Well, I have never used rss feeds nor even how you get them...therefore, I do not miss whatever they are! (HINT: maybe need a tutorial, here?)
Your example does give nice links to summary info for each satellite, but the status links are empty. Would I guess that current info on what modes are activated show up in them? For active satellite operators that would have the most value.
I guess I'm neutral on the idea. The history of Amsat's website and information system is that it is inconsistent (ANS an Journal have been great, though). Guru's come and it's great; they burn out and leave and it's not. I realise this is a pretty brutal evaluation, but one should examine their commitment level before starting. I think this is why Amsat-NA volunteers are thoroughly vetted. Big reponsibility to maintain what you start!
But we welcome your enthusiasm!!!
73, Ed - KL7UW Amsat Member #3212 AK Field Op since 1997 (in neutral at the moment...mainly, a Heo enthusiast) But I have sponsored several AK Field Ops over the last decade and they are doing great! PS: I bought materials for 2m Lindenblad antenna this weekend so will be making a 2m/70cm pair for Leo Sats.
At 09:38 AM 4/12/2009, Joseph Armbruster wrote:
All,
The purpose of this email is to find out if anyone at Amsat would be interested in a satellite status rss feed.
I am reasonably new to Amsat (and sat stuffs) and thought it would be useful to have satellite summary and mode data available in an xml format. I felt RSS combined with some custom amsat tags would be a good fit. It would essentially be a regular rss feed (xml file) that will be extended with some amsat specific tags for satellite summary and mode data. This data could then be used by the community for obtaining satellite status updates if they'd like. This would definitely be a nice resource for anyone in the community, especially developers.
To date, i've mentioned the idea to Andrew G and David J and both have seemed open to have open arms to the idea (Andrew / David, correct me if i'm wrong :-)) I wanted to open this idea up to others at Amsat.org in order to get more input.
There are probably quite a few challenges here, including:
A) Determining where all the sat status data originates and figuring out how it should all be aggregated Notes: Andrew indicated there is quite a bit of manual work that takes place to obtain this data and make it available on amsat.org. I haven't solved this problem, I still need to do my homework here :-)
B) Determining the format of the amsat specific tags to be used in the xml Notes: I mentioned the idea to Andrew G. and David J briefly over email and started proposing some ideas. I attached a sample rss xml file to this email. This is by no means comprehensive or complete, but simply exists to provide some insight into what the custom tags could potentially look like. If i've left anything out that may be of interest, please let me know.
C) Getting all the data into the RSS feed to start out Notes: I created a python script that walks through all the amsat.org satellite status pages and scrapes the summary and mode data. It then aggregates it all into a text file for now. I can very easily use a template engine to get this data into the rss xml format, once it's agreed upon. This should drastically reduce the amount of effort to get this feed started.
To give everyone on the list an idea of what i'm talking about here I attached both the sample rss file and status.txt file generated by my script. The status.txt file as I mentioned is just what the "scraped out" data looks like. This file would then be translated into the final rss xml format to get things started. If you have any questions or comments, do not hesitate to contact me. The main question I would like to have answered by the community are:
- Is anyone in the community interested in an rss feed like this?
- Would anyone have a use for sat summary, mode and keps data being
provided in such a way?
Let me know, Joseph Armbruster, KJ4JIO
=== STATUS URL:http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=45&retURL=/s... OSCAR Designation Weber-OSCAR 18 Oscar Number WO-18 Perigee 777.00 Dimensions 22.6 x 22.6 x 22.3 cm Weight 16.030 Kg Satellite Type Microsatellite Launch Vehicle Ariane 4 Period 100.57 Apogee 794.00 Launch Location French Guiana International Designator 1990-005F Common Name WeberSat Launch Date 22 January, 1990 Norad Number 20441 Inclination 98.20 Mode U Imaging: Downlink 437.0750 MHz AFSK 1200 BPS Downlink 437.1020 MHz AFSK 1200 BPS === STATUS URL:http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=46&retURL=/s... === STATUS URL:http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=47&retURL=/s...
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