WXSat

 

WXSat Software
WXSat for Windows 3.1/95/NT, decodes the signals in the  APT format from NOAA, Meteor, Okean, Resurs, Meteosat and GOES Satellites  (AM) with a Soundcard.

 = Updated Sep.-11-2005

Many thanks to the Author of WXSat, Christian  Bock making such an interesting and useful program for people who are  interested in Weatherfax.


Christian Bock the author of WXSat send me the new Version V2.5  rev.9 released Nov 1999.
V2.59 update or new download only  for people suffering from the "single" command line option. There is also now a German Version available.

WXSat is FREE for school and private/amateur use.

WXSat for Windows 3.1/95/NT, decodes the signals in the  APT format from NOAA, Meteor, Okean, Resurs, Meteosat and GOES Satellites (AM) with a Soundcard.
WXSat can decode also FM-Fax for decoding facsimile-signals transmitting via shortwave.

WXSat works with the soundcard input so there is no external sampling hardware required. A cable between the receiver and the soundcard input is enough. The program has also a good English documentation.


Note on the use of WXSat 2.57
Problem: After an automatic  recording session with the "No Output File" option the bitmap functions "Load" and "Save as" cannot be selected under some operating systems.

Work-around: A new automatic recording "Start on ..." with the "Save Bitmap" option should be initiated and immediately stopped again.
Care must be taken that during this time no input signal transfers the software from the stand-by to the active state because otherwise the displayed  bitmap is discarded from memory. Now the bitmap functions should work normally.


For new users of WXSat reception, to obtain the best performance from Christian Bock's WXSAT program, and production of coloured composite images, Les Hamilton has uploaded a guide to the use ofWxsat v 2.4 on his Web-site, with illustrations and screen-shots.

Milan Konecny (VE3NZK) has make the description of the WxSat Title bar contents and how to use them.


WXSat V2.59 (617K) English Version (AM and FM) click here . November 28 1999

 WXSat V2.59 (625K) Spanish Version (AM and FM) click here. November 28 1999

 WXSat V2.59 (614K) German Version (AM and FM) click here. November 28 1999

 WXSat V2.59 (74K) Update for V2.57click here. November 28 1999


Orbitron Satellite tracking system for radio amteur and observing puposes It's also used by weather professionals, satellite communication users, astronomers, UFO hobbyist and even astrologers. Application shows the  positions of satellites at any given moment (in real or simulated time). It's FREE (Cardware) and it's probably one of the easiest and most powerful satellite trackers, according to opinions of thousands of users from all over the world.

FEATURES:
  • NORAD SGP4/SDP4 prediction models
  • 20 000 satellites can be loaded from TLE file(s) (auto: PC/Unix, 2/3 line)
  • ALL of them can be tracked at the same time
  • Sun and Moon tracking
  • full screen, presentation modes
  • supported screen resolutions from 640x480
  • Real-time mode / Simulation mode (free time control)
  • advanced passes & Iridium flares search engine (results printing)
  • miscellaneous options of visualisation
  • nightlife (dark color scheme for night usage)
  • orbit info
  • notes for each object
  • radar
  • easy, flexible interface
  • database of cities around the world
  • database of satellite frequiencies
  • PC clock synchronization via NTP
  • Internet TLE updater (with ZIP support) via HTTP
  • rotor/radio control (built-in or user's driver support)
  • Windows screen saver included
  • translations supported

and many, many, more...




Added some information for the Hamtronics R139APT Receiver, also available as a Kit.

 David R. Landon, Jr. created a programm BMP to JPG Conversion that acts like  a hot folder which monitors a user selected directory for images, converts  them, saves them to another user selected directory, and then deletes the original file to conserve space. For example, he use it to monitor his "bmp" folder under WXSat and convert the "*.bmp" files to "*.jpg" files and save them in another folder under WXSat called "jpg". After the  conversion, it deletes the "*.bmp" file to conserve space. he offering  this program free to everyone, thanks David !!

