[amsat-bb] Hand-Drawn "Radar" Plots

[David Palmer KB5WIA]

Hi Everyone,

I've finally had time to write up a short article about a technique I
use when operating the satellites portable -- hand-drawn "radar"
plots.

Normally I use a netbook computer running HRD software to show the
position of the satellite in the sky in real-time, but there have been
occasions when I haven't been able to have the netbook with me.  These
hand-drawn plots are just the ticket -- it converts a line in the
table of numbers from sat prediction software (ie. a print-out of a
week's worth of passes from SatPC32, or a print-out from the
http://amsat.org satellite tracking module) to a crude radar plot good
enough to track the sat pass.  Before leaving on a sat-portable road
trip, I'll always bring a long printout of passes just in case the
computer goes dead, so I'm not stuck without any ability to track.

(Yes, I know there are smartphone apps that will do the same thing,
but I don't have a smartphone!)

(And yes, many of you probably already do the same, but up until now I
haven't seen any references for how to do this...)

http://kb5wia.blogspot.com/2011/12/manual-radar-plots.html


73 and Happy Holidays!

Dave KB5WIA