the tour only had one stop where wewere allowed to get off of the bus, the rest of the tour
required shooting photos through the bus windows. The
tour included the Delta II Operations building, the Range
Operations Control Center, Industrial Area and ICBM Road.
We toured many space launch complexes known as SLCs,
included Mercury’s Complex-14, Titan and Gemini’s
Complex-19, Saturn1 and 1B’s SLC-34, Delta IV’s SLC-37,
where GOES-O was located, SLC-40 and 41 as well as 39A,
which had the shuttle in place ready for launch and SLC
17A and B. The tour also included the tall Vertical Assembly
Building, the Air Force Space and Missile Museum
http://www.patrick.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=4496

plus a few other spots of interest. We were permitted to get
off the bus at SLC-34, where the Apollo-1 fire occurred.
Since SLC-34 is just south of SLC-37, I took the opportunity
to have my picture taken with the GOES-O and Delta IV inthe background. This being launch day, most of the roads
were cordoned off; this was as close to the launch pad as we
could get. Our hosts provided chilled bottled water andencouraged us to drink up so as to not become dehydrated.
Since the tour was four hours long, and no pit stops made,strong bladders were required!
The bus tour returned us to the hotel around noon. From
2pm until 3pm, a guest briefing was held. Representatives of
Boeing, United Launch Alliance, NASA and NOAA eachpresented their participation and perspective on the system
and launch. We were then reloaded on the buses at 4pm to
go to the observation site and witness the launch.
The observation building was quite pleasant. As I remember,
after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, it wasdetermined to not have the family of the astronauts’intermixed with the press in the standard viewing site. I
believe this building is where the family and relatives
observe the shuttle launches. The observation deck is on thefifth floor, directly across from the Vehicle Assembly
Building (VAB) as seen in the picture. Looking in the
opposite direction you can see launch pad 37, where theGOES-O satellite is mounted on the Delta IV, well off in thesafe distance. I only had a cheap ‘point and shoot’ camera;
sadly no telephoto shots are to be had. Inside theobservation deck was a waiting room which had large
screens broadcasting views of the launch vehicle, thecurrent weather radar, satellite weather pictures, plus video
and audio feeds from the launch control center, with the
obligatory timed check-ins to ensure everyone was readywhen we were a ‘go’ for launch.
The launch window was from 6:14 pm until 7:14 pm,
Eastern Daylight Savings time, although the mission clock
was on GMT. This was fine with us, the radio amateurs. The
weather was on continual watch, as that was the only
potential ‘fly in the ointment’. There were thunderstorms in
the area and, if they encroached within 10 miles, the launchwould be scrubbed. Shortly after the launch window opened,
the storm entered the area. We waited hopefully until
7:01 pm at which time the launch was scrubbed. With
disappointment, we returned to the hotel where an evening
meal was waiting. The reception was formally renamed fromthe ‘Post Launch Reception’ to the ‘Pre-Launch Reception’.
We all thought it was quite ironic that the launch of aweather satellite was scrubbed on account of the weather.
The launch attempt was rescheduled for the same time on
Saturday. Once again we loaded onto the buses at 4 pm andheaded to the observation deck. The crowd was muchsmaller this time as many had other obligations andreturned home. Fortunately for me, I live about an hour’sdrive from Cape Canaveral, so I made a round trip home on
Saturday morning and returned for the bus pickup thatafternoon. Once again, weather was a concern and theobligatory Florida afternoon thunderstorm was present andaccounted for. This created a launch delay, but fortunately
the storm was moving rapidly and away from the launchsite. Great day, we launched at 6:51pm! The launch isshown in three of the photographs on pages 26 and 27.
The satellite reached orbit several hours after launch andadditional circularisation burns were performed. Twenty
four days after launch, Boeing turned the satellite over toNASA, who will play with it for four months and ultimately
turn it over to NOAA in December. The satellite
nomenclature was changed from GOES-O to GOES-14 on
July 8. GOES-14 will be placed in a parking orbit along with
GOES-13 for use on the eventual failure of GOES-11 or -12.
I had a great time and want to thank those who made thetrip possible. Most of my observations have been at the
shuttle launches, from as close as the Indian River or as far
away as my front yard. Being on official property at an
observation post that was five stories high was great! Plus, I
got to meet a lot of folk in NASA, NOAA and Boeing, allreally first class people!

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GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009

Ed Murashie
Earlier this year, on June 27, we saw the launch of GOES-O, now
designated GOES-14 following a successful orbital insertion. It is
the second in the ‘next generation' GOES-N geostationary weather
satellite series. Its on-orbit twin, GOES-13 launched May 24, 2006,
is in storage until an operational need arises (should either
operational satellite—GOES-11, stationed over the western part of
the United States, or GOES-12, stationed over the east—fail).

The imager that produces the fine images we enjoy watching has
the following characteristics:

GOES-11 was launched May 3, 2000 and became operational on
June 21, 2006, close to the end of its designed life. GOES-12 waslaunched July 23, 2001, becoming operational on April 1, 2003.
Because the GOES-NOP satellite lifespan and fuel requirements
have been improved by adding solids to the rocket and changing
the required operational lifetime, the GOES-Q satellite contract
option was dropped. There exist a spare imager and sounder that
could be used for a fourth replacement satellite should GOES-P failto achieve orbit, or fail prematurely prior to acceptance. The current
status of the GOES satellites can always be found at

4-320K(GOES I-K)

Chan

Wavelength(µm)

Measurement
Range

Nadir
Field of View

Use10.55-0.75

1.6-100% albedo

1 km

Cloud
Cover

4 km

Nighttime
Clouds2

3.8-4.0

34-335K(GOES L/M)

6.5-7.0(GOES I-K,L)

4-320 K

8 km

Water
Vapour

13.0-13.7(GOES M)

4-320 K

8 km

Cloud
Cover
and
Height10.2-11.2

4-320 K

4 km

Sea
SurfaceTemp

11.5-12.5(GOES I-K,L)

4-320 K

4 km

Sea
SurfaceTemp

4-320 K

4 km

Water
Vapourhttp://www.oso.noaa.gov/goesstatus/
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/phqfh1/status.htm
4Each generation of GOES satellites demonstrates new
improvements. GOES I-M, redesignated GOES 8-12 in orbit, were
the first to be 3-axis body stabilised instead of the prior spinstabilised design. With a body stabilised platform, the imager andsounder can spend more time pointed at the Earth, performing
small area scans such as those studying the development ofthunderstorms. This type of flexible scan helped improve short-term
local severe storm forecasts. Another improvement on GOES I-M
was allowing simultaneous scanning with the imager and sounder
instruments to provide data for improved forecasts.
GOES I-M, built by Space Systems Loral, are equipped with a
5-channel imager, 19-channel sounder, space environment monitor,
data collection system and search and rescue capability. The
transmissions include the following:
Description

SourceUplink(MHz)Command

CDA/DSN

2034.2

Telemetry

Spacecraft

Downlink(MHz)

Destination
Spacecraft

1694/2209.086

CDA, DSNWEFAX/LRIT CDA

2033.01691.0Users

Data
Collection
Platform
Interrogation

CDA

2034.9468.825

Data

Data
Collection
Platform
ReportDatacollection
platform

401.9

1694.5

CDA, Users

Search andRescueEmergency
LocatorTransmitter

406.025

1544.5

RescueCoordinator
CenterMDL
diagnostic
dataSpacecraft

1681.5

Satellite
Operation
Control
Center

Processed
Data Relay(GVAR)

CDA

1685.7Users

24

2027.75
5.8-7.3(GOES M)

