|
Winter 2005 Issue |
|
|
Portable PREDICT Plus! A
Satellite Tracking, Pacsat Yakking, APRS Hacking, |
Figure
1. PREDICT tracking the International Space Station. PREDICT displays
Doppler-corrected uplink and downlink frequencies to aid in making voice
contacts through a quickly moving satellite. AutoTracking through an AZ/EL
rotator system |
|
Maybe you run a Linux PC at home to track satellites, bounce APRS1 packets off the International Space Station, or exchange e-mails and files via AMSAT’s new Echo satellite. Maybe you would like to take that capability with you on Field Day or to club meetings where Linux2-based PCs are scarce. Maybe you run the DOS version of PREDICT and would like to tinker with it in its native Linux environment. Maybe Linux has caught your attention, but the process of choosing and installing a suitable distribution, and then having to configure all the amateur radio applications correctly, seems like an overwhelming task. Maybe you’re having difficulty setting up your Linux box for satellite tracking and pacsat communication work, and you would like to take a peek at a properly configured system to see how everything fits together. Maybe Portable PREDICT Plus! can help. Portable PREDICT Plus! is a tiny distribution of the Linux operating system that combines the AX.25 networking capabilities and multitasking nature of Linux together with the interoperability of many Linux-based amateur radio communication applications. It delivers them together in an elegant and effective communications package that is of particular interest to VHF and above spectrum users.
Portable PREDICT Plus! includes time-proven
applications and utilities designed for pacsat communications, traditional
packet radio communications, EME (Earth-Moon-Earth), APRS (Automatic
Position Reporting System) beacon generation, and general satellite
tracking. Best of all, it runs off a pair of innocuous 3.5-inch floppy
disks and operates entirely in RAM. There’s no need to fuss with your
current PC setup. There’s no need to format or partition your hard disk.
In fact, you don’t even need a functioning hard disk or a CD-ROM drive on
your computer to install or run Portable PREDICT Plus! Its small footprint
and meager requirements also make it a great “if all else fails”
communications package in the event the unthinkable ever occurs and you
really need something that works. Click here to return to Winter 2005 highlights Click here to subscribe to VHF _________________ © Copyright 2005, CQ Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced or republished, including posting to a website, in part or in whole, by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher, CQ Communications, Inc. Hyperlinks to this page are permitted.
|
|
