The software requires information about the satellites you will be tracking, this information is known as Keplerian elements. Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) discovered the three laws of planetary motion in 1609 and 1619 – a remarkable feat!
- The satellites window lists the files containing the Keplerian elements used to plot the position of satellites and compute the correct frequencies for the uplink and downlink.
- The default folder is Satellites located below the folder where you have installed Ham Radio Deluxe - for example:
- C:\Program Files\Amateur Radio\Ham Radio Deluxe\Satellites
- To change the folder just press Select.
- It is recommended that you update the data files in the Satellites folder when you start using Ham Radio Deluxe as the files shipped in the kits will be out of date by the time you start to use them. These files should ideally be refreshed every few days.
- If you check the ‘Download when Satellite Tracking starts’ option then the files are downloaded every time you start satellite tracking.
- To download the latest Kepler data files press Download. The files are downloaded to the folder containing your satellite data.
- To edit the list of files press Edit List. The file is Ham Radio Deluxe Satellite List.txt in the folder Satellites folder.
- Example:
- New satellite data files can be downloaded from the Internet, for example from www.amsat.org or from www.celestrak.com maintained by T.S. Kelso.
- The only supported file format is two-line element sets, for example:
- The verbose format is not supported.
- The bare NASA format elements from www.amsat.org contain all satellites of interest to radio amateurs.
- Alternatively if you look at www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/ you will see many files that can be downloaded. Just download these files and save them in the Satellites folder selected previously. For more information about the contents of these files browse www.celestrak.com
- All text files in the Data Folder are loaded into Ham Radio Deluxe, so you should delete old files if you no longer need them.
- Select up to 100 entries from the Available list by either double-clicking on individual entries or by highlighting one or more entries and pressing >. By pressing >> all entries (up to a maximum of 100) are moved to the Selected list.