Hi Bob & everyone.
I have a partially obscured view at the angle required for geostationary satellites but was curious to see if I could get Outernet's signal from Inmarsat 4-F3, which is where Outernet's transmission originates from in this area (USA East Coast).
For background, I had used a variety of antennas (patch, vivaldi, DirecTV dish repurposed) to receive some of the various data streams from Inmarsat 4-F3 in the past, with varying results.
I ordered the combination patch antenna / LNA / SDR that Outernet has assembled optimized for L-Band. That left only the software side to configure.
The first option was zero-cost, which was to attempt to decode the Outernet feed using their guided software install for an existing Linux computer. This consisted of a number of apps working in concert.
The "receiver" portion worked properly - I did see a reasonable SNR and mostly error-free data stream. Unfortunately, I never decoded any content with the other apps either due to their alpha or beta stage of development or my lack of linux expertise.
However, at the same time I was corresponding with a couple of other hams who saw similar results with the "add on" apps for a working linux computer. I have not dug any deeper with that method so as of now, for all I know that branch of the software might have improved.
In stark contrast to my lack of success with the linux method was a turnkey boot image that Outernet makes available for you to write to an SD card for use in a Raspberry Pi. Consisting of a fairly lite linux OS, plus all the apps required and optimized for Outernet use, this solution was very much ready for production use.
I would say within 2 minutes of booting a new Pi-3 with the Outernet image, content started downloading to the local storage on the Pi. I didn't have to do a thing but figure out how to log into the web interface that is your portal to the Pi. (web as in http; there is no internet connection, naturally) It was as plug-and-play as you could possibly get... turn on the Pi and point the antenna. Period. Content just starts downloading if you have a decent signal. You connect to the Pi from another computer and any files that have downloaded are available for you to view.
Of course the antenna / LNA / SDR was attached before I powered up the Pi and positioned to have decent visibility in the right direction. And of course it's easy to see that the better your RF receive situation, the better will be the rate at which content is received.
Finally, using items already on-hand for other experiments, I replaced the patch antenna with the TP-Link 2.4 GHz dish (https://www.amazon.com/Directional-Parabolic-Connector-Resistant-TL-ANT2424B...) that you often see used by amateurs for experimentation. Never mind that it's supposedly for a higher frequency and never mind that it's not circularly polarized, I found that in conjunction with the LNA & SDR from Outernet, I received a much stronger signal than with the patch antenna. But in fairness, I have not made a comparison with a 100% clear view of the sky.
I hope those very early and limited observations of Outernet's solution are useful to you.
-Scott, K4KDR Montpelier, VA USA
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-----Original Message----- From: Robert Bruninga Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2016 6:51 PM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Global Geo SATCOM system?
AMSAT tinkerers?
OUTERNET is a free worldwide Geostationary Satellite downlink system designed to bring content to remote areas all over the globe. They have six geostationary birds covering the entire globe EVERYWHERE. All you need is a small 18” (or 36” in some very remote areas) to receive content via your own home-made receiver based on a TV dongle and Rasberry Pi.
Is there anyone on AMSAT-bb that is already receiving this content? We’d like to hear about how easy it is to set up a receiver.
We have some ideas on how this can be used to augment Ham radio in our Emergency Response and remote operations missions. See http://aprs.org/outnet.html
Bob, WB4APR