Re: [amsat-bb] Website vs software for travelers?

[Lee810@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 3/3/00 1:42:01 PM Mountain Standard Time, SBCmusic@aol.com 
writes:

> Is there a website where I can go and check out satellite passes for cities 
I 
> 
>  am going to be in and get up to date information about passes, or is it 
>  better for me to download a program, and if so, I assume I have to change 
>  something to get the info for where I'm going to be at a given time.

There used to be a great web satellite prediction site at:

http://acsprod1.acs.ncsu.edu/scripts/HamRadio/sattrack

However, the author Lou Williams (KE4ARM) is no longer reachable by email 
addresses given on QRZ or Buckmaster.  I've even tried regular mail with no 
success.  NCSU disabled the page, which was just as well as the keps were a 
year out of date and instead substituted a link to Manfred Bester's website 
address at:

http://www.bester.com/satpasses.html

That site is pretty useless for hams as it only has a few larger (i.e. 
visible) satellites on it like Mir, the ISS, Shuttle, and Hubble.  None of 
these currently have amateur communications on them.  Lou Williams' program 
was based on Manfred Bester's code but allowed you to search for a city and 
included ALL of the satellites.  Manfred's website has a list of about 100 
cities for EACH of the 8 satellites on there which makes for a rather long 
list of possibilities.

I've sent a few messages to Manfred requesting he put the easy sats on his 
site but got no responses.  I guess he feels there are more people actually 
interested in trying to spot satellites visually than there are using them to 
communicate.  

Lee Devlin, KØLEE  (K0LEE)
Greeley, CO
http://members.aol.com/lee810/ham.html
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