Image navigation specified accuracy at nadir at noon ±8 hr is 4 km
and at midnight ±4 hr is 6 km. Image registration within a 25 minuteimage is specified as 50 microradians, where 1 km isapproximately 28 microradians in geosynchronous orbit.
Registration between repeated images every 48 hours is
210 microradians and channel to channel registration is
28 microradians. More information on GOES I-M can be found in
the GOES I-M databook at
http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/text/databook/databook.pdf

With the launch of the follow-on generation of satellites,
GOES N-P, built by Boeing Satellite Systems, there are more
improvements that we will enjoy. GOES N-P are equipped with asimilar 5-channel imager, 19-channel sounder, space environment
monitor, data collection system and search and rescue capability.
The imager on GOES-O and GOES-P has improved resolution,from 8 km to 4 km in the 13 micron channel. The GOES-N series
imagers and sounders have improved stray light rejection in theirtelescopes, so that they can tolerate more of the solar intrusions
that occur, particularly during eclipse periods. A new 5-channel
extreme ultraviolet sensor directly measures the solar energy
which heats the upper atmosphere and creates the ionosphere.
This heating can change the upper atmosphere density by afactory of ten, and can effect radio communications and low Earthorbiting satellite drag. The Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) first flew on
GOES-12 and a newer version built by Lockheed Martin has beendeveloped for the GOES-N Series. It is a telescope that monitors
the sun's soft x-ray emissions including flares and coronal massejections. The information is used to alert space agencies likeNASA with their shuttle fleet and international space station, theUSAF, and other users such as power utilities and airlines.

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 23

The data transmission channels are similar to GOES I-M, with the
exception of a new channel dedicated to transmitting theEmergency Manager's Weather Information Network transmission.
In the past, the EMWIN signal shared the weather facsimile
channel, WEFAX, with the Low Resolution Image Transmission(LRIT). Also 300 bps and 1200 bps data rate capabilities wereadded to the Data Collection System so that it could accommodate
more data platform transmissions.
Description

SourceUplink(MHz)Command

CDA/DSN

2034.2

Telemetry

Spacecraft

Downlink(MHz)

Destination
Spacecraft

1694/2209.086

CDA, DSNWEFAX/LRIT CDA

2033.01691.0586 KBW

Data
Collection
Platform
Interrogation

CDA

2034.9468.825

Data
Collection
Platform

Data
Collection
Platform
Report

Data
Collection
Platform

401.9

1694.5

CDA, Users

Search andRescueNarrow:
Emergency
406.025
Locator
Wide:
Transmitter
406.051544.5

MissionControl
CenterMDL
diagnostic
dataSpacecraft

1681.5

Satellite
Operation
Control
CenterEmergency
Managers
Weather
Information
Network

CDA

1692.7

Civil
Emergency
Managers

Processed
Data Relay(GVAR)

CDA

Sensor Data

Spacecraft

2034.7

Users

Users
2027.71685.71676.0CDA

The imager 10-bit signal quantisation is also similar to that on
GOES I-M.
Descrip- Wavelength Measurement Field of View
tion
(µm)
Range

Use

1

0.52-0.71

0-100%
albedo

1 km

Cloud
Cover

2

3.73-4.07

4-335 K

4 km

Night-time
Clouds313.0-13.7

4-320 K

8 km
(GOES-N)
4 km(GOES-O,P)

Cloud
Cover
and
Height4

10.2-11.2

4-320 K

4 km

Sea
SurfaceTemp

55.8-7.3

4-320 K

4 km

Water
VapourThere is stripping reduction in the images because the imager can
dwell on the calibrating blackbody for 2 full seconds—instead ofjust 0.2 seconds for GOES I-M. There is less noise in the images
because a yaw flip configuration is now designed; this can flip thesatellite 180 degrees between seasons, keeping the sun out of theradiant coolers and allowing the instrument's infrared detectors to
run cooler.

The first visible image from GOES-13 - © NASA

There is improved image navigation and registration as well. The
registration within a 25 minute image has been decreased: from 50
microradians to 33 microradians in the east to west direction and to
28 microradians in the north to south direction. Registration
between repeated images in a 48 hr period has also been
decreased: from 210 microradians to 28 microradians. The channel
to channel registration has remained the same, at 28 microradians.
What does this mean to me? It means a more stable image loop
animation and precise registration to ground features. These
improvements were made by developing better algorithms, better
sensor inputs, the use of multiple star trackers and isolating theimager and sounder from the spacecraft bus thermal cycling.
The GOES-N Series spacecraft have more power, so that they do
not have to shut anything down during eclipse periods; thisprovides more opportunities for additional images and soundings.
The additional power comes from 16% larger solar arrays that are
more efficient, generating approximately twice the power of theprevious GOES series satellites. In addition, a nickel-hydrogenbattery with a 123 ampere-hour capacity replaces the two nickelcadmium batteries which had a total capacity of only 56 amp-hour,
to provide power during eclipse periods.
One big improvement for those of us who keep track of whichsatellite is active and what kind of transmissions it sends is thedesign life, which has been increased from 7 years to 10 years.
GOES-13 and GOES-14 arrived on orbit with approximately
14 years of station-keeping fuel. More information on the
GOES N-P series can be found at
http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/text/goes.databookn.html .

Since GOES-13 is in standby mode and GOES-14 is being
checked out, you will see the best is yet to come. In the meantime,enjoy GOES-13's first full disk visible image taken on June 22,2006 between 1730-1800 UT
http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/text/goes13results.html

and GOES-14's first full disk visible image taken on July 27, 2009at 19:00 UT (see also page 31)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GOES-O/
news/goes14_first_image.html

You can view rapid-scan movies of Hurricane Hurricane Bill at

www.geo-web.org.uk

http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/text/goes14results.html

25September 2009

Fred Piering at LC-34 Delta on LC-37

Group for Earth Observation

The scene inside the Observation Deckawaiting the launch on Day 1

GEO Quarterly No 23

Anxiously watching the screens inside theObservation Deck on Day 2

Spectators looking towards LC37 from the observation deck

The Vehicle Assembly Building viewed from the observation deck

A distant view of the launch from the observation deck

GOES-O is on its way

Photographs by Fred Piering

27

GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009

Francis BellThe decision was made to hold our annual 2009 symposium in
Guildford, 30 miles south of London. The rationale behind thisdecision was to deliberately move our symposium venue aroundthe country, thus providing more convenient access to a different
subset of our membership. It was also noted that we have manymembers in London and the south and south east of England.
Also in the background was the hope that we could co-locate our
symposium with a meeting of another satellite group.
Complications occurred and this idea was not progressed this year
but the concept was not ruled out for events that we may hold in
the future. To share a venue with another related event may be an
attractive idea.
Our venue at the Royal Grammar School (RGS) is no stranger tosatellite and space related meetings; for example, British
cosmonaut Helen Sharman has visited the school on several
occasions, so there was confidence with the location and thetechnical facilities which the RGS could provide. Our meeting area
was well prepared for us with plenty of exhibition space and alecture theatre with appropriate seating and projection facilities.
There was also ready access to a paved area on which we locatedsatellite dishes with easy cable runs into our exhibition area. There
was the complication that this area had unexpectedly been takenover by builders making alterations to the school during theholidays. As always, I admire the resourcefulness of GEO
members; not being deterred by the building site obstructions,dishes were deployed, aligned and cable runs fed to the exhibitionarea inside half an hour of our arrival.
The date for the symposium was Saturday July 18, 2009, very
different to our previous events which have been held during themonth of May. Being summer this time, I offered to host a garden
barbecue on the Friday evening prior to the symposium and waspleased that this was well attended by delegates. As expected,
there were both technical and social dimensions to that afternoon
and evening. I was particularly pleased to host eight of our Dutch
friends for this pleasant evening. I know some of what occurred in
the background, with Arne van Belle revitalising John Tellick's
computer by writing all the data from a faulty drive on to a newone. As can be seen in a photograph opposite, the problem related
to part of the plastic part of the disk’s SATA connector having
broken off, leading to looseness in the connection, probably as aresult of travelling to give displays at shows and rallies around thecountry. I think it was resolved to John's satisfaction. Further
technical discussions and experiments took place, not to mention
food and other refreshments, which kept everybody busy until lateevening.
SaturdayOn the Saturday, setting up equipment was quite straightforward as
the school had provided tables and configured the seating to ourrequirements. In the auditorium, GEO had its reception area
together with display boards and banner, plus tables with our own
literature and materials provided by EUMETSAT and BNSC. Clive
and Carol Finnis established a shop area which pleasingly
transacted a worthwhile amount of business during the day. Our
Dutch members provided live EUMETCast reception together witha display of their new APT-HRPT receiver. John Tellick also ran live
EUMETCast reception. Most importantly, tea, coffee and soft drinks
were available courtesy Peter Green.
Programme
I opened proceedings with a brief but sincere welcome to thedelegates, and noted that eight delegates had come from The

