As a part of my ongoing capstone project “Satellite Tracker” (e.g. an Amateur radio satellite tracking project which will potentially use ARKit), this week I spent a lot of time on the following items:

• Creating my project plan
• Thinking about early app workflows
• Researching…satellite data!

As it has been (literally) decades since I dabbled in amateur “HAM” radio, my skills are a bit rusty. I have been researching where are viable sites to source amateur radio satellite information from, including uplink and downlink information provided by resources such as N2YO.

I also discovered that I can check the status and communication frequencies of all active amateur radio satellites on the following sites: DK3WN, JE9PEL! Next step, determining where I can cull this information / bring it into an app… for example, via an API, or other.

Some satellites I think I will want to feature in the app are:

• BDSAT
  • Uplink (MHz): 
  • Downlink (MHz): 145.850/436.025 

• ALFACRUX
  • Uplink (MHz): 437.225
  • Downlink (MHz): 437.100/437.225

While this remains an ongoing (small black hole) of research, I look forward to discovering how to pull all the pieces together in the coming weeks… onwards and upwards!