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Text File | 1988-05-21 | 18KB | 360 lines

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ SUN OUTAGE FINDER ║ ║ ║ ║ Satellite Dish Utility ║ ║ ║ ║ Version 3.32 ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ U S E R ' S G U I D E ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ (c) 1988, Warren Small ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ SUN OUTAGE FINDER 3.32 May 1988 BACKGROUND: This program was originally written by John Andrews, 72456,1610, in AppleSoft in 1986. About a year later, Jim Goodrich, 76067,2554, converted the program to IBM Basic. Then I finally got hold of it and decided to spruce things up a bit, speed it up, and make the whole thing easier to use. This is the product of my efforts, written in Turbo Basic. The keyboard input routines were provided by Ed Juaire with slight modifications for this particular application. But enough of the history lesson, let's get on with explaining what might need explaining... PURPOSE: During the late winter and early fall, the sun will line up with the arc of geosynchronous satellites and overpower their signal for a short period of time since the sun, besides broadcasting heat, is a very powerful broadband transmitter. This program predicts accurately when these interruptions will occur, for how long, and how bad they will be. For radio and TV stations, SUNOUT will help you plan around these gaps in programming. For the rest of you, you will have piece of mind knowing that there is nothing wrong with your set... FEATURES: - Turbo Basic speed and support for the 80x87 math co-processor - easy to use, single key commands - option to search for outages, beginning at a date you select - satellite dish information for any number of dish location/satellite combinations can be stored on disk for instant retrieval. A default file can be set up for automatic loading when you start the program. - report can be printed on virtually any printer or to a disk file for later printing. SUNOUT TUTORIAL: The first time you start SUNOUT, after the "credits" are displayed, you will see a fairly blank looking screen (Fig. 1). The top portion of the screen will contain the data you supply for your dish and the satellite you are looking at. Once you have setup a default file, this info will be loaded automatically when you start SUNOUT. The bottom portion is used for calculated data. SUNOUT 3.32 - 1 - ╔═════════════════════════ SUN OUTAGE FINDER 3.32 ═══════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ STATION: DATE: 05/18/1988 ║ ║ ║ ║ DISH LATITUDE: °'" DISH LONGITUDE: °'" ║ ║ ║ ║ SATELLITE IS: SAT. LONGITUDE: ° ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╟────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╢ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ <S>tation <D>ate Dish <L>ocation nfo on Satellite <M>ore F_i_g_u_r_e_ _1_ At the bottom is a line showing your options. Press the key indicated by the '< >' for each function. Now let's fill in the screen! <S>tation: For your call letters. Not necessary for the program, but it's useful for you group engineers in keeping track of which dish is where. <D>ate: The date you wish to start looking for outages. When the program starts, it will load today's date. Although any date can be entered, SUNOUT will not waste any time with dates outside of February 1 thru April 1 and September 1 thru November 1. Dish <L>ocation: The latitude and longitude for your dish installation. Fill in the degrees, minutes and seconds fields completely, with leading zeroes if necessary. nfo on Satellite: The satellite name (not necessary, but, as with your call letters, you will be able to identify the file you are using easier.) and its longitude in degrees. Having entered all that, you should now see the figures for the satellite's position in the sky in the upper portion of the display. This is expressed as Azimuth, in degrees from True North, and Elevation, in degrees above the horizon (Fig. 2). Hopefully, your dish is pointed that way! <M>ore brings you to the next set of functions... SUNOUT 3.32 - 2 - ╔═════════════════════════ SUN OUTAGE FINDER 3.32 ═══════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ STATION: WGIR DATE: 02/27/1988 ║ ║ ║ ║ DISH LATITUDE: 43°00'57" DISH LONGITUDE: 71°28'48" ║ ║ ║ ║ SATELLITE IS: SATCOM 1R SAT. LONGITUDE: 139° ║ ║ ║ ║ SAT. AZIMUTH: 254.2° SAT. ELEVATION: 7.6° ║ ╟────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╢ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ <C>alc <L>oad/<S>ave Values revious Menu <Q>uit F_i_g_u_r_e_ _2_ Figure 2 shows the screen filled