[amsat-bb] ISS Keplerian elements direct from NASA

[Wayne Estes]

A few months ago I was trying to help a new SatPC32 user track the ISS. 
  His prediction was way off because of a recent boost in the ISS orbit. 
  He was getting bad predictions using elements from AMSAT and 
Spacetrack.  I figured that NASA must surely be the most authoritative 
source of the ISS orbit.  I stumbled onto a NASA web page that supplies 
details of each boost and DAILY predicted ISS 2-line elements after the 
boost.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/orbit/ISS/SVPOST.html

The date is in epoch format, so you have to convert it to today's 
calendar date.  Today is 2014 day 239, which in epoch format is 
described at 14239.  Here's a link to an epoch converter:

http://www.epochconverter.com/epoch/daynumbers.php

It's kind of a nuisance to convert the date and manually copy today's 
predicted 2-line elements into your Keps file before attempting to hear 
the ISS.  But it works!

Wayne Estes W9AE
Oakland, Oregon, USA, CN83ik