SatTrack

When I got back into Ham radio a little over two years ago (July 2022) after being away for 18 years, I wanted to start by getting into satellite communications again.

When I got my license in 1992, I started with satellites and moved on to EME and HF shortly after.

In 2022 when I started again, I looked around for a suitable satellite tracking application. I tried maybe five or six different applications, but there were none of them that really met the goals I had at the time.

So I did my own instead, this became "SatTrack".

The plan was that it was just a "for me" project, so it was developed with features I specifically needed, not what others might need. I developed the program over the next 6 to 12 months, and it gradually became more and more functional. A couple of close friends also got copies and used it for satellite work, especially Paulo IK3ITB gave me a lot of good ideas and was very helpful in testing. Later on Pete, 2M0SQL came with some good ideas for me to add to the application.

During these 2 years since I started, I have made close to 9000 satellite QSO's (WAS in 10 months, 170 DXCC, 1700 grids and 38 WAZ on satellites in total) so at least SatTrack works for me.

As I can see that there are still people out there frustrated with what is available, I decided to release a version of SatTrack as it is now.

HOWEVER, this comes with a warning! As satellite tracking, controlling the 100's of different radios, rotor controllers etc., can be a daunting task to support, I have decided that SatTrack is a "take it or leave it" type of application.

This means, if it works for you, then fine, go ahead and use it. If it does NOT work for you (either partly or completely), then please select some other application.

I will NOT add "your" radio or "your" antenna controller.

What SatTrack does

SatTrack will do the following:

Track a satellite in realtime and show calculated values for it
Track the moon and the sun
Show a list of selected satellites, ordered so that the ones rising first will be at the top of the list
Control your ICOM IC-9700 (and a few other ICOM radios like IC-910 and IC-706, you test it yourself) radio according to the defined transponder(s) for the satellite being tracked
Control your Yaesu GS-232B, PstRotator or URC rotorcontroller so you antennas will follow the tracked sat
Show the footprint of the currently selected satellite on a map
Fetch updated TLE elements from the internet at defined intervals (or use a local file)
Inject data (name, frequency etc) for the currently tracked satellite into log program ACLog
Make it easy for you to make small adjustment to the uplink frequency to put you "on the spot"
Allow you to set alarms (voice messages) for upcoming passes of specific satellites and specific passes
Give voice announcements whenever a satellite is about to rise
Fetch current status from AMSAT satellite status page for a selected satellite and present this in a readable way
Help you plan satellites and passes and alarms for these in the "Future passes" planner
Import/export transponder definitions, can also import SQF file from SatPC32 and use that

What SatTrack does NOT do

SatTrack will NOT do the following:

Open source, and it never will be.
Control other radios than ICOM IC-9700 (or a few other ICOM radios)
Handle the CTCSS tones for FM satellites. You need the radio to handle that
Control other rotors except Yaesu GS-232B, PstRotator and URC controller
Zoom the worldmap
Other resizing of controls on the main window. It can what it can, and nothing else
Handle tones for FM satellites. You do that on the IC-9700 (and possibly other ICOM radios)
Probably 1000 other things some would like it to do

Future pass planner

You can use this to plan alarms etc for future passes for satellites

Transponder definitions

Define one or more transponders for a satellite. You can also import and export transponder lists using the menu bar. It is possible to import transponder definitions from a SatPC32 SQF file also.

Navigating the program

There are many "right click" menus in the program. Generally try and experiment. Tooltip help texts has been added to most of the controls. The only window that can be a bit difficult for a new user is the transponder definitions window. It takes some experiment to understand how it works. Take you time, and learn it!

Download the program

Below are download links to the current and past versions of SatTrack.

As described above, if it works for you fine, if not, there are other options out there :)

SatTrack runs under Windows operating system. There is no installation to be done. The program consists of a single .exe file, simply download this, copy it to a folder and execute it from there.

SatTrack will create a configuration file in the folder it is located in, this file contains all settings you do in the program.

Please note, you might get "false positive" virus alerts from Microsoft Defender. This is quite normal, and nothing to worry about.

If you notice "funny things" with saving settings, storing data, please make sure that the program has write access to the folder where you try and write to (for settings problems, the folder where the application is located). Alternatively you might try and start the application in "Administrator mode".

2024-11-19 SatTrack Version 1.0.1.8

Transponder definitions as I use, can be downloaded here.

Release notes

2024-11-19 - Version 1.0.1.8

This is the initial release

Carsten Groen's (OZ9AAR) personal place