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Comment by JKCalhoun | Hacker News Reader

Wow, I didn't know there was such a cool hobby out there waiting for me. I know nothing about modern radio scanning but I'm suddenly fascinated to learn.

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I agree, I only learned it recently but there are a few very motivated individuals that track satellites and share a lot of the information. I learned about it during the whole Zuma fiasco, from the SatTrackCam blog [0]. I would definitely recommend reading it if this sort of thing interests you, it awesome to see how these guys do the tracking and the sheer amount of information they infer. The Zuma ones are great, along with the ones about the ISS and the satellite got close to it.

[0] https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/

Any TLDR for the "Zuma fiasco"?

Edit: I read the wiki, very interesting

> A number of articles published by the amateur satellite tracking community state that if the satellite is still in orbit and operating covertly, they will attempt to locate it visually

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Zuma_(satellite)

Link that works without JavaScript: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuma_%28satellite%29

thank you, i really appreciate

And I got downvoted into oblivion for suggesting just that scenario when the launch "failed."

Have a look at amateur radio and satellite operations as a whole. You can, with some persistence and brains have a chat with someone a vast distance away via satellite repeater with nothing but a cheap handheld radio.

I’ve only managed to receive so far due to a cruddy antenna but that was with a $30 Baofeng radio from Amazon.

Note: you need a license but it’s pretty easy to get, at least in the UK and you learn a lot while getting it. It also tends to cost you a lot of money in the end because it’s really interesting :)

Good suggestion. I was thinking the same thing. A cheap radio, eggbeater antenna, and gpredict will get you started. No need for a license just to see if you can hear one, but once you do, you'll probably want to get one. Luckily satellites tend to operate in VHF and UHF, so the lowest license class is all you need.

Yep you don’t need a lot of watts either. You can get a long way on 5W.

A HAM license is easy to get in the US. There are three main classes, and I would expect most people on HN could get the Technician license with little to no studying. Won't provide you world wide communications, but it is still good to have. Most places charge $10 and are done by the local HAM group. Here's a practice test for the levels if anyone is interested. [1] The questions are from a pool, so worst case you could just memorize them.

[1] http://aa9pw.com/radio/

Yep, read a couple books I got off the internets, mostly memorized the pool questions and got an expert license I never really used (probably doesn't help I'm not the most social creature) so didn't renew last year. Really easy to get a license since they got rid of the Morse code requirement -- just need to learn a few formulas really.

--edit-- Not in one sitting, IIRC went from tech to expert on the second trip.

Data modes and CW are there for us unsociable individuals :)

It's the same in the UK with RSGB. Very easy.

https://satnogs.org/

Also see http://goughlui.com/2016/08/05/diy-build-a-70cm-band-yagi-fo...

Back in the 80's, people with those now giant satellite TV dishes could point them in the right direction and ever-so-slowly decode pictures coming back from one of NASA's probes with their C-64's or Apple ]['s. I forget which one, but I read a magazine article about it and decided not to try it because dishes were expensive back then.

I remember visiting my dads radio enthusiast friend when I was a kid in the early '90s.

He had a giant dish in the back yard hooked up to a computer with a monochrome monitor. I think he got weather data from it.

You aren't kidding, but I don't have anything like the background to start. Looks like I'm stuck reading about others' exploits. :-/

Edit: Storytime. Several weeks ago, about 2:00am local time, I was letting the dog out into the back yard and saw a very bright object (somewhat brighter than the stars around it) passing from NW to SE, almost overhead. It had a bright-dim-bright frequency of about 10-15 seconds. A satellite is the only option that comes to mind, but I checked several "what's overhead now" websites with no luck.

It was probably an Iridium satellite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTGVuPr9Epg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare

I'll bet you are right. That video is exactly what it looked like.

This isn't what you saw (which would've been too early), but check out this satellite from NZ's first orbital launch: http://www.thehumanitystar.com/

That is very cool. I'll be looking for it in 39 days apparently.

https://amzn.com/B011HVUEME $26.95

http://www.pe0sat.vgnet.nl/decoding/unix-tlm-decoding (2015)

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