W1ANT Satellite Tracker

Heimir Thor Sverrisson

Contains ads

About this app

Get a list of Amateur Radio satellites visible from your current location in the next 24 hours. Get an overview over their paths from acquisition to loss of signal (AOS to LOS). Only passes above the minimum elevation are shown on the list. Select one of them and get information on their on-board radios. Select one of their radios and be able to point your phone directly at it so you can easily operate it. Extra information, i.e. the actual frequencies to use for uplink and downlink is also presented taken the Doppler effect into account.

The Location view on the Satellite Overview page shows the current position of the satellite over Earth including the circle that demarcates the area where it is above 10 degrees above the horizon (reachable by radio). This view also shows its path for the next 60 minutes. Pinch to zoom and drag to change your point of view over Earth.

There is also a Passes view on the Overview page that lists all passes where this satellite will be over the horizon at the current location in the next 48 hours.

The minimum elevation for the starting list can be changed from its default 10 degrees in the Settings.

Ratings and reviews

Edit: turns out that there is an ad-free version available. I've bought that now. I strongly recommend the paid version over this free one. Original review: Great application, but the many ads ruin it. The ads are full screen ads with video/audio and a lock-out timer forcing you to watch/listen for a set amount of time. I would gladly pay for an ad free experience because the application itself is really quite nice, but there's no option to do so.

I love this app, I have a mount on my camera tripod fot my arrow antenna, and the phone sits next to it. Would it be possible to have either rig control for doppler out the usb port, or even just a pulse every time the frequency changes by 5khz, that could be interfaced to the frequency down button on the h/t? Also, an output for an az/el tracker would be good, like the scarc tracker that fits on a camera tripod Cheers John de VK4JWT

This seems to be a decent app. It looks neat and clean and has functioned well for me so far in a few basic tests. I have yet to try to use it to make comms with a satellite, so can't comment as to the accuracy of the info, but assuming it is accurate, it seems like a nice app. I will try it for a while and maybe consider the paid version, but it doesn't really seem worthwhile to make the upgrade. Maybe if there were a few more features in the paid version, or if it were a bit cheaper.