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WXtrack - Satellite tracking
What the reviewers and users have said:
- "WXtrack is free, and is one of the best tracking
programs that I have come across" - Radio Active April 2001
- "...a satellite tracking program with a superbly crafted
tracking window..." - Remote Imaging Group Journal 58
- "...as up to date as any...", "...an impressive program..."
- Monitoring Times, August 1999
- "..the excellent "WXtrack" software .... I've used WXtrack in various outreach programs
to high schools and recommend it." - Professor Bill
Cowley, Director, Institute for Telecommunications Research, Satellite Comms Program Leader, CRC for Satellite
Systems
- "It was a pleasure to find a well-crafted package"
- MD Robotics -
makers of the Canadarm used on the Space Shuttle and Station
- "I have used your program quite a bit now and I absolutely love
it. It is the best tracking program I have ever used and I have used
them all I am sure :)" - Mark Kyle
- "WXtrack is, by far, the most economical, flexible, and
informative satellite tracking and display package available today. It
will be prominently displayed in our Data Processing Center to show the current, historical, or future location of our "A-Train" satellites and
tracking sites. Kudos to David Taylor for an exceptional satellite application"
- Don Reinke,
NASA CloudSat Mission Data Processing
Center. (CIRA)
- "I wrote Quiktrak and for years it was the mainstay of the amateur and in some cases professional tracking world.
After seeing WXtrack, there is no need for me to ever revisit that offering. I am happy to register this
software" - Bob McGwier, N4HY. Vice President for Engineering, AMSAT-NA
- "WXtrack is a great program - I believe to be the best
available." - Kevin Nice, Nice One Publishing Limited
WXtrack is used by many Universities and satellite enthusiasts
across the world, and is also used with the industry. If you
would like a custom version for your project, just e-mail
me.
 WXtrack download
3D display version - WXtrackGL
download
SatCover
download
SGP4 Active-X component download
 WXtrack
registration - help support continued development!
Multiple satellite tracking, with night-time shading.
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This program, which I have described in more detail, is designed to predict the
tracks of satellites both as paths above the earth, and as images produced by
these satellites when scanning the ground. It was designed for use during the early
stages of my weather satellite receiving activities, when clouds and interference prevented easy
identification of what I was actually observing! Read more about using WXtrack. The core orbit
prediction elements are also available as a component that you
can use in your own software. This program is free for amateur use, but if you do wish to say
"thank you", or you want technical support, you should register
WXtrack. |
WXtrack can read processed satellite images from one or more folders of
your choice, and present these images side-by-side with the ground track prediction. To
make visual correlation easier, minute markers are produced on the predicted image to
match those on NOAA APT transmissions. Because of the graphics used in this program,
it really requires a display of 1024 x 768 resolution, but it will work on 800 x 600.
Sample of the results
using the full 18MB ground topography database.
Trackers and Antenna Rotators
WXtrack can drive a number of popular antenna tracking systems including
controllers based on the WiSPDDE,
AMSAT's LVB tracker, EA4TX's ARSWIN, Kansas City Tracker (RR.DLL
and ON1CIM's KctTracker.exe), Las Vegas Boulevard (LVB from G6LVB), SeaTel, CX6DD (supports
Yaesu GS232), EasyComm, IF-100 and FodTrack standards. There are options for early
startup of the tracker, antenna offset, flip-mode, antenna parking at pass end,
running a command at start-of-tracking etc., and the program has a quick
point-at-object mode for setting up your antenna with the sun, moon etc.
If you have another tracker that you would like supported, why not write to me and ask?
Can I register and what do I get?
Users have asked for support on this software, and wish to say
"Thank you", so I now provide extra facilities to users who do register
WXtrack. Commercial use of WXtrack requires purchase of a
commercial licence. The extra facilities are designed to make the program
easier to use for regular users, and to extend the facilities available.
- Extra facilities include
- A Satellite Summary form is available by right-clicking
the World Map display - includes MA display, nearest city in addition to
azimuth, elevation range etc.
- The latitude and longitude of the mouse on the World
Map is given in, and the range and bearing from the home location.
- Input from GPS for location and time setting, GPS
prediction mode.
- Extended Radar view functionality, especially for GPS
- Solar outage times for geostationary satellites
- Radio control is possible with the WiSPDDE software.
- Satellite priority setting and automatic switch to next
available satellite.
- Option of restricting passes tracked to those in the
pass list.
- Automated daily reload of Kepler data
- Access to the Kepler
Manager registered functions
- Quick access to Sat
Batch and Kepler Manager through the Tools menu.
- The Tracker Test command is considerably enhanced by
adding offset control, manual positioning and RA/Dec tabs - ideal for tracker setup and
testing.
- The tracker parking option is available.
- You can select finer time steps for the pass details
list.
- HRPT channel selection is possible with the Götz Romahn/Bob Barnes CX6DD tracker variant.
More information about some of
the extra facilities.
