I’ve been making progress on the radio observatory / satellite tracking station at Sandland. We picked this 18ft geodesic radome up a couple years ago from the Carp Observatory and have been slowly getting it put together.
Radome and Arrow II Dual-Band Hamsat antenna.
During 2025 I poured a cement footing and installed a satellite dish and motorized pointing system. This is only a 6ft (~1.8M) diameter antenna. The current motor is based on a large pan/tilt mount (Quickset QPT-90) from a vintage security camera. Eventually I hope to install a larger reflector and a more capable motor. I got this dish from Ax-Man Surplus (they don’t often have them and their inventory is constantly changing). I’ve heard these are also sold online as solar cookers.
6ft satellite dish inside the radome.
The motor is run by an Arduino microcontroller and surplus 24vAC power supply. Coordinates are passed to the Arduino via serial (USB) connection from a laptop, and the pan/tilt mount uses built-in potentiometers to determine where it’s pointing. I’m using code originally from SARCnet which I’ve modified to work with this setup. The laptop runs Gpredict to calculate positions from orbital data. It also runs SDR++ to record signals from a HackRF One software-defined radio.
Receiving GOES weather satellite with the 6ft dish.
Other projects in 2025 involved finishing the doorway for the dome, so now we can close out wind, rain, and larger wildlife. This took a few tries, people kept leaving the door open for the wind to damage it. The dome is really nice once it’s all closed up, even on a cold February day it’s a nice protected work space! And not having to worry about wind pushing the dish around is nice as well.
New radome door.CNC door sign for the radome.
I’ve also been calibrating the dish to known geographic coordinates and orientation, so we can get the most accurate pointing. This will be critical when doing astronomy projects, and when tracking fast-moving Low-Earth-Orbit satellites with weak radios.
Manual calibration aid for the dish (I used electronic angle indicators for surveying, but this is handy for quickly seeing where the dish is pointed vs where the computer thinks it’s pointed).
After calibration and some adjustments to my code, the dish has been working great at tracking satellites! It’s so large that I can use almost any feed at the focal point, I’ve been reliably receiving linear L-Band signals with a circular S-Band feed!
GOES-East full disk image with precipitation. METOP-B weather satellite image.
As usual I have a number of videos about this project on YouTube. You can check some of them out below!
I discuss a variety of satellite and radio projects on my YouTube channel. Satellite tech has become the most popular topic on my channel, even though it’s not what I initially started with! I often get questions from viewers along the lines of “how do I get started in this hobby?”. Personally, I bought the cheapest possible Software-Defined Radio (SDR) and just started messing with it! I’ve since moved on to slightly better SDRs, but there’s a lot you can do with just a $15-$20 unit from eBay and some creativity.
I usually try to include links and details in the descriptions of my videos, but I don’t always make “how-to” or instructional videos. Usually when I film a project, I’m learning right as I’m doing the project, and viewers are seeing me develop a skill as I do it. This isn’t the most efficient way to teach something, as I make plenty of mistakes along the way! My personal learning style involves a LOT of trial-and-error. My projects also involve a significant amount of dumpster-dived material and equipment, so it can be hard to make a “parts list” for someone to replicate what I did!
Fig 2: A portable / RV satellite dish re-purposed for different frequencies.
If you are just starting out with the amateur satellite hobby, there are a couple directions you can go. If you’re an amateur (ham) radio operator or just into listening to radio traffic, you can get into amateur repeater satellites pretty easily. The International Space Station is the most powerful and easiest to start with. Some info about that is in the list below.
If you want to start tracking and decoding weather satellites, the low-Earth-orbit Meteor series is probably the easiest to start with. Previously some of the US NOAA satellites used VHF, but the ones with this capability have been retired, so some of the info about them is outdated. As of early 2026, Meteor M2-3 and M2-4 can be received on VHF frequencies with a Software-Defined Radio. Images can be decoded with simple software like SatDump. Once you’re experienced with VHF you can upgrade to the L-band signal available from the same satellites (and some others), although this takes a little more effort and equipment.
If you want to try geostationary satellites, the GOES series (in the Western hemisphere) is a great place to start. However, you will need to find or make a satellite dish slightly larger than what’s normally found on houses today. More info and links are below.
The list below is my attempt to compile helpful resources and links related to satellite experimenting, “hacking”, or other hobby-level activities. Some of these are things I’ve written or filmed, and some are links that have helped me learn.
How to find free satellite dishes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qX30ayOcDU TLDW: Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and estate sales/auctions are great places to try! You can also contact local TV stations and ask if they have old ones. Or you can post on a classified site offering to remove old unwanted dishes from someone’s yard.
Combination dish and radio setup for GOES and L-band satellites: https://amzn.to/3YdsiKD (I have not personally used this entire combo, but I’ve heard good things about it).
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