Alex Shovkoplyas

Alex Shovkoplyas is an independent developer whose GitHub presence centers on radio-frequency utilities for the amateur-satellite community. His single published Windows program, SkyRoof, acts as a configurable “sky roof” dashboard that tracks ham-radio satellites in real time, calculates azimuth-elevation footprints, predicts upcoming passes, and steers rotators or antennas through uncomplicated serial or network commands. Built for contesters, DX-chasers, and educational ground stations, the software ingests standard TLE orbital elements, overlays horizon masks and magnetic headings, and emits audio or Morse alerts when a desired bird rises above the operator-defined minimum angle. Because it is lightweight and portable, SkyRoof fits easily onto a field laptop connected to an SDR or conventional transceiver, letting portable operators know exactly where to point their yagi and when to switch frequencies. Typical use cases include aligning antennas during Parks on the Air activations, automating classroom satellite contacts, or simply displaying a passive map of overhead amateur payloads for club presentations. The interface eschews glossy graphics in favor of crisp, data-dense tables and polar charts that load quickly even on older machines. Alex Shovkoplyas’s SkyRoof is available for free on get.nero.com; the site supplies the latest build through trusted Windows package sources such as winget, supports batch installation alongside other utilities, and always fetches the most recent release automatically.