PetitTrack 1.1.0

PetitTrack is a software tool for determining the position of earth satellite orbits in relation to an earth observer.

Before you use the software:

1. Download a recent NASA TLE file from AMSAT, CelesTrak or any other source.
2. Edit the TLE file and remove any text besides the NASA TLE data.
3. The TLE file should be named nasatle.txt and should reside in /home/root/Documents on the Zaurus. Warning: PetitTrack will not start without the TLE file.
4. Enter your geographical coordinates in the Config tab. The values are decimal. The Longitude value is positive for locations west of Greenwich and negative for locations east of Greenwich. The Latitude value is positive for locations north of Equator and negative for locations south of Equator. Altitude is in meters. Once you have entered your geographical coordinates, restart PetitTrack.
5. The NASA TLE file should be periodically updated to maintain accuracy for the calculations.

To use the PetitTrack press the icon in the Qtopia launcher.

PetitTrack has the following tabs:

1. Tracker - After a satellite is selected in the Queue tab, the satellite position is displayed in a world map and some orbital parameters are displayed as text. In the path loss and doppler lines, the two values displayed are for 435 MHz and 2401 MHz.
2. Queue - In the Queue tab, AOS and LOS for the next pass of all satellites present in nasatle.txt will be displayed. A * before the AOS cell means that the satellite is currently visible. The selection for the Tracker and Ephemeris tabs is made by clicking on the name of a satellite in the queue.
3. Ephemeris - After a satellite is selected in the Queue tab, an Ephemeris table with AOS and LOS times for the next days can be calculated. The number of days can be selected by using the Spin Box at the botton of the tab. To perform the calculations, press the "Calculate" push button. The calculation can be interrupted at any time by pressing the "Stop" push button.
4. Astro - Displays the positions for the Sun and the Moon.

Remarks

1. At startup, PetitTrack will take few seconds to complete its initialization. The satellite queue may take several seconds to complete the calculations for AOS and LOS times for all objects. The larger the number of objects the longer the calculations will take.
2. You may want to edit the NASA TLE file and delete old and uninteresting satellites.
3. The maximum number of objects is 100. If the nasatle.txt file contains more than 100 objects, PetitTrack will read only the first 100 objects listed in the file.
4. The distance between ground track dots is 2 minutes.
5. When calculating ephemeris, the calculations may take several seconds or even few minutes. Please be patient.
6. Feedback and source code patches are welcome.
7. New releases for PetitTrack can be found at http://www.qsl.net/n1vtn