Adding NO-84 PSAT to Gpredict
Trying out ham radio packages on a Raspberry PI 2 (which is a nice piece of kit, particularly with the new "official" case . Gpredict runs well, but... I can't find the TLEs to load NO-84/PSAT. The TLE's from celestrack do not include it (at least I have not found it searching by object number, int'l number, oscar #, name,...). I probably missed emails here why celestrack can't provide the TLEs, and on configuring GPredict to use a different source (AMSAT). Wasn't an issue for me before - I usually run SatPC32 and "it just works".
Suggestions, pointer to an email thread here, etc. welcome.
73 Steve KS1G ks1g@amsat.org
On 7/5/15, Stephan Greene ks1g04@gmail.com wrote:
Trying out ham radio packages on a Raspberry PI 2 (which is a nice piece of kit, particularly with the new "official" case . Gpredict runs well, but... I can't find the TLEs to load NO-84/PSAT. The TLE's from celestrack do not include it (at least I have not found it searching by object number, int'l number, oscar #, name,...). I probably missed emails here why celestrack can't provide the TLEs, and on configuring GPredict to use a different source (AMSAT). Wasn't an issue for me before - I usually run SatPC32 and "it just works".
First, which version of Gpredict are you using? Second, what's your OS?
If you're using Linux, look for a hidden directory in your account with the format:
./configure/gpredict
This may vary between distributions and may have a different name, but directory won't appear on your desktop. You'll find it using:
ls -al /home/xxxxx/Desktop
where xxxxx is your account name.
That directory will have some subdirectories. The ones you'd be interested in are satdata (which contains the TLE files) and tsrp (which have the frequency data).
The TLE files are of the form NORAD-ID.sat and the frequency files are NORAD-ID.tsrp. Those are text files which can be edited and copied, but they need to have the correct NORAD ID number as their name.
Once you've copied them, you'll have to log out and log in again in order for Gpredict to find them. After that, you can configure Gpredict to display the new satellites.
Just a word of caution: you may have to do this a few times before it works, or at least I had to do it on my machine. I suggest you copy some existing files onto your desktop, edit them for the new birds, and then copy them into the correct directories.
73s
Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL
Steve,
There is a law/regulation which covers launches with military or other classified payloads. (Somebody have the exact reference?) It prevents releasing the Keps in the normal way for the secondary payloads, so they have to come indirectly from the people who own the individual satellites. For instance, you can find all the other Keps from that launch here:
http://mstl.atl.calpoly.edu/~ops/ultrasat/ultrasat_jspoc.txt
It is updated every couple of days, instead of the 3-4 times a day we are used to. You need to match the actual names with the satellite and object number, or get them with the weekly updates to NASA.ALL.
73s,
Alan WA4SCA
Alan ... Most of what I know about this comes from some of our past conversations. But ... When I first applied (in 2005) for our authorization to re-distribute the KEPs (in TLE format), I had a conversation with the then officer-in-charge of approving the TLE re-distribution authorizations at Air Force Space Command. He said exactly what you said, "There is a law/regulation which covers launches with military or other classified payloads." He did not elaborate any further and I got the feeling that he did not what to answer further questions on that subject. I (and anyone else who is not the owner/operator) cannot go into SpaceTrack and directly download the TLEs from SpaceTrack for satellites launched on a military launch vehicle.
It is obvious that the owner/operator of the satellite can obtain the current TLEs, so for now, we get them from that entity. It is an extra step, but it can be done. Once we acquire the TLEs from the owner/operator, we are free to re-distribute as needed.
I am sure that the owner/operator of a satellite on a military launch has a similar agreement that AMSAT has with SpaceTrack. Once AMSAT downloads the TLE data from SpaceTrack and puts the TLEs in our format, it becomes AMSAT's product. AMSAT (and anyone else that AMSAT sends it to) are free to send that data to anyone else. At AMSAT we do ask those re-distributing KEP data from AMSAT to leave the headers in place, thus giving AMSAT credit as the primary re-distributing data source.
I hope this helps.
Ray Hoad WA5QGD
-----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Alan Sent: Sunday, July 5, 2015 2:18 PM To: 'Stephan Greene'; 'Amsat-bb' Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Adding NO-84 PSAT to Gpredict
Steve,
There is a law/regulation which covers launches with military or other classified payloads. (Somebody have the exact reference?) It prevents releasing the Keps in the normal way for the secondary payloads, so they have to come indirectly from the people who own the individual satellites. For instance, you can find all the other Keps from that launch here:
http://mstl.atl.calpoly.edu/~ops/ultrasat/ultrasat_jspoc.txt
It is updated every couple of days, instead of the 3-4 times a day we are used to. You need to match the actual names with the satellite and object number, or get them with the weekly updates to NASA.ALL.
73s,
Alan WA4SCA
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Thanks to everyone who replied - I downloaded the keps file from Amsat and loaded them from local file. I think Gpredict tries to load anything it finds in the local file directory you tell it to use, as long as it's ascii and looks like keplerian elements. Bernard - running GPredict 1.13 on Raspbian Wheezy. Installed via apt-get, so there is also a collection of stock config files in /usr/share/gpredict. For other RPi users, if using the GUI that installs with Raspbian, it has a setting to view the hidden directories, which may make working with your specific configuration a bit easier vs. command line. The Debian dpkg tool can also list files used by gpredict and where they are installed.
Alan - thanks for the reminder - I recall now the discussion following the launch why there were no keps at Celestrack. When I went back to celestrack and searched by NORAD ID, it shows the elements are not available.
I am impressed with the increased computing power in the Pi 2 - running the GUI, Gpredict, and Direwolf (using a USB dongle for sound and another system to display the APRS traffic) runs smoothly.
73 Steve KS1G ks1g@amsat.org
On 7/6/15, Stephan Greene ks1g04@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks to everyone who replied - I downloaded the keps file from Amsat and loaded them from local file. I think Gpredict tries to load anything it finds in the local file directory you tell it to use, as long as it's ascii and looks like keplerian elements. Bernard - running GPredict 1.13 on Raspbian Wheezy. Installed via apt-get, so there is also a collection of stock config files in /usr/share/gpredict.
I run the same version under openSUSE 11. I haven't been able to install files for the newer birds directly from the Internet. I'm not sure if it's because of a bug in Gpredict.
As a result, I've installed the files for the new satellites by hand as I described with little problem, on the whole.
<snip>
73s
Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL
participants (4)
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Alan -
B J -
Ray Hoad -
Stephan Greene