[aprssig] Satellite positions: Design Rationale

[Greg Dolkas]

Hi Lynn,

More thoughts, in-line...


>
>> Being really clear which of the three cases you are transmitting is also
>> important. Yesterday it was sheer luck that ISS happened to be up. It took
>> me a few minutes to realize that I was in case #3, compared information with
>> my PC in disbelief, and by that time the pass was almost over.
>>
>
> One says "AOS" followed by a time (be it delta or zulu).  The other says
> "LOS" followed by Az: nnn El: nnn.  How much more different do you need them
> to be?  Start with something like "ISS is in view NOW!"?  (I'm being
> completely facetious there).  I believe they're different enough (until we
> muddy the waters by adding the max elevation to AOS) because the LOS shows
> where to point your antenna.
>
>
The difference is " at " vs ":" in between AOS and the time.  The former is
something you read, the later is something you interpret.  I prefer the
former.  Same with Bob's use of " in ", as in "LOS in xxxm".  Not a deal
breaker, but in my opinion, significant enough that I wanted to bring it
up.  I agree we don't need to be verbose.  Just a little clearer, please.



>  It occurs to me that the contents of the message you send to "ISS" is
>> ignored. Could it be used as a command autoresponder, indicating what sort
>> of information or format is desired? You could also use it to validate the
>> request, in case there is a collision in the object namespace. You never
>> know if AO51 is a satellite, or an ET visiting a certain place in New
>> Mexico...
>>
>
> By only requiring ONE piece of information to be remembered (send a message
> to the satellite name), I'm hoping this won't e a flash-in-the-pan idea and
> may see some long-term activity as people figure out how they can
> effectively use it.
>

I guess I don't see a single address for all satellite predictions being
difficult to remember or use.  For the D7 (and I presume other radios too),
there is a list of prior messages that I can pick from to re-send, which
solves the Remember problem.  And, if I send a blank message, you can always
either send some helpful instructions back (like you do with a missing
position report!), or you could default to telling me something else, like
what satellite is coming up next at my location.

>
> Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile and Win32
>

Thanks for listening,

Greg  KO6TH
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