On 3/2/2011 12:56 PM, Joe from Kokomo wrote:
Anybody copy the FASTRAC 1 and 2 nanosatellites yet? (as on page 83
of the Feb 2011 QST)

They are on 145.825 MHz (and a 440 freq that escapes me at the
moment), sending a beacon with embedded telemetry data, using
conventional VHF packet protocol (AX.25).

The good news is that you can track it to see when it will be coming
over your neighborhood by downloading "Orbitron", a FREE tracking
program. The bad news is that Orbitron gets the Keplerian elements
from the Celestrak site...and Celestrak surprisingly has not yet
posted the keps for these birds. You can get the correct keps from
the FASTRACK site or amsat.org and then paste it into Orbitron.


Got the following response from Doc Kelso at Celestrak regarding the
missing keps:

The part that is missing is that the US government has decided not to
release ANY TLE data for any of the objects associated with the
STP-S26 mission, which includes the satellites you mentioned. As a
result, there is no data for them on CelesTrak.

I wonder what the big mystery is about the STP-S26 mission. It's already
been published in a national magazine (QST).

P.S. Interesting side note: these sats were put in orbit from Point
Barrow, Alaska, NOT Cape Canaveral. I didn't know they put stuff in
orbit from anywhere but Florida (or maybe Wallops Isl, VA?).