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    Default Anyone played with weather satellite Himawari 8?

    Okay not TV but is satellite related. I'm trying to wrap my head around what is needed to decode weather images from Himawari 8. But I'm confused. Some sites say Himawaricast, whatever that is, is located on Jcsat 2B. But Himawari 8 is at 140.7E and Jcsat 2B is 154E. Which is it?

    I gather I can use my old 2.3m dish and C band LNBF since the freq is 4148H, I think. I see there are some fellas on youtube using an SDR USB receiver, although I might be able to get my paws on a more gooderer stand alone Novra S300 DVB-S2 receiver. Then I need some fancy software to decode HRIT digital images.

    I'm just a bit lost as to how to put all this together at the moment. The NOAA 137MHz VHF satellites are a breeze compared to this.
    Last edited by Learjet; 04-11-18 at 04:14 PM.

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    Short answer, No.

    Why? Because the downlink frequencies are in Ka-band (18.1 - 18.4 GHz) - see the table at .

    I was interested at satellite launch time and for a short period afterward, until the difficulty of data reception and decoding made me abandon the idea as too difficult.

    Weather satellite data transmission has changed radically in the last few years and so reception is no longer a relatively simple matter for the enthusiast.

    Your post has stimulated me a little, therefore I shall look at the idea again.

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    Well now I'm really confused as I was going by this.

    Unless... Himawaricast is a rebroadcast of Himawari8 on Jcsat2B C band. That's the only thing that makes sense.
    Last edited by Learjet; 04-11-18 at 11:35 PM.

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    To answer my own question, yep, it looks like Himawaricast is a redistribution to other sats on C band.

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    There's some useful information at , which should give you an outline of what's involved in setting up a "Himawari Meteorological Satellite Ground Reception System".

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    Thanks Tristen. I'll have a read.

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    Learjet and other interested members.....

    There's some very good information regarding Himawarisat reception and data decoding available at .

    Read particularly from 2/3 down page.

    Edit:

    See also .
    Last edited by tristen; 20-11-18 at 01:53 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tristen View Post
    Learjet and other interested members.....

    There's some very good information regarding Himawarisat reception and data decoding available at .

    Read particularly from 2/3 down page.

    Edit:

    See also .
    I'm running out of work to do so I might do something different and that is getting the Himawari-8 downlink on JaSat 2B at 154 Deg E. I have a 2.3M mesh dish (hope its ok for this, not Solid) I have plenty of Spare DVB -S2 box hanging around, I have a Computer with HDMI parked in my Satellite Room that I used to use for Logging, I have Monitor and a Keyboard so lets see if I can get Jsat 2B at 154 Deg E. First I have to program via new XML files for my Ultimo 4K box as this box controls the Dish for all my Sats then I will fine the one and only CBAND frequency and that is ABC Australia 3831 H, OOOH its Multi Stream so I might have to find Freq for Himawari-8 downlink on JaSat 2B at 154 Deg E which is :::::
    Type: DVB-S2
    Modulation: QPSK
    FEC: 3/5
    Roll-off factor: 0.2
    Symbol rate: 2,586.148 ksps
    Frequency: 4,148.000 MHz (C-band)
    Polarization: Linear (JCSAT-2B: horizontal)
    Packet Identifier (PID): 1001 (0x3E9)

    Because My Ultimo 4K box does not do Multi Stream on ABC Australia it will make it hard to Find JSat 2B @ 154 Deg E but might try the Above Frequencies from the Himawari-8 downlink on JaSat 2B to find this Sat.
    I will have to re do my XML file first on the Untimo 4K box and that alone is a big process.
    Last edited by Mr 672A; 07-07-20 at 12:31 PM.

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    Thanks Tristen. I've located Jcsat 2B and have a good spike at 4148H on the spectrum analyser at 77 dBuV with a 2.3m solid. Can also hear it's audio using an Icom IC-R2500. Just have to get the data decoder and software now.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Learjet View Post
    Thanks Tristen. I've located Jcsat 2B and have a good spike at 4148H on the spectrum analyser at 77 dBuV with a 2.3m solid. Can also hear it's audio using an Icom IC-R2500. Just have to get the data decoder and software now.
    I would be very interested in hearing how you go as well.

