# Ham Satting — Amateur Radio Sat Tracker > Amateur radio satellite tracking, pass prediction, QSO logging, and APRS mapping. (iPhone/iPad app by Yousif AL Balushi.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ham-satting/id6755707916 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Yousif AL Balushi](https://appshunter.io/developer/1855752610) - Category: Utilities, Reference - Price: Free - Rating: 3.67/5 from 3 App Store ratings · 1 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 15.6 · 31 MB - Languages: English - Released: 2025-11-26 - Data updated: 2026-06-30 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ham-satting/id6755707916/reviews.md ## What is Ham Satting? Track amateur radio satellites in real time, predict passes, log QSOs, hunt grid squares — with a live APRS map layer and the new Music Broadcast service. Built by a fellow ham (A41UX) — free of analytics, ads, and tracking. CORE FEATURES • Real-time tracking for FM/SSB linear birds (e.g. ISS, SO-50, etc.), digipeaters (e.g. GRBBeta, Foresail-1p, etc), SSTV + SSDV image birds (e.g. Lobachevsky, GEOSCAN 1-6 , etc.), Weather LRPT (Meteor-M N2-3 / N2-4), and Music Broadcast (e.g. BALKAN-1, Flamingo-1, etc) • Pass predictions with quality indicators (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor), AOS / LOS, max elevation, duration, azimuth • Interactive footprint mapping with live position + great-circle bearing lines • Compass dialog with theme-aware export image and watermark • AR Tracking (iPhone / iPad) using device compass + accelerometer • Multi-satellite tracking and side-by-side pass comparison • Five-mode AR audio recording (iPhone / iPad): SSTV, SSDV, Digital, Weather, Music — Doppler-corrected RX labelling; consistent WAV naming NEW IN APRIL 2026 • Music Broadcast: 4 satellites transmit short music tones as an RF identifier instead of CW Morse — T.MicroSat-1 plays Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" on 401.025 MHz; BALKAN-1, Flamingo-1, OTP-2 use classical / video-game themes. RX-only on UHF 400-402 MHz; brown toggle on AR page records the pass. • Scheduled Service Events: register a temporary frequency override for SSTV, SSDV, Digital, or Weather (Meteor-M rotation, ARISS channel shifts, etc.) • APRS digipeater added on SONATE-2 (DP0SNX) and NO-44 (PCSAT, W3ADO-1) on 145.825 MHz simplex • IO-86 SSDV downlink added on 145.880 MHz • AMSAT Live Activity Indicator: every prediction card carries a 24-hour activity dot in AMSAT cell colors, sourced from the AMSAT Live OSCAR Satellite Status page. Tap for a 48-hour popup with individual reports per cell (callsign + grid + UTC slot), attribution, and a compact share-image. • 10 new satellites with permanent NORADs: TO-108, GRBBeta, Foresail-1p, Horizon, 239Alferov, Luca, BALKAN-1, Flamingo-1, OTP-2, T.MicroSat-1 • APRS Live Map Layer: read-only APRS-IS feed, age-fading trails, 40+ symbol mappings, SSID filters, heard-by via aprs.fi • SSTV Decoder: multi-mode (Robot 36, PD 120 / 180, Martin, Scottie, Wraase, AVT, etc.) • Q1 2026 batch: 8 new satellites added (HADES-SA, PARUS-T3, HYPERVIEW-1G, MAGNARO-II Piscis, ARICA-2, FSI-SAT2, ZERO-II, OrigamiSat-2) • UI: long sat names auto-fit at any Font Scale; filter pills always one row; (i) info icons; 125 in-app tips LOGGING + AWARDS + EXPORT • Full QSO logbook: callsign, grid, mode, freq (TX / RX), satellite, RST, distance, bearing • Grid Hunters VUCC tracking with worked-grids map + great-circle paths from QTH • Per-QSO QSL card export — themed PNG ready to share or print • Export to ADIF (LoTW / TQSL), JSON, or CSV • Maidenhead 4 / 6 / 8-character grids • DXCC + VUCC dashboards, distance + bearing stats, worked-by-band charts • Calendar integration; smart pass notifications with min-elevation filter TECHNICAL • Available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac (Apple Silicon + Intel). AR Tracking and live audio recording are iPhone / iPad features; pass prediction, logging, exports, mapping, and the AMSAT indicator run on every Apple device. • N2YO API for orbital data (free key required for non-ISS satellites) • Cached satellite catalogue works offline • Privacy-first: data stays on device, no analytics SDKs, no advertising IDs, no tracking. APRS-IS, N2YO, AMSAT Live OSCAR Status, and the optional aprs.fi REST are the only network calls PERFECT FOR • Amateur radio operators pursuing satellite communications • AMSAT members and CubeSat / PocketQube enthusiasts • Contest