[amsat-bb] Ham Radio Deluxe & satellite related topics

[Michael Carper, Ph.D.]

Ted,

Good question.  I'm not sure if they use the same protocol/calculations or
not (I'm not a developer; but I welcome anyone who wants to put.  I really
want to make sure that our positioning is dead-on with what AMSAT would
show.  My most recent test seems to indicate that it does... but we've got
some validation to do.

Candidly... once I jumped into this personally (recently), I observed
something that is clearly wrong.  No one had mentioned this to me
previously... so I documented it.

The downlink frequency seems to be accurate.  That is - as the sat is
headed towards you from AOS, the rig is tuned to an RX frequency higher
than the TX frequency of the sat and it's decreasing until TCA (where,
momentarily the rig is tuned exactly to the sat's TX/downlink frequency)...
then begins to decrease in frequency as the sat moves away towards LOS.
All that makes sense to me.

But the uplink frequency has the opposite behavior and is clearly not
correct.  That is - as the sat is headed towards you from AOS, the rig is
tuned to a TX frequency LOWER than the TX frequency of the sat and it's
increasing until TCA (where, momentarily the rig is tuned exactly to the
sat's RX/upling frequency)... then begins to increase in frequency as the
sat moves away towards LOS.  None of that makes sense to me.

As our developer says, "we can fix anything we can reproduce."  So it's
been documented.

So, to be honest, we're beginning with some fundamental things.  We believe
we have fixed the majority of the rotor control issues.  We have a time
calculation issue (related to DST that may have some timing impact; we'll
see).  And then we're going to tackle the rig control issues.  I've got an
ICOM IC-910H.  We've got an FT-991, FT-991A, and a Kenwood TS-2000.  While
this isn't every single rig that's sat capable, we should be able to shake
out the root cause of - what is exactly - 30 open defects.

For context, we've closed almost 500 defects since May of 2017.  Many of
these could have existed when we obtained the source code in 2011
(unsure).  But the rotor and satellite apps are among a small number of top
priorities for us now.

Mike, WA9PIE

On Wed, Jan 30, 2019 at 5:28 PM Ted Krempa <k7trkradio at charter.net> wrote:

> Hi Mike, I would suggest that you download and install SatPC32 (see AMSAT
> Website) and run these programs side by side (it's possible to have both
> windows open). Then compare the displayed data for el, az, altitude etc. I
> have done this test more times than I can count. The data never matches.
> The
> maps look quite close as to location on the map, but the numbers never get
> close. Maybe this is an invalid test protocol, I don't know, but the issue
> may be more for the linear sats as I have always been able to use HRD for
> the LEOs.
>
> I would be interested in comments. Is it possible that HRD and SatPC32 use
> different ways to do the job? (maybe that is why I can't find an .sqf file
> in HRD)...don't know...just need answers as HRD's graphics and ease of
> operation are way ahead of SatPC32
>
> Hoping for the best
> 73, Ted, K7TRK
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] On Behalf Of Michael
> Carper, Ph.D. via AMSAT-BB
> Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2019 10:38 PM
> To: Suryono Adisoemarta via AMSAT-BB
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Ham Radio Deluxe & satellite related topics
>
> Folks,
>
> As I've said before, we're absolutely committed to resolving all defects in
> the software and making it the best product available for satellite
> operators.
>
> I just began testing our new beta (6.5.0.188) with our Rotor Control and
> Satellite Tracking applications.  We have just made some changes to these
> apps and will continue until all reported issues are resolved.  We believe
> that the majority of the 33 Rotor Control issues will be resolved by these
> changes... which also corrects a number of items in the Satellite Tracking
> app.
>
> My test with a Portable Rotation AZ/EL controller (PR12SAT) and FT-991A
> worked as expected (with a few known issues we're working on).
>
> The rotor correctly tracked the satellite and the rig's downlink was
> correctly controlled.  There's still an issue I want resolved related to
> the Doppler frequency correction on the uplink.
>
> I have also compared the path of several key satellites in Satellite
> Tracking against the AMSAT tracking website.  I don't see any differences
> in tracking the satellite.  (I have found that the term "tracking" can
> refer to updating the rig's frequency in our Rig Control or Satellite
> Tracking app, it can refer to the Rotor Control tracking a satellite pass,
> and it can refer to the software's ability to track the path of a satellite
> during its pass.)
>
> I'm looking for feedback.  I've heard of "tracking" problems... but I'm not
> seeing these problems.  I'm happy to listen to and test any reports or
> explanations you have for this tracking problem.
>
> Mike, WA9PIE
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