NOAAPort on Ku

[xcesmess]

Well given this is my first post... I'll say that I'm not a spammer and my name is Kelly *Hi Kelly*

Okay now that my intro is done...

So I've picked myself up a 33" dish with a .5 LNB and have it hooked up to a TwinHan Sat-Express card in a PC. I've successfully (and after much sweating and cussing) pointed it at AMC4. I'm using ProgDVB as my tuning software and I've been very impressed with it. My signal is around 68-70% with a quality around 50% depending upon the TP.

Here's my question though... the only reason I purchased this system was because I wanted to tap into the Ku version of the NOAAPORT system. The government contractors that built the NOAAPORT responded and said the Ku feed is in place and working on AMC4 and it is for public consumption. However they don't want to respond when I ask for the signal information to receive it... but they will respond with a 'buy a system' message. grrr...

I've looked around on Lyngsat and can't seem to find anything there so I figured I'd come here. I'd gladly put up a BUD but thats not going to happen where I live (apartment) so that nixes that idea.

Here are some links that I've found on the Ku feed....
http://dynis.dyncsc.com/contracts/other/nwws/install/faq-ku-inst.htm
http://dynis.dyncsc.com/contracts/other/nwws/options.htm

After looking at the site, they call it the NWWS or Weather Wire system... same thing I believe. Either way I want something!

If anyone can verify of this things existance or has it setup please let me know.

Thanks!

Kelly

 

[iammike]

From the links you posted, it looks like this is a data service that uses proprietary hardware. I'm not sure you have the right equipment. You can probably find the signal with a blind-search capable receiver, but you'd need the correct hardware and probably software for your PC to make use of that data.

That's just my opinion from a 5 minute read of their web site, but I don't think I'm too far off.

 

[mastermesh]

I too am interested, but have not gotten in to it yet and don't want to buy new equipment at the moment. This thread may interest you:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=68461&page=3&highlight=goes13

 

[xcesmess]

I already have the equipment and the TwinHan card does support multicast data (through their TwinHanDATA program).

The receiver I will eventually plug into is an International Datacasting SR-2001B multicast receiver. The base system that CDC sells consists of a 1.2 meter dish, Ku LNB, and IDC SR2000 Receiver. The only difference between the 2000 and the 2001B is rack mount options and the 2001B supports up to 28 PIDs versus 4 PIDS on the 2000 version.

Basically I need to know if anyone else has successfully found the TP that this is on or has attempted a similar setup (on Ku instead of C).


Kelly

 

[photoman76]

There are some tuning parameters on the website you posted.

"Do I need a spectrum analyzer to correctly install a NOAAPort Lite system?
Although a spectrum analyzer is useful in identifying the NOAAPort Carrier at its down-converted L-Band frequency of 1.0709 GHz, it’s not absolutely necessary."

"What’s the polarity of the NOAAPort Lite carrier?
NOAAPort Lite is horizontally polarized which means the long dimension of the waveguide flange is up and down. The single polarity feeds are factory assembled for vertical polarization. Be sure to rotate this field 90o (clockwise or counter-clockwise) before starting this peaking process."

From the above we know the frequency and polarity is 11821 Horizontal.
1070.9 + 10750 = 11820.9

According to Lyngsat, this is the 3ABN mux 11822 H 5700.

TSReader shows two tv channels and two radio stations. I don't see any weather data in the mux.

Perhaps their website is not up to date.

 

[xcesmess]

Photoman:

Thanks for the update. I'm going to see about contacting the company directly and see what kind of information I can haggle out of them I'm going to download the lite version of TSReader because, well, it looks interesting but looks like it could provide some useful information for spotting other things.

Alas... I wanted to use the system for weather... but I guess I'll just have to keep playing

Thanks to all!

Kelly

 

[voomvoom]

ecesmess, have you seen this thread:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=70821
It may give you some other ideas?

Al

 

[xcesmess]

voomvoom:

Yup... I've seen it Its not quite the same thing as it is a 137MHz feed coming from the GOES satellites that provides satellite imagery and such... The NWWS feeds provide NEXRAD data, GRIB, and other data formats that are used by the various forecast offices around the country...

But then again.. I could be wrong and have misinterpreted all of it...


Thanks though

Kelly

 

[photoman76]

Why don't you put up a Cband dish? I found the NOOAPort Cband version at AMC 4
3956V 6348.

 

[xcesmess]

I wish I could I live in an apartment complex (for now) and I'm sure they wouldn't want a 5 foot+ dish mounted on my patio Thankfully I'm on the ground floor...

*dreams* Ah the days of when I had my Winegard 7.5 mesh...

Kelly

 

[Cascade]

There's a package for Solaris and RH Linux.
If you can run VMWare or another VM like Bochs you may make some more sense of the protocol involved etc.

http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mcidas/software/xcd/dvb/

 

[jolt]

This is slightly off topic for a satellite board, but isn't the NOAA stuff also on shortwave?

I remember the "black cat" software for mac's that could do this from just a shortwave->line in connection, no special software or hardware (other than shortwave radio) required.

Sorry, just a thought!

 

[Jim S.]

Yes, there are still weather charts broadcast on shortwave. Of course the signal-fading problem is a lot worse than it would be on satellite.

 

[Pittsville]

Emwin

Maybe you could try this?:
(From the EMWIN homepage)

"The EMWIN data stream is also currently uplinked to the Telstar 5 Satellite, located at 97 degrees West. The center frequency of the Telstar 5 EMWIN signal is 12,185 MHz, subcarrier frequency is 1.065 MHz."

The EMWIN is the Emergency Manager's Weather Informaton Network. It is also re-broadcast in some areas on VHF frequencies (like 163.350mzh in Virginia).

A free software program is available for receiving the data via the internet or a vhf radio but I don't about decoding the data from a Ku receiver.

I downloaded the free program and it has about a billion different options and parameters you can set depending on what you want to know about the data.
I never got around to connecting my radio to the computer to see what would happen. I supppose I could have gotten the data directly from the internet but what fun would that be?

 

[Hermitman]

Last I heard they were using a X.25 protocol for their data. I don't know if they put their own identifier in the data stream so you have to buy their software to decode it. Have fun.

 

[Hermitman]

I found this NOAAPort page that has lots of info concerning receiver settings and data protocols. Have fun.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/noaaport/html/noaaport.shtml