---
title: "A Satellite Station"
type: "article"
slug: "a-satellite-station"
url: "http://localhost/article/a-satellite-station/"
markdown_url: "http://localhost/article/a-satellite-station.md"
published_at: "2026-07-12T23:28:53+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-07-12T23:32:15+00:00"
featured_image:
  url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20230809-041332.jpg"
excerpt: "A few years ago I had trouble understanding why hams were putting computers in their shacks. The darn things made a lot of noise and as far as I could see didn't have a thing to do with radio communications. Then an article in ORBIT magazine offered to help me plot satellite orbits and with…"
category:
  - name: "QZX"
    slug: "qzx"
    taxonomy: "category"
    url: "http://localhost/category/periodicals/qzx/"
indiv:
  - name: "Kit Kohlmoos (W6ISO)"
    slug: "kit-kohlmoos-w6iso"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/kit-kohlmoos-w6iso/"
genre:
  - name: "Ham Radio"
    slug: "ham-radio"
    taxonomy: "genre"
    url: "http://localhost/type/ham-radio/"
publication: "QZX"
publication_r:
  id: 21219
  title: "QZX"
  type: "periodical"
  url: "http://localhost/periodical/qzx/"
authors_r:
  - name: "Kit Kohlmoos (W6ISO)"
    slug: "kit-kohlmoos-w6iso"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/kit-kohlmoos-w6iso/"
volume: "6"
issue: "1"
issues_articles:
  - id: 70102
    title: "QZX v6 n1"
    type: "issue"
    url: "http://localhost/issue/qzx-v1-n1/"
pages: "6-7"
pubdate: "December 1987"
archive_link: false
---

A few years ago I had trouble understanding why hams were putting computers in their shacks. The darn things made a lot of noise and as far as I could see didn’t have a thing to do with radio communications. Then an article in ORBIT magazine offered to help me plot satellite orbits and with the promise of a very useful bird about to be launched, phase 3В, I thought I’d better see if there was really something that a computer could bе used for. The TS1000 was making a big splash at the time and AMSAT was offering software for it that would tell me where and when I should expect to be able to hook up with DX via satellite.