simon43

A virus is dead cell debris??!! Go back to school! A virus is not and never was a living organism. It is a pathogen that 'hides' in living cells and replicates when the cell replicates.

Irrelevant for me - I had Astra Zenica vaccine donated to Laos - that vaccine uses an adenovirus vector

Since I am older and have compromised lungs, I was happy to have 2 covid shots while I was living in Laos during the covid period. These shots helped my immune system to 'recognise' the Covid virus (all viruses have a different and recognisable shape/structure). I am fully aware that a vaccination does not stop one becoming infected with the virus, but that the symptoms of that virus should be greatly diminished, compared to those who have not been vaccinated. Indeed, after relocating back to Thailand, I did get Covid, (according to the 7/11 test kits). I had a mild fever for only 1 day and then recovered and subsequently tested negative. I'm grateful that I had been vaccinated in Laos.

Since I only have a few science lessons to teach this evening, I'm on a roll with satellite signals! I switch over from my dish antenna to a 3-element VHF beam antenna, designed to receive the NOAA and Meteor weather satellite signals. The Russian bird Meteor M2-4 is coming over, so I configure Satdump to receive and process the signal. Here's the screen-grab as the data was being received from the satellite. and after Satdump has completed processing of that data, I have various image files, with one shown below: Meteor transmits image data in a digital mode, so the quality of these images is better than the analogue NOAA satellites. But note the horizontal black band near the bottom of the image! That's due to some bug on the satellite itself...

Having finally got my big dish to receive images from the south Korean geostationary satellite, I tidied everything up by running the coaxial cable from the dish to my laptop in my room. From previous experience, I knew that the signal received at the dish would be degraded by the cable losses, such that the Satdump processing software would no longer have sufficient signal to work with. This proved true, but fortuously my new 40dB LNA blocks arrived by post from China. With one of these placed in the cable run at the dish end, I had a 10dB S/N (signal-to-noise) ratio at my laptop. (The image shows about 9dB, because it's the middle of the day and the Sun is shining directly onto my dish and LNA block, degrading the S/N). The images are transmitted every 10 minutes and are sent as 12 horizontal slices of the Earth. I use these infrared images to create (using post-processing software called Sanchez), to add the country overlay/underlay. My screen grab was made after a few slices had been received,

There is nothing to discuss. I'm a scientist, trained for 7 years in critical thinking and the Scientific Method. Granted, although I teach all streams of science to my young students, I'm not a medical doctor. But I understand enough about virology and the immune system to know when someone is talking total bolox 🙂

old enough to have senile dementia.....

Lol, I already had the poo yai bahn here last week to ask about my antennas 🙂 He went away quite happy after I showed him my Thai ham radio licence and we chatted about weather satellites. I used to design equipment for various satellite payloads and ground station projects, Skynet, Envisat etc, but I left the profession when I moved to south-east Asia 23 years ago. since then it's just for fun...

@Satcommlee, impressive line up of equipment. What signals/frequencies do you hope to receive? @IssanT, the easiest system for receiving weather maps that include indication of rain intensity are the weather maps from NOAA-15 and NOAA-19 low-earth orbit weather satellites (NOAA-18 being 'dead' since 6th June..). To receive these images you need: - a suitable antenna You generally have to make this 'cos Thai Customs see 'red' if any package arrives from overseas with the word 'antenna' in the description. This is a simple omni-directional antenna that I've built a few times using strong chopsticks and blue plastic water pipe and stiff wire: https://www.instructables.com/NOAA-Satellite-Signals-with-a-PVC-QFH-Antenna-and-/ - some RG6 satellite TV cable to connect your antenna to your SDR 'dongle' receiver - The dongle receiver, typically supplied from RTL SDR v4 for about $33 USD (shipped quickly from China, no Customs import issues) https://www.rtl-sdr.com/product/rtl-sdr-blog-v4-r828d-rtl2832u-1ppm-tcxo-sma-software-defined-radio-dongle-only/ - a Windows computer running the free 'Satdump' software to process the received data and to produce the weather image files https://github.com/SatDump/SatDump/releases/download/1.2.2/SatDump-Windows_x64_Installer.exe - F and F-to-SMS connectors etc. Satdump, when installed and configured, will show you the times when the satellites pass over your location, and it can be configured to automatically receive/decode the signals. The 'whole world' images (well, all of one side of the Earth) that I showed are received using a large dish antenna system. That's more tricky to set up but I've set up this kind of system in 4 different locations over the past few years, including a few days ago at my home in south Thailand. I can receive whole-world images sent every 10 minutes by the GK-2A satellite from south Korea. I also enjoy receiving the data signals from Russian college 'cubesats'. This morning, one of these (UMKA-1) transmitted digital data from their space telescope of an image of the stars. (They usually transmit analog SSTV images, but this was a large digital data packet). Although I could receive this data, the signal was a little weak, so I couldn't decode most of it... better luck next time. Remember that some satellite signals are analog and some are digital. Analog signals, such as from the NOAA weather satellites and ISS and Russian cubesat SSTV images degrade 'gracefully' when the signal gets weaker, whilst digital signals are either there or not there, and no in-between!