28

Netherlands and others from Scotland and distant parts ofEngland.
Combined APT/HRPT Receiver
The first talk came from Ben Schellekens (chairman of Werkgroep
Kunstmanen ) and Arne van Belle about their recently developed
combined APT and HRPT receiver. Some of the technical details
were beyond me but I certainly admire the resourcefulness of
those developing a sophisticated receiver that would, perhaps, notbe viable from a commercial perspective.
Antarctica
Ferdinand Valk gave us a very professional presentation relating to
the current changes in Antarctica. His talk was not only illustrated
with satellite imagery but also his personal experiences andphotographs. I, like many other people, recognise the exquisite
sensitivity of Antarctica as a barometer of global warming; although
the causation may be interrogative the effect can certainly beobserved in the warming of this continent. This was supplemented
by a joint presentation from Cecilia and David Taylor relating totheir own recent experiences in the Antarctic.
Lunch BreakThe lunch break gave an opportunity to spend some time viewing
the exhibition stands, engage in technical conversations andexperiments—with lunch as well if there was time for food.
EUMETSAT
I was very pleased that Gordon Bridge, Head of Training at
EUMETSAT, had agreed to attend our symposium and give his
presentation: Monitoring Weather, Climate and the Environment.
Gordon spent an hour bringing us up to date with EUMETSAT's
programmes and the application of their products. His presentation
was very clear and his visual material was outstanding. As withother speakers he spent several minutes answering delegate
questions relating to his talk. The full presentation—both audio andPowerpoint slideshow—are available to interested readers: see thespecial note at the end of this report.
SoftwareDavid Taylor gave short presentation relating to his latest SatSignal
software, Fred van den Bosch gave a talk about his latest
Presentation Manger software while Rob Alblas explained his latest
software, which allows users to be very selective about the data
streams they receive from EUMETCast without being overwhelmedwith too much data.
Lightning
Arne van Belle gave a presentation about lightening surge
protection. I have twice have had some of my own homeequipment damaged by lightening, so was particularly interested inwhat Arne had to say. I was impressed with the statistics hepresented and the visual records of lightening discharges which
can now be recorded over an extended period of time.
AGM
With the formal sessions complete, I, as director of GEO, took thechair for this meeting, briefly reminding the audience that GEO is alimited company, limited by guarantee with no share holders. I havea legal responsibility to submit account and lists of directors toCompanies House once a year. I also deal with tax matters;
although GEO does not pay any tax, I still have to complete thepaperwork. The best professional advice, when GEO was first
formed, was to establish it as a company so that anything that isdone in GEO's name becomes the responsibility of the company,
not of an individual.
continued on page 30

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 23

Ben Schellekens presents a progress
report on the combined APT/HRPT receiver

Ben Schellekens with the prototype receiver

Arne van Bell adjusting his dish for best reception.

Ferdinand Valk - Photo: Arne van Belle

Ferdinand Valk's talk on Antarctica

Cecilia Taylor's talk on Antarctica

Gordon Bridge (EUMETSAT)

Enjoying the barbecue offered by Nadineand Francis BellJohn Tellick, Arne van Belle andDavid Simmons at the Barbecue

Photo: Cecilia Taylor

Photo: Cecilia Taylor

Arne van Belle transfers data froma faulty hard drive

Close-up showing the damaged SATA socket

Nadine and Francis Bell with Minh van den Bosch

Eric Dean shows off his weather satellite photos

Part of the Audience

Photo: Arne van Belle

Photo: Arne van Bellewww.geo-web.org.uk

Francis Bell thanks Arne van Belle for his talk29

GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

The formal accounts for last year were displayed at the symposium
registration desk so that everybody had the opportunity to readthem. The accounts fall into two categories: the membershipaccount and the shop account.
The Membership Account only just breaks even each year. In UK
terms, with a membership of about 500 paying a subscription of£20, this generates £10,000 income per annum. The cost of
printing the Quarterly is about £7,500 and postage is about £2,000.
This leaves only a very small margin to cover other running costs.
The last bank statement for this account showed a balance of£3,211 but it should be recognised that, historically, several
sponsors had contributed money to establish GEO just over five
years ago. The membership account liabilities amount to the
expectation of members receiving four Quarterly publications
during the membership year.
The Shop Account relates to the items sold from GEO Shop.
Unfortunately, Clive and Carol Finnis who run the shop for us had
to leave before the meeting reached this item of business. On
behalf of GEO, in their absence, I thanked Clive and Carol forrunning the shop for five years. Not only have they generated
money on behalf of the group but, more importantly, together withhelp from others, they have made equipment available to themembership and others throughout the world which would havebeen impossible to source elsewhere. The two prime examples are
the R2FX APT receiver and the DVB EUMETCast receiver. The
shop account has a balance of £10,294 with only small, if any,
outstanding liabilities. I have written the Clive and Carol expressing
our gratitude to them for their efforts on behalf of GEO. A reminder
here may be appropriate to those reading this report that technicalhardware queries should not be sent directly to the shop but should
initially be directed to David Simmons, the member of ourmanagement team who deals with these matters. The shop will
fulfil orders but should not be expected to be a source of advice.
Membership Secretary David Anderson confirmed thatmembership numbers are about 500. He emphasised the need to
inform GEO if your address or other details change as this ensurescontinued membership with an appropriate reminder at the end of
the membership year. David also emphasised the need to increase
member numbers; if every member recruited one new person it
would make our group stronger financially and perhaps broaden
the technical skills and experiences which we all value.
John Tellick drew to the attention of the meeting the help and thecooperation that our Dutch friends had contributed towards
evaluating the latest DVB receiver. Detailed tests showed that thisreceiver was among the best available. John also spoke about thebreadth of articles published in GEO Quarterly. It would certainly
be appreciated by the editor if our membership could contribute
more of their personal experiences to share with others. Technicalarticles are fine but publishing personal experiences is equallyimportant for those without special technical skills as everybody
can relate to these.
Raffle/Draw
The afternoon ended with the raffle and draw. Prizes had been
donated by many people and there was an attractive table full of
goodies waiting to be won. Unfortunately, this year I was unlucky
and did not win anything. However, GEO came out as a winner
because £170 was raised by the raffle. A special prize of a weeklong stay in a west country cottage was auctioned and raised afurther £125. A great end to the day.
We were an hour late in packing up and leaving the RGS but thedelightful RGS security lady 'Janet' who had looked after us all day,was very tolerant of our time over-run.
Acknowledgements
I would like to place on record my thanks to all those who
contributed to the day's programme either as a speaker, an