    Keep us up to date.

    I’ve seen some fairly affordable decoding gear out there over the years.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Learjet View Post
    Thanks Tristen. I've located Jcsat 2B and have a good spike at 4148H on the spectrum analyser at 77 dBuV with a 2.3m solid. Can also hear it's audio using an Icom IC-R2500. Just have to get the data decoder and software now.
    Excellent!

    I contemplated moving a dish to look at Jcsat 2B but haven't done so yet.

    Please keep us updated.

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    Still waiting on a data receiver that works... Will be trying one of those RTL-SDR things too. Another jack actuator would be good too for fine tuning. My old one is dead so I've been adjusting by hand.

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    [QUOTE=Learjet;790722]Still waiting on a data receiver that works...QUOTE]

    Can you elaborate please?

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    [QUOTE=tristen;790727]
    Quote Originally Posted by Learjet View Post
    Still waiting on a data receiver that works...QUOTE]

    Can you elaborate please?
    I was hoping to get hold of a Novra S300. In the meantime I have an RTL2832 SDR. The first one was dead. Not even sure these SDR's will work for Himawaricast.

    I've downloaded the kencast software but haven't installed it yet.

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    Hi all. Success! A good mate come over with a Novra S300 data receiver and he set it all up for Himawaricast reception. The install was the most mind boggling thing I have ever seen. Lucky he has brains, I don't. Kencast software along with Sataid is NOT user friendly! Sataid is not the easiest thing to use either. Well it does have a 150 page PDF to go with it. Anyway, it works. Himawari 8 is a most amazing satellite with the amount of weather information it produces.

    So here's part of the spoils we have been capturing this afternoon. Received with a 2.3m solid, el-cheapo C band LNBF and Novra S300 on Jcsat2B 4148H, the Himawarcast transponder. We can zoom in and out and do all sorts of things and animations too.


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    Quote Originally Posted by Learjet View Post
    Hi all. Success! A good mate come over with a Novra S300 data receiver and he set it all up for Himawaricast reception. The install was the most mind boggling thing I have ever seen. Lucky he has brains, I don't. Kencast software along with Sataid is NOT user friendly! Sataid is not the easiest thing to use either. Well it does have a 150 page PDF to go with it. Anyway, it works. Himawari 8 is a most amazing satellite with the amount of weather information it produces.
    This is really awesome! I wanted to do this myself but gave up when I thought the downlink was Ka only.

    Any chance you could provide some more info about how you got the Novra and how much Kencast costs I'd really love to do this.
    I can get some weather with my QFH antenna and rtlsdr but nothing like this :P

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    Well the Novra and software was a "hand me down" as the original user didn't use it anymore, so I'm not really sure what the license fee is. As it turns out, the original Novra receiver had problems so I found another second hand on Ebay. I think any data receiver compatible with DVB-S2 should work though. I'm not sure if any other software than Kencast will work. USA-Satcom write software for their GOES sat fleet, but not sure if it works with Jcsat2B.

    Yes, Himawaricast is a relay of Himawari 8 via Jcsat2B. The transponder freq is 4148H, 3/5 QPSK, 2.5 Msps.

    I used to play with NOAA APT and Meteor LRPT with a similar setup as yours. Lots of people still do. But H8 is so much more fun!

    Quote Originally Posted by nullb View Post
    This is really awesome! I wanted to do this myself but gave up when I thought the downlink was Ka only.

    Any chance you could provide some more info about how you got the Novra and how much Kencast costs I'd really love to do this.
    I can get some weather with my QFH antenna and rtlsdr but nothing like this :P

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    Truely awesome.
    Why can't the TV news show weather images like that? NBN looks like 480p resolution.
    Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
    Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
    Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...

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    That is soooo cool, it’s got me eager to give it a go now.

    Pitty there was not a tutorial to set it up. But hands on will suffice.

    Thanks again.
    Last edited by cmoore; 21-12-18 at 10:31 AM.

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    Congratulations Learjet!

    Thanks for sharing your achievement with us. It's quite spectacular.

    I'm very impressed indeed.

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