The set of scripts for automatic processing of the satellite data (like capturing of the weather APT images from NOAA satellites) and fixed time recordings (like WeatherFaxes).

This is a rewritten and fine-tuned version of tools for the automatic weather satellite images capturing. Most directly it bases on cyber-atomus' autowx and my fork of autowx. The main differences between this project autowx2 and previously created tools:

• high modularity - all recording and processing are done by separate scripts (modules? plugins?), which can be easily configured to meet one's needs. The main module (called noaa) is devoted to the capture of weather data from the NOAA satellites.
• configurability - most (all?) variables can be set up in the config file. For both: the main program and the NOAA module.
• simplicity (not sure if this is true). List of observed satellites is defined in one place only (the config file) and can be easily modified.

• autowx by cyber-atomus
• parse-crontab - the python crontab parser
• pypredict
• wxtoimg

• usb dvbt dongle, like RTL2832 DVB-T tuner
• antenna good enough to capture the signal of your interest. For antenna dedicated for capturing NOAAs telemetry, see a simple 137 MHz V-Dipole, for example. If you want to use the script also for other applications (capturing APRS signals, using dump1090 for tracking airplanes), any broadband antenna should be good.

• python 2.7 and bash (sh, csh will be also OK)
• installed and working DVB-T dongle; to make this long story short:
• adding the following statement to /etc/udev/rules.d/20.rtlsdr.rules:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bda", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2838", GROUP="adm", MODE="0666", SYMLINK+="rtl_sdr"

• blacklisting the dvb_usb_rtl28xxu module:

echo "blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu" >>  /etc/modprobe.d/rtl-sdr-blacklist.conf

• for more details, see here
• for installation script on the Debian and Debian-like systems, see the installation script ⚠️ use with care! inspect and tune before execution!

0. Check the section hardware and system requirements
1. Fetch sources: git clone --depth 1 git@github.com:filipsPL/autowx2.git
2. Inspect the script install.sh, modify if needed. In most cases, it should work out of the box (for debian and debian-like systems; tested on debian, ubuntu, mint and travis debian like linux)
3. If you are fine with the above script, run it. ⚠️ use at your own risk!
4. Edit the main config file autowx2_conf.py
5. Edit your system's crontab file and add the bin/update-keps.sh script to it, eg:
   0 4 * * * path/to/autowx2/bin/update-keps.sh 1> /dev/null 2>/dev/null
   you can also trigger it manually from time to time.
6. Run the main program autowx2.py, wait for the next transit and marvel at the beautiful images (or other recordings)

The main program to do all calculation, pass predictions and launch modules.

autowx2.py          - the main program, the governor of all other programs and scripts
autowx2_conf.py     - the config file

The config file of the main program, may be used also by the decoding modules. It is used by te noaa module.

satellitesData - the dictionary (in the python style) of satellites to be observed and processed (eg., weather satellites) OR fixed times for recordings (eg., listening to the WeatherFax transmissions).

• for the satellites, three values must be set:
  • the satellite name (eg., 'NOAA-18'), must be the same as one found in TLE file
  • freq - the frequency to listen at
  • processWith - the path to the script/module to run during the transit
  • priority - priority of the recording (if two or more overlaps); the lower number - the higher priority
• for the fixed time recordings:
  • the id of the entry (any arbitrary string is ok)
  • freq - the frequency to listen at
  • processWith - the path to the script/module to run
  • fixedTime - the fixed time of recording in the cron style.
  • fixedDuration - the duration of the recording
  • priority - priority of the recording (if two or more overlaps); the lower number - the higher priority

Sample satellitesData dictionary:

satellitesData = {
    'NOAA-18':      {'freq': '137912500', 'processWith': 'modules/noaa/noaa.sh', 'priority': 1 },
    'NOAA-15':      {'freq': '137620000', 'processWith': 'modules/noaa/noaa.sh', 'priority': 1 },
    'NOAA-19':      {'freq': '137100000', 'processWith': 'modules/noaa/noaa.sh', 'priority': 1 },
    'ISS':   {'freq': '145800000', 'processWith': 'modules/iss/iss_voice.sh', 'priority': 3 },   # voice channel
    'PR3_NEWS': {'freq': '98988000', 'processWith': 'modules/fm/fm.sh', 'fixedTime': '0 7-23 * * *', 'fixedDuration': '300', 'priority': 2 },
}

• ⚠️ TODO: dynamic priority calculation basing on the transit features, like azimuth or altitude.

A utility to generate transit plan for the next few hours. Two elements are generated:

• a static html page (or actually the html table to be included in the page), see example
• a static png (or svg) image showing the transit plan in the form of the Gantt chart. An example:

Various auxiliary programs.

aprs.sh             - aprs script to listen to and decode APRS data; to be run in free time
kalibruj_initial.sh - calibrating script - initialization
kalibruj.sh         - calibrating script - getting the drift
update-keps.sh      - keplers updated; can/should be run from cron

Modules/plugins to capture various types of data. Can be customized by any type of script (here bash scripts were used in most cases).

fm      - sample module to record FM radio to mp3 file
iss     - module for capturing data from ISS. Currently voice channel (NOT TESTED)
noaa    - module for capturing weather data from NOAA satellites (see below)

Module for capturing weather data from NOAA satellites.

noaa.sh             - the main module file (bash) - launches below files:
noaa_record.sh      - recordinf of a sound via rtl_fm
noaa_process.sh     - processing of the recorded wav file, generates maps etc.

tests               - directory with a test data

Variable data.

dongleshift.txt     - current dongle shift
tle                 - directory with tle data

• good README.md file 🏃 in progress
• logs to file, not only to screen
• plots of the dongle shift drift
• average dongle shifts from the last n measurements
• coś lepszego niż kal, żeby było bardziej idioten proof i error proof
• coś do robienia w wolnej chwili
• efficiently kill aprs or other app from the python - [ ] now it remains running in te background... (multimon)
• ISS / rtl_fm parameters for recording
• any other cool satellites to record and process?
• switch off dongle calibration and move it to a separate external file
• gallery from images + descriptions
• dynamic priority calculation basing on the transit features, like azimuth or altitude.

• recording options
• bash scripts global config file
• if newdongleShift != '' # WARNING and newdongleShift is numeric:
• priorities of recordings if the time of recording overlap
• run recordings on the specified fixed time (for weather fax, for example)
• pass list generator with a Gantt plot
• move all recordings to the bash file
• noaa.sh
  • noaa_record.sh
  • noaa_process.sh