30

September 2009

exhibitor or a delegate. Without this support and enthusiasm our
symposium would have no purpose.
A particular thanks must be expressed to Paul le Feuvre, one ofour members, who recorded the audio proceedings of the day at aprofessional standard. Paul is a presenter on local radio and is
responsible for running Wey Valley Radio based in Alton,
Hampshire. I know Paul took the trouble to install and test his
recording equipment in the auditorium the day before thesymposium, thus ensuring no last minute problems on the day. All
our speakers agreed to have their presentations recorded and thishas generated a big bonus for us all. Paul has made all theserecordings available to me on a single mp3 format disc and I will
make this available to any interested member (details below).
Symposium 2010
At this time no equivalent symposium is planned for next year. The
suggestion has been made that we try to co-locate our GEO AGM
with another event of overlapping interest: weather, space andradio related events are being researched. There is one potential
option which looks particularly attractive and this will be actively
pursued.
In Conclusion
I wish to express my disappointment that, in spite of published
notices in GEO Quarterly, on our web site and three notices in
RadCom, only 38 people were present at our symposium this year.
The quality of speakers, and the technical skill and advice fromthose present was outstanding, while the social events before,
during and after the symposium were delightful. The day was
worthy of many more delegates so it will not be repeated in thesame format in the foreseeable future. A great loss of opportunity
for the membership. Instead we will progress the co-location of the
Symposium with another event.
Obtaining Presentations
To receive a copy of the audio proceedings of the symposium on adisc, in mp3 format, plus another disc containing Gordon Bridge's
PowerPoint presentation, UK members should send six first classstamps with their request to:Francis Bell
Coturnix House
Rake Lane
MilfordGodalming GU8 5AB
Readers outside the UK may email a request for the discs tofrancis@geo-web.org.uk

The audio commentary given by Gordon during his presentation
substantially enriches the data provided on the presentation slides.
It may be that other presentations made on the day will become
available. If so, they should also be of great interest to run inparallel with the audio recording. For the availability of these visualpresentation keep in touch via the web site.
Photographs
All photographs by David Taylor except where stated otherwise.

This Issue’s Masthead Photograph
For the past four years, the background images to themasthead on the GEO Quarterly cover have been
dedicated to scenes of cloud and sky.
For the first time, this issue sets its sights somewhat
lower, showing a spectacular late evening view ofBritain’s finest mountain range, the Skye Cuillin.
Taken from the Talisker road, the entire range appears
crystal clear in the fading light, with just a single
standing wave over Sgurr nan Gillean generating astationary billow of cloud trailing eastward.

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 23

Based on a NASA Earth Observatory Feature

Francis Bell

The MODIS image opposite shows the Arctic
archipelago of Novaya Zemlya (‘New Land’), part of
the administrative region of Archangel’sk Oblast.
Besides several smaller islands, Novaya Zemlya,
which separates the Barents Sea from the Kara
Sea, consists of two major islands, Severny in thenorth and Yuzhny in the south, separated by thenarrow Matochkin Shar strait. Novaya Zemlya,
which is mountainous throughout, is in fact anextension of the Ural mountains, with a highest
point at 1547 metres above sea level. Glaciers covermuch of Severny while Yuzhny has a tundra
landscape covered mainly by stunted arctic willow,
mosses and lichens. The indigenous populationconsists of about 100 Nenets who subsist mainly
on fishing, trapping, polar bear hunting and seal
hunting.

Regular readers of GEO Quarterly may have seen my intermittent reports
relating to APT reception when, on occasion, duties or holidays havedispatched me to foreign lands.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite
captured this true-colour image July 27, 2009. The
sparsely vegetated land appears in shades of beige
and icy white. Hints of turquoise along thenorthwestern coast probably result from sediments
running off the island, or being churned up fromthe ocean floor by currents. A narrow band of sea
ice still hugs the southeastern coast while smaller
pieces of sea ice float off the northern island’s
northeastern tip.
The Russians knew of Novaya Zemlya from the 11th
century, when traders from Novgorod visited thearea. For western Europeans, the search for the
Northeast Passage during the 16th century led to its
first visit from a west European, Hugh Willoughby,in 1553, where he met Russian ships from thealready established hunting trade . Dutch explorer
Willem Barentsz reached the west coast of Novaya
Zemlya in 1594 and, in a subsequent expedition
two years later, rounded its northern point andwintered on the north-east coast.
Nuclear Testing
In July 1954, more than half the area of Novaya
Zemlya was given over to Soviet nuclear testingsites and remained so during much of the Cold
War. The largest underground test, on
September 12, 1973, of 4.2 megatons total yield,
produced an earthquake of seismic magnitude 6.97
and set off an 80 million tonne avalanche thatblocked two glacial streams and created a lake two
kilometres in length. The final nuclear test
explosion was in 1990. Over its entire history as anuclear test site, Novaya Zemlya hosted 224
nuclear detonations with a total explosive energy
equivalent to 265 megatons of TNT, more than one
hundred times greater than all the explosives—
including the two US nuclear bombs—used during
World War II.
Before the turn of the twentieth century, Arctic sea
ice used to linger along the coast of Novaya
Zemlya’s larger island each July. Since that time,
however, increased summertime melting has madeopen ocean around the archipelago more common.
Image: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC

On my travels, I like to take my APT receiving equipment with me and I
have been known to set up a receiving station in hotels, gardens, a cruise
ship or even a boat on the River Napo in the Amazon basin. Pages 45 and
47 of GEO Quarterly No 15 illustrate the equipment I often take with me. In
anticipation of my next trip abroad, I planned this time to use my mobile
home-made coat-hanger wire and plastic piping turnstile antenna which isshown on those photographs. But there was one important difference: thistime there was to be no computer.
Nadine and I planned a short break to Turkey at the coastal resort ofMarmaris, and as usual I planned to take my APT receiving equipment withme. I had little expectation of being able to receive worthwhile signals
because I knew our hotel was located almost in the centre of Marmaris, so
a clear view of the sky was unlikely. With this in mind, I decided to take theminimum amount of receiving equipment. I needed my antenna, of course,
and a 137 MHz receiver but I
decided not to take my laptop
computer. My laptop is quite
heavy and perhaps represented asecurity risk, so instead I took mySony MZ-R700 Recording MD
Walkman mini-disc digitalrecorder. According to the modein which it is used, it can give
about three hours recording on
one mini disc. This recorder is sosmall that it will easily fit into thepalm of my hand and is poweredby a single rechargeable AAbattery. I have experimented
Sony MZ-R700 mini-disc recorderwith the recorder at home forrecording APT signals and, as best I can judge, there was no loss ofquality when replaying APT audio into a computer. My recorder is several
years old but I’m sure equivalents are still for sale in the shops today.
The rationale for taking my APT equipment was to receive images from as
far east as possible. I wasn’t interested in images of the Mediterranean or
western Europe because I can do this from home. The potential to fulfil myambition depended on a detailed view of the sky from the hotel in Turkey.
On arrival it just so happened that the hotel room we were allocated wason the fourth floor—at the top of the hotel with a small balcony facing east.
This was almost perfect for my anticipated APT reception. Withoutinconveniencing anybody and without drawing attention to my activities I
could do everything from the hotel room and balcony.
Because I decided not to take a computer with me I had to have thesatellite predictions in advance. I used the web site www.heavensabove.com for predictions. I looked up the latitude and longitude ofMarmaris ( 37 deg. N 28 deg. E ) and generated tables for NOAA satellite
passes. The advantage of this was that before departure I could identify
those daylight passes to the east with a modest elevation hoping that theywould give me the images I wanted. The tables generated eight passes
which fulfilled my criteria.
The plan worked well. I tied the antenna to the balcony railings just before
an anticipated satellite pass and feed a short cable into the bedroom.
Under the best conditions with the satellite above about 20 deg. the signal
strength meter on my receiver hit the end stop. There was no preamp but I
also noted the short coax cable so the signal strength could not have been
better. After the pass I disconnected everything and put it back in thesuitcase.

www.geo-web.org.uk

33

GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009This NOAA-18 image was acquired on June 16, 2009

I successfully recorded several images and considering thesurrounding buildings and mountains I don’t think I could havedone any better. Some images showed as far east as the CaspianSea, the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.
However, this is not a disappointment, but I had to wait several
days until I returned home to see what I had recorded. Although I
was delighted with the results and the recording were perfect I
have to admit that part of the satisfaction of APT reception is theline by line instant image display on your computer screen. I
missed this and viewing the images a few days later, however
technically correct had lost some of the charm of APT reception.

