OrbitDeck for iOS

A comprehensive amateur-radio satellite tracker for iPhone and iPad — passes, Doppler, look angles, link budgets, orbital analysis, live space weather, and classic OSCARLOCATOR overlays.

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Everything the satellite operator needs

OrbitDeck computes passes, Doppler, footprints, and link budgets from live orbital elements, and runs natively on both iPhone and iPad. It is a companion to the OrbitDeck desktop app and CardSat by Paul Stoetzer, N8HM.

Track & predict

  • Live look angles, range, range-rate, sub-point and footprint
  • Next-pass predictions with quality scoring and elevation profiles
  • Daily schedule of every favorite's passes by day, ordered by AOS
  • Multi-day pass progression and a full ground-track map
  • All-sky radar of every favorite at once
  • 3D globe with animation and a polar sky plot with AOS/LOS and direction-of-travel arrows

Work the birds

  • Four-dial DX Doppler and a single-station Doppler playbook
  • Per-satellite calibration shared across every Doppler screen, with a bulk Calibrations editor and CSV import/export
  • Link budget with a per-elevation margin curve
  • SatNOGS transponder database, two-way transponders listed first
  • AO-7 A/B mode timer and mutual-visibility windows with paired sky plots

Plan & analyze

  • Orbital analysis: elements, J2 nodal/apsidal rates, beta angle, eclipse fraction, LTAN
  • Equator crossings, Sun/Moon transits, illumination and orbital zones
  • Conjunction awareness and workable-grid discovery
  • State-vector → GP element recovery (TEME or J2000 input) with export

Station & grid squares

  • Set your station as a fixed site or follow the device's current location
  • Enter a location by latitude/longitude or by Maidenhead grid square
  • Save secondary sites, including from your current GPS position
  • VUCC grid-line and corner recognition per ARRL rules — every claimable grid shown
  • Live Grid Finder that guides you onto a grid line or corner with a compass arrow

Propagation & space weather

  • MUF / HF path tool and a 6 m / HF operating outlook
  • Live NOAA space weather: solar flux, sunspot number, planetary Kp and A index
  • Aurora likelihood and geomagnetic condition summaries

Classic OSCARLOCATOR

  • On-screen simulator (polar and QTH-centered) with minute-tick ground tracks
  • Printable OSCARLOCATOR overlays — base map, range circle and path arc
  • Reference Orbits schedule

Bench tools

  • 60+ calculators for antennas, feedline, RF, link and orbits
  • Receipt-tape scientific calculator with RF/orbit functions and metric prefixes
  • Graphing calculator with trace, roots, integral, table and CSV export
  • Maidenhead grid ↔ lat/lon converter, Tiny BASIC, DXCC lookup

Data, offline & export

  • Elements from CelesTrak and AMSAT, refreshed automatically
  • Respects CelesTrak's usage policy so you won't be rate-limited
  • Cached data keeps core features working offline
  • PDF and CSV/XLSX exports for passes, sites and overlays

Requirements

OrbitDeck runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 17 or later. An internet connection is used to download orbital elements and space-weather data; once cached, core tracking works offline.

Please support AMSAT — the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation — which builds and operates many of the satellites OrbitDeck is made to track.