participants and award hunters (DXCC, VUCC, satellite awards) • SDR listeners curious about Music Broadcast on 400-402 MHz 73 — A41UX (Unixeer, Oman) ## Key features - Real-time satellite tracking - Pass predictions with quality indicators - Interactive footprint mapping - AR Tracking with device sensors - Multi-satellite tracking - SSTV Decoder - APRS Live Map Layer ## Recent user reviews (1 of 1) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ham-satting/id6755707916/reviews.md ### 1/5 — Reliance on API key flawed *2026-05-25* I have an API key and the app keeps telling me I need an API key. Reliance on that is a flawed design approach **Developer response:** Good morning Dave…. Wow, well thats a first, Have you pressed save after entering the API Key inside Setting Page? did prediction pages work? map loads Satellites? if it tells “you need an api key” its either Save all is not pressed for a new API Key, or you already consumed the 1000 free Api Key hits for an existing API Key. ## Frequently asked questions about Ham Satting ### What types of satellites can Ham Satting track? Ham Satting tracks a wide variety of amateur radio satellites, including FM/SSB linear birds (like ISS, SO-50), digipeaters, SSTV + SSDV image birds, Weather LRPT satellites (Meteor-M N2-3 / N2-4), and Music Broadcast satellites. ### Does Ham Satting have ads? No, Ham Satting is free of analytics, ads, and tracking, providing an uninterrupted user experience. ### What information is provided for satellite passes? For each satellite pass, Ham Satting provides predictions with quality indicators (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor), details on Acquisition of Signal (AOS) and Loss of Signal (LOS), maximum elevation, duration, and azimuth. ### Can I log my contacts with Ham Satting? Yes, Ham Satting features a full QSO logbook where you can record callsign, grid, mode, frequency (TX/RX), satellite, RST, distance, and bearing. It also supports exporting logs to ADIF, JSON, or CSV. ### What devices does Ham Satting support? Ham Satting is available on Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod, making it accessible across various Apple devices. ### How often is Ham Satting updated? The app was last updated on June 24, 2026, with version 4.9.0, indicating a commitment to regular updates and new features. ### What is the age rating for Ham Satting? Ham Satting has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for a broad audience. ### What is the Music Broadcast service in Ham Satting? The Music Broadcast service allows you to receive short music tones transmitted by satellites as an RF identifier. For example, T.MicroSat-1 plays Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" on 401.025 MHz. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 4.9.0 — 2026-06-24 Satellite catalogue update + map panel polish. NEW SATELLITES (3 — all confirmed in the CelesTrak amateur orbital-element feed) • Gemini-Pollux (NCKU, Taiwan) — a V/U data transponder and APRS digipeater with a 436.500 MHz downlink. • EMISAR (401.334 MHz digital messaging) and OPTISAT (400.360 MHz telemetry beacon) — receive-only curiosities for SDR listeners. Both transmit just below the 70 cm amateur band (400-401 MHz, the Space Operations band), so they are listen-only with an SDR — no uplink, no QSO — like the music-broadcast satellites. CATALOGUE FIX • LAPAN-A3 auto-fill corrected: its frequencies had been mistakenly copied from its sister satellite LAPAN-A2 (IO-86). LAPAN-A3 has no amateur voice repeater — its only signal is a 437.425 MHz telemetry beacon (receive-only) — and the auto-fill now reflects that. GRID LOCATOR MAP • The map info panel now shows a single tidy line — QTH, the distance to your live position, and your current grid ("You are here") — matching the Ham Logging companion. Any field not yet set shows a dash (e.g. before you save a QTH or get a GPS fix). • Fixed the info-panel text so it grows and shrinks with your Font Scale accessibility setting, like the rest of the app. 73 de A41UX ### 4.6.0 — 2026-06-08 Ham Satting Version 4.6.0 +46 is now live in stores • Faster QSO entry — the UTC Date and UTC Time fields are now tap-to-open date and time pickers (24-hour), so there's no more typing a format by hand. The same pickers apply when you edit an existing QSO, and the clock button still snaps both back to the current UTC. • Satellite catalogue brought up to date: – HADES-SA is now Spain-OSCAR 