Script to predict satellite passes…

January 25, 2008 | Amateur Radio, My Projects | By: Mark VandeWettering

Well, my plan13 library has been joined with a library that decodes grid squares and the like, and another which downloads orbital elements and stores them in an sqlite3 database. The combination of all these allows you to write simple programs like the one I illustrate below, which gives predictions of the named satellites from any grid (defaulting of course to my own gridsquare). Witness:

[chessboard] % ./nextpass -v ARISS AO-27 SO-50 AO-51
ARISS [+] will be visible from CM87 in 0:54:30 at 02:51:30
        AOS: 02:51:29  -0.0°  163.2°
        MAX: 02:54:29  +4.4°  124.1°
        LOS: 02:57:27  +0.0°   86.0°
AO-27 [+] will be visible from CM87 in 7:53:15 at 09:50:15
        AOS: 09:50:11  -0.0°   46.9°
        MAX: 09:55:01  +6.2°   87.2°
        LOS: 09:59:45  +0.0°  127.0°
SO-50 [+] will be visible from CM87 in 6:16:45 at 08:13:45
        AOS: 08:13:44  -0.0°  159.7°
        MAX: 08:19:09 +12.3°  106.6°
        LOS: 08:24:47  +0.0°   53.6°
AO-51 [+] will be visible from CM87 in 0:42:30 at 02:39:30
        AOS: 02:39:23  -0.0°  146.5°
        MAX: 02:46:48 +41.0°   69.8°
        LOS: 02:54:14  +0.0°  356.3°

Comments

Comment from Guy – W6MSU
Time 1/26/2008 at 8:31 pm

Mark,

You certainly made it as far as Stockton!

73,
Guy – W6MSU

(20080127Gated2APRS-IS.txt)

!S 03:12:55 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca
!S 03:13:10 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca
!S 03:13:17 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca
!S 03:13:40 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca
!S 03:13:50 !K6BIR-4>APU25N,RS0ISS-4*:=3739.56N/12206.43W- {UIV32N}
!S 03:13:55 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca
!S 03:13:56 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4*:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca
!S 03:14:01 !RS0ISS-4>CQ,SGATE:>ARISS – International Space Station (BBS/APRS on)
!S 03:14:05 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca
!S 03:14:06 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4*:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca
!S 03:14:08 !W6MSU>APRS,RS0ISS-4*:=3803.21NS12121.62W&
!S 03:14:18 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca
!S 03:14:19 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4*:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca
!S 03:14:31 !W6OTH-7>APS224,RS0ISS-4*,WIDE2,GATE,ECHO:=3727.43N/12153.73Wyin Silicon Valley CM97bk
!S 03:14:34 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca
!S 03:14:34 !N6CO>CM98QJ,RS0ISS-4:!3824.15N/12039.12Wy Hello Frm Dave @ 3000ft in Ca

!S 03:14:40 !KF6KYI-1>37UXPW,RS0ISS-4*:’2+9l -/>

!S 03:14:50 !K6BIR-4>APU25N,RS0ISS-4*:=3739.56N/12206.43W- {UIV32N}
!S 03:14:56 !RS0ISS-11>KA0NZZ-1:Welcome to RS0ISS’s message board
!S 03:16:31 !AF6DS>APRS,RS0ISS-4*:[cm87xi]Greetings ISS! de AF6DS
!S 03:17:00 !RS0ISS-11>KA0NZZ-1:Welcome to RS0ISS’s message board
!S 03:17:05 !RS0ISS-11>KA0NZZ-1:Welcome to RS0ISS’s message board
!S 03:17:08 !K5VR>APRS,RS0ISS-4*:=3609.57N/09416.69W-Stan nr Tontitown, AR {EM26ud}
!S 03:17:28 !W6MSU>APRS,RS0ISS-4*:=3803.21NS12121.62W&
!S 03:17:32 !RS0ISS-11>KA0NZZ-1:Welcome to RS0ISS’s message board
!S 03:17:37 !RS0ISS-11>KA0NZZ-1:Welcome to RS0ISS’s message board
!S 03:17:43 !RS0ISS-11>KA0NZZ-1:Welcome to RS0ISS’s message board
!S 03:17:54 !RS0ISS-11>KA0NZZ-1:Welcome to RS0ISS’s message board
!S 03:17:56 !RS0ISS-11>KA0NZZ-1:CMD(F/K/M/R/W/B/H/?)>
!S 03:17:59 !RS0ISS-11>KA0NZZ-1:CMD(F/K/M/R/W/B/H/?)>
!S 03:18:01 !RS0ISS-4>CQ,SGATE:>ARISS – International Space Station (BBS/APRS on)
!S 03:18:09 !RS0ISS-11>KA0NZZ-1:not found

Comment from N1WBV
Time 1/28/2008 at 12:40 pm

So, when is this really nice program going to be unleashed onto the masses? Or has it already?

Inquiring minds would like to know. 🙂

Hope to hear you on AO-51 someday, but I doubt CM87->FN41 would be easy to pull off. 🙂