I'm trying to receive weather satellite images (NOAA and Meteor), transmitted at 137-138MHz.
Problem is, periodically there is a powerful 144.8MHz ARPS transmitter nearby, which completely overwhelms the weak satellite signal.
To get good reception from the NOAAs i need about 60db of gain, while the ARPS signal is already very strong without any gain at all.
A SAW filter, though they can be hard to source in small quantities.
http://www.taisaw.com/en/product.php?pc=1
A SAW filter, though they can be hard to source in small quantities.
http://www.taisaw.com/en/product.php?pc=1
SAW filter was my first thought too, Golledge may be able to help for samples as they resell these parts. They did with me, and I've bought about 50ku from them since.
I'm also starting to build an antenna for weather satellites. I bought 8mm copper tube and some RG58 cable. I'm looking at some antenna variants right now. Which blueprint did you use?
I have a limited experience in building passive VHF filters. I also find Chebyshev and Butterworth filters to have impractical capacitor/inductor values so I made my filters by adapting this design: http://yu1lm.qrpradio.com/2m%20BP%20FILTER-YU1LM.pdf
But I'm afraid it won't do much in your case since the frequencies are too close...
BTW does anybody know if the filter design from the pdf has an official name? I haven't seen it anywhere else but I haven't searched for it either.
Looks like the bandpass doesn't have to be all that tight that a cavity is required. Just ordinary lumped filters or stub filters can work. There are a lot of articles about this.
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/building-a-diy-137-mhz-band-pass-filter/
I'm trying to receive weather satellite images (NOAA and Meteor), transmitted at 137-138MHz.
Problem is, periodically there is a powerful 144.8MHz ARPS transmitter nearby, which completely overwhelms the weak satellite signal.
To get good reception from the NOAAs i need about 60db of gain, while the ARPS signal is already very strong without any gain at all.
So, i need some sort of a notch/bandstop filter to exclude 144.8MHz without interfering much with 137 MHz. That is, with less than 12 MHz of bandwidth.
The question is - what sort of filter can do that, and what to look for?
I looked at passive filters, but most calculators give me impossibly small part values, i.e. http://www.wa4dsy.net/cgi-bin/lc_filter3?FilterResponse=Bandstop&poles=6&CF=144.8&cfunits=MHZ&cutoff=13&funits=MHZ&Z=50
Simple receivers,like "Direct Conversion" types are even worse,as they rely heavily on input selectivity, along with phase cancellation techniques---these can be easily "trumped" by a very strong signal.
Simple receivers,like "Direct Conversion" types are even worse,as they rely heavily on input selectivity, along with phase cancellation techniques---these can be easily "trumped" by a very strong signal.
I don't know a lot about the simple "dongle" type SDRs, but it seems likely that they have similar problems.
Simple receivers,like "Direct Conversion" types are even worse,as they rely heavily on input selectivity, along with phase cancellation techniques---these can be easily "trumped" by a very strong signal.
I don't know a lot about the simple "dongle" type SDRs, but it seems likely that they have similar problems.
Dongle type SDRs are terrible in this respect; so are GPS and WiFi direct conversion receivers. They all have horrible overload characteristics do to high gain before their first selective stage.
If you buy $20 ones, yes. If you buy those with a dozen or so switched & tuned preselectors it's a completely different ball game, but front end filtering comes at a price.
If you buy $20 ones, yes. If you buy those with a dozen or so switched & tuned preselectors it's a completely different ball game, but front end filtering comes at a price.
They are still horrible compared to having even one stage of IF filtering.
An 1/4 wave open coaxial cable stub can make a fairly sharp notch filter at one frequency. Sharp enough only a few MHz away? Maybe, but I suspect more probably maybe not. A sharper fairly straightforward solution is a helical resonator.
http://satsignal.eu/wxsat/filters/HelicalNotch.htm