About Ham Sat Tracker

Making satellite operations accessible to all hams

The Story Behind Ham Sat Tracker

Ham Sat Tracker was born out of frustration. As an amateur radio operator (VE3AKK) living on the 6th of a condo apartment in Ottawa, I needed to work satellites in the great outdoors using a simple tool that could tell me:

  • When satellites would pass overhead
  • What frequencies to use (with Doppler corrections already calculated)
  • Where to point my antenna
  • Which passes were worth working
  • Would there be good passes on an upcoming date when I knew I could get out

Existing tools were either too complicated, required installation, or weren't designed with ham radio operators in mind. I wanted something I could pull up on my phone, enter my location, and immediately see the next few passes with all the details I needed — especially portable in the field.

So I built it.

Who Am I?

I'm Dave Burniston, VE3AKK, a licensed amateur radio operator based in Ottawa, Canada. I focus on QRP operations and satellite communications — most of my ham operations at 5 watts or less, mostly portable.

I also run QRP Workshop, where I document ham and 3D printing projects. Building software to help fellow hams is a natural extension of that work.

What Makes It Different?

Unlike general-purpose satellite trackers, Ham Sat Tracker is built specifically for amateur radio operators:

  • Doppler-Corrected Frequencies — Shows exact uplink and downlink frequencies at AOS, TCA, and LOS. No mental arithmetic mid-pass.
  • Ham-Specific Satellites — Only shows amateur radio satellites, not the thousands of other objects in orbit.
  • Operating Notes — Includes CTCSS tones, operating modes, and other ham-specific details per satellite.
  • Grid Square Support — Enter your location as a Maidenhead grid square (e.g. FN25) or decimal coordinates.
  • Works Offline — TLE data is cached locally so the predictor works in the field without internet. Update TLEs before you leave home.
  • AntTrack Antenna Tracker — Real-time compass-based antenna pointing, built into the same app. One tap hands off a pass directly to AntTrack pre-loaded with all pass data.
  • Mobile-Friendly — Designed to work well on phones and tablets for portable operations.
  • No Installation — Just open your browser and go.

AntTrack Pro

The free tier covers the five most popular and reliably active satellites and gives you 24-hour pass predictions — genuinely useful for most operators. AntTrack Pro unlocks the full toolkit for serious satellite work:

  • All satellites — the full list including AO-7, AO-73, JO-97, SO-125, and more
  • 7-day lookahead — plan your operating schedule for the week ahead
  • Date picker — select any future date to see passes for that day specifically
  • One-tap pass handoff to AntTrack — AOS azimuth, max elevation, LOS azimuth and duration all handed off automatically
  • No ads

Pro will be a one-time purchase (after the Beta ends)at $9.99 — no subscription, no recurring fees.

The Technology

For the technically curious, Ham Sat Tracker uses:

  • SGP4/SDP4 orbital propagation via the satellite.js library — the same standard used by professional tracking systems
  • TLE data fetched from CelesTrak via a server-side proxy, cached locally for offline use
  • Pure JavaScript — all calculations run entirely in your browser, no backend required
  • Device sensors — AntTrack uses your phone's compass and tilt sensor for real-time antenna pointing
  • Responsive design — works on desktop, tablet, and mobile

Offline Use

Ham Sat Tracker is designed to work in the field, even without cell service. TLE orbital data is automatically cached in your browser after each successful fetch. If you're operating portable without internet, the app falls back to the cached data and tells you how old it is. For best accuracy, update TLEs before heading out — predictions stay reliable for several days after the last fetch.

What's Coming

The roadmap includes two features aimed at serious portable operators:

  • Real-time antenna rotator control — streaming live azimuth and elevation to Arduino-based rotator controllers (K3NG firmware, EasyComm/GS-232 protocol) via a lightweight PC bridge app
  • Automatic Doppler correction via CAT control — continuously updating your radio's VFO frequencies throughout the pass via Hamlib, supporting Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood, Elecraft and others. The same bridge app will handle both rotator and CAT simultaneously.

If you're running a Yaesu FT-818 or similar portable rig and want to be a beta tester when these features arrive, get in touch.

Open to Feedback

This is a living project. I'm constantly adding features and improvements based on feedback from the ham radio community. If you have ideas for new features, find bugs, or just want to say hi, please get in touch. I read every message.

Thanks

  • CelesTrak for providing free TLE data
  • AMSAT for maintaining the amateur satellite community and the satellite status page
  • The satellite.js team for their excellent SGP4 library
  • Fellow hams who beta-tested and provided feedback

Let's Connect

73 and good DX!
Dave Burniston, VE3AKK