Dont know if it counts as weather photography but attached is my first decent picture i have managed to get from the NOAA weather satellites. Used a home built QFH antenna and a
Wow, good job 
Neat, what kinds of resolutions can you get in terms of meters per pixel?
I use this http://ge.ssec.wisc.edu/modis-today/ to monitor the ice-out here (15x20 mile lake): http://www.mnlakecams.com/satellite_views.html
I would love to find a way to get better than 250 meters/pixel.
thanks folks - like you gt its at best 250 mpp but if you have a look here http://www.satsignal.eu/wxsat/atovs/index.html for higher resolution stuff havent had a proper look at it yet but it may do what you want
Thanks for the link jdee.
Phil, nice image!!! I would like to know more about using the TV dongle as your receiver and what frequencies and satellites you are receiving the signal from. I’ve been toying with the idea of using an old Uniden radio scanner and building a QFH to pick up the signal with. The scanner is supposedly fairly narrow-banded, though. I plugged it up the other day with just the monopole antenna on it and heard a couple of NOAA birds fly over…tick tock, tick tock,…
Have you got anymore images or info to share?
Ed
I think the scanner will be too narrow. This hackaday has some useful links. If you watch the video you can see how wide the signal is.
Apologies for not replying sooner If you go to www.mayoweather.info you and scroll down an image is uploaded every 6 hours (if you check out the sat img achieve some are the same though havent figured out automatic uploading).
I was using an DVB-T dongle (Newsky DVB-T Stick Freeview DAB DAB+ FM USB RTL2832U / R820T from ebay) and a home made QFH antenna stuck up in the rear garden. I then used WXtoimg (http://www.wxtoimg.com) and SDR radio (http://sdrsharp.com) to decode the signal. That was fine but in the end I brought a decoder kit from http://www.emgo.cz/www_fa/meteosat_englisch.html and built that (not difficult). The hardest part was tuning the Emgo receiver, but once the kit is assembled (or buy the ready made and tuned kit) you can tune the system in fairly easy.
The satellites that both systems pick up are the NOAA 15, 17 (although I believe there are problems and it may have been decommissioned) 18 and 19. The frequencies are NoAA 15137.6200, NOAA 18 137.9125 and NOAA19 on 137.100.
The quality of the image you receive depends on how long you have line of sight of the satellites - I live 50 miles inland from the middle of the west coast of Ireland and receive images as far up as the arctic circle and as low as the north of Africa - pretty impressive for a homebrew kit.
As Niko says I think you will find that your Uniden radio bandwidth is too narrow to receive decent images with it - the next cheapest option is the DVB-T option if you search YouTube for TV Dongle and Weather satellite images there is loads of video clips about it.
If there is anything else I can help with let me know
Phil
Thanks for the feedback Phil and niko.
I’m doing this on a shoestring budget so I’ll tinker with what I’ve got for now. I’ve also got a Yaesu FT-51R 2-meter handitalkie that supposedly can be modded with a keystroke to be fairly broadbanded in reception…though I haven’t read anything regarding any specs on this. Also a Kenwood 2-meter mobile unit that I’ll have to dig out of “the closet”. 
It has been a long time since I operated but I’ve built all kinds of ham antennas, mostly out of wire (dipoles and loops) so putting together a QFH might be fun. Best antenna ever was a full wave loop for 40-meters that fed a 1.5w homebuilt qrp rig.
Anyhow, I’ve got a few irons in the fire that I’ve gotta deal with before I can dive into this…distraction. The TV Dongles sound interesting, also. I’ve actually got one I got on a deal some years ago that I’ve never used…a “PCTV HD Stick”…it doesn’t mention anything about having a radio included so I don’t think it would work…???
Ed
The APT Spec bandwidth is 34 kHz, but you need to add a couple to allow for doppler shift, so say 36 kHz minimum. WXtoimg that Phil linked does have some info regarding using scanners.
Good luck, it’s a very cool project.
I dont think the tv dongle needs a radio as it is all done via SDR (Software Defined Radio). I think I paid 20 quid (sterling) for my dongle and made the QFH antenna for about another 40 quid - there are loads of different types of antenna but I made mine out of 8mm microbore copper pipe.
Yeah, I figure the scanner will be too narrow banded but I’ll be tickled if I can get anything. :lol: I figure I’ll be using WXtoimg for the software…I used it the other day to figure out when the statellites would pass overhead…they were right on time. Looks like a good program.