The Turkish Delight Hotel. The operations room with its balcony canbe seen at upper left, hence giving a good view of the eastern sky.

I may repeat this exercise if I’m in a far-away place and cannot
take a take a computer but within the constraints of security andbaggage allowance I will favour the use of a laptop for live APT
reception in future. However, it was an interesting experiment andI’m sure small digital recorders have their place when recording indifficult circumstances but in future, on location, I will try to take alaptop for displaying APT images in real time.

The coat hanger wire turnstile

34

This image on page 34 was recorded from a NOAA 18 pass onJune 16 2009. The coastline of Turkey, where Marmaris is located,can be seen on the extreme left centre of the image close to theisland of Rhodes. The Red Sea can be seen at lower left, thePersian Gulf at lower right, and the Caspian Sea and what’s left of
the Aral Sea at upper right. There is some slight, but I hopeexcusable, interference on the image.

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 23

Robert Moore
Towards the end of 2008, the data I
was receiving via EUMETCast was
beginning to deteriorate in quality, but
I decided to leave it until after themove to EUROBIRD because there
was a possibility that I might lose
reception altogether after the move. I
thought the trouble arose from talltrees on my southern horizon but,once the TV installer climbed on to myroof to realign the dish, we discoveredthat it was a tree in my own garden—
and therefore much closer—that was
blocking the view of EUROBIRD.
Problem solved, then? All I had to do
was trim my tree. Well, not quite
solved, because the parts that needed
trimming were overhanging aneighbour’s garden.
If you have a tree overhanging aneighbouring garden, your neighbour
has the right to trim the overhanging
bits. But you have no right to enter
their premises to trim your own tree
and so without goodwill you are stuck.
You should not take what follows as
professional advice. If you findyourself in my position you will needto consult a lawyer. But the story
seems to go something like this: you
do have a right to enter otherpremises to trim a tree if the tree
constitutes an immediate threat to life
or property, i.e. in an emergency. If it
is not an emergency and yourneighbour says ‘No’, then consult thedeeds to your house; it is unlikely, butthere may be some provision granting
you leave to maintain fences, hedges
and so on by entering theneighbouring property.
If the obstruction caused by the tree
or trees is interfering with the conductof a business, you might have a casefor civil action against the neighbour.
But for a hobby you would have nosuch case. Furthermore, judges areapparently reluctant to hear cases
which they regard as trivial disputes
between neighbours. Neighbours
have been known to spend their lifesavings in the Courts over six inchesof earth in the positioning of a fenceor other boundary between properties,
and judges see these as perverse
disputes that should not tie up court
time. I don’t know whether arbitrationis possible in such cases but the
courts do nevertheless remain the
final option. As in all legal
proceedings, the issue for both parties
is cost: how much are you prepared tospend to stop your neighbour

trimming a tree? There’s a risk for thetree owner too: not only might it bedifficult to establish whether you have
any rights to enforce—even if you win
a case, you might not get all the costs
awarded, or not recover them.
In the event, a solicitor’s letter did thetrick and a tree surgeon fixed the
problem in less than an hour. In casereaders wonder why I didn’t simply
move the dish, the answer is simple—
while my house is 25 metres long andthe garden is 0.2 hectares in area,
there is only one spot in the whole
location where I could see Hot Bird,
and now, thankfully EUROBIRD.
People walking along the road
actually look down into the dish. When
we came to live here, the key (hobby)
issues for me were good radio
reception and a decent position for
NOAA POES reception. The former is
excellent and the latter is good;
although I lose some POES coverageto the south and south east, I get very
good coverage to the north and west,
which is what I want. I suppose themoral of this story is that if you’reviewing a house today, take yourcompass and inclinometer with you.

The dish antenna mounted outside the author’s study

The top photograph shows the dishaerial mounted on the wall outside mystudy. The other aerials are an
airband VHF/UHF stick aerial, a minidiscone and my HF long wire, which
can be seen running to the bottom left
hand side of the picture. Although thelocation appears to be buried infoliage and hopeless for EUMETCast
reception, none of the trees visible inthis picture obstructs the dish.
The middle photo shows more of thehouse, with a my VHF yagi pointing at
Winter Hill (to bring music to my Hi-Fi
system): less visible is an HF stickaerial dedicated to radio wefax
reception. My HRPT dish, by the way,
is even further to the right, out of thepicture. EUROBIRD is located in theclear sky roughly left-centre at the topof the picture.
The final photo was taken from theroad and shows that the dish is in fact
clear of immediate obstructions. The
branch of the yew tree, overhead in
the picture, and adjacent branches
had extended outwards anddownwards to cover the line of sight
between the dish and EUROBIRD. As
can be seen, these have now been
trimmed backwww.geo-web.org.uk

Author’s house showing woodlands to the south

The dish, viewed from the road35

GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009Luc van de Peer
I enjoy building my own PCs, starting with ‘barebone’ kit.
Not only is it enjoyable but it is also less expensive. My
latest project has been to receive EUMETCast images ofMeteosat using a small-format PC built from a Foxconn
R10-S3 barebone fitted with a 45SC motherboard, Intel Atom
330 processor and Intel 945GC chipset (figure 1).
Additionally, I installed a single row 2 GB 667 RAM, a
500 MB hard disk, a CD/DVD reader and an old keyboard
mouse and screen found in the shack. What would bepossible with this 1.6 GHz PC?
Setup for EUMETCast
My EUMETCast kit consisted of a 90 cm dish, two antenna
amplifiers, a splitter and twin USB Skystar receivers. In addition to
the computer described above, I also tried out another Foxconn
barebone (this one with an Atom 270 processor), equipped with an
old CD reader and 160 GB ATA hard disk. Its motherboard had
only two SATA connectors, so I had to use a SATA/IDE
bidirectional converter.
The computers run under Windows XP with T Systems tc_recv
v 2.4.4a and Aladdin PKI Client v 4.5.39 software installed.

Figure 2 - The small-format Foxconn computer

Data Manager now has to look for the received files in the
RAMdisk and not on C:• File_database_size=190000000
This is the required size of the Arsoft RAMdisk.
In the recv.channels file I send the EUMETCast data channels I
need to the RAMdisk too. (figure 2).
Additionally, in the file controls section of MSG Data Manager, youneed to add ‘Z:\Ecast\Data Channel X\’ as the ‘TelliCast received
files’ location. This means that not only are all the partial files goingto the RAMdisk but so are the assembled Tellicast files: so lesswork for your hard disk.

