Weather Satellite Reception with Nooelec Smart V4 Dongle

Couple of images from yesterday and this morning using the Nooelec Smart V4 sdr-rtl usb stick. The first image I had the gain set at 34 db before increasing it about half way through the pass to 44 db. Made a large difference to the quality of reception. Seem like the new generation of rtl-sdr sticks are much better with high gain settings. The older ones would just overload badly.

Second pass is a southbound one for a change. One more test to go with a Nooelec SmartTee (built-in bias-t) with Sawbird 137 MHz filter. However I’d be amazed if I got better results as I’m pretty happy with what I’ve managed so far.

NOAA 19 northbound at 17.30z on 5 Feb 2021. MCIR with Precipitation enhancement.
NOAA 18 southbound at 10.18z 6 Feb 2021. MCIR with Precipitation enhancement.

To compare my results with the “professionals” check out this site http://rssconsultancy.co.uk/wxtoimg/

Finally here is a screen grab of my set-up taken at the beginning of the NOAA 18 pass today.

WXTrack. wxtoimg and SDR# all working in perfect harmony…