Today, the 13th of August 2025, NOAA-19 was permanently shut down after a battery failure on the 9th. Until the 11th it was still transmitting APT, but on the 12th it only transmitted DSB without HIRS or SEM. On S-band it was also transmitting DSB for a while, then HRPT with only TIP data on night the 13th and this morning.

Since this was unexpected, I didn’t get the last APT it was transmitting, or record the shutdown of the satellite, but here is the best APT I have from the day before (the 11th). RIP NOAA-19.

The decommisioning of NOAA-15 was due on the 12th, but was delayed to the week of the 18th on the 11th due to an “anomaly” with NOAA-19.

links:
POES Decommisioning and NOAA-15 delay message
NOAA-19 Decommisioning message

  • Thomas Douwes@sopuli.xyzOPM
    12·
    1 month ago

    I will mention that these are very old satellite, this one was 16 years old, there are replacement weather satellites, but they are not easy to receive with cheap equipment like these, requiring internet access or a very expensive setup.
    There are 3 frequencies weather satellites generally use for real-time imagery:
    VHF: can be recieved with a stationary antenna for very cheap.
    L-band: requires a tracked dish, is a bit more expensive, but the rotor can get very expensive.
    X-band: requires a more accurate tracked dish, very expensive, sometimes hard to acquire hardware, and an expensive high sample rate radio.

    The new US satellites use X-band exclusively while these older ones used both VHF and L-band.
    Currently the only real replacement for amateur reception is the russian meteor series which use VHF and L-band.
    China’s satellites are also only use X-band.
    A couple of european satellites can be received on L-band, but new ones only use X-band. (the L-band ones also need a slightly more expensive radio)

    There are also geostationary satellites that appear stationary in the sky, they can often be received on L-band, but thats a different thing.