[amsat-bb] Re: SatPc32

[Tim - N3TL]

To WCP - can you provide a little more information?

You write, "Must be a better tracking program."   Better for what?  What is it that you're not able to do - or find unwieldy - in SatPC 32?

Here, I have installed and used SatPC 32, Orbitron, and Ham Radio Deluxe with it's Satellite Tracking module. 

I was interested in learning how all three handled computer-controlled Doppler tuning. From here, SatPC 32 is the easiest to get going for Doppler, and the easiest to fine-tune "on the fly" during a pass. HRD's Satellite Tracker is my favorite of the three, and I suspect it is nearly as easy to adjust on the fly as SatPC 32. To get it running, however, one has to launch the full HRD application; connect radio(s) to HRD; then launch the satellite tracker and connect radio(s) to it. It appears as though the software is asking the Atom processor in my netbook to use more muscle than it has, and I continue to have issues with the program locking up. I wish Simon would make it possible to ONLY launch Satellite Tracker and connect radios to it, without having them connected to HRD.

Until I got the computer and cables necessary to try computer-controlled Doppler tuning (i.e., when I just wanted to track the satellites and know when passes would include me in the footprints), I used Orbitron. I still choose it when that's all I'm interested in, and it provides an easy way to compile and print pass schedules that I find one of its most useful features. When I'm not worried about computer-controlled Doppler tuning, Orbitron is what I use.

As Mr. Gunn noted, it is free - but so is SatPC 32, if you don't mind entering coordinates every time you launch the program. HRD is free, too..

73 to all,

Tim - N3TL
Athens, Ga. - EM84ha


________________________________
From: Nigel Gunn G8IFF/W8IFF <nigel at ngunn.net>
To: WCP <wcp2 at mchsi.com>
Cc: amsat-bb at amsat.org
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 7:38:50 AM
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: SatPc32

Orbitron... it's also free.

WCP wrote:
> Thanks for help with SatPc32.............Must be a better tracking program!
> Any suggestions?

-- 
Nigel A. Gunn,  1865 El Camino Drive, Xenia, OH 45385-1115, USA.  tel +1 937 825 5032
Amateur Radio G8IFF W8IFF (was KC8NHF),  e-mail nigel at ngunn.net      www  http://www.ngunn.net
Member of  ARRL, GQRP #11396, QRPARCI #11644, SOC #548,  Flying Pigs QRP Club International #385,
            Dayton ARA #2128, AMSAT-NA LM-1691,  AMSAT-UK 0182, MKARS,  ALC, GCARES, XWARN.

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