To built a ground station for leo satellite only for receiption

Satellites & Observations Observations
1

We are a student team working on building an automated ground station for LEO satellites as part of an innovation challenge. Our goal is to design a low-cost, open-source station that can:

  1. Track satellites using TLE + rotator control
  2. Perform Doppler correction automatically (using Gpredict + Hamlib)
  3. Receive signals via RTL-SDR and Yagi antenna
  4. Decode beacon and telemetry data (e.g., APRS, weather satellites)
  5. Store and share data through SatNOGS network

We aim to make this project affordable and replicable for universities and small research groups, while also learning about satellite communications.

  1. We would love to get your feedback or suggestions on:
  2. Recommended hardware (antennas, rotators, LNAs) for a cost-effective build
  3. Best practices for setting up RTL-SDR with SatNOGS on Windows/Linux
  4. Any tips to integrate with SatNOGS network for testing and validation
  5. We really value the open-source community and hope to contribute back once we make progress.

Thank you in advance for your time and guidance.

2

My first try on this specific task was my ground-station.
It only tracks one satellite at a time, but can be launched by something else for scheduling.

For satnogs use, I don’t think reinventing the wheel is necessary.

Regarding hardware, there’s a lot of threads on this subject here, with pretty exhausting recommendations.

3

maybe the best tips is trying to running satnogs with minimum device first

i recommend v-dipole antenna or 1/4 ground plane.

pc or raspberrypi board with linux installed.
for pc = debian
for raspberry = raspbian / debian

no need lna first. you can use the builtin lna inside RTL-SDR.

create account ont https://network.satnogs.org , create station, and get the api key.

plug the rtlsdr, and connect to antenna.

and running this command from shell:
curl -sfL https://satno.gs/install | sh -s --

lets do it

1 Like
4

for antenna i recomend built a 145 Mhz or 2 metre band type. because it can work also at 435 mhz or 70cm band using the harmonic rule.