SATRA - SAtellite TRAcking -------------------------- by Jari Salminen, OH2BYQ V1.0 June 5, 1989 I started writing SATRA as my first Windows application about two years ago. Since then it has been rewritten twice or three times as my knowledge about Windows has grown. It's quite well behaving now, but like in all good projects there is still lots to do. You can distribute and copy SATRA to NON COMMERCIAL purposes only in good ham spirit. If you want to contact me, try one of the following address: - Jari Salminen Kontulankaari 11 H 247 SF-00940 HELSINKI FINLAND, EUROPE - USENET: jsa@otax.tky.hut.fi General information about using SATRA ------------------------------------- SATRA requires MS-Windows 2.0 or better. Mouse is not requiered. Use of math-coprocessor recommended, but not requiered. Files needed: SATRA.EXE - the program SATRA.QTH - QTH information SATRA.SAT - satellite information SATRA.MOD - optional mode information for satellites WIN87EM.EXE - Windows floating point emulator library SATRA uses coordinates in range: Longitude -180..180, Latitude -90..90. Satellite information is shown in the bottom are of the window after the satellite is selected by clicking the satellite on the screen with mouse or using 'TAB' to scroll through satellites. When satellite is seleted, its name on map is inverted. When satellite is visible in your QTH, there is a little '+' character instead of square on the left side of satellite name and the name is printed in red. Double click on satellite or 'Ctrl-T' for curretly selected satellite displays the tracking window and SATRA starts tracking that satellite. NOTE1: This version (V1.0) is coded for antenna rotating system by Timo Knuutila, OH1QC/OH2MAT. Future version will have a general interface where different systems can be easilly adapted. NOTE2: Only one SATRA can run at a time (still some bugs with global handles or something ...) NOTE3: Sorry about this short documentation, but I hope that using SATRA would be so simple that you don't need manual at all. Brief information about menu commands ------------------------------------- File - Load Satellites Loads new satellite file. Satellite information must be in "AMSAT-format": Satellite: OSCAR 10 Catalog number: 14129 Epoch time: 88178.59395153 Element set: 342 Inclination: 27.302600 deg RA of node: 317.156900 deg Eccentricity: 0.602864 Arg of perigee: 315.542500 deg Mean anomaly: 9.422800 deg Mean motion: 2.05879802 rev/day Decay rate: -8.10000000e-007 rev/day^2 Epoch rev: 989 SATRA can handle up to 50 satellites at a time. File - Load new QTH Loads new QTH information. Format of the file is: # SATRA, QTH-info # Name, Longitude (E+ W-), Latitude, Height (m from surface) OH2TI 24.8 60.19 50 Lines starting with '#' are comment lines Satellites - Select Shows a dialog bos where all satellites are alphabetically ordered. You can select satellites with mouse by clicking, or with keyboard with arrow keys and space bar. To select multiple satellites hold down shift key while clicking with mouse or ctrl-key while using keyboard. 'Enter' is same as 'Ok', 'Esc' means 'Cancel', 'Alt-S' is 'Select all' and 'Alt-C' 'Clear all'. Satellites - Save as default set Every time SATRA starts it looks from WIN.INI lines: [SATRA] SatDefault= If after "SatDefault=" is list of satellite names separated with ';', SATRA display those satellites on screen at start. You can save the current satellite setup as default with this command. Map - World, Europe, North America, U.S.A. Selects the display area of the map. Map - Simple, Filled Map drawing may be simple (just coastlines -> fast) or filled (oceans are grayed -> slower). Map - Lo-res, Med-res Selects either low or medium resolution map. The default map mode could be in WIN.INI in line "Map=". Mode is coded to three letters: 1st letter: W, E, N or U (World, Europe, etc.) 2nd letter: S or F (Simple or Filled) 3rd letter: L or M (Lo-res or Med-res) Default is WSL. Example: [SATRA] Map=ESM Options - Step This command selects the step mode and time interval. When "Automatic" mode is on, time is incremented with values from "Step Min" and "Step sec" controls. If "Real time" is on, time is taken from PC. Then "Step Min" and "Step sec" tells the delay between two calculation of satellite positions. NOTE! to get the correct UTC-time, you must have the DOS enviroment variable "TZ" set to the time zome of your QTH. Example: DOS command "set TZ=EET-2" sets East European time that is two hours ahead GMT. Options - New QTH New QTH position could be selected with this command. Options - Rec. Freq Seletcs the receiving frequency for doppler calculations. This has no meaning if satellite has correct frequency in SATRA.MOD file. Options - Range Circle Adds a range circle for selected satellite. Options - Orbit! Draws projection of satellites one full round around globe and time when that round ends. Step! Starts stepping (= incrementing time and calculating new satellites positions). Stop! Stops stepping. Track! Opens up a tracking window. When there is no satellite to be tracked ( the caption has no satellite name ), then scrollbars affect straight to the direction values. If there is satellite to be tracked, then scrollbars change the offset value that is added to the calculated values. TILTED means that antenna is turn upside down so that satellite, which normally would travels across the stop points of rotator, could be tracked normally. The values in tracking window are the real values where the antenna is pointing. Format of the SATRA.MOD file ---------------------------- Example of SATRA.MOD file (that should say it all ...): # SATRA.MOD # Satellite modes # # For MaxPhase the default value is 256. # # Mode: Name (StartPhase-EndPhase) U:123.123 D:123.123 R F # where fields are: # Name = Mode name (or "Off") # StartPhase = start phase of mode # EndPhase = end phase of mode # # U = Uplink frequency (MHz) # D = Downlink freq. # # R = Reversed freq. (when uplink increases, downlink decreases...) # or # F = Fixed freq. # Satellite: OSCAR 10 MaxPhase: 256 Mode: B (21-199) U:435.105 D:145.900 R Mode: Off (200-20) Satellite: Oscar-13 MaxPhase: 256 Mode: B (21-199) U:435.508 D:145.890 R Mode: J (200-230) U:144.448 D:435.965 R Mode: L (231-2) U:1269.496 D:435.860 R Mode: Off (3-20)