Here is the proposed topic:

Final Project Proposal

Title: Smart Tracking Antenna System for a 5.8 GHz CubeSat Ground Station

General Description:

CubeSats operate in low Earth orbit, resulting in a constantly changing position relative to the Earth's surface and a limited time window for communication with ground stations. To maintain high received signal strength, the ground station must direct its antenna beam toward the satellite. This final project aims to develop a prototype of a smart antenna system for a ground station capable of tracking CubeSats.

Student Task #1:

Design the CubeSat communication signals—covering both the transmitter and receiver—and implement them using Software-Defined Radio (SDR). Signal characteristics to be considered include modulation schemes, frequency shifts (Doppler effect) and signal strength variations due to relative motion, as well as various use cases (video, image, and data transmission).

Student Task #2:

Design a smart tracking algorithm and implement it on an SDR or microcontroller. Potential algorithms include satellite position searching based on Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and satellite orbit prediction algorithms.

Joint Task:

Design and construct the ground station antenna framework and prepare the necessary components for laboratory and field testing (including simulations), covering hardware, display systems, and testing scenarios.

This time I didn't adjust the Doppler shift, since it turns out the demodulator handles that automatically. There were fewer dark bands, but a couple of wide ones remained, and the polarization was still fluctuating.

Equipment (listed in order of connection):

• 137 MHz V-dipole
• 137 MHz SAW filter before the LNA
• External LNA with bias tee
• 5-meter 5D-FB coaxial cable
• RTL-SDR Blog V4
• 2-meter USB extension cable
• Laptop

Hi! I've been messing with my Nooelec RTL-SDR v5 for around 2 months and I recently got a simple V dipole antenna with 53.4cm for each rod, 120 degrees between them and all that.

Now i want to try and capture my first Meteor M2-3/M2-4 satellite image! I use the setup from https://www.rtl-sdr.com/simple-noaameteor-weather-satellite-antenna-137-mhz-v-dipole/

I got a 54 degree pass of the Meteor M2-3 tomorrow morning, Is it worth trying with my new antenna? What are the proper SDR++ settings? I have done some research already but there is a lot of contradicting information so i want to get your opinion.

Any help is appreciated!

UPDATE: Just to note, i do not have an LNA.

METEOR-M N2-4 2026/08/31 22:40 UTC Nooelec NEsdr v5, diy QFH, Satdump

Equipment (listed in order of connection):

• 137 MHz V-dipole
• 137 MHz SAW filter before the LNA
• External LNA with bias tee
• 5-meter 5D-FB coaxial cable
• RTL-SDR Blog V4
• 2-meter USB extension cable
• Laptop

437.625 MHz FM SSTV

Aug 30, 2026 1:06:35 UTC

So M2-3 satellite always pass here but during the night. This is my first daylight capture with that satellite (gotta appreciate that landmass)

EDIT: only during the night I receive a good pass (60 degrees plus)

METEOR-M N2-4 2026/08/29 21:44 UTC,
Airspy R2, diy V_Dipole, Satdump

Apparently Reddit's stupid filters think that satellite imagery is NSFW so I had to crop it.

Full resolution: KMSS1.jpg) and KMSS2

WARNING BIG IMAGE (50MB EACH) right click -> save to disk, browser will surely crash

Aug 29, 2026 06:20 UTC

So I used to just extend the antenna to max(dipole) and I always get only like stripped image and maybe for like few seconds.

After learning some antenna information, I extended it to right length (plus angle it a bit to account for overhead pass) and captured this (clouds hide the land mass but I think it creates a new aesthetic). It lasted around 8 to 10mins if I'm not mistaken.

Maybe having those satellite dedicated antennas would improve this even more (like what ppl are posting here)

K4PGD - V-Dipole > SawBird NOAA - Noelec rtl-sdr - RaspiNOAA

So my journey started when I was looking for an SSTV encoding library for the satellite payload I was designing. When I couldn't find a suitable library, I built one myself.

After spending a lot of time trying to implement SSTV encodings and ensuring compatibility, I thought why not spend some more time making it actually useful. So I created a free website under www.slowscan.space which lets you encode and decode all SSTV modes in the Dayton Paper. You can also decode live off-air by feeding your rig's audio into your mic input or transmit by playing the encoded audio into your radio.

I am curious if you guys find this useful. Are there any features you are missing? Did I make any mistakes?

Hi, new member here. I'm using a helix antenna, a SPF5189Z LNA and an ADALM-PLUTO SDR to receive METEOR M-x, METOP and FENGYUNG satellites. I simulated and built the antenna myself (got a gain of about 13.5 dBi on simulation, as well as S1,1 = -20.6 dB and VSWR = 1.21 in physical measurements). However, I'm not being able to receive any satellite at all. I also tested the setup using a RF generator and a lambda/4 antenna as transmitter and it worked perfectly. What am I doing wrong?

Got it working!

Received METEOR-M2-3 on 137.9 MHz using an RTL-SDR v4 and a simple V-dipole in my backyard. Decoded with SatDump.

The signal wasn’t perfect there are plenty of artifacts but I actually received an image of Europe directly from a satellite with a couple pieces of wire in the garden. Still kind of amazed that this works. =)

Next goal: improve the antenna setup and get a cleaner full pass.

METEOR-M N2-4 2026/08/27 22:27 UTC, Airspy R2, diy V_Dipole, Satdump

Looking into getting into the hobby, am i missing anything?

METEOR-M N2-4 2026/08/26 Afternoon Passes CN85 Nooelec NEsdr v5, diy QFH Satdump

Having a bit of difficulty receiving METEOR-M N2-3 (and N2-4)

Setup:

• RTL-SDR Blog V4
• Stock Dipole, 54cm
• Nooelec NOAA Saw filter & LNA
• Laptop
  • SatDump
  • 137.9 MHz Primary
  • METEOR M2-x LRPT 72k processing pipeline
  • 1.024 sample rate, DC blocking, gain 25-35
• hand-held

The dipole plugs into the LNA, which is powered by Bias-T and threaded into the RTL-SDR, which plugs directly into the laptop

I do get syncs reported on Viterbi, with BER around 0.003 and SNR around 14, and I've been attempting passes >70 degrees of elevation

This set of images were from a pass on 2026-08-26

Is this a day/night issue? Noise from the laptop? Drivers or processing errors?

FN04gf, Uniden BC125AT, using Droid SSTV with a 3 element yagi. The event runs until August 26th, not sure exactly when it ends.

Finally after almost a month of trial and error and tracking, my very first SSTV decode (it's addicting)! yay!

Time: 2026-08-25 02:21:50 UTC
Satellite: UMKA-1
Gear: RTL SDR v4, 16cm dipole (vertical orientation), LNA (TQP3M9037-LNA)

I'm curious about how much interest there is in the other instruments transmitted through (a)hrpt besides avhrr/msu-mr, such as metop instruments amsu, mhs, iasi, gome, sem or the mtvza on meteor.

Do you find these instruments interesting or useful? If so which ones interest you the most, and why? If not is it because the data is harder to decode, process, visualize, or interpret compared with something like avhrr?

I'm mainly curious about everyone's different perspectives