Satgen 595 Sat Information 1 by GM4IHJ (BID SGEN595) 2000-08-19 Having an interest in satellites , need not mean, " only Amateur satellites". With the present dearth of suitable amsats for either sustained qsos, or practical experiments on anything but digital hardware, several radio amateurs have been broadening their knowledge by tracking and monitoring commercial and military satellites . Ignoring their message content , but using their carrier signals for experiments. But where do they get the data to do this ? Keplerian orbital elements for non amateur NOAA and NASA satellites and space stations are published regularly on amateur radio packet networks. However if you wish to look further, you need an information source which covers all kinds of satellites , whoever builds , launches or controls them. Such a source exists at :- www.celestrak.com This is in fact the successor to the old NORAD source and it covers everything except American and Russian secret projects. On it you can get say 2line elements for :- All the globalstar satellites or similar satellite constellations printed out as a block. Elements for any satellite ever launched which is still in orbit , excepting the secret military ones. Lists of answers to frequently asked questions about orbital elements Historical archives and documentation A software depository Indeed almost everything you could ever want to know about satellites ancient and modern ( except their operating frequencies about which more in a forth coming satgen bulletin ). All this becomes important if you want to study satellite orbits and performance in orbit in depth, for experimental purposes. Radio amateur satellites tend to be restricted to either low altitude near circular orbits, or, much rarer high altitude elliptical orbits . Equally important amsats are stuck in the amateur frequency bands. By contrast commercial and military satellites can be found at almost all radio frequencies , and, altitude levels from 300 kms out to 1.6 million kms, and even beyond ,as happened when NASA provided data for tracking a Mars probe a few years ago. Given this potential for study at all heights and over a very wide range of frequencies , these non amateur satellites can provide a wealth of radio propagation data from both near and far beyond the earth. In addition to which , regular collection and comparison of orbital data provided by Celestrak can be used to look at the variation in satellite drag as the solar wind ebbs and flows , plus checks for the surprise events when a satellite starts to tumble as it meets with the rare but often fatal sudden changes in upper atmosphere density,as happened a few weeks ago to ASCA the Japanese X ray satellite. Or perhaps you might want to be an armchair sat controller,looking at the variations in position of the geostationary satellites. Which contrary to public opinion do not actually stay geostationary unless some controller keeps nudging their thrusters. All data available via celestrak without even switching your radio on.