Exploring the SatNOGS (Satellite Networked Open Ground Station) Project
Exploring the SatNOGS (Satellite Networked Open Ground Station) Project
I have been hearing about the SatNOGS (Satellite Networked Open Ground Station) Project for quite some time. It is a project of the Libre Space Foundation. Argentinian Amsat webpage for checking satellite passes has a direct link to the SatNOGS page of each satellite from the compass face showing the direction of satellite pass. Clicking on the link takes us to the SatNOGS page for that satellite. The dynamic page will be named according to the NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) ID of the satellite. It will contain information submitted by numerous observers including satellite name, frequency, mode, time frame, results, name of observer and name of station. Some observers would have uploaded the audio, while others would have uploaded both the audio and waterfall display.
Three projects listed at SatNOGS website include a global network of satellite ground stations, as an open source participatory project, a machine readable crowdsourced satellite information database and detailed information on building your own ground-station or adding an existing station on the network. I happy to note that one VU Ham among our LEO Satellite Repeater Contact group already has a SatNOGS ground station running for UHF, with a cross Moxon antenna. SatNOGS ground stations run the SatNOGS Client software to receive scheduled observations from the Network, receive satellite transmissions and send it to the Network web app.
SatNOGS network is open to anyone. All observation results are public and all data are distributed freely under the Creative Commons Atribution-Share Alike license. My review of the ground stations tab on the website tells me that there are 745 ground stations at present, reporting data to SatNOGS. The type of antenna used is also shown for each ground station. Many of the ground stations are run by amateur radio operators. A good number of them are using Turnstile antennas. Other types of antennas noted were Eggbeater, Quadrifilar, Yagi, Cross Yagi, Dipole, V-Dipole, Ground Plane and Discone.
Though the image displayed shows a VHF/UHF Ground Station by KB9JHU on a Yaesu G-5500 AZ/EL rotator (Image Credit: https://wiki.satnogs.org/File:AZ_EL_Ground_Station.png Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike), the reference design uses a Raspberry Pi + RTL-SDR dongle + either a VHF or UHF antenna. A Raspberry Pi image is available to make software installation simpler. All links to the pages mentioned in the video are available on my blog page, the link to which is given in the description box of the video.