With QuickMix you can store and recall different  sets of audio mixer settings for WXSat quickly and easily

WXSat V2.57 (833K) Spanish/English help file Version (AM and FM) click here. Spanish translation by Pauli Nunez, EA3BLQ. September 18 1999

 WXSat V2.57 (660K) Spanish help file Version (AM  and FM) click here. Spanish translation by Pauli Nunez, EA3BLQ. September 18 1999

 WXSat V2.57 (614K) English Version (AM  and FM) click here. September 18 1999

 WXSat Dutch help file, or download the Dutch help file as a Word Doc.

Nakato Mikiya made a translation into  Japanese, for download go to hispages

 Many users ask me for WAV example files to test the WXSat software. You can download some WAV files here.


General info about RQHA, but now also Technical Notes of theRQHA's pdf download.(dutch workgroup KUNSTMANEN)

  NATIONAL RF Inc. (Quudrifilar helix and Turnstile antennas)


Receiving Wefax photos on  Short-wave

The reception of meteorological satellites has become a  more child’s play last years. Due to digital hard and software technology puts real-time satellite images on your PC monitor.
Inexpensive  software such as WXSat or JVComm connect to a Wefax receiver  allows you to decode Geostationary and Polar Orbiter Satellites.
For  more then 10 years it was very expensive to receive "live" such images, but for Mariners, Meteorologists, Pilots and Yachtmens, the consultation  of Satellite pictures was a daily routine. These users used the Long and  Short-wave transmissions to receive Satellite pictures.
Due to propagation and fading signals on the short-wave bands they use Frequency  Modulated (FM) transmissions instead of Amplitude Modulation (AM) transmissions from the Satellites.
The drum speed in use on short-wave  is 120 (lines scanned per minute) and the index of co-operation (IOC) in  use is 576. A standard document with a length of 495 mm and a drum  diameter of 152 mm needs 18,8 minutes.
In the past you could receive  daily hundreds of Satellite "retransmission’s" world-wide, but due to modern satellite technologies more and more stations ending the services  on short and long wave to change to the new satellite technologies.
Due  to the propagation on the short-wave bands it is possible to receive all  stations from any location worldwide.
At the moment we go to the maximum of the "11 year solar cycle" which means you have excellent  signals over very long distances.
Radio fax stations transmitting most of the time weather charts who are the best way to interpret the satellite images such as forecasts and tracking of hhurrican/typhoon  weatherforcasting in this area.
At the moment there are 7 Radio fax  stations around the globe who transmit daily on the short-wave bands  Satellite "retransmission’s" from the stations area.

Frequencies  and schedules are also available on the HF-FAX pages (see HF-FAX listings and Schedules).


Alex Greenland G7JGQ have been devoloping a excellent Satellite tracking program AGSatTrack, and is now available  to others
Oded Regev 4Z5BS from Israel has written a small program called TRACKER v1.0 that allows the creation of maps that can be combined with images taken from NOAA satellites.
I have test it successfully  with NOAA images received with WXSAT and JVComm. With it you  can see country borders and sea/surface boundaries.
The program  is quite small but it comes with the world map so it is about 3.4 Mb in total.
Here is a example from a NOAA 14 picture  decoded with WXSAT and added the country borders from the TRACKER program.
For more examples take a look also on Peter Tanner´s Weather Pages

If you are interested to test the tracker program, go to the Tracker Download page
Julian Moss wrote a application called SatMon. With this utillity you can recording audio signals from weather satellites as WAV files to decode  with WXSAT or other programs.
David J Taylor wrote a decode program called SATSIGNAL
With this program you  can demodulate Polar Orbiter signals from pre-recorded .WAV files. This program produce higher resolution images

Les Hamilton wrote a program called PALETTE to optimised the colors from images decoded with WXSAT.
PALETTE is a Windows 3.x/9.x compliant program wich operates on luminance bands within a BMP image  produced using WXSAT in conjunction with an image processing program such as Paintshop Pro etc.

An upgraded version of Footprint (v 1.19) Satellite Tracker is now available.


Radek Vaclavik OK2XDX has developed a very simple downconverter  for Meteosat. He has published it on the QSL  Net from here you can download also some  Meteosat WAV files.

