People often ask me to make step-by-step explanatory videos on some of the satellite projects I present. Although I'm not yet a real expert on the subject, I've done my best to show the basics of L-band signals. These can be received with a simple small satellite dish, a software defined radio and an LNA/filter, as well as free software.

The process is a bit more complicated than VHF satellite reception (which I showed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?vicADyjm3PBE). However, it is not very complex and the images are a little better than those available on VHF.

Here are some other great guides that can help you:
https://usradioguy.com/hrpt-satellite-tracking-and-capture/
https://gist.github.com/JVital2013/ed848cdd92900777eee849dc74186b2c
https://sgcderek.github.io/blog/beginner-hrpt-guide.html
@dereksgc also has some great videos about this on his channel.

Nooelec sells an all-in-one hardware package including an antenna, SDR and LNA. That's all you need (other than a computer and software) to get started!
https://amzn.to/4ah2WQt

You can also purchase parts individually and make your own antenna. Personally, I like the RTL-SDR blog series on software defined radios:
https://amzn.to/4a4AjWI

If you purchase an SDR separately or already own one, you will also need a SAWbird GOES LNA:
https://amzn.to/49TtI1k

If you already have a Wifi dish, you can modify it like this:
https://usradioguy.com/optimizing-wifi-grid/

If you are creating your own dish, the sgcderek link above has good information. Or you can go REALLY cheap like I did with some of these projects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?vzM84sSXFL0Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?vcW6ogJS768Y

You can find the correct position for your antenna feed on the satellite dish here:
https://www.analyzemath.com/parabola/focus-of-parabola-calculator.html

And you can find 3D printable helical antenna parts here:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4980180

Free software I use includes:
Gpredict: https://oz9aec.dk/gpredict/
SDR: https://www.sdrpp.org/
SatDump: https://www.satdump.org/

I also use Stellarium, which isn't free and is somewhat blurry, but it's the only thing I could find for Android that gives an AR tracking view:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?idcom.noctuasoftware.stellarium_free&hlen_US&glUS

Websites I use for satellite research and tracking include:
https://www.n2yo.com/
https://www.satdump.org/Satellite-List/

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