Phil, I’m definitely ignorant about SDR, so I’ll just go with the flow and see what happens. I’m got some copper tubing about the size that you used…not sure if it’s enough but it’ll get one loop done anyhow. Did you simply use a coax choke as a balun or did you build a matching unit from 75ohm and 50ohm cable? I looked at the images on your sight, they’re great!!! There were several that wouldn’t pull up…the time period prior to the 18th had the problem images. I checked that Emgo receiver out…very nice kit and rig. I don’t think my eyesight will let me do anymore small work like that and I’ve never done any surface mount soldering, either. I’ll play with my scanner and radios and see what I can come up with…if I get serious about it and save enough nickels and dimes…who knows?!
Well, I’m beat…been working on a lawn mower and installed the post and pole for weather station’s anemometer this afternoon. Looks like the top of the pole will be at 17’4" when extended. With the upward bend of the anemometer itself I figure it will sit at about 18’ high (about 5-1/2 meters)…not what CWOP really wants, but I’ve got it in a fairly open area and we’re on top of a big hill. It’ll have to do.
Ed
Btw, Phil, are you a beekeeper per chance?
Ed
ETA: I just wanted to mentioned that my brother’s youngest son’s name is “Mayo”.
reminds me of the days when I used to get Geostationary GMS sat images from a parabolic dish
(20 years ago now )
I’ve wondered about the geostationary birds, the better resolution and detail would be great! I’ve got a couple of old dishes here and a couple of receivers…I don’t know if the LNB’s are any good as they’ve been out in the weather for upteen years. One dish was used for “Planet Connect”…a downlink connection to the internet and other relay message groups back in the early 90’s. The other one is one of those big honkin’ C-band dishes. Ah well, those will have to wait as I don’t have a clue about them.
Ed
it used to be cool watching the ‘fax’ image come in on the screen, live from the sat like that, every hour
20 years ago the internet here had very little weather stuff available, so it was real handy
have fun jdee
Thanks for the comments folks - fascinating stuff isnt it 
When the data comes into wxtoimg it literally comes in at a line at a time very much like watching a fax come in - if i can I will try and record it and post it up somewhere.
I believe you can pay a subscription to get access to the Eutelsat weather sats - and you pick the stuff up directly using a decent sized satellite dish and lnb.
The QFH antenna I built was this one http://abdallah.hiof.no/QFH/index.html - mainly because I wanted it mounted outside and the weather here is wet and windy to say the least LOL. I built it exactly as the instructions and used a coax choke - I have to be truthful now and admit to not knowing a lot about either electronics or radio stuff (know my way round a soldering iron and had previously built the Blitzortung lightning detector) so for me to build the antenna was a major result. The fact it worked first time with the TV dongle was gobsmacking LOL. I reckon if you know radio stuff you should be able to make a lot more sense out of SDR radio then I did. Another piece of software that I was using to decode the signal was HDSDR (I think it was previously WinRadio) and that does a similar job. Whether you can pass the signal from any of your radios to the software and then wxtoimage i dont know. Have a look at this video it shows what can be received on a TV DVB dongle - really clever stuff.
The only reason i jumped to the Emgo unit was I wasnt always at home to switch satellites and channels etc whereas the Emgo will do it all automatically. My neighbour is an electronics whizz who offered to solder the usb chip to the board for me (never done one of these before and basically he buggered the board up). The next one I did myself and it worked out fine - turns out my soldering is better then his - the SMD stuff is difficult it is just being ablt ot see what your doing - like you my eyes are not the best and I ended up using a head band magnifier so i could see what i was doing.
@Intheswamp - yes I do keep bees but the weather here has been desperate this past three years (the bees was the main reason I got into the weather stuff as the weather affects the bees and i wanted a permanent record of what was going on etc) and I am struggling to keep the little darlings alive with all the rain we have had. The photo I use as my avatar is actually 70 photos laid on top of each other and won me the National Irish Honey Show photographic competition last year (not bad for an englishman living in Ireland :D)
Mayo is a lovely place to live but it is wet and windy sometimes LOL Can see why its called the emerald isle
If there is anything else I can help with do please get in touch - the cheapest option is definitely the tv dongle and the QFH can be made out of wood and coax
Phil
I appreciate the follow-up information, Phil. That is some good information for me. Once I get some irons out of the fire I’ll see what I can do about rigging up a QFH.
Hope your bees do well this year. This is my second year and looks like I’ll have two hives that will have a surplus of honey this year. It has been mostly cool here this spring with some rain off and on so the bees have had to work when the weather allowed…it has been fairly nice the last couple of weeks and they’ve been busy.
When I start working on the satellite imagery I’ll be hollering back!
Ed
anything i can help with Ed get in touch.
As for the bees it really has been desperate this past 12 months - had 50 lbs of honey but lost four hives over the winter - I am hoping I can expand my one solitary hive into a couple at least by the end of the year (this is only my third year - they know far more then we do LOL).
Good luck with it all Ed
Phil
Phil: What drove the antenna cost (just curious)?