[amsat-bb] Automatic GS Tracking Satellites Software

[Tanan Rangseeprom]

Dear friend or member of AMSAT,

The Radio Amateur Society of Thailand under the patronage of His Majesty
the King (RAST) has received support and funding for the JAISAT-1 project
from Thailand's regulator, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications
Commission from its Fund for the Research and Development of Broadcasting,
Television and Telecommunications for Public Benefit - BTFP.

Construction of the Linear Transponder has been completed and this module
is now in the process of construction and assembly by Innovative Solutions
in Space (ISIS) in the Netherlands. The society has also received
permission from the NBTC to set up a Ground Station (GS) with the callsign
HS0AJ together with funding to purchase an Icom IC-9100 transceiver, a
G5500 rotor together with computer equipment to be used at the GS HS0AJ and
this has now been set up and completed.

However, we have encountered problems in finding an appropriate program for
automatic tracking of the satellite. We have installed the Ham Radio Deluxe
program on the Windows 10 operating system on the computer but we have
encountered many problems such as the IC-9100 driver being unable to
communicate with the computer while the Ham Radio Deluxe program has been
unable to control or send commands to the Fox Delta Antenna Rotor Control.

The primary purpose of the HS0AJ ground station is to track all amateur
radio satellites that pass over Thailand in all modes by setting up a
tracking schedule plan for automatic tracking on a daily or weekly basis.
Our goal is to forward the audio of satellite signals from the Icom IC-9100
as they pass over Thailand to the RAST website to enable Thai amateur radio
operators to monitor these signals online in RAST website and Echolink
program.

RAST would like to seek advice from our AMSAT friends worldwide regarding
any recommendations of a automated satellite tracking program suitable for
the objectives of our ground station.

Thanking you in advance and with respect,

Tanan Rangseeprom,
JAISAT Project Manager