Probably botox or anti-lardbucket injections...

^^^ I use a kind of LoRa mesh with my shortwave transceiver. It'a system called Winlink (winlink.org), which allows those in remote regions, especially at sea, to send/receive emails, navigational maps etc. The sailing boat automatically establishes a radio link with my station in Thailand and I either connect them to my own internet connection, or if my internet is down, then my radio transceiver automatically establishes a 'relay' connection to the next Winlink ground station, which for me is in Taiwan or Reunion Island. I've used this system for many years, allowing sailing boats in the southern Indian ocean who don't possess satellite comms equipment, (or it's too expensive to use!), to check their emails, keep in contact with family etc.

^^^ Lol true. When I lived in Burma, my GPS on my phone often went crazy because it was being jammed by the junta...

I finally got my 'big-dish' system working to receive images from the geostationary weather satellites 🙂 These satellites sit in the geostationary orbit, about 50,000 km out in space. Satellites in this orbit revolve around the Earth at the same velocity so that the satellite 'keeps pace' with the Earth and therefore is always in the same position in the sky above you. So this orbit is used especially for satellite TV, internet satellites (not the new starlink system), and weather satellies! I had previously received images from these geostationary weather satellites, but I was always surprised at how weak the signal was, especially using such a large dish. This time I went through my system design parameters and discovered that my feedhorn which receives the focussed signal from the satellite had the wrong dimensions! Investigation proved that the online calculator which I used to obtain the feedhorn dimesions had an error in its calculations.... duh! So I remade my feedhorn with the correct dimensions, mounted it on my dish and was rewarded with a signal from GK-2A, which is a weather satellite of South Korea. Here's my basic receiving system: Satdump software processed the data into a visible image, and I then added colour to my infrared image using Sanchez - another free software application. ... and the result is.....

Since it's sent on shortwave, where the signal bandwidth is far smaller than VHF etc, the resolution is very low. It takes 20 minutes to transmit one map. I don't know why these WEFAX stations continue to operate.... For NOAA: Good to see that the overlay map is showing the correct region 🙂 NOAA-15 has a weaker signal than NOAA-19, so try to repeat with a high pass from NOAA-19. Of course, at the beginning and end of the pass, the signal will fade out but the software will still create the country overlay. You can set Satdump to delete these top/bottom regions automatically. Next, you can add a passive reflector or director to your antenna. This should be a single length of metal wire, taped to a bamboo support and positioned parallel to the dipole element, about 55cm behind or in front of that dipole element, (depending on whether it is a reflector or director - either is suitable). If a director, then its overall length should be 5% shorter than the overall dipole length, and if a reflector, it should be 5% longer. Then aim that 2-element antenna array straight up to the sky. I manually move my antenna to point it at the satellite as it passes over me, but fixing it straight up at 90 degrees will capture everything but the lowest elevation positions, where the satellite signal will be the weakest anyway. My 137 MHz is 3-elements, a driven element, a reflector and a director. (In previous photos, you can also see my 70cms antenna on the same boom - that had 7 elements and I added 4 more).

For me, there was never an 'again'. She cheated once and we were down the government office next day to divorce...

