The Hamtronics R139 WX FAX Receiver is a 5 channel crystal controlled receiver specifically intended for reception of the polar orbiting weather satellites that broadcast on the 137 MHz weather band. The receiver has a wideband IF that allows for reception of the wideband FM signal from the satellites. The received audio from the receiver is passed to a computer sound card where a program such as WxToImg is used to decode it to an image.
The R139 can scan the 5 channels and automatically stop on an active channel. This works well provided one has a strong signal. If the signal is weak or subject to fading the squelch will close and the scan will resume during the satellite pass which results in a truncated satellite image. For reception of the satellite pass horizon to horizon manual selection of the received channel and running with open squelch is needed.
USB Computer Control for the Hamtronics R139 WX Satellite Receiver: [Via] – [Link]
April 7th, 2008 at 10:03 am
[...] The R139 can scan the 5 channels and automatically stop on an active channel. This works well provided one has a strong signal. If the signal is weak or subject to fading the squelch will close and the scan will resume during the satellite pass which results in a truncated satellite image. For reception of the satellite pass horizon to horizon manual selection of the received channel and running with open squelch is needed. [via] [...]
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Hi!
The Hamtronics R139 WX FAX Receiver is a 5 channel crystal controlled receiver specifically intended for reception of the polar orbiting weather satellites that broadcast on the 137 MHz weather band. The receiver has a wideband IF that allows for reception of the wideband FM signal from the satellites. The received audio from the receiver is passed to a computer sound card where a program such as WxToImg is used to decode it to an image.
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Cool, thanks for the info.
October 12th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
We are in the process of replacing our popular R139 Weather Satellite Receiver with a new version. We note that you kindly linked to our R139 web page. Following is information you may use to update your link. We would be glad to reciprocate with a link on our website to yours (if we have not already done so).
The Hamtronics R303-137 Weather Fax Receiver Module is a very sensitive wideband fm receiver optimized for reception of NOAA APT weather facsimile images on the 137 MHz band. You can use it with any popular APT software. It was designed as a lower cost alternative to the long popular R139 Receiver. For details, please click on the following link: http://www.hamtronics.com/r303-137.htm
Jerry Vogt / Hamtronics, Inc.