Vanguard's "Explore the Earth" FAQ
A: Absolutely, your tax $ are paying for the satellites.Q: Are there any fees?
A: None at all.Q: Do I need a dish?
A: No.Q: Do I get live pictures or retransmissions?
A: You get live transmissions directly from the environmental satellites. Nothing is edited out. What the satellite sees it what you see.Q: How about Russian satellites?
A: You can receive images from the Russian Meteor series of satellites every day and the picture quality is excellent.Q. What do I need?
A: A 386 or better computer, at least 4 megs of RAM, a turnstile reflector antenna,Q: Where can I get all that?
a low noise preamp, a weatherFAX demodulator, a special receiver with an I.F.
bandwidth 50 KHz. (most receivers have the wrong I.F. bandwidth for this
service) and special software.
A: At Vanguard Electronic Labs in Hollis NY. Phone and Fax: 718-468-2720.Q: Why should I do it myself when I can see it on television?
A: Many reasons - what you see on television are low resolution images. TheQ: What can I do with the images I capture besides just look at them?
TV networks are only interested in showing the weather and the images are taken
from the GOES environmental satellites which are 22,000 miles up at the equator.
What our system does is capture images from the APT satellites. These are only
about 500 miles up and pass overhead somewhere every 1-1/2 hours and there
are usually about 6 satellites operating 24 hours a day. They are known as Polar
Orbitors. You get more detail from satellites that are 500 miles up than those
that are 22,000 miles up.
A: They are so many things that can be done that we can't list them all here butQ: Can I see what your system looks like?
we'll tell you one thing that some people are making money with. Using our
software you can convert the pixel values of the infrared images (the APT
satellites transmit both visible light pictures and infrared pictures at the same
time) into temperature. You can then colorize the temperature bands and you
will have a map of the ocean thermal currents. This information is being sold
to fishermen every day and they pay good money for it. Different kinds of fish
prefer a different temperature so by knowing the ocean temperature you can go
to the ideal spot for the kinds of fish you want to catch. What other uses are
there? Well - we'll leave that to your imagination. How about finding oil? No
we're not saying it's being done but sometimes you have to do things in a round
about way. Hint: It was found that certain minerals appear on the surface where
oil is located underneath.
A: We're working on an on-line catalog which should be ready in a few weeks as we no longer have printed catalogs. Keep checking this site for new developments.
Copyright 1997-2002 Vanguard Electronic Labs
last update 7/13/2002