in with our satellite and dish info and now we are ready for... <C>alc: This function will get you started calculating your outages. It will display 2 options... <A>bove Date: Calculate any outage that would occur on the date shown at the top of the screen. If no outage will happen, you are then given the option to return to the main menu. <F>rom Above Date: Calculate outages starting at the date specified and continue until all outages have be found or the outage dates exceeded. You will then be asked what time zone you are in. The valid responses are displayed. Now SUNOUT begins its number crunching. "Calculating" will appear at the bottom of the screen and you will see the date change at the top if you selected <F>rom. Figure 3 is what would be displayed if you used the info shown in Figure 2. Obviously, using your own location information will give you different results... SUNOUT 3.32 - 3 - ╔═════════════════════════ SUN OUTAGE FINDER 3.32 ═══════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ STATION: WGIR DATE: 02/27/1988 ║ ║ ║ ║ DISH LATITUDE: 43°00'57" DISH LONGITUDE: 71°28'48" ║ ║ ║ ║ SATELLITE IS: SATCOM 1R SAT. LONGITUDE: 139° ║ ║ ║ ║ SAT. AZIMUTH: 254.2° SAT. ELEVATION: 7.6° ║ ╟────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╢ ║ EST OUTAGE WINDOW WORST PERIOD MINIMUM ║ ║ DATE BEGIN END EFFECT BEGIN END SEPARATION TIME ║ ║ 02/27/1988 16:50 16:58 MILD 16:50 16:58 2.2456 16:54 ║ ║ 02/28/1988 16:47 17:01 MODERATE 16:52 16:55 1.8668 16:53 ║ ║ 02/29/1988 16:46 17:02 MODERATE 16:49 16:58 1.4840 16:53 ║ ║ 03/01/1988 16:44 17:02 SEVERE! 16:52 16:55 1.1020 16:53 ║ ║ 03/02/1988 16:44 17:03 SEVERE! 16:49 16:57 0.7221 16:53 ║ ║ 03/03/1988 16:43 17:03 SEVERE! 16:48 16:58 0.3534 16:52 ║ ║ 03/04/1988 16:43 17:03 SEVERE! 16:48 16:58 0.0837 16:52 ║ ║ 03/05/1988 16:43 17:02 SEVERE! 16:48 16:57 0.4436 16:52 ║ ║ 03/06/1988 16:43 17:02 SEVERE! 16:49 16:56 0.8363 16:52 ║ ║ 03/07/1988 16:43 17:01 MODERATE 16:46 16:58 1.2323 16:51 ║ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ <M>ore rint Report <R>eturn to Menu F_i_g_u_r_e_ _3_ In this display, the OUTAGE WINDOW shows the time period during which the sun is less than 2.5 degrees away from the satellite. The EFFECT ranges from MILD which may not bother your receiver, to MODERATE with which you can have some noticeable degradation, to SEVERE! which probably means loss of signal. WORST PERIOD is the time period during which the EFFECT will be noticed. For MILD, these times will be the same as the OUTAGE WINDOW. The MINIMUM SEPARATION is expressed in decimal degrees and TIME is when the MINIMUM SEPARATION will occur. At this point you are greeted with a new set of options... <M>ore: This simply means there wasn't room to show all the results. When the calculatins are complete, the first 10 are displayed. <M>ore will show you the last 10. If there are 13 total outages, you will see the 4th through the 13th. Pressing 'M' again will redisplay the first 10. rint: Two more options (decisions, decisions...) are revealed for directing output. rinter: The ouput will go to LPT1: and contain the header info from the top portion of the screen and all calculated outages, not just the 10 displayed. The output is generic and should work with any printer. SUNOUT 3.32 - 4 - <F>ile: The file created is identical to the printed output. You will be prompted for a file name, 8 characters only. The extension .PRN will be added for you.If any files exist their names will be displayed. If you choose one of the displayed names, you will be given the chance to overwrite it or choose another name. <R>eturn to Menu... Now let's go back to the first menu and save the satellite information for future use. (Press 'R'.) Press 'M' to see the last of SUNOUT's functions and refer to Figure 2 for the following: <L>oad/<S>ave Values: These functions allow you to save your input info for loading next time you run SUNOUT. Your two options are: <D>efault: To load or save the info that is loaded automatically each time SUNOUT is started. It is stored under the file name SATDEFLT.SOF in your current directory. <O>ther: To load or save any other files you might have. As with the print files, you will be given a list of the files found on the disk and prompted for an 8 character name. The extension .SOF will be added for you. revious Menu: If you can't figure that out... <Q>uit: Leave SUNOUT. IN CLOSING: I'm sure you will find this program useful. If you have any problems or suggestions, I can be reached through CompuServe's BPForum. I do check in somewhat frequently but if you wish to be sure to get my attention, use EasyPlex. Warren Small 71076,407 SUNOUT 3.32 - 5 -