Re: [amsat-bb] Alon/Alat or Alat/Alon on IT and Nova ( AO-40)

[Paul Williamson <kb5mu@xxxxxxxxx>]

>The InstantTrack manual refers to Attitude or Bahn Coordinates as ALAT and
>ALON. It tells me when editing the Satellite Elements "all you have to do is
>enter these two numbers, latitude first, then a comma, then longitude"
>Currently Stacy Mills is saying ALON/ALAT (note longitude before latitude)
>is 20/0 so I put 0/20 -z behind "attitude".  Tonight in Seattle, that gives
>me a squint of  20 using IT.

The correct translation of "20/0" for InstantTrack 1.50 is "0,200". 
In addition to reversing the order, you have to add/subtract 180 
to/from the longitude and negate the latitude. This is because the 
antennas are on the opposite side of the AO-40 spacecraft (as 
compared to AO-10 and AO-13).

A better solution is to upgrade to InstantTrack 1.55. With that 
version, you can just put in exactly what Stacey announces. Except 
the first time -- you have to enter something like "20/0 -" where the 
"-" tells InstantTrack which side of the spacecraft the antennas are 
on. InstantTrack remembers this, so after the first time you can just 
enter "20/0" with no conversion.

This is covered in the InstantTrack FAQ at 
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/intro/itfaq.html#073

I can't explain how you got such a low squint without converting the 
attitude coordinates. Something else may be wrong with your 
InstantTrack setup.

73  -Paul
kb5mu@amsat.org
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