How to Check Overlapping Passes of Satellites Using SatMatch

How to Check Overlapping Passes of Satellites Using SatMatch

Suppose you have a friend located somewhat away from and you wish to have a satellite contact with him. There is a way to check which satellite passes are likely to overlap between your grid squares in advance. This knowledge will help you to fix up a sked and have contact on that particular satellite. This service from SatMatch is quite simple to use. You can find the grid square of your friend from qrz.com in the ‘Detail’ tab of his callsign record. Basic minimum information to be submitted are the satellite name, Grid 1, which is the Western Grid and Grid 2, which is the Eastern Grid.

There are additional options like altitude and horizon, which may not be available easily and hence I have not used them. Once you submit the details, overlapping passes for the next 24 hours will be displayed. There is also provision to get multiple previous 24 hours and future 24 hours passes. Overlap between the passes is also shown. When the link on the displayed pass time is clicked, sky charts with direction of the pass in each location will be displayed. This information is quite useful for the two operators to fix up a schedule in advance and have a succesful contact at a convenient time.