Copies of QuikTrak by Bob McGwier, N4HY, for both the Commodore 64/128 and Apple II are available at https://www.amsat.org/flashback-friday-satellite-tracking-with-quiktrak-for-the-commodore-64-and-apple-ii/

The disk image files can be used in emulators or written to real floppy disks / modern floppy emulators and run on real hardware. I've run the Commodore version on my Commodore 64C with an SD2IEC and the Apple II version on my Apple IIc. 

Rather than attempting to pull the numbers out of the TLEs, I've found Heavens Above to be the easiest source of verbose style elements - on the orbit page. For example, AO-7 can be found at https://www.heavens-above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=7530&lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=UCT

73,

Paul, N8HM



On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 2:32 PM Chris Maness via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
What commodore program did you use?  My elmer had a cool one, and I
traded a commodore 64 for an RC car because I thought it was so cool.
Well guess what, I just picked up that computer for my parent's house
35 years later and it still works!  I brought it to school for the
kids to see.  I found one on a dead link from an amsat news post, but
that is not the same program. I was able to get running on a
simulator, and I could tell that it was not the same app.  I
distinctly remember lots of colors.

I am waiting for fresh floppies and a raspberry Pi hat that emulates a
1541 drive as all my floppies were dead as this thing has been in the
garage for many of those 35 years.  We live in hot Southern
California.

-Chris KQ6UP

On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 11:22 AM Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL via AMSAT-BB
<amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
>
> At 05:33 PM 4/18/2023 +0000, you wrote:
>
>
> >Neither element set format encodes the century of the element set, so I
> >suspect that whatever math is being done in the program to determine the
> >age of the element set will fail in either case.
> >
> >You can test this hypothesis by making up a verbose element set manually
> >with your favorite text editor.
> >
> >Decode two line element sets with the following key:
> >1 AAAAAU 00  0  0 BBBBB.BBBBBBBB  .CCCCCCCC  00000-0  00000-0 0  DDDZ
> >2 AAAAA EEE.EEEE FFF.FFFF GGGGGGG HHH.HHHH III.IIII JJ.JJJJJJJJKKKKKZ
> >KEY: A-CATALOGNUM B-EPOCHTIME C-DECAY D-ELSETNUM E-INCLINATION F-RAAN
> >G-ECCENTRICITY H-ARGPERIGEE I-MNANOM J-MNMOTION K-ORBITNUM Z-CHECKSUM
> >
> >For more detail see www.amsat.org/keplerian-elements-formats/
> >
> >
> >If your trial verbose file works OK, it might be worth it to have one of
> >the high school kids write a script to convert from TLE to verbose - it is
> >a pretty straightforward exercise in text manipulation.
> >
> >The TLE format is actually the older format.  AMSAT came up with the
> >verbose format in order to facilitate distribution on voice networks.   I
> >fondly remember copying them as read by Rip, WA2LQQ on the weekly Tuesday
> >night75 meter net.    At the time I was not really all that fond of it
> >since a static crash at the wrong time could wipe out a critical digit and
> >render an entire element set useless.     But it was the only practical
> >means I had to obtain them as a broke high school student in the 1980's,
> >at least until I discovered that the government would mail them to me once
> >a week if I asked nicely :-)
> >
> >de KM1P Joe
>
>
> Ha,
> That's how I got them, they were mailed from the Goddard space
> flight center. I moved from tracking with oscar locator, to a
> commodore 64 program. Still had to type them in to the program
> by hand.
>
> KB7ADL
>
>
>
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>
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--
Thanks,
Chris Maness

-----------------------------------------------------------

Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed
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Acceptable Use and Privacy Policies available at https://www.amsat.org/about-amsat/

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