I have recently taken an interest in weather observation.

This fits in well with amateur radio as data from a weather station can be fed into the global APRS tracking system which I have been doing for some time now.

The other radio related aspect is receiving weather satellite pictures. I've made a start on this for the NOAA satellites on 137MHz. Pictured above is the temporary crossed dipole and reflector turnstile antenna I quickly bodged together to get working. It is mounted on the pole which carries my dual band 2m 70cm colinear. The colinear temporarily served as a second antenna for the satellite receiver where it worked well at the start and end of satellite passes - it seemed to receive low elevation signals better than the turnstile. I added the reflectors to the turnstile later and I was pretty sure I'd cut them too short.

The current satellite receiving antennas are pictured on the left (a QHA and a turnstile). To the right is the rather disappointing Watson weather station.

Details on my satellite receiving equipment and the replacement antenna construction are now on the site.