[amsat-bb] How to tame gr-satellites?

[Hans BX2ABT]

I was going to write a rant about gr-satellites, but then again that 
would only help me release some of my chagrin and not help met get 
going, so instead the question in the general interes of this list......

"How can mere mortals start to get going with gr-satellites?"

Been a Linux end-user for 20 years now, so I know my way around, 
although I can not claim to be an expert. Usually with a quick search 
online I can find enough info to get going or solve a problem. Even the 
odd alteration in some source code is not something I am strange to, 
although a programmer I am not. And then there is GNU Radio.......which 
almost seems like it comes from another planet. Installing it, no 
problem with the package manager. I even had success with PyBOMBS, until 
that wasn't updated anymore. But then, once you get past the basics 
installation trouble start with OOT modules, dependencies that can't be 
met, and flow graphs that won't compile. My biggest gripe is that 
documentation is very minimalist and often tells you how, not why, which 
doesn't help you in understanding the troubles that you ran into. 
gr-satellites is a good example of that, because Daniel writes these 
bare bones flow graphs and then what? There is no view-able output, not 
many hints on what blocks do, or how to implement them if they are missing.

In short, it seems you first need a four year university course in GNU 
Radio and Python before you can start using it. That seems silly and a 
waste of resources, because even I can see the potential of GNU 
Radio/gr-satellites, especially with this new Taurus-1 sat with Codec-2 
transponder around.

So if you please, share your experience in how beginners can set up and 
use gr-satellites. What are necessary steps? What are pitfalls to avoid? 
And please also the "why", not only the "what". I guess that apart from 
me others will also be grateful for this.

On my shack computer I run the latest Kubuntu version with GNU Radio 
3.7.13.4 and I guess that is a reasonable starting point because of the 
popularity of Ubuntu and because it is Debian based. Although since a 
lot of GNU Radio needs to be compiled by hand is probably won't matter 
that much.

Reading the above it still does sound a bit like a rant, but it was not 
written as such, believe me. Cheers for the replies and 73 de Hans