Show HN: EZ-TRAK Satellite Hand Tracking Suite

35 benbojangles 5 5/4/2025, 4:10:41 PM github.com ↗
EZ-TRAK is a comprehensive satellite tracking suite designed for amateur radio operators, weather satellite enthusiasts, and educational purposes. The software interfaces with an EZ-TRAK BLE device which is mounted to a lightweight foldable portable satellite dish antenna to hand track satellites in real-time, providing azimuth and elevation data for optimal antenna positioning.

Comments (5)

ooterness · 6h ago
When you say "hand track", you're not kidding.

I was expecting something with motors controlled by a person, but this is literally picking up the dish and pointing it by muscle power.

Back of envelope, a 1 meter parabolic antenna at 1.7 GHz gives about 12 degree beam width (FWHM), which is what makes this practical. Very clever.

Liftyee · 5h ago
Neat project! I've always wanted to try downlinking data from satellites because it just seems like magic. I wonder what sort of reactions you'd get from setting this up in a backpack/cyberdeck and walking around pointing a satellite dish at the sky.
wkat4242 · 5h ago
Really cool project! What kind of foldable dish do you use?
benbojangles · 5h ago
it's called a farabrella kinda a diy thing made from faraday fabric weighs about 350gr for a 1m diameter dish. They are available on ebay.
wkat4242 · 5h ago
Thanks I'll check it out!