A cost effective receiver for meteorological balloon telemetry
application using RTL-SDR and LabVIEW
Abstract
In this paper we present design of RTL-SDR based low cost receiver for
meteorological balloon telemetry. In developed receiver all the
demodulation processes are performed in software developed in LabVIEW.
Design and fabrication of Quarter Wave Monopole Antenna and Quadrifilar
Helix Antenna (QHA) is also presented for use with the receiver.
Antennas are selected such that the combined beam pattern provides
optimum coverage in both low and high elevation angles. This system is
designed to operate in meteorological-aids frequency band of 400-406
MHz. Paper presents bit error rate performance of developed receiver.
Performances of the RTL-SDR receiver using both the antennas are
assessed by processing the signals received from the radiosonde flights
at Gadanki (13.46°N, 79.17°E). Finally it is shown that RTL-SDR based
receiver can receive signals up to the range of about 75-80 Km.