Communicating with space-based ham radio satellites might sound like it’s something that takes a lot of money, but in reality it’s one of the more accessible aspects of the hobby. Generally all that’s needed is a five-watt handheld transceiver and a directional antenna. Like most things in the ham radio world, though, it takes a certain amount of skill which can’t be easily purchased. Most hams using satellites like these will rely on some software to help track them, which is where this new program from [Alex Shovkoplyas] comes in.
The open source application is called SkyRoof and provides a number of layers of information about satellites aggregated into a single information feed. A waterfall diagram is central to the display, with not only the satellite communications shown on the plot but information about the satellites themselves. From there the user can choose between a number of other layers of information about the satellites including their current paths, future path prediction, and a few different ways of displaying all of this information. The software also interfaces with radios via CAT control, and can even automatically correct for the Doppler shift that is so often found in satellite radio communications.
For any ham actively engaged in satellite tracking or space-based repeater communications, this tool is certainly worth trying out. Unfortunately, it’s only available for Windows currently. For those not looking to operate under Microsoft’s thumb, projects such as DragonOS do a good job of collecting up the must-have Linux programs for hams and other radio enthusiasts.
Well that looks useful, downloaded and installed on a spare machine.
Bit of a surprise when it talked to me though
lol
I have Predict running, it still makes me jump when out of nowhere
“This is Predict, satellite is at xxx and approaching”
every
single
time
Seems good. I wonder if it can be run on Vista/ 7 x64 with kernel extensions, such as Extended Kernel for Windows Vista or VxKex.
To those who want to have a pretty Windows OS in the shack, I mean.
Aero Glass on the desktop provided some elegance to an otherwise plain shack consisting of small, blacl gadgets and oversized TFT panels.
It looks like it would have been useful, but there’s no Linux version.
That’s not a problem, but a future macOS version would be nice.
But knowing ham scene, this was probably made in Visual Studio, maybe using .NET runtime. So it’s hard to make portable.
But that’s okay, on such OSes, a Windows VM can be run just easily.
– If only Windows 10/11 wouldn’t be so plain looking altogether.
Older versions were so customizable and pretty, even Windows 98SE was more eye-friendly, I think.
WINE may or may not do, lower level DLLs which talk to rotor (rotator) interface or provide CAT support may no work on WINE.
If it’s .NET, and written properly, it’s possible it can be run with Mono under Linux. Alas, most of the time .NET stuff tends to rely on a bunch of MS dependencies, preventing this.
I remember setting up some Windows based field day logger a friend used that worked like this. Ran just fine on whatever lightweight Linux distro we had on the netbooks (Raspbian maybe?), so long as you launched it via Mono.
It’s open source, and the source is linked to right there, easy to check. Have a gander and see what’s needed to compile for Linux, maybe even try porting it. (I saw the .cs extensions and turned around and went home, but maybe you’ll be more motivated)
I took a quick look, it didn’t look horrific so porting part or all of it might not be too bad.
Was considering shoving it through an AI to get some porting advice for it.
Portions of it should be easy, complexities with the SDR integration are inevitable; but the graphical stuff is probably not too bad; he’s using OpenGL, for good or bad. At least it’s not primarily windows graphics oriented.
Try to run it under WINE. I know they got WXtoIMG to run under WINE in Linux and that is a weather satellite decoder with some tracking
WXtoIMG is great, I remember there also used to be an G3/G4 Mac version for OS X 10.1 “Puma” and up (WXtoImg 2.4.16).
I think I’ve once tried it out on my iMac G3 bondi blue.
Versions compatible with PPC G4+G5/Intel/Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” and up still exist (such as WXtoImg21011.dmg).
In case someone has a classic pre-intel Macintosh in the shack.
These are still good enough for running CocoaModem, MacDoppler or MultiMode.
WXSat used to be fine, too. It’s a Win16 application with 32-Bit code, I think.
I’ve used to use it on Windows for Workgroups, next to UI-View and WinPix Pro..
(In general, it’s possible to use many Win16 classics in Windows x64 via OTVDM/WineVDM.)
While a measuring tape yagi is a fun entry level project and worth doing, I had plenty of success with the old 5W HT and the rubber duckie antenna. At least where I was at the time overhead or near overhead passes happens every day or two. It wasn’t an over the horizon contact or anything but worked crystal clear.
A helix antenna is nice for moving satellites, too.
It takes care of the polarization problem, for example.
More info: http://www.astrosurf.com/luxorion/qsl-satellites-reception.htm
Tried to download but it comes with a virus.
Deleted download. Guess I don’t get to play.