Catalog

Every entry below is a concrete way to interact with satellites, radio telescopes, or spacecraft as a hobbyist — listening to a signal, driving a remote instrument, joining a ground-station network, pulling open data, or contributing compute to citizen science. They range from free, browser-only tools you can use in the next five minutes to institutional ground stations you'll never realistically book — and the catalog is honest about which is which.

Each card is tagged so you can filter to exactly what fits your budget, legal situation, and skill level. Receive-only entries need no license anywhere; anything that transmits does. Click any card for the full detail, cost breakdown, and source links.

The seven categories

    How to read the tags
    • Free / Paid / Mixed — what it costs to get started.
    • RX only = receive only (no license needed) · TX / RX/TX = transmits (license required) · Data/SW = data or software, no radio.
    • License — a transmit license is required to use it as intended.
    • API — exposes a public/programmable API.
    • Beginner / Intermediate / Advanced — barrier to entry.
    • ● Live / ⚠ Caveat / ⚠ Retired / ⚠ Hibernating — current operational status. Caveats are surfaced, never buried.
    Toggle filters