Today I managed to collect some images from the Meteor M2-4 satellite. This was after a few attempts, so I hope this helps folks get starting with these Russian satellites.

I used my tried and true V dipole and my RTL-SDR dongle. I used spaceboi to predict the pass and track the satellite. The 137.9 Mhz singal is marked as the “Primary” frequency for the VHF downlink. I found this singal was working well for me.

Note: don’t use the Meteor M2-2 satellite, it collided with some space junk so the 137 MHz signal is no longer available. I tried, and got nothing, so saving you a trip. So the donwlink only works with the Meteor M2-3 and M2-4 satellites.

I used SatDump to record and decode the Meteor M-2X LRPT 72k singal. I recorded the raw IQ in complex float 32, then used the “Offline processing” mode to decode the signal.

LRPT stands for Low Rate Picture Transmission. Low Rate Picture Transmission uses a QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) modulation at 72k. LRPT uses Reed-Solomon error correction to validate the data.

Here is what a good lock looks like on SatDump. You can see the processing shows 4 clusters, one in each quadrant, which means the QPSK constillation can be decoded.

SatDump

Here are my results. I got a good section of the great lakes region and the east coast of North America. Some cool looking clouds too. I noticed on SatDump that I lost sigal a few times. For next time I would improve is track the doppler shift better. I noticed it was moving a 100Hz throughout the pass. I found by changing the frequnecy my SNR improved a few dB.

Meteor M2-4