Today, Don (VE3REO) and I took our first attempt at picking up a satellite using the new FUNCube Dongle. While we did not get a definite transmission from our target satellite, we did get some peaks from the direction of the satellite. Baby steps. Don is working on perfecting his knowledge with the FUNCube and allied software.
Last night, I discovered that three satellite tracking software packages that I was testing were not in agreement with each other at all. This was after the software claimed that they had updated their TLE's. I was using Orbitron, GPredict, and APTDecoder, and using NOAA satellites as my test targets. The orbit numbers and positions were completely different. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to start delving into the tracking software GPredict and perform checks on where update data is coming from, where on the computer it is being stored, and if Gpredict is picking up the new data from the correct folders. Some sort of reliable tracking software will be crucial to be able to use a rotor to position our antennas properly. Once I can be sure GPredict is operating reliably, I will switch to Orbitron, then to APTDecoder. I'm including APTDecoder because I think it would be kinda neat to add weather imagery as part of our ARES capability.
Baby steps my friends, baby steps.
73,
Joe de VA3POR
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