[amsat-bb] Graphical satellite calendar

[John Mock]

Here's a work in progress:

    http://www.qsl.net/kd6pag/Sep2006.gif

This shows graphically when passes for SO-50 and AO-51 occur at my QTH for
the month of September.  Each row corresponds to a day, each square is an
hour, and the colored rectangles inside a square (or two) represent a given
pass, with the color corresponding to the satellite listed in the legend.

The height of the rectangle corresponds to the maximum elevation of the pass.  
If a rectangle is at the top of a square, then it's largely an eastern pass, 
and if at the bottom of a square, then it's a western pass.  If it's not
quite at the top or bottom, then the maximum elevation is not exactly in
the east or west; for example, if AOS is in the north and LOS is in the 
east (instead of the south).

So one can quickly glance at the graphical calendar and see which are good
passes to try to work in the next few days.   It may also be helpful for
rovers when planning trips, to maximize the number of passes while in a
given area.  Spouses who might not be able to read satellite predictions
could look at the graph and have an idea of when you might want to be busy.

So far, the predictions are generated using LINUX SatTrack (perhaps edited 
by hand, for example, to account for AO-51's schedule) and fed into a Perl 
program which produces the .gif files.  Eventually, i'll probably make it 
CGI accessible if folks find it useful.

Let me know what you think.  73's and good luck.

		         -- KD6PAG  (Networking Old-Timer, Satellite QRPer)