Figure 1 - The interior of the Foxconn Atom computer

Test 1In the beginning of the first test with this Atom, I tried to minimise
the workload for the processor. My goal was to run two installationsof MSG Data Manager, one for HRIT (12 channels) and World-FSD(all channels) and the second for RSS with only HRIT (12channels) and MSG Animator running day and night, andGeosatsignal. All this was possible with this small computer without
a single missing segment.
How I did it
First, I changed the following lines in my recv.ini file:• log_level = none
This disables data logging• File_database_directory=Z:\receiving
All files will be saved to the RAMDISK in the Z: drive. MSG

36

In another test, I tried tosend the assembled
Tellique files not to the
RAMdisk but to a
SANDISK Cruzer USB
stick. This has worked
fine for several months
but I have no idea of the
lifetime limit of the USB
stick.
A word of caution: when
you start up your system,
the partial files
immediately start flowing
to RAMdisk, but it takessome time before theassembled files flow to
the RAMdisk. This means
that, after only a few
minutes, you will find thefolder Ecast in the
RAMdisk.

www.geo-web.org.uk[TSL Announcement channel]
target_directory=C:\Ecast\MSG#[Info-Channel-1]#target_directory=C:\Ecast\MSG[EUMETSAT Data Channel 2]target_directory=Z:\Ecast\Data Channel 2[EUMETSAT Data Channel 3]target_directory=Z:\Ecast\Data Channel 2[EUMETSAT Data Channel 5]target_directory=Z:\Ecast\Data Channel 5#[DWDSAT]#target_directory=C:\Ecast\Data Channel 2#[EPS-10]#target_directory=C:\Ecast\EPS-10#[EPS-15]#target_directory=C:\Ecast\EPS-15#[EUMETSAT Data Channel 1]#target_directory=C:\Ecast\Data Channel 1
Figure 3 - the recv.channels filecontinued on page 39 ...

September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 23

Figure 4 - MSG Data Manager, AVHRR Manager, Metop Manager and WXtrack all running simultaneously on the Foxconn Atom computer

Fred van den Bosch has been experimenting with a small ‘netbook’ computer to receive APT. Read more on page 43.

www.geo-web.org.uk

37

GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009

Douglas Deans - dsdeans@tiscali.co.uk
Following the introduction to Windows 7 in my last column,
I have had a chance to speak directly with some users and,perhaps more importantly, with those also running a
EUMETCast system. Reports are most favourable, although
my own experience of setting up the new operating system
was less successful. More of that later.

the consumer. Of course the web browser and Windows mailcan be freely loaded after the OS is installed, butremembering that you do not have a browser included, makesure you attend to that before you clean install Windows 7!

I can also now reveal that Microsoft have confirmed that
Windows 7 will be officially launched in Europe on
October 22, 2009, so as mentioned in my last column, myhunch that Microsoft were anxious to get this out to the
public has proven correct. Although some of the following
information will be out of date before this publication, as I
pen this column in mid July some very interesting things
have come to light.

I also have a tale to tell regarding a peculiarity I found in my
own Vista system and I would be curious to learn if any
other readers have found a similar problem. An Internet
search suggests I am not alone and the problem has
potential to cause serious processor problems, which could
be catastrophic for smooth operation of DVB/Tellique andmany other programs.

Some time ago, the European Commission advised Microsoft
that they were unhappy about Windows operating systems
shipping with their own web browser. It was felt to beagainst fair competition. What the Commission actuallywanted was for Microsoft to provide a list of web browsers intheir software, including their own, which could be
downloaded separately. Pre-empting the EC's final decision,due imminently, and to avoid further hold-ups to the releaseof Windows 7, Microsoft decided to remove Internet Explorer
all together and not provide the options menu from within
the operating system.
One cannot help but feel that Microsoft have lifted two
fingers to the Commission and we have now ended up withthe worst of all options. Still, that is not unusual for theEuropean Commission, whose interference has once again
created a ludicrous situation whereby Europe has to bedifferent from the rest of the world in that it will not be
possible to have a Windows 7 upgrade: only a clean install
will be available.
Upgrading from XP or Vista would require that existing
Internet Explorer software be removed to comply with the EC
directive, and Microsoft are unhappy that people's personal
data could be lost if that were attempted. Microsoft have,
however, recognised this and are offering a very reasonable
introductory price for Windows 7 E Home Premium. This is
the special version, for Europe only, for which a limited
number of copies can be pre-ordered between July 15 andAugust 9 for £49.99—or until the limited pre-order
quantities run out. As I understand, it will still be
October 22 before the pre-ordered copies are delivered. It is
expected that, for a short time thereafter, it will cost £79.99
before becoming available at its normal price of £149.99.
There are other versions also being offered but Home
Premium is likely to be the most favoured for domestic use.
Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the software are provided
with each purchase. Of course, for readers outwith Europe,
there are different launch dates, but for you Windows 7 will
include Internet Explorer 8.
So there we are. A very good deal, but yet again the EC has
meddled where it should not have and made life difficult for38

My apologies if some readers feel that there has been too
much of my recent columns set aside for Windows 7. I do
feel that the release of a new operating system merits someattention and within a few months 95% of all new computer
systems are likely to be shipping with Windows 7; so it is an
important issue. Whilst I hope to continue with reports, I
expect more of the column to return to covering software
issues appertaining to our hobby.
Windows 7
It does seem that this new operating system is living up to
its promise and those with whom I have spoken are very
happy with their Windows 7 experience. I decided to try the
Windows 7 release candidate, which is available to all for
download. It is a huge download, even for those with good
Broadband speeds, and those with monthly limits may haveto be careful. However, all went extremely smoothly,
including the requirement of saving an image file to DVD.
Windows 7 loaded in without problem and in no time I wasup and running.
It soon became clear, however, that my graphics, while quite
useable, were not up to scratch. A quick check in Device
Manager indicated an issue with the graphics driver (theinfamous yellow exclamation mark). Repeated efforts toresolve this were unsuccessful and some checks on theInternet established that ATI were not going to provide
Windows 7 drivers for my ATI Radeon X700 graphics cardwith 256 MB memory. Strangely, Vista drivers would notwork correctly either and nothing I did would resolve theissue. So it was back to XP. To be fair, my ATI Radeon X700
is not the newest of graphics cards but nevertheless I am
surprised that Vista drivers, whilst working, were greatly
restricting my options. No Aero for example.
Strange Problem
For very many years, I have used a two computer networked
system for my EUMETCast reception, including the pre-MSG
times when I was receiving only ATOVS and Meteosat-6.
Some time ago, and as a result of all the good things I was
reading, I decided to purchase a DVB World box from the
GEO Shop as a back-up to my now ageing and well used PCI
card. As everything was working extremely well, the USB box
lay unopened for over six months. I decided that I had betterwww.geo-web.org.uk

September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

check it out and, following some excellent reports, chose to
test it on a single computer system comprising an
AMD 6400 with 3 GB RAM and running Vista Home
Premium. My brother was reporting almost perfect results
on a single Vista (and subsequently Windows 7) computerwith a slightly lower specification than mine. Well, there
have been one or two issues with this set up but one inparticular puzzled me. It seemed that there was regularsegment loss whilst I was on-line downloading mail. In fact
just opening the Windows Mail program was sufficient tocause problems. Further investigation drew my attention toconsiderable CPU usage—indeed very frequently 100%—
when Windows Mail was open. Why was my CPU in suchturmoil with a low resource programme?
Well, some checks at this end plus some information fromthe Internet led me to discover that, in my series of folders
which hold the e-mails for inbox, outbox, deleted items,
drafts etc., I had thousand of files with 0 bytes. Yes,
thousand of files, in fact 5,650 to be exact. Whether thecomputer was struggling to read those files when the
program was opened I have no idea, but on deleting them
the CPU usage fell to zero (when Windows Mail was open)
and my segment loss improved accordingly. Although thefiles showed as 0 kb, they could be opened but were foundto be what I can only describe as eml shells. When opened
they use the time and date of the opening,
From said ‘Sender Unspecified’To said ‘none’ andSubject said ‘no subject’.