127 (SO-127), reflecting AMSAT's June 2026 designation, with its 145.875 MHz digital BBS uplink confirmed. – The Taipei Tech APRS satellite now appears under its official catalogue name, PARUS-6U1. – Pass predictions fixed for Lobachevsky (RS83S) after a catalogue-number correction. – Several transponder and tone details corrected against AMSAT / SatNOGS: HO-113 (XW-3) is a V/U SSB linear transponder (not an FM repeater); UmKA-1 and HYPERVIEW-1G are receive-only SSTV downlinks; and the Tevel-2 constellation and LilacSat-2 FM repeaters need no CTCSS tone. 73 de A46UNX ### 4.5.0 — 2026-05-31 Ham Satting Version 4.5.0 +45 is now live in stores This update brings reliability fixes, an expanded satellite catalogue, smoother AR Doppler, and a new way to share your passes. Satellite catalogue - 10 new satellites added: MESAT-1 (MO-122), OOV-Cube, POLYTECH-UNIVERSE-3, KUZGTU-1, COLIBRI-S, HORS 3, HORS 4, SVYATOBOR-1, MONITOR-2, RTU MIREA 1. - Frequency auto-fill expanded to 16 more satellites when you select them. - Tiangong (CSS) transponder frequencies corrected; OrigamiSat-2 renamed to FO-126. AR Doppler tracking - Corrected uplink/downlink now steps in 100 Hz for smoother, visible Doppler on low passes. - Doppler is derived from each position's exact timestamp; returning to the foreground refetches a fresh track. APRS - Fixed a crash on a second packet from an RF-only station heard without an internet gateway. - Toggling APRS off then on now reloads stations immediately. - No more lingering refresh timers when leaving the map mid-connection. SSTV decoder - Dragging the sliders quickly no longer shows a stale image - only the latest decode paints. macOS - Fixed a startup/loading issue and rewired release entitlements for location, photos, and outgoing network. Diagnostics and exports - Background network noise no longer fills your diagnostic email. - ADIF export header now reads "ADIF Export from Ham Satting". Pass prediction pages - Picking a Duration value now dismisses the dropdown right away. - NEW: Share any pass - or any scheduled notification - as an image, with times shown in UTC and the Ham Satting watermark. 73 de A46UNX ### 4.2.0 — 2026-05-18 Ham Satting update ver. 4.2.0 +42 is now Live on all Stores What new and enhanced Features: - Display Language Support. Toggling between 10 Languages that will instantly change the main display contents and labels, including the weekly Tips & Tricks Informative lessons, Exported Images will be in English only. Many Flavours are available - Reliable pass notifications. Toggling multiple pass-notification bells in quick succession used to occasionally drop one of the entries from the in-app list (the OS alarm still fired, but you couldn't see or cancel it from inside the app). The save path now serialises rapid mutations so the list always matches what's actually scheduled. - Smoother AR tracking. The AR Doppler page now skips redundant compass-driven repaints. The smooth arrow motion you see is unchanged because a dedicated 60 FPS animation timer drives it; the magnetometer just no longer triggers a full page rebuild on every micro-jitter. Lower CPU on the AR page, especially on older devices. - Faster log imports. Importing a large QSO log (e.g. cross-app from the Ham Logging companion) now uses an O(N) hash-set duplicate check instead of O(N×M) linear scans. Same dedup criteria, dramatically less wait time on 5,000+ row imports. - Diagnostic crash log (NEW). When the app catches an unexpected error during your session, a one-shot snackbar appears with an EMAIL action — tapping it opens your mail app pre-filled with a plain-text report (callsign, app version, error trace). Repeat errors stay silent for 5 minutes after the first surface so you don't get spammed. No third-party crash reporter; nothing leaves your device unless you tap EMAIL. - Cleaner error messages. Failed shares, downloads, or saves no longer leak per-install sandbox paths or URL-embedded API keys into the snackbar. Messages are sanitised to a clean prefix + the actual failure reason, capped at a readable length. - APRS map performance. The APRS packet parser now reuses pre-compiled patterns instead of allocating new ones per inbound packet. In dense APRS coverage at 5-20 packets per second, this measurably reduces CPU and battery cost when the APRS layer is active on the map. - Internal hardening. Notification IDs use a collision-resistant scheme that prevents one alarm from silently