Radek Vaclavik OK2XDX has developed a very small receiver for  Meteosat. He has published it on the QSL  Net


A new free Windows satellite tracker programm called SatScape is now available. Satscape a specialised program that predicts where satellites are at the moment. You have also a World view, Horizon views, tabular list and a keppler update via your Internet connection.
The PA0ROJ Quadrifilar ROJ-antenne
JVComm Beta 0.9 from Eberhard Backeshoff, DK8JV now  available, this new 0.97 release supports also transmission/reception via sound cards. At least a 16 bit sound card is required, and the the  computer should be a Pentium 90 or better. You can download JVComm32 as a unregistered demo version from Eberhard Backeshoff´s Home Pages
Remote Sensing The Online Guides

Meteorology The Online Guides

Reading Weather Maps The Online Guides

Satellite Coverages and Orbits


Alberto  Casappa (Italy), has written two usefull  applications for receiving Meteosat pictures via WXSat.
The  applications are written in Visual Basic.

Meteosat scheduler with a little bit Hardware (only five parts)  let you select between IR, VIS or ALL pictures.

Scheduler is a real time scheduler for Meteosat.

For downloading the Meteosat Scheduler visit Alberto Casappa´s new Home Page


A new satellite wefax image decoding software called SATFAX from John Lee Wilson W4UVV  is now available to the public.
It originally was written to accommodate the image noise dot saturation problem thet occurs when the  disered 40 kHz bandwidth.
SATFAX was designed for the occasional wefax monitor who wishes to use an ICOM R700, R7100, or AOR 3000A (also  other receiver/scanner that receive either 1691 MHz or the 137 MHz range) and soundcard in his computer with wefax software to receive polar  orbiting and geostationary satellites.
What makes it so special is that in processing the wefax signal, the software compensates for the narrower bandwidth of receivers that typically have a 20 kHz bandwidth for wefax reception.
 Audio filter for WXSat from  Salvador Esteban EB3NC

Preamp for 137 MHz


Okean 4

Okean 4 (called also Okean 1-7) provide radar, microwave and optical images for sea navigation and  ice situation in the Arctic, Antarctic and northern seas. The received APT  images on 137.4 Mhz have mostly a visible light image, a low resolution microwave scanner image and a radar image.

Meteor 3-05

Meteor 3-05 one of the "long live" Russian weather satellites transmitting daytime visible APT images,  the infra-red sensors ceased activity end 1993.
Meteor 3-05 orbit 1200 km above the earth, so it has a greater range than the NOAA satellites (800 km). Some passes are up to 20 minutes.
The images shows the cloud,  snow and ice cover excellent, but land details are very poor.
Here is  a small detail from one of the 26 April passes from the mid Atlantic to the North pole, it shows the east cost of Greenland.  


Links to other WEFAX Enthusiasts

  Les  HamiltonWeather Satellite Image Pages, free  software and using WXSat.

  Mike´s Web Page 43ww44 Weather Sats (Tasmania)

Enrico Falconelli and Roberto - HRPT  specialists and construction.

Jacques Gentil´s pages   daily updated Pictures from polar orbiting satellites over the Mauritius region

 de kunstmaan groep from Joop Meijer

Nobuhiro Kajikawa  HRPT images.

Paul Hayes  QFH antenna

Julian Moss G4ILO software and  details of  interface for the RX2 receiver.

 Otso  Laakso, Finland with a image archive which  include all his colorised NOAA pictures since 1997.

 The KB8UKP Amateur Radio and WXSAT Page

University of Cordoba, ArgentinaNOAA and Meteor images of South America

 Michael Pedersen (Denmark)   pcb construction, and information

 Hartmut Schaksmeier (Germany)

 Laura Halliday´s VA3LDH Web Page

 Jim K2TL using WXSat .

  Peter Tanner´s Web Page JVFAX masks for downloading

Archived Pictures from Noel

 Mika IisakkilaWeather  Satellite page from Finland.

 Steve BlackmoreWeather  Satellite page.

 Ian Busby Weather Satellite Image Homepage, using WXSat.

 Kevin´s Weather Page

Kevin Bates Weather Site

Milan Konecny VE3NZKusing WXSat.

  Salvador Esteban Munoz EB3NC, Barcelona Spain  using WXSat .

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