[amsat-bb] Re: Help with SATPC32 (maybe groups) please

[Burns Fisher]

Thanks to everyone...I've gotten a lot of help from many people, including
Erich Eichmann the author.  I thought it would be nice close of this thread
with the model I now have in my head, confirmed by Erich.

Here is what I think I really missed:  There is *always* a SatPC32 group
active, and it is the group that defines which satellites are chosen for
display in the ABC buttons.  You could have multiple SatPC32 groups
associated with the same data file, but each with different satellites
chosen, if that is what you wanted.  Then you select a different group to
get the different configuration.  But (the key to me) is that you can not
use a group to chose satellites from multiple different data files at the
same time.  And you don't really chose a data file for display without it
being associated with a group.

Erich also pointed out to me that there are 4 different configurations
(chosen by setup) which essentially multiply by 4 the number of different
groups that are available.

Thanks again to everyone.  And in case anyone missed it, AO-73 (named DNEPR
OBJECT AE - As in 'the AE35 unit') is now in Celestrak's amateur.txt and
also in 'nasa.all' which SatPC32 sources from AMSAT.

("HAL <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0706937/?ref_=tt_trv_qu>: I've just
picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure in 72
hours.")

73,

Burns W2BFJ


On Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 6:08 PM, Burns Fisher <burns at fisher.cc> wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
> I've used SatPC32 for a number of years, but I have been using it in
> "simpleton" mode, it would seem.  Now that AO-73 is in the "cubesat.txt"
> keps file rather than amateur, I apparently have to take the next step in
> my education about this program.
>
> Here the current general question:  How do "groups" work.  I have googled,
> and the term seems to be used both for Celestrak groups and for the groups
> in SatPC32 (e.g. Diverse, Standard, etc).  I mean the SatPC32 groups.  What
> I want to do is to have a number of satellites selectable with the A,B,C...
> buttons in the lower right.  But right now, I have to pull down the
> satellites menu and select "cubesat.txt" to get AO-73 and "amateur.txt" to
> get, say, VO-52 and SO-50.  And whenever I switch to a new keps file, all
> the satellites I have selected as current for the previous file disappear
> from the right column.
>
> Somehow, I suspect that 'groups' are the answer to this, but I can never
> get the "edit" function under groups to do anything terribly useful.  It
> looks like I can edit "standard", for example, so that if selected, it uses
> the satellites selected from amateur.txt or cubesat.txt but not both.
>
> Ok, so when I get into a pickle like this, it is usually because I don't
> understand the concept or the model that the program is using.  So rather
> than (or as well as) "click x, select y, edit xxx.txt" the kind of help I
> hope I can get would be include "how are groups supposed to be used?"  And
> by the way, I have read the manual, and it again seems to assume that I
> know what groups are supposed to be.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Burns, W2BFJ
>