Re: [amsat-bb] Looking for Commodore tracking sw

["Edward R. Cole" <al7eb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rich,

I no longer have my C-64 that I paid $600 for from Montgomery-Ward.  I used
it exclusively for tracking AO-10 and the software came from Amsat.  I
didn't upgrade keps often, usually took them from the Amsat Journal.

What a "clunky" old program it was.  I recall it just gave text a display,
no maps.  I had no printer so copied the info off on paper!  I used it with
a tiny 12v RCA TV as I was living in the bush and ran everything off a
battery.  I used a Icom -211 and Micro-Modules 432/28 xvtr driven by a
TS-180 [they made xvtr plugs in those days].  I never got more than 4w out
on 432 which drove a PA for 20w max.  I worked 35 states and 42 countries
in the roughly 18 months that I was QRV. 

Rotator was by "armstrong"...great fun in the middle of a winter night in
Alaska.  I had cushcraft antennas [20T & 416] mounted on a pipe and
elevated by a hinge lifted by a cord thru a pulley.  I had a series of
nails spaced in 5 degree elevation increments pounded in the side of the
shed that held the mast; just hooked the loop in the end of the cord for
whatever elevation was needed [tracking interface was cheap].  My income in
1996 was $2600 for the year.  Alaska was in an economic depression and
there were no jobs.  I fixed a lot of TV's, CB's, and toaster-ovens ;-)  Me
and the sled dogs ate a lot of salmon & rice.  

Every day I had to run the light plant to recharge the battery, or I put it
in the truck and ran it.  It was a good little computer til I plugged the
cheap DIN power plug in the wrong orientation and fried it [the dreaded
blue screen].  Such was satellite technology circa 1986-87.

Ed

At 12:56 PM 4/8/2001 +0100, you wrote:
>
>Feeling a lil nostalgic,  I'm looking for any tracking software or
>source code for the VIC-20 or Commodore 64.
>
>Back in 1983-85,  I remember running predictions on a VIC-20
>equipped with a (gasp!) 16k memory expander.  Got the software
>from AMSAT, I believe,  on cassette.  Got the weekly big brown
>envelope from Goddard which contained the 2-lines of my favorite
>satellites,  and dutifully entered the numbers into the VIC, for storage
>on a separate cassette.  Tedious by today's standards,  but elegant
>for a then 20 year-old ham,  and certainly easier than my old Oscarlocator.
>
>I'm can accept any of the popular Commodore archiving formats,
>and can transfer from internet>dos>commodore 1541 drives.
>
>Thanks,
>Rich, KA8OKH
>
>
>-------------
>Rich Dailey, KA8OKH - Phyllis Dailey, KB4NPI
>mailto:okh.npi@gte.net
>http://home1.gte.net/web22jfw/
>-------------
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