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.

Hey, it's not "short" wave, but it IS radio...and a little change of
pace challenge is always fun.

Success!

Earlier this morning (March 3), I copied the beacon packet from FASTRAC
2. It wasn't a very close pass, about 700 km at nearest approach, they
are running 1 watt and I was using a zero gain, omnidirectional antenna.

Also copied a lot of ham digipeater packet chatter from several passes
of the International Space Station, which is also on the same frequency,
145.825 MHz and apparently running a bit more power.