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#1
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Hi, all,
After several years of not-so-active activity, I'm wanting to get back into satellite communications. What are the commonly used programs for tracking satellites there now? As a side note - I saw one thread from over a year ago about tracking programs from the early 80's. I remember those - and how glad we were to get them! Back in the early Oscar days (early 70's) we didn't have computers. We tracked satellites by hand on maps of the U.S. (or the world). Those of us who were broke (i.e. college students) covered the maps with Saran Wrap or similar; the more affluent had the maps under a sheet of plexiglass - both so we could write on them with wax pens then "erase" them later. Even the rudimentary text programs were great - input your lat/long and the keps and you could get a minute-by-minute azimuth and elevation to the satellite. How great it was! ![]() -- ================== Remove the "x" from my email address Jerry, AI0K ================== |
#2
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![]() In article , Jerry Stuckle wrote: After several years of not-so-active activity, I'm wanting to get back into satellite communications. What are the commonly used programs for tracking satellites there now? I suspect that for simple tracking, folks are mostly using websites. But if you want software that can also steer your antennas, AMSAT sells some. Patty N6BIS |
#3
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On 10/12/2012 1:20 PM, Patty Winter wrote:
In article , Jerry Stuckle wrote: After several years of not-so-active activity, I'm wanting to get back into satellite communications. What are the commonly used programs for tracking satellites there now? I suspect that for simple tracking, folks are mostly using websites. But if you want software that can also steer your antennas, AMSAT sells some. Patty N6BIS Hi, Patty, and thanks for the reply. I *could* do it on a website, I guess - but would just rather do it on my own laptop. I don't always have internet access when I'm looking things up, i.e. out in the field somewhere where there isn't a hotspot handy (Field Day is a great example). But if it has to be web based, I can live with it. Any recommended sites? -- ================== Remove the "x" from my email address Jerry, AI0K ================== |
#4
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Jerry Stuckle wrote:
But if it has to be web based, I can live with it. Any recommended sites? http://www.heavens-above.com/ Radio amateur satellites under Satellites provides 24 hour predictions is one. http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/ By satellite up to the next 50 passes. |
#5
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![]() In article , Jerry Stuckle wrote: [snip] I *could* do it on a website, I guess - but would just rather do it on my own laptop. I don't always have internet access when I'm looking things up, i.e. out in the field somewhere where there isn't a hotspot handy (Field Day is a great example). Okay, then you'll probably want to check out the ARRL and AMSAT websites for ideas. But if it has to be web based, I can live with it. Any recommended sites? Heavens-above.com. Patty |
#6
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In article ,
Jerry Stuckle wrote: After several years of not-so-active activity, I'm wanting to get back into satellite communications. What are the commonly used programs for tracking satellites there now? As a side note - I saw one thread from over a year ago about tracking programs from the early 80's. I remember those - and how glad we were to get them! Jerry- I recall an MS-DOS program that would display a satellite track on a map of the world. I don't remember its name, something like SATTRACK or TRACKSAT. If you can find it, it may still work under MS-DOS. I moved up to a Macintosh computer before Windows came out. There was a program called Orbitrack that worked on the Classic Mac operating systems. I don't think it displayed a map. I used it to print out azimuth and elevation of satellites, plotted each minute of a satellite pass, including whether it was visible or not. The latest Mac operating system does not support the Classic programs. Doing a web search, I found: http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Software/Satellite_tracking/ Another website that you may find interesting: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1999/ast06may99_1/ That URL appears to be old. NASA used to have a website running the JPASS and JTRACK programs, but my old links don't work any more. Fred K4DII |
#7
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On 10/12/2012 10:59 PM, Patty Winter wrote:
In article , Jerry Stuckle wrote: [snip] I *could* do it on a website, I guess - but would just rather do it on my own laptop. I don't always have internet access when I'm looking things up, i.e. out in the field somewhere where there isn't a hotspot handy (Field Day is a great example). Okay, then you'll probably want to check out the ARRL and AMSAT websites for ideas. Sorry for the delay - took off for a couple of days. I did that before I checked here. It looks like most of the programs haven't been updated in years. One I showed promise required Java 6 but I moved to Java 7 quite a while ago. But if it has to be web based, I can live with it. Any recommended sites? Heavens-above.com. Patty Thanks - didn't know about that one. -- ================== Remove the "x" from my email address Jerry Stuckle, AI0K ================== |
#8
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On 10/12/2012 11:01 PM, Fred McKenzie wrote:
In article , Jerry Stuckle wrote: After several years of not-so-active activity, I'm wanting to get back into satellite communications. What are the commonly used programs for tracking satellites there now? As a side note - I saw one thread from over a year ago about tracking programs from the early 80's. I remember those - and how glad we were to get them! Jerry- I recall an MS-DOS program that would display a satellite track on a map of the world. I don't remember its name, something like SATTRACK or TRACKSAT. If you can find it, it may still work under MS-DOS. I moved up to a Macintosh computer before Windows came out. There was a program called Orbitrack that worked on the Classic Mac operating systems. I don't think it displayed a map. I used it to print out azimuth and elevation of satellites, plotted each minute of a satellite pass, including whether it was visible or not. The latest Mac operating system does not support the Classic programs. Doing a web search, I found: http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Software/Satellite_tracking/ Another website that you may find interesting: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1999/ast06may99_1/ That URL appears to be old. NASA used to have a website running the JPASS and JTRACK programs, but my old links don't work any more. Fred K4DII Sorry for the slow response - took a couple of days off ![]() Thanks, Fred, I didn't know about the dxzone page. That's a help. And yes, I agree about the NASA site. I played with JPass many years ago - it was pretty good, especially the way it could email you when a pass was coming over. But it doesn't look like it's been updated since 1999. Thanks again - I appreciate it. -- ================== Remove the "x" from my email address Jerry Stuckle JDS Computer Training Corp. ================== |
#9
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In article ,
Jerry Stuckle wrote: After several years of not-so-active activity, I'm wanting to get back into satellite communications. What are the commonly used programs for tracking satellites there now? Jerry- I met a guy at a recent Hamfest, who suggested a Macintosh program called MacDoppler. See http://www.dogparksoftware.com/MacDoppler.html. Last night at Ham club meeting, I was shown a program called PocketSat. It is available for several devices. I think its price is a little higher than other iPhone/iPad/Android Apps, but it might be worth it if you have one of these devices. See pocketsat.com. Fred K4DII |
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