Hi Dave and Everyone,
On Jul 1, 2017, at 02:26, Dave Mann cwo4mann@comcast.net wrote:
AMSAT specific packages are readily available; none of them, that I know of, allow direct rig or Rotor control.
I beg to differ on this one point.
GPredict is a wonderful satellite tracking application that when coupled with hamlib ( ham radio control libraries, with the rigctl and rotctl daemons) provides full radio and antenna control capabilities. That said, there is a bit of a learning curve getting it going as there are some aspects of the user interface that are decidedly non-intuitive. Though I think it is no more difficult than configuring SatPC32 on the windows side (this IS rocket science after all).
I'm using the aforementioned applications on an old Dell E5500 Core2Duo that I literally got out of a dumpster at work. New battery, maxed out the RAM, and replaced the spinny hard drive with an SSD and I've got a very capable 15" laptop for a total investment of $125.
I run Ubuntu 16.04 LTS because I'm one of those strange people that really, really like the Unity window manager. I'm incredibly sad that Unity is going away in the next LTS (Long Term Support) release...
73,
John K2ZA AMSAT #22683