March 15, 2026
From carbs to orbits
Discovering Little Worlds (2020)
From a forgotten USB stick to backyard space pics and police chatter
TLDR: A forgotten USB radio stick led one tinkerer to hear local chatter and snag weather satellite images from home. Comments split between celebrating “basement NASA,” debating the ethics of listening to police, and rallying newcomers with friendly tips—proof that DIY space pics are irresistible and a little controversial.
A lockdown basement clean-out turned into a mini space mission and the comments are living for it. One tinkerer dug up a tiny “software radio” stick (an SDR—basically a USB gadget that lets your computer hear lots of radio signals) and went from boring FM stations to police dispatch, then straight to satellite selfies from NOAA weather birds and the GOES-16 satellite. Cue chaos: half the thread crowned it “basement NASA,” the other half clutched pearls about ethics and ham radio pride.
The spiciest fight? Whether tuning in on police dispatch is “cool science” or “creepy eavesdropping.” Several folks noted that laws vary and many channels are encrypted anyway, but the tone got heated. Ham radio diehards rolled in to defend the hobby (“not boring—lifesaving,” they say), while meme lords posted “OK boomer radio” and “cloud paparazzi” jokes. People loved the leap from rabbit-ear antennas to a recycled Wi‑Fi dish pointed at GOES‑16, with newbies begging, “How do I try this?” and veterans dropping starter links for RTL‑SDR—minus the step-by-step. The vibe: from sourdough to satellites, the home lab is back, the ham crowd is divided, and everyone agrees the cloud pics are gorgeous—even if your neighbor thinks you’ve built a 5G tower.
Key Points
- •An RTL-SDR V3 dongle was used with SDRSharp (Windows) and CubicSDR (Mac) to explore radio signals.
- •The author received local FM stations, police dispatch (NFM, ~460–490 MHz), and HAM repeaters using the stock antenna.
- •NOAA-15/18/19 weather satellites were received around 137.9 MHz with a V-dipole, producing cloud-cover images via demodulation software.
- •NOAA satellite passes are short (~15 minutes), occur early/late due to sun-synchronous orbits, and currently provide modest image quality.
- •GOES-16, a geostationary satellite over the Americas, requires higher-gain equipment such as a WiFi grid antenna and a SAW filter for reception.