[amsat-bb] Ham Radio Deluxe Satellite app

[Michael Carper, Ph.D.]

Greetings all...

I'm glad to accept the invitation to participate in this email reflector.

I want to say a few words about our intentions regarding the Satellite
tracking app in Ham Radio Deluxe.

To recap, in brief, for those who haven't followed the path of Ham Radio
Deluxe...


Ham Radio Deluxe was developed by Simon Brown in the early 2000's... pretty
much as an experiment or hobby.  By 2010, there were over 100,000
registered users using the software for free... but Simon wanted to move on
to other interests.  By the end of 2011, Internet posts were full of
"R.I.P" postings and no real development had been done for more than a year.

I was looking to move off of an old logging program (Log Windows) and Ham
Radio Deluxe looked interesting, but it lacked serious capabilities that
DXers need.  After contacting Simon and much convincing, I talked him into
selling me the source code and the rights to Ham Radio Deluxe (past,
present, and future).  But I'm not a developer... and I needed one.  I
partnered with two other people (Rick and Randy).  Rick and Erik did the
development through the end of 2016.  And while Randy and I continued with
our "day jobs", Rick was appointed "managing partner" and ran the company
until 1/1/2017 when he left and Randy and I assumed full and equal control
of the company.

The reason I point this out is this:  Since Randy and I took control of the
company on 1/1/2017, we brought in a fantastic developer who whipped
through 150 items in the product backlog and we had 10 releases in 2017.
Much progress was made.  However, this developer decided to move on to
other things.  At the end of last fall, we added a new developer and  he's
doing a fine job (though he's not a ham).


To the present...

It's clear that Ham Radio Deluxe has become too large for a single
developer.  It's not fair to expect a single developer to tend five
applications.  And while Rig Control, Logbook, and DM-780 account for about
80% of the requested fixes and features... it tends to "drown-out" the
other applications - Satellite Tracking, Rotor Control, and Mapper.

Make no mistake - I'm committed to ALL the applications in the Ham Radio
Deluxe suite.

In the past few weeks, I have begun on-boarding two additional developers.
It's my intention to on-board one or two more over the next few weeks.

My plan is to have a primary developer for each of the applications.  Given
that there's no better time to focus on satellite work than during a
sunspot low (me included)... we will absolutely give the Satellite app the
time it deserves.

I'm actually feeling pretty good about the progress we made in 2017.  But
there's a whole lot more to do.

If there's a developer among you who would like to jump in (and get paid)
to work on the Satellite app... by all means, contact me directly and I'll
give you the keys.  I absolutely want this app to be the very best
satellite app available for hams.  (Significant and demonstrated experience
with Visual Studio, C++, MFC is required.  Able to work and make progress
independently - because I've got a day-job that still requires 60 hrs a
week.)

But yes - I'm aware that we've got work to do here and I'm absolutely
committed to getting it done.

We'll be at the Orlando Hamcation this weekend... come see us if you're in
the area!

Mike, WA9PIE