Introduction

The SatNOGS project uses simple equipment to make a ground station. The ground station will be able to receive satellite data or voice communications from a number of orbiting satellites that are held within the SatNOGS Database. The user connects the ground station to the network with the available software and will then use the SatNOGS Network to schedule observations. This could be a NOAA weather satellite image, telemetry or voice communication such as ARISS contacts from the ISS.


What will be built

In this build we will be putting together a  simple station that will not have rotating parts i.e. it will not track a satellite as it passes overhead, but use a  static antenna. We will make use of off the shelf components and the SatNOGS software and the total build time should be in the region of 1 hour. 


Parts Required

There are a few parts needed. This set up uses commonly available equipment but you are encouraged to experiment and find the right setup for your ground station. This might be a different antenna, receiver, coax or even computer as well as including other bits and pieces like low noise amplifiers or filtering.  For now its just th ebasic setup. So you will need:

1off Raspberry Pi 3 and power supply
1off 16Gb Micro SD card
1off RTL-SDR dongle
1off turnstile antenna (either 2m band or 70cm - your choice)
1off length of coax (to go between the RTL-SDR and antenna, choose the correct one for you)
1off USB extension (3m should be good)

Optional bits
A case to suit the Raspberry Pi
A Low Noise Amplifier (Such as LNA4ALL)
A filter (in case you live in a n RF noisy environment)

Steps

Before we start I am going to assume that you have never used a Raspberry Pi before , nor an RTL-SDR, or any of these things in fact. 

Initial Setup

	1. Sign up for an account at SatNOGS (there are some detailed instructions here - link to setting up account)
	2. Make a note of where the useful information is  (specifically your API as this will be used to associate your ground station with your account)
	3. Download a copy of the Raspberry Pi Image
	4. Burn the image to the Micro SD card. There is a great guide here (link to raspberry Pi page)
	5. Connect up the Rpi to a monitor, keyboard etc as well as your internet (recommend an ethernet cable to start with but if you plan on using WiFi then follow these setup instructions (link to other instructions)
	6. Connect the  RTL-SDR coax and antenna
	7. Run sudo raspi-config
		a. Set a new password
		b. Change localisation settings
		c. Set time zone
		d. Set keyboard layout
		e. Set wifi country
		f. Expand the filesystem
		g. Enable SSH (we can use this later - not essential but useful)
	8. Run sudo satnogs-setup
		a. Set SATNOGS_API_TOKEN 
		b. Set SATNOGS_RX_DEVICE to rtlsdr
		c. Set SATNOGS_STATION_ELEV
		d. Set SATNOGS_STATION_ID
		e. Set SATNOGS_STATION_LAT
		f. Set SATNOGS_STATION_LONG
		g. Set HAMLIB_UTILS_ROT_ENABLED to False
	9. Apply all the settings
	10. Check its all ok by running journalctl -u satnogs-client.service. You should see entries  every minute
	
If its all running smoothly, and why wouldn't it?, then move on to scheduling an observation - Link to setting up an observation page. If something isn't working then check against the steps above, if you're stuck then ask on the forums or IRC / Matrix. 

Common issues

Occasionally there are things that don't go according to plan. It is not always something that you have done but a small issue that needs a tweak. If you find that you have connected to the network and that you are able to schedule an observation then there are a few things we can check. Here are a few things that might look a little off.

Follow the guide (link to other page) that helps to solve common issues.

Good practice

In general if you use this advice then you are likely to make the most of your station.

	1. Use good quality coax and keep the runs short
	2. Computers and PSU's can be noisy. Try and keep them away from the rtl-sdr or provide some protection like ferrites if it is an issue

More gain doesn't mean more signal. You also get the noise as well