tobaccovilleweather.com
Satellite Weather FAX System
This page is a work in progress. Click on a thumbnail for a larger image.
07/25/2019 - NOAA 15 has failed. It lasted 20 years which is 4x its expected lifetime. NOAA 19 is in service and will provide two images per day. |
08/04/2012 - APT is back in service. The Woodhouse 6X6 antennas and Yaesu G5500 have been retired. The National RF WX-137Q QFH antenna has been reinstalled and is the primary antenna for the system. The images won't be as good as the 6X6 array but there are no expensive moving parts to fail. |
06/19/2012 - The G5500 azimuth rotator suffered a massive mechanical failure. This is the second failure of the azimuth rotator. The stacked 6X6 antennas and rotators have been taken down. The APT system will be out of service indefinitely. |
It seems Woodhouse is no longer in business. Antennas and replacement parts do not appear to be available. |
| Background |
The
Weather FAX system receives APT (Automatic Picture Transmission) data
from NOAA POES (Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite[s])
as they pass within range of the receiving station. The whole surface
of the Earth is scanned by POES spacecraft sensors several times a day.
Currently there are three POES spacecraft transmitting APT. NOAA 15 is the AM spacecraft. NOAA 19 and NOAA 18 are the PM spacecrafts. NOAA 18 has suspected gyro system problems and may fail in a few months. NOAA 18 is not displayed here because NOAA 18 and NOAA 19 orbits overlap causing reception problems. More information about POES can be found here. The received signal is sent to the weather station computer where WxtoImg image processing software extracts the data and generates the images. Wxtoimg software is no longer supported. A clone of the WxtoImg website can be found here. Image quality varies depending on which satellite is overhead and the satellite ground track. The downlink antenna has been upgraded from the National RF WX-137Q QFH omni directional antenna to a stacked pair of Woodhouse 6X6 12 element circularly polarized beams on a Yaesu G-5500 AZ/EL rotator. The Woodhouse beams give much better low elevation angle reception. The WX-137Q is still installed and is the backup antenna. |
Hamtronics R139 Weather FAX Receiver
Hamtronics Web site |
||||
Stacked Woodhouse 6X6 Antennas on Yaesu G-5500 AZ-EL Rotator Click a thumbnail for larger image National RF Web site Woodhouse Web site Yaesu Web site |
||||
Other APT Antennas
|
