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Another excellent site for live-tracking of satellites is https://www.n2yo.com https://www.n2yo.com which seems to have a pretty exhaustive database of satellit

Another excellent site for live-tracking of satellites is https://www.n2yo.com https://www.n2yo.com which seems to have a pretty exhaustive database of satellites of all kinds. I've used it to track the ISS' position when they were transmitting SSTV images[0] and I was able to pick up those images with my handheld VHF radio[1]! The site gives 10-day estimates of the satellites' passes (for example the ISS at [2]), but I found its estimation of visibility to be a bit inaccurate for radio reception. Maybe that was more due to my radio antenna positioning though - not sure! Still, it's super useful to give you an idea of possible schedule for upcoming passes, in case you want to plan for it! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow-scan_television https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow-scan_television [1] https://twitter.com/amatecha/status/1157891660648370176 https://twitter.com/amatecha/status/1157891660648370176 [2] https://www.n2yo.com/passes/?s=25544 https://www.n2yo.com/passes/?s=25544

tomfanning 7y ago
These sites are all highly likely to be using something known as TLEs (two line element files) or "keps", which come from NORAD, based on radar observations, for their positional data. https://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/documentation/tle-fmt.php https://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/documentation/tle-fmt.php https://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/ https://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/ Anything using these TLEs should be identical. For radio reception, if the problem wasn't pointing calibration, I suspect it was polarisation. There is ~3dB difference between 0 and 45 degrees, but ~25dB difference between 0 and 90 degrees. Therefore either use circularly polarised antennas (e.g. https://www.wimo.com/xquad-antennas_e.html https://www.wimo.com/xquad-antennas_e.html) so you're never more than 45 degrees out, or if it's hand-held, simply twist the antenna for maximum signal strength. The polarisation will vary through the pass. For some really crappy satellite positioning / radio software that everyone uses because no-one's written a better one yet, check out satpc32.

tomfanning 7y ago

These sites are all highly likely to be using something known as TLEs (two line element files) or "keps", which come from NORAD, based on radar observations, for their positional data. https://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/documentation/tle-fmt.php https://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/documentation/tle-fmt.php https://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/ https://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/ Anything using these TLEs should be identical. For radio reception, if the problem wasn't pointing calibration, I suspect it was polarisation. There is ~3dB difference between 0 and 45 degrees, but ~25dB difference between 0 and 90 degrees. Therefore either use circularly polarised antennas (e.g. https://www.wimo.com/xquad-antennas_e.html https://www.wimo.com/xquad-antennas_e.html) so you're never more than 45 degrees out, or if it's hand-held, simply twist the antenna for maximum signal strength. The polarisation will vary through the pass. For some really crappy satellite positioning / radio software that everyone uses because no-one's written a better one yet, check out satpc32.