Before weather satellites existed, weather reports and maps were sent out using shortwave radio, mostly intended for ships at sea. This was called WEFAX and it would take about 20 minutes to receive one map of the region's weather, indicating high and low pressure areas, so that ships could avoid storms. Most of the WEFAX transmitting stations closed down years ago, but some still operate, including station HSW64 in Bangkok, which sends out these weather maps and shipping forecast throughout the day (and night) on the shortwave frequency of 7395KHz USB, using a 3 Kilowatt transmitter. The signal is quite strong on my radio in south Thailand, and with free decoding software from a company called Black Cat Software, I received this '24 hour surface prognosis' map just now. Even with a strong signal, the resolution of the map is far below what can be received from weather satellites. Why does HSW64 still broadcast these maps? No idea! Perhaps it will finally retire from service when the meteologist who creates the maps also retires... This is a link to list of WEFAX stations that still operate. Apart from Bangkok, I have also received maps from stations in China and Japan. https://www.weather.gov/media/marine/rfax.pdf

I have a condo over the hill from Pattaya at Jomtien Beach, very much a family location.

To avoid cluttering up GG's weather thread, I have created a new thread in the Sports and Hobbies subforum, for posting and discussing about space news, satellites, ISS, interesting signals and so on 🙂 The thread is here: https://aseannow.com/topic/1363409-radio-comms-hobby-weather-satellite-and-iss-pictures-shortwave-radio-signals-space-news/

I realise that I have been cluttering up GG's weather thread with images that I receive from the various weather satellites. Since satellites and all-things-radio is my hobby, I think it would be better to create a separate thread in this sub-forum for topics about this hobby. I'm a radio amateur in Thailand, but I don't actually do much transmitting. I mostly spend my time designing and testing various shortwave VHF and UHF radio antennas, mostly to receive image signals from satellites (weather satellites, ISS etc), or data signals from various small Cubesats - mostly built by students at technical colleges in Russia. To be honest, Russia is far more active than the USA in building and deploying Cubesats with projects and experiments on board that 'ordinary folk' can involve themselves in. The USA mainly has question and answer sessions between college students and astronauts on the ISS. From time to time, the Russian sector of the ISS does transmit images, which I receive at my home in south Thailand. Anyway, I will try to post interesting signals and news on this thread. Of course, I welcome relevant posts from other forum members! So to start things off, I repost the image from GG's weather thread that I posted today (Thursday 12th June). This is an image from the USA weather satellite NOAA-15, as it passed over south-east Asia this morning.. The satellite transmits about 10 images on each pass, and the free processing software on my laptop creates the different images. The image shown has the rain storms indicated by colour - the darker the colour, the more rainy it is!

If you're using Satdump, your screen should look like this: On the left is the progress of the satellite in its pass, showing the azimuth and elevation. The satellite signal is shown on the waterfall and if you have the audio playing box checked, then you'll hear the 'tick-tock' sound of the signal. After the pass is completed, Satdump processes the data and adds the country overlay/underlay. This is an image with rain clouds received 10 minutes ago from the above screen of NOAA-15, so you can see that the image map is of south-east Asia (I'm located in Thailand).

Antarctica?? Something is not correct. With these 137MHz satellites, you can only receive a signal as they pass over your location in Spain, because they are LEO (low-Earth-orbit) satellites and move around the Earth at a fast speed, (in order to cancel out the Earth's gravitational force which would otherwise pull them down). So typically their signal can only be received for about 12 minutes as they pass over you. I dropped the location of Barcelona into n2yo website and it tells me that NOAA-19 will pass over that location between 11.52am - 12.07pm today Thursday, peaking at 72 degrees elevation.

Which weather satellite was that image received from? NOAA-19 has the strongest signal, so you can use the n2yo.com website to see when there will be a high elevation pass over your location. You can also add a low noise amplifier to your system (they cost about $20 online and are powered by the SDR up the signal conductor of the coaxial cable).

Muslim countries would never accept Palestinians in their territory, not as settlers nor refugees. They have made that very clear for decades. Now I wonder what they know that's created this POV... ?

Many in the bar are there only to get drunk, to party with their friends, maybe to take some drugs, many reek of cheap tobacco, of course many aim to chat up members of the opposite sex and end up in bed with them. Many are obnoxious, selfish, uneducated, rude, many smell of BO.... That's a description of the male visitors to the bar, probably many bar-girls are just as bad....

I know about Chok Chai farm, but that seems to be the exception to these thin beef cows. It explains why Thai beef in restaurants tastes terrible....