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FBSAT59 - Amateur Satellite Tracking & Communication Software

Welcome to FBSAT59, a modern open-source application for amateur satellite tracking and communication. Track satellites in real-time, control your radio equipment, receive amateur radio communications, and monitor satellite telemetry from your desktop or mobile device.

Key Features

  • Real-time satellite tracking — position and pass predictions computed with Skyfield
  • Built-in Hamlib rig control — Direct (CAT) or NET (rigctld-compatible) per rig, plus rotator control
  • Communications suite — APRS, Telemetry, FT4, Q65, CW, SSTV/SSDV, AX100 Digi, METEOR/HRPT
  • SatNOGS telemetry upload — decoded frames can be forwarded to the SatNOGS DB
  • Web interface — watch a pass and connect the rig from a phone on the same LAN
  • Automatic TLE updates — six CelesTrak group feeds plus per-satellite SatNOGS lookup
  • Transmitter database — SatNOGS sync with local add/edit/override
  • Cross-platform — Linux (AppImage), Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon)

Getting Started

Choose your starting point:

Topic Links
New here Installation → Getting Started
User Guide Setup, Satellite Tracking, Radio Control, Communications, Web Interface, Configuration
Stuck? Troubleshooting
Integration API Reference

Screenshots

Main Dashboard

FBSAT59 Dashboard - Real-time Satellite Tracking

Communications Modes

APRS Reception FT4 Digital Mode

CW Decoder Telemetry Decoding

System requirements

  • Linux — x86-64, a reasonably modern distribution (AppImage)
  • Windows — 8.1 or later (10/11 recommended)
  • macOS — Apple Silicon (M-series)
  • A dual-core CPU, ~2 GB RAM and a few hundred MB of disk are plenty; an SDR and its wideband processing benefit from more.

Project status

Version: 0.3.76 · License: GPL-2.0 · Actively developed

  • GitHub: https://github.com/JF9SOM/fbsat59
  • Issues & Bug Reports: https://github.com/JF9SOM/fbsat59/issues
  • Discussions: https://github.com/JF9SOM/fbsat59/discussions

Language

This documentation is available in:

  • English — Primary documentation
  • 日本語 — Japanese translation (select from language menu)

FBSAT59 is maintained by JF9SOM. For support, please visit the GitHub repository or contact the community.