GPS Receiver Needed on Satellite to Communicate with SatNOGS?

SatNOGS
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Hey Everyone,

I’m new to this forum and am very interested in communicating with my SmallSat using SatNOGS. I was wondering if a GPS Receiver is necessary to be on my satellite to receive telemetry from it through the network?

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Hi KnightSatClub, welcome to the SatNOGS community!

SatNOGS is receive only. SatNOGS cannot send data to your satellite.

On the other hand, you mention telemetry. Telemetry usually means data from a satellite. If you mean that your satellite is sending telemetry, then SatNOGS can probably be used to receive it.

Is your satellite already listed on satnogs DB? https://db.satnogs.org/
If yes, does it have the correct information on transmitter and decoding? If anything is lacking, see https://db.satnogs.org/faq/ for information on how to request changes, and https://wiki.satnogs.org/Adding_a_new_data_decoder for information on how to add a new decoder (if necessary).

There would not be any need to have a GPS on your satellite, as long as you abide by the terms of your frequency allocation (some allocations are limited to geographical areas and therefore require the satellite to have some means to know when it is allowed to transmit).

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No GPS receiver is required on your satellite. After it is in orbit, various institutions (as well as amateurs with the SatNogs community) will calculate a TLE set (essentially a set of numbers that describe the orbit of the satellite). With that TLE, many common satellite trackers (GPredict, SatPC32, Orbitron, Heavens Above, N2YO.com, etc) can then predict with amazing accuracy where and when the satellite will pass above the horizon of your station (and others). The TLEs are update almost daily so tracking the satellite will not be an issue. It’s essentially the one thing you won’t have to do! Good luck!

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Rephrasing for accuracy:
SatNOGS Network is currently (2020 March) reception only. SatNOGS Client does have uplink capabilities to varying degrees and has been used like this in that past. it’s just that this is not currently and exposed functionality to the network.

Rephrasing for clarification here too:
"Contributors to the SatNOGS community. That includes amateurs, professionals, paid and volunteer members too.

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Oops, forgive me for that. I sometimes associate SatNogs as a purely “amateur radio” endeavor and that is certainly not the case. Appreciate the correction!

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Thanks everyone for your responses!