overwriting another. AMSAT-resolver fetch errors no longer expose URLs in the cached error badge. Tolerant HTTP-body decoding added across the network layer so a stray legacy byte from N2YO / aprs.fi / CelesTrak can't crash a refresh. - Build & release polish. Various build-pipeline tightening — production builds now refuse to silently sign with debug keys, app metadata corrected, and several setState-after-async races eliminated. - Find everything at https://www.Unixeer.com Lets have fun Ham Satting de Yousuf AL Balushi A46UNX ### 4.1.0 — 2026-04-30 Ham Satting Version 4.1.0 + 41 Update is now LIVE! AMSAT LIVE ACTIVITY INDICATOR (NEW) Every prediction card and notification now carries a small dot showing the satellite's activity over the last 24 hours UTC, sourced from the AMSAT Live OSCAR Satellite Status page. The dot uses the AMSAT cell palette directly so it mirrors what you see on amsat.org: blue = active (heard), purple = ISS Crew Voice, amber = telemetry/beacon only, orange = conflicting reports (with a small "?" overlay), magenta = no-signal reported, grey = no reports. A hollow ring means AMSAT does not track that bird. Tap the dot to open a themed popup: the last 48 hours of activity in a tight grid (dates header on top, services stacked on the left), tap any cell to see individual reports (callsign + Maidenhead grid + 15-min UTC slot) with a × dismiss button. AMSAT-tracked modes with no recent reports are listed below the strip so the absence of a row is never silent. A compact share button exports the popup as a themed PNG — what you see is what you share. The same compact share is available on the (i) Pass Info popup. 15-minute refresh while a prediction page is open; silent background retry on errors. NEW SATELLITES (10 with permanent NORADs) • TO-108 (CAS-6) — Linear V/u + CW beacon • GRBBeta (HA2GRB) — Slovak 2U cross-band digipeater • Foresail-1p — Aalto University Skylink digipeater • Horizon (RS59S), 239Alferov (RS61S), Luca (RS90S) — Russian Geoscan-family SSDV birds • BALKAN-1, Flamingo-1, OTP-2, T.MicroSat-1 — music-broadcast satellites NEW SERVICE — MUSIC BROADCAST A new RX-only mode for satellites that transmit short music tones as a unique RF identifier instead of CW Morse — T.MicroSat-1 actually transmits the opening notes of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" on 401.025 MHz. The AR page has a brown "Music" toggle that records the pass to a local WAV file. These satellites operate on UHF 400-402 MHz (Space Operations band, just below the 70cm amateur band) — an SDR is the typical receiver. SCHEDULED SERVICE EVENTS — generalized to 4 modes The previous SSTV Events feature is now generalized: register a temporary frequency override for SSTV, SSDV, Digital, or Weather mode. Especially useful for Roscosmos rotating Meteor-M N2-3 / N2-4 between 137.900 and 137.100 MHz, ARISS school contacts that move APRS or voice to alternate channels, or any operator-announced shift. Tap the new (i) icon next to the button for a quick reference. SERVICE ADDITIONS ON EXISTING SATELLITES • SONATE-2 — APRS digipeater (DP0SNX) on 145.825 MHz • NO-44 (PCSAT, W3ADO-1) — APRS digipeater on 145.825 MHz • IO-86 — SSDV downlink added on 145.880 MHz UI POLISH • Long satellite names like "GALAPAGOS-UTE-SWSU (HC1PX)" auto-shrink to fit one line at any Font Scale setting • Satellite filter pills always stay on a single row — chips compress instead of wrapping • (i) info icons added beside major Settings controls including Add Scheduled Event and SSTV Decoder • 25 new tips added to the in-app library (125 total) User manual updated with all the above. 73 de A46UNX ## More apps by Yousif AL Balushi - [Ham Logging](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ham-logging/id6772468054) - [Ham Learning](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ham-learning/id6782169770) - [Ham Gaming](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ham-gaming/id6782177779) All apps by Yousif AL Balushi: https://appshunter.io/developer/1855752610 ## Related topics [ham radio tools](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ham-radio-tools) · [ham radio satellite tracker](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ham-radio-satellite-tracker) · [qso](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/qso) · [ham radio reference](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ham-radio-reference) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-30.*