Regarding Observation 5101638 …
Hello,
I have built a new antenna and i am trying to observe noaa satelites.
I have set the rf gain value to the recommended 32.8 and i have used the kal tool to measure the fq offset on gsm900 stations which came out as .366ppm and i put -1 into the ppm offset parameter in the setup. the only thing that deviates from any screenshots i have seen is that my pll is not locked (?)
i have had 2 observations which had faint signals in them but none of those were realy clear signals. Does anyone have any suggestions on what i might have done wrong?
thank you for any ideas!
Keep trying @xampl3. This was a difficult pass because the spacecraft was right on the horizon. Look for passes where the signal will be strong into your antenna. If it is an omni directional antenna then that might be at 30-50 degrees elevation. It will depend on the antenna pattern.
Don’t worry about the “PLL not locked message” I get that in my logs.
On the RF gain, don’t set it to a fixed value, but rather set it to a value that just starts to lift the noise floor. You can do that following these instructions, if you have not already: Omnidirectional Station How To - SatNOGS Wiki
When you are settings the gain, also tune in some local signals and make sure you can hear them.
I would not worry about the frequency calibration too much. Focus on getting a strong signal in the middle of the waterfall. Any when you are looking at comparison waterfalls, make sure it is from a station with a similar antenna. Otherwise you might be comparing to someone with much more antenna gain.