GEO Quarterly No 23

Software Updates
Just a reminder that the list below is for full tested releases anddoes not include the latest beta (or alpha) versions currently on
test. Those can also be downloaded from David Taylor's website
David Taylor's programs (latest releases)
ATOVS Reader
AVHRR Manager
BUFR Viewer
CMA Viewer
DWDSAT HRPT Viewer
GeoSatSignal
GRIB Viewer
GroundMap
HDF Viewer
HRPT Reader
Kepler Manager
MapToGeo
Metop Manager
MSG Animator
MSG Data Manager
PassControl
SatSignal
Sea-Ice & Viewer
Wxtrack

v 1.1.4
v 1.6.4
v 1.0.0
v 1.2.0
v 1.1.2
v 7.0.6v 2.2.4
v 2.0.6
v 1.3.2v 2.8.6
v 1.3.2
v 1.1.6
v 1.3.4
v 2.5.30
v 2.5.30
v 3.2.2
v 5.1.4
v 1.3.4
v 3.7.6

To learn more about those programs and to download thelatest updates please go to :http://www.satsignal.eu ==> Satellite Tools

As I said an eml shell.
I should also point out that I do not keep a huge backlog ofmails, so in context I had perhaps about 100 genuine
emails along with the 5,650 of 0 kb files. As those files do
not show up in Windows Mail then they cannot be deleted
without going into the folders themselves.
I have been unable to establish the cause of this problem
but have noticed a massive improvement when I altered thedefault settings for 'Junk e-mail options' in Windows Mail
itself. Not having junk mail moved to the Junk e-mailfolder has reduced the problem by more than 90%. There
are still some occasional 0 kb files, perhaps 10 or 20 each
week, but not the massive amounts I found before. I did
read of one chap who had over 10,000 of those files.
So, thanks to my desire to have zero segment loss,
EUMETCast led me to what was in fact a serious Windows
issue which had previously gone unnoticed.
I would be curious to learn if anyone else has those files
and if they are present in large quantities. Please feel free
to e-mail me with your findings using my address on thecolumn heading. Any suggestions as to what might becausing this would also be most welcome. I can confirm
that stopping Norton Internet Security (which does scan
incoming and outgoing mails) had no effect on the problem.
To find the necessary folders in Vista select Desktop andopen the folder with your username. Thereafter thenecessary folders will be found under
AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows Mail/Local Folders

where you will find the usual mail folders, including any
you have made up, such as the one I have for Eumetsat
OPS, using the rule that mail with ‘OPS’ should be put
there.
I will report any feedback from membership in my next
column so please get those reports coming. Reports saying‘no problems’ will be just as useful as they may give an
indication of the scale of this issue.

... continued from page 36

So when you start MSG Data Manager too early, the program
cannot find the Ecast folder and the files. If you wait too long, theRAMdisk fills up completely and stops working.
Anyway, both methods gave me the opportunity to run two
installations each of David Taylor’s MSG Data Manager, MSG
Animator and GeoSatSignal, day and night, without a single
missing segment—all this without wearing out my hard disk, in asmall Atom system that cost me just 250 euros, and which
consumes only 50 watts.
Test 2In the first configuration, the Tellique assembled files were sent toa RAMdisk. This is not possible in a configuration where moreprograms are running and more RAMdisk space is needed for thereceiving subfolder (0.fsy file) .
The size of the RAMdisk is limited because the maximum memoryon the Atom motherboard is 2 GB; also, the onboard VGA uses
192 MB.
This setup uses the following seven programs, running 24/7
without missing segments
1 Wxtrack
2 AVHRR Manager
3 METOP Manager — Metop + GAC NO missing chunks
4 MSG Data manager RSS (HRIT 12 Channels)
5 MSG Animator (2 half screen animated images)
Screen: Samsung SyncMaster 205BW 1680 by 1050
6 HRPTReader to view the Metop and the AVHRR Images
7 GeoSatSignal.
At the same time I can open a browser and surf the Internet andinstall new programs.
On the second machine with the less powerful Atom 270 processor
the same programs are running without problems. All this andmaybe more is possible with this tiny Atom computer.

www.geo-web.org.uk

39

September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 23

The RazakSat Spacecraft
Credit: ATSB

Peter Wakelin
Malaysia’s imaging satellite programmebegan in 2001 but it took eight years for the
spacecraft to eventually achieve orbit. Dueto the nation’s equatorial location, an orbit
inclination of only nine degrees waschosen. RazakSat was the first commercial
payload to be launched aboard the SpaceX
Falcon-1 rocket.
Background
Prior to beginning its own imaging satellite
programme in 2001, Malaysia purchased a
UoSat-class satellite from Surrey Satellite
in Guildford, UK which was launched,
together with four other small payloads, ona Dnepr rocket (a refurbished Soviet-era
R-36M2 ballistic missile) on September
26, 2000 into a 65° inclination orbit. It wascalled TiungSat and had a resolution of
80 metres.
RazakSat started life as MACSat, MAC
being the Medium-sized Aperture Camera,its main instrument but was renamed
RazakSat in tribute to the second Prime
Minister of Malaysia, Abdul Razak—known
as the Bapa Pembangunan Malaysia(Father of Malaysian Development) for his
contribution to the development of
Malaysia.

Malaysia - Credit: World Travel Guide

Early plans were over-ambitious and theplanned 2005 launch was not achieved.
Launch arrangements were changed and it
was not until early 2007 that a contract withSpaceX was signed to launch RazakSat on
a Falcon-1 vehicle.
The Spacecraft
RazakSat was developed and built jointly
by a Malaysian company, Astronautic
Technology (M) Sdn. Bhd. (ATSB), which isowned by the Malaysian Ministry of
Finance, and the South Korean Company
Satrec Initiative. Based on Satrec’s SI-200
satellite bus, Razaksat’s optical system
was also built by the Korean company.
The spacecraft has a mass of 180 kg ofwhich 50 kg is instrumentation. Power isobtained by GaAs/Ge solar cells which will
generate at least 300 W after three years of

RazakSAT undergoing final preparation for shipping
Photo: SpaceXwww.geo-web.org.uk

41

GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009

operation. NiCd batteries with a total of
18 Ah capacity will provide power when thesatellite is not in sunlight. Three-axis
stabilisation is achieved by using four
reaction wheels and the pointing accuracy
should be better than 0.2 degrees.
The Medium-sized Aperture Camera (MAC)
can image at 2.5 m resolution in thepanchromatic mode and 5 m in
multispectral mode, which is comparable tothat achieved by far more massive, andvery much more expensive, spacecraft. At
the nominal orbit height of 685 km theswath width is 20 km. Solid-state recorders
on board can store up to 32 Gbit of data
and the X-band downlink can dump data to
ground stations in Banting and Shah Alamat a rate of 30 Mbit/s. In addition to imaging
instruments, Razaksat also carries
technology demonstration equipment
designed and built in Malaysia.
The Orbit
The most commonly used orbit for Earthobservation is the near-polar sunsynchronous orbit. The plane of an orbit
inclined at exactly 90 degrees to theequator will remain fixed in space; all points
on Earth will pass through this plane nearly
4 minutes earlier each day due to the
Earth’s orbital motion around the sun. By
inclining the plane at about 98 degrees, theEarth’s equatorial bulge causes the plane
to precess eastwards at about a degree aday thereby offsetting the effect of Earth’s
orbital motion. The result is a sunsynchronous orbit where a point on thesurface passes through the orbit plane at
the same time every day. Inclinations to theequator are measured from the eastward
direction and inclinations less than 90°
result in a westward precession whereas
higher inclinations lead to an eastward
precession.

