[aprssig] Rotor control

[Mark Earle]

 >Second, is there any sort of serial interface standard for rotor
 >controllers?  If not, then what's most common?  If there's anything out

Most of the amateur related applications are having the rotors controlled 
to follow a satellite. The "KC" (Kansas City) was the name of one such 
standard long ago. I suspect if you get on Amsat's site and look around 
you'll find something. It is my recollection that several of the orbit 
prediction programs can control rotors so that part of the equation is 
standardized.

I also recall several DX cluster and DX Spotting and logging programs use 
rotor control - the rotor(s) will point at the DX auto-magically for the 
operator.

Here's what the help file for Winorbit 3.6 says about this:

DDE Tracking Server

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) is a Microsoft Windows technique for sharing 
information between programs.
One program is the server, providing a source of information, and the other 
program is the client, or user of the
information.  In the present context, WinOrbit is the server, providing a 
variety of up-to-date information for use by
a tracking client.  By using the DDE mechanism, WinOrbit can concentrate on 
the calculation and display,
while the client program can concentrate on the hardware aspects of 
tracking, without duplicating all the
calculation and database features of the server.  Examples of client 
programs, such as Announcer and
WinPrairie by K8CG or FT736R by WB1BQE are available from the WinOrbit web 
site and elsewhere.
WinOrbit pioneered this application of DDE beginning with version 2.2 in 1994.

More information is available about:

Enabling the DDE Tracking Server
Selecting a Satellite for Tracking
Programming a DDE client


The information provided by WinOrbit via DDE is sufficient to implement the 
Full Doppler Tuning standard,
as described in Amsat Journal, 19, No. 2, March/April 1996, page 18.




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