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World of Ham Radio 1997
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1997-02-01
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"QUIK-KEP" KEPLERIAN ELEMENTS TRANSLATION PROGRAM
JON PEARCE, WB2MNF
Version 2.2
The QUIK-KEP program translates the text versions of the keplerian
elements as distributed by AMSAT into the format of the QUIKTRAK
3.1 program written by N4HY. It avoids the need to manually
update the elements table every time that the elements are
updated. These elements are kept in a file with the default
filename of KEPC.DAT. This program was previously called KEPLER
but was changed to QUIK-KEP to be more compatible with the
QUIKTRAK name.
Note that version 3.1 of QUIKTRAK takes a different format of
Keplerian data than earlier versions. Don't confuse the two -
using the QUIK-KEP program on earlier data files will really mess
them up.
This version of the program will retain the beacon frequency and
other data in your current KEPC.DAT file (previous versions of
QUIK-KEP did not). Thus, you no longer have to reenter this data
when you update the file. You will be asked to specify the
name of this file when you run QK.
Version 2.0 and later of the program will also allow you to use
the NASA three-line format, which is available on the ASTROFORUM
SIG in Compuserve, as well as other sources. This format is
more conducive to computer-reading, since it takes less space.
It also generally includes many more satellites, so you'll have
access to some of the visible satellites, as well as the weather
satellites and larger objects like MIR. Use whichever format is
available to you and meets your needs.
A sample of each of the files is included in the ARC
distribution file. The ELEMENTS file in the AMSAT format; the
NASAEL.310 file is in NASA format.
The program will ask you for the following file names:
1. the input file name containing the new elements,
2. the file that you want to create (default KEPC.NEW)
3. your current keplerian file (default KEPC.DAT)
4. the QTH file (default is QTHC.DAT)
You can specify these file names on the command line, as:
QUIK-KEP ELEMENTS.DAT KEPC.NEW KEPC.DAT
If you omit these on the command line you will be prompted for
them. The input file name has no default value - you must enter
it. The other two file names default to the names used above if
not entered on the command line. Thus, if you enter only the
elements file name on the command line, the program will use the
defaults for the other two file names and will not prompt you
for them. You can select the default names by simply pressing
ENTER at the prompt.
You have two options for processing keplerian data - you can
Update your current keplerian file with the data in the new
elements set, or you can Reload the entire keplerian file with
different satellites.
Update is good if you have the satellites that you want in your
current KEPC.DAT file and you just want to get the most recent
data. This will not allow you to select any new satellites - it
will read the elements set and check each satellite contained
therein to see if it's in your current list. If so, it adds it
to the new list; if not it ignores it. This happens quite
quickly - within about three seconds.
The program will then ask if the data is in the NASA or AMSAT
format. Answer N or A as appropriate. You can also Q for QUIT.
The program will then read the current keplerian file and list
all of the satellites contained therein. If you selected Reload
you will then be prompted with the name of each satellite in the
input file. If you enter a Y or y that satellite will be
written to the new file. If you press any other key that
satellite will be skipped. As you select the satellites that
are in the old keplerian file, they will be highlighted in that
list. The new list will written in the column on the right side
of the screen.
That's about it. Hope you enjoy this update - I have a couple
of other things that I'm working on to improve it.
By the way - this was written in Turbo Pascal 4.0, which is a
great improvement over 3.1. If you're interested in a neat,
inexpensive programing language, check it out.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Version 2.1 update:
At N4HY's request I have modified the QUIK-KEP program to handle
a difference between the year of the epoch date in the Keplerian
file and the year in the QTH.DAT file. The QUIKTRAK program
saves the epoch date as the number of days past the beginning of
the year in the QTH.DAT file. Thus, if the epoch date is JAN
11, the KEPC.DAT file stores it as "11".
The problem occurs when the year in the QTH file is different
than the year in the Keplerian file. Then you have to adjust
the date going into the KEPC file. For example, if the epoch
date in the Keplerian file is 1988 and the date in the QTH file
is 1987, then you have to add 365 to the days going into the
KEPC.DAT file; i.e., Jan 11 would be 371, not 11. You CAN'T go
the other way (with a 1987 element file and a 1988 date in the
QTHC.DAT file), though - QUIKTRAK can't handle it.
Anyway, Bob asked me to handle this, and so the QUIK-KEP program
will now read your QTH.DAT file (which must be in the same
directory as the QUIK-KEP program) and see what the date is, and
will automatically correct for it.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 2.2 update:
This version contains two major changes over 2.1:
1. It checks the satellite ID rather than the satellite name.
This eliminates the problem of moving between the NASA and AMSAT
element set types, and also the problem of inconsistency between
versions of the AMSAT elements. The output file (default
KEPC.NEW) will be written with the satellite names in the
original file (default KEPC.DAT) rather than the names in the
keplerian update file so as to preserve consistancy. This is
important for the Kansas City Tracker/Tuner program which keys
off of the satellite name. Allowing the name to change with
each update would mess things up.
2. This version also fills in the satellites that were in
the KEPC.DAT file but not in the update file. Thus, if you have
OSCAR 10 and OSCAR 11 in your KEPC file, but only OSCAR 11 is in
the update file, then the original elements for OSCAR 10 will be
written into the new file. Thus, you update any satellites that
are in the update file but don't lose any that aren't in the
update file.
Several other minor changes were made to the screen colors to
make it easier to see what's going on. The file name prompts
were changed such that an error is noted immediately, rather
than after you've entered all of the file names, and you're
given a chance to correct it rather than having the program
halt. It also prompts for the file containing the QTH data
(default QTHC.DAT) rather than assuming that you want to use
that file name. Note that you can press the ENTER key to select
the defaults instead of having to enter them.
Several people have suggested that I rewrite the KEPC.DAT file
(rather than KEPC.NEW) to avoid the user having to change it. I
hate to mess with a user's original file so I haven't done that.
However, you can do that yourself with a simple batch file as follows:
QK %1
COPY KEPC.NEW KEPC.DAT
which will copy the .NEW file over the .DAT file after it's done.
I don't have any other ideas for improving QK. If you think of
anything, please send me a note on packet (@ WB2MNF), Compuserve
(70206,421) or FO-12.
73 de Jon, WB2MNF