Re: Predict 2.1.5

From: Riley Williams (zzrcumvn@nsab.se)
Date: Sun Apr 21 2002 - 01:25:41 EEST

  • Next message: John A. Magliacane: "Re: Predict 2.1.5"

    Hi Jonathan.

    > I downloaded Predict 2.1.5 today to have a look at an alternative to
    > my own mtrack program (shameless plug). In many ways it is excellent
    > and does things that my own program does not do, however as an
    > active AO-40 user I have to say that there a few things that the
    > program needs in order to satisfy a phase 3 user:

    Here's my comments on yours...

    > 1. Satellite attitude, known as ALON/ALAT and is extremely important
    > with predicting usability of the satellite. The antenna
    > off-pointing is a very serious business.

    Very true, and that's something that needs adding to the calculation
    engine itself if I understand it correctly.

    > 2. Doppler shift on other than 2m and 70cms. AO-40 uses 2401 MHz for
    > the downlink and uplinks are on 435 MHz and 1269 MHz. Also there
    > is a downlink on 24 GHz where the doppler is not inconsequential
    > and signals are weak.

    That's a function of the display programs, and the current aim is to
    make the prediction engine a separate server from the display server,
    although there are certain problems with doing that.

    The prediction engine supplies the normalised doppler for a 100 MHz
    signal, and it is the job of the display programs to convert that to the
    desired frequency before displaying it.

    > 3. Modes. The program displays the MA in the 0-255 fashion, but it
    > would also be nice to program modes so that you can see at a
    > glance which is in operation. Some satellites (Fuji series) base
    > mode selection on the day of the week instead.

    Three comments regarding this:

     1. The program displays the MA in both 0-255 and 0-359 fashion at
        the moment. You appear to have overlooked that.

     2. Whilst display of the current mode would be useful, the details
        of the parameters for the various modes just aren't included in
        the TLE's themselves, and as far as I am aware, there is no
        standardised format and site from which suchlike information
        could be automatically downloaded.

     3. When the information has to be entered by the user, one has to
        assume that the user already knows the information before they
        enter it in to the system.

    Best wishes from Riley.

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