Re: [Gpredict-discussion] New Feature Request (And new subscriber :)

[Alexandru C. <oz...@gm...>]

Hi Al,

Thanks for your mail and the thorough description of your use case. I
always enjoy reading about how and under which conditions Gpredict is used
and it also gives me a better understanding of the use case scenarios.

You are not the first one to ask for enhancing the data interface and
provide tracking data in a more versatile way. I have now created an issue
in our issue tracker to keep track of progress on this item, see
https://github.com/csete/gpredict/issues/248 . Unfortunately, there are
many items on the todo list and have have very little time to work on
gpredict at the moment, so I can not come with any assessment about when
such interface will be implemented.

Cheers
Alex OZ9AEC



On Sat, Jan 9, 2021 at 7:50 PM mudhwk <mu...@gm...> wrote:

>   HI Folks,
>
>   Thanks for adding me to the list.
>
>   I am a new "serious" gpredict user, after having poked around with it on
> occasion for a couple of years casually.
>
>   By way of background,  back in the 90's (Before hamlib),  I wrote an
> FT-736r control program called FT-7361,  along with a tracking antenna
> program called prrietrk.  It wasn't pretty,  but it did a lot of convenient
> stuff reasonably well.
>
>   When used in conjunction with Wisps' EasyComm interface,  it automated
> all aspects of pacsat operation, while allowing me to automatically
> schedule flipping tover to the local repeater at commuter hour, and
> pointing my beam at whatever repeater I might use etc.
>
> I happily wore out several rotators using this automation 24x7 for a
> while,  then got away from it.
>
> I'm recently back, and on a whim dragged FT-7361 kicking and screaming from
> its Windows 3.1 origins to mostly running on my windows 7 desktop as an
> easy way to get on the FM satellites.   For antennas, I've built a switched
> array of small yagis computer controlled via a modified Ameritron RCS-10
> antenna switch.  The antenna array is not super high performance but is
> adequate for FM sats, and has no moving parts to wear out.
>
>   This morning I threw together a python hack to impersonate rotorctl  and
> was delighted to see gpredict seamlessly drive my antennas!
>
>   Reliably controlling the FT-736r is more troublesome via hamlib,  and
> although I'm still on the learning curve,  I can see some limitations that
> I'd like to avoid.
>
> Given the limitations of the FT-736 cat interface, something a bit more
> tailored to the radio's quirks is probably necessary,  hence my desire to
> resurrect FT-7361 as the "master of ceremonies" that drives the radio and
> chooses what to track etc  (In particular FT-7361 can manage a Mode B <->
> Mode J band swap if a third band module is present, which is hugely
> helpful. )
>
>   Sorry for this being so long, but I wanted to explain the use case a bit
> before  getting to the  point:
>
>   Would it be possible in terms of a new feature request to ask for
> Gpredict to include a "wsjt-x style"   UDP Broadcast facility that would
> broadcast an Easycomm protocol string with the currently tracked  satellite
> name,  az/el/uplink/downlink frequencies and modes as well as the scaled
> doppler value?
>
>   With this,  I could directly tie FT-7361 directly to gpredict,  and
> bypass hamlib altogether.   It's not a solution for the masses, to be
> sure,  but I think that in addition to myself, this would be very
> beneficial to a lot of the other homebrewers.   Hamlib is REALLY COOL for
> commercial  equipment,  but it doesn't lend itself real well to off the
> wall homebuilt setups may have different communications needs.
>
>   Thanks for any consideration (and for a cool linux based tracking
> program! :) )
>
>  --al
> WB1BQE
>
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