SpaceX’s Falcon-1 carrying RazakSat lifts off from tiny Omelek Island
Credit: US Army SMDC

significant contributions to the development
programme. The Department of Defense
paid for the first two test flights (in 2006 and2007) under a programme that evaluates
new US-built launch vehicles. The first
three flights all failed to orbit their payloads
and as the Malaysian authorities insisted ona successful test flight before risking theirspacecraft, RazakSat was not launcheduntil July 14, 2009 following a successful
test flight in September 2008.
The fifth Falcon-1 flight, carrying RazakSat,
lifted off from Omelek Island at 0336 UTC
and the second stage rocket’s first burntook it to a parking orbit with an apogee ofabout 680 km. The second burn, followedby spacecraft separation, placed thespacecraft in a near-circular orbit slightly
short of the planned 685 km. Omelek Island
is one of several in Kwajalein Atoll in the
US Marshall Islands in the North Pacific
Ocean. The facilities in Kwajalein are
operated by the US Army’s Space andMissile Defense Command. The latitude ofthe launch site is close to 9 degrees,
matching the desired orbit inclination, thus
enabling a launch due east and thereby
gaining maximum benefit from the Earth’s
rotation.

As well as the peninsular part of Malaysia
situated between Thailand and Singapore,
Sarawak and Sabah, in the north of theisland of Borneo, are also part of Malaysia.
The entire nation lies between latitudes one
and 8 degrees north of the equator so asatellite in a sun-synchronous orbit would
spend very little time each day in range ofMalaysia. As tropical oceanic regions,especially hilly ones like Malaysia, arefrequently cloud-covered, it was decided touse an orbit inclined at only 9 degrees. At
this inclination the satellite passes thelongitude of Malaysia every 100 minutes orso throughout the day thereby maximising
the chances of cloud-free imagery. Of
course, half the passes will be to the southof Malaysia but other countries in theregion, and also in equatorial SouthAmerica, have expressed an interest in
using imagery from RazakSat.
The Launch
The Falcon-1 rocket stands 21 metres tallwith a diameter of 1.7 m and has a fuelled
mass of almost 28 tonnes. It was designed
and built by SpaceX using private money,
although the Pentagon has madeAn onboard camera captures the scene as Falcon-1 climbs towards orbit
Photo: SpaceX42

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 23

Keith Fraser sent GEO this August 23 NOAA-19 APT image of Hurricane Bill Keith wrote: “I was intrigued by the delicate cloud
tracery of the east side of the storm. Considering that no visible light is involved—it's all heat—the fine detail is magnificent.”

Fred van den Bosch
For my mobile APT station, I use a small
receiver (R2FX) and a PITA antenna. This
has now been supplemented by theaddition of a Samsung NC10 netbook
computer with a 10.2 inch screen andweighing 1.3 kg. This appeared sufficient to
run WXtoImg. See photograph on page 37.
However, the reception initially proved
rather problematic: there were lots of lines
on the recording but little recognisable

imagery apart from the sync-bars.
Because there is only a microphone input
on this netbook, I thought that the volume
setting must be too high. Adjusting thevolume in the R2FX did help, but only avery little. Regulating the soundcard itself
was the similar.
I was thinking of connecting an extra
potentiometer between the receiver and the

www.geo-web.org.uk

netbook until I discovered a separate entry
on the Realtek Audio Configuration screen.
I saw on the ‘Microphone’ tab that the‘noise limiter’ option was selected;
deselecting it immediately resulted in theusual beautiful images.
I hope that this hint will save people time. It
cost me a number of satellite passes before
I discovered the cause.

43

GEO Quarterly No 23

Group for Earth Observation

September 2009

Dear Francis,
I am responding to the question posed on page 40 of theJune 2009 issue of The GEO Quarterly: ‘How is snow kept
off commercial satellite dishes?’
I worked for Cable & Wireless for six years and then for
Mercury Communications in the UK for around three years.
In this time I worked on the installation and operation ofIntelsat Earth stations in various parts of the world. Whatfollows is what I learned during that time.
Radomes
The white protective radomes placed over some dishes caneither be self supporting or be supported by the pressure of
air blown inside to support the fabric. Advantages of thiscovering are :• The dish is not exposed to the elements and so does notneed constant attention for corrosion.
• Dishes have a maximum windspeed limit before they
have to be stowed (with the dish pointing straight up,
towards the zenith). In this configuration you cannot
point at a satellite so your communications are down
until the wind speed reduces. One of the early Marconimade dishes I worked on had a maximum allowablewindspeed of 60 mph (gusts) before it had to be stowed.
The newer dishes I worked on (NEC) could go to well inexcess of 80 mph—but I think they had to stop tracking
and sit with the brakes on. Anyway, with a radome thiswould not be an issue so the dish would be able tocontinue to track a satellite in very bad weather.
• For a military dish covered by a radome, it is notpossible to monitor where the dish is pointing or how
quickly it is tracking—such information would givesome orbital information away.
The disadvantage of a radome is that the material it is madefrom causes some attenuation of the transmitted andreceived signals. Rain on the radome can increase thereceived noise level as it means that the dish is looking
through warmish water rather than at cold sky. My
understanding is that radomes are kept clear of snow by
circulating warmed air in the inside—but I have not worked
on a dish with a radome—so perhaps someone else may beable to confirm this.
Dishes in the Tropics
The dishes I worked on in the tropics had no de-icing, as it
was not required.
Whitehill
I worked briefly at the Whitehill site in Oxfordshire in the
UK. This Earth station site is in an old quarry so gets quite
cold and damp. The dish there had electric resistanceheating attached to the reflector petals and also on the subreflector [1]. A warm air blower was used to keep the feed
window clear of rain and snow. The heater and blower werelocated in the hub behind the dish and the warm air ran up
a duct on the side of the feed.
The end of the duct fed a nozzle which directed the warmed
air across the feed window, hence keeping it clear of rain orsnow. Rain or snow sitting on the feed window causes
higher background noise levels as well as attennuating the44

transmit signals; thus you had electrical cabling on the rearof the dish to connect to the resistance heating panels. This
site had a stand-by diesel-alternator set just for the de-icing,so it must have required a lot of power.
Thamesside
After Whitehill I moved to the Thamesside Earth Station in
the Isle of Dogs, London. The original Earth station used a
Marconi 13 metre diameter dish fitted with a feed window
blower (not heated) but no other de-icing. This blower wasjust to keep the rain off the feed window. This dish was used
for traffic to the USA, when I was there, so had a fairly low
elevation: 13.5° I think. When we had snow one year, we
had to clean it out of the dish using a broom with a longextension handle: yes, very high-tech! But it did work. The
low elevation meant that we could broom the snow out of
the reflector while standing on the ground.
Chicago
We worked an Earth station in Chicago, USA. They told usthat they used a steam de-icing system on their dish. I
understood steam was raised and then run through pipeson the rear of the dish to keep the snow and ice off. I guess,with the winters Chicago experiences, they needed a reallyheavy duty solution.
Footnote
All the commercial dishes I have worked on were Cassegrain
types, where the large reflector was made up of aluminium
petals or panels. These dishes reflected the received signal
to a sub-reflector; this is the small object which looks a bit
like a Smartie, which is mounted on three or four legs
sticking out of the front of the reflector.
The sub-reflector focuses the received signal into the feed
horn, which is usually a tube which sticks out a little way at
the centre of the dish, pointing at the sub-reflector. The endof this tube is covered by the feed horn cover or feed horn
window. The feed horn is connected by a waveguide to the
low noise amplifiers and the high power amplifiers. The
waveguide is pressurised slightly with dry air to prevent the
ingress of moisture (hence the need for the feed dome
window to stop the air escaping.]
Regards
David Williams
Sydney, Australia
Symposium 2009
Dear Francis,
I just had to write and say how impressed I was with thisyear's Symposium, held in Guildford. I thought it a great
success, with a particularly interesting contribution from
Gordon Bridge (EUMETSAT). I also greatly enjoyed David
and Cecilia Taylor's account of their visit to the Antarctic,
and of course it was wonderful to welcome the enthusiastic
group from the Netherlands and hear about their projects.
All in all, a very good day.
Eric Deanwww.geo-web.org.uk