Cost efficient design approach for receiving the NOAA weather satellites data

National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) has a group of manmade satellites. These satellites are operated at approximately 137 MHz frequency and provide weather data continuously. The data also helps humanity in disaster management since the satellite launch. The satellite ground stations are costly devices which are responsible for downloading the data. In this research the satellite receiver is designed with the help of Real Tech Software Defined Radio (RTL SDR), Quadrifilar Helicoidal Antenna (QHA) and Trifilar Balun. QHA and Balun were constructed and designed under a highly precise and controlled environment; both improved the received signal strength at site (Lahore at Latitude of 31.54° and Longitude of 74.34°). The signals were fed to a SDR Sharp (generic software of RTL-SDR) and were decoded to receive the latest weather image using WXTOIMG. This paper describes how this setup provided a cost-efficient solution for receiving NOAA data in local Pakistani environment.