By the way, the free version of STK includes a ton of features (although I haven't tested the free version to confirm if they are all still there). Maybe it does what you are looking for? blogs.agi.com/agi/2012/10/01/…
Unfortunately I don't know of anything something more than a spreadsheet but less than STK (besides a temporary evaluation license, or the free version of STK). It sounds like some of the folks here had some advice for you on that topic.
If you're interested in including atmospheric effects, there is a free DLL that is fully compatible with Excel/Matlab that implements the guidelines in ITU-R P models (the exact same ones people pay for in STK). The instructions for setup are here: logiciels.cnes.fr/sites/default/files/usermanual.pdf
You could also compute time when the satellite would be available to the ground station, but I didn't need to do this so I'm not sure how hard it would be.
Go to page 110 of the book (65 of the pdf). If you know the location of the satellite in the orbit, you can calculate the look angle of the ground station to/from the satellite using the equations in 5-14. This is pretty simple for circular orbits, and still possible for elliptic orbits.
Sorry for not checking in for a while. Busy with work. Here are a few more details of what I was able to do. So we're on the same page, lets use this version of SMAD: deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/I/Papers/DamianPapers/SMAD.pdf
