Satellite tracking programs
 

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

==================

Satellite tracking programs
 

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

Satellite tracking programs
 

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

==================

Satellite tracking programs
 

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.

Satellite tracking programs
 

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

Satellite tracking programs
 

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

Satellite tracking programs
 

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

==================

Satellite tracking programs
 

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.

==================

Satellite tracking programs
 

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