I was on the hunt for a new UHF/VHF handheld and ran into this coolness that combines KISS/TNC and *FINALLY* a blue tooth connection that sends audio/data to its app on your cell! It looks like you can control the frequencies from that app, track satellites, PTT, record voice, accept SSTV images and even looks like it has a Morse decode. Mostly, I’m interested in the satellite features which also included Doppler correction – which is insane for this price point!
What I’ve tested so far: Doppler tracking and SSTV. To access it, you go to app > UV PRO (device name up top) > Amateur Radio Satellite > select your satellite. You might also need to click the infinity icon and “Start Recording” for it to listen for images. I tried UMKA-1 (RS-40S). The RX frequency for it was empty, so I used the AMSAT page to get the SSTV frequency. Save and hit the locator icon (circle/dot). On the bottom left, click on Track and the radio will change frequency as it begins to track.
For SSTV, once the audio starts to play the image just decodes and is deposited in the Picture option in your app menu.
Extra SSTV Setup
Like UMKA-1 was missing RX frequency, some of the active SSTV seemed to be missing off the satellite list. Luckily, there’s a plus/add icon and option above the satellite list and I used it to add those missing. For that I needed to gather some info. First, a list of the active SSTV satellites from AMSAT:
1. Active list of SSTV satellites
This is also useful for the RX frequency, which you’ll also need.
2. Get NORAD ID to use in TLE web URL query
You’ll also need the TLE in a specific format (or the OK will not enable to save). For this I used CeleTrak query that looks like this:
https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gp.php?{QUERY}=FORMAT=2LE
For the {QUERY} you’ll need the NORAD ID, which you can search here: https://www.n2yo.com/database/ search by satellite name and you’ll see the NORAD ID. Copy and paste the id and you’ll get the real url. Here’s an example for ARCTICSAT1:
https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gp.php?57189=FORMAT=2LE
3. User URL to get TLE data
Go to the link and you’ll finally get the raw TLE you’ll need (again for ARCTICSAT1):
1 57189U 23091Z 26109.28461978 .00014525 00000+0 44109-3 0 9995 2 57189 97.5126 177.6655 0005907 278.1451 81.9121 15.34170173155654
I don’t know if it keeps them up to date like it does the default list of satellites.