Requirements
- System Requirements
- Windows: 98, ME, 2000, XP or NT 4.0
- Processor: Pentium 90 or better, 200MHz or better recommended
- Memory: 32MB or better, 64MB highly recommended.
- Display: 800 x 600 resolution or better, 15-, 16- 24- or 32-bit colour
recommended.
- WXtrack works best with Normal font size.
- The runtime Library Bundle listed below is necessary for WXtrack to function. If you get error messages about missing DLLs when
you try to run WXtrack, please consult the library notes page.
- Got a question? Check out the
FAQ.
- There is a free self-help mailing list that you can join by e-mailing SatSignal-subscribe@yahoogroups.com,
where other users of the software can be contacted.
- The Country & State boundary data is required if you wish to
generate image overlays for adding to actual pictures with SatSignal, and for certain map
projections. If you have less than 32MB memory in your system and want to run
overlays, it may be worthwhile downloading the Pre-compiled
overlay bitmap as the program will struggle to generate the 31MB bitmap in a 24MB or
less system! Copy the expanded Overlay.bmp file to the program's executable folder.
If you wish to change grid-line spacing, add longitude and latitude annotation, or
put the grid on top of the countries, please download MakeOverlay program listed under
optional items below.
- If you have a problem with your PC being permanently set on
Daylight Saving time, which happens with certain versions of Windows
98, try the Time Zone Editor
from the Microsoft Windows
2000 Resource Kit. This program, TZEdit, enables you to define your Time
Zone details. More
information.
- If you are driving a tracker in real-time, be sure your PC
is keeping accurate time.
| V3.6.0 |
Add support for ServerLabjack tracker
(please start ServerLabjack before WXtrack), add special MetOp-A support,
add option to change satellite link frequencies and modes with auto-switch, allow
square brackets as satellite names in Radio.ini if they are replaced with
braces (e.g. specify NOAA 17 [+] as NOAA 17 {+}), interpret
GroundStations.ini correctly with European regions settings, improved
pass-box appearance (registered version).
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| V3.6.2 |
Correct fault in tracker setup form, radio selection items
(fault introduced in V3.6.0).
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| V3.6.4 |
Move to HTML Help for improved Windows Vista compatibility,
warn if running directly from the Desktop.
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| V3.6.6 |
Allow choice of font for satellite name
text, revise period requirement for recognising a satellite as
"geostationary" - now includes those in "graveyard"
orbit, correct error in scroll box height on Ground Path tab.
Include updated French Help information (2008 Jan 22)
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| V3.6.8 |
Slow down commands sent to CX6DD tracker
(for LVB tracker).
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You can download these icons, which have been contributed by
WXtrack users, to show the International
Space Station and Space Shuttle (ISS and STS) on your WXtrack
display. Note that the STS icon will need to be renamed with the
NORAD catalogue number for each new launch. Copy the contents of
the zip file to your WXtrack directory. My thanks to those who have made
their work available to the community.
If you like this software, you can rate it at the DXZone web site that
lists related programs. Rate this Software @ The
DXZone. Be sure to register
WXtrack and help support continued development.
A self-help group is available for this software at
Yahoo! Groups:
Click to visit the SatSignal self-help group
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to the late Ferran Alegret for providing a Spanish language
version of the help file, which may be obtained directly from his Web site, and to Jean-Louis Fenasse for the
French language help file and information. Thanks to Roger Hedin for his
additions of some lakes and island groups to the original Country & State boundary
data. George Ioannu provided the WXReceiver program for automatically scheduling reception.
David Bate suggested the MET display, and provides data updates. The orbit prediction code was derived from Dr T S Kelso's Pascal units on his CelesTrak web site. Many thanks to Dr Kelso who
very kindly gave permission for his code to be used. A component that can access the
SGP4 model based on Dr T S Kelso's code is available from this page.
Without Dr T S Kelso's code, WXtrack would not have been possible.
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Click for more
information
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Imagine that you are flying in space,
looking down upon the Earth. All your favourite satellites are
visible, and you can fly around to your heart's desires. Oh, and it
will cost you nothing! Yes, that's WXtrackGL.
You can choose when and where, and which satellites are displayed.
You can set whether you manually control the program, or get an automated
ride on the satellite!
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| V2.1.0
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Updates the program to allow it to act as a
viewer for any data presented on a world-map projection and generalises the time
steps. Make solar illumination optional, add higher-speed modes, add solar & lunar viewpoints,
allow background image choice, add persistence of selected settings.
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| V2.1.2
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Improved error messages, give folder name if no Keplers found,
suggest user downloads WXtrack.
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| V2.2.0
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Add support OpenGL 2.x systems.
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NOAA-16 coverage from New York |
Imagine if you could superimpose all the passes for a given
satellite for a week or a month ahead. You would end up with a plot
showing the coverage from your location. This simple program allows you to
do just that, and provides a text file of the results for any further processing
you wish to make. Experimental, unsupported program. Requires the SGP-4
component V3.2.0 listed below.
The screen shot to the left shows the coverage to be expected from an HRPT
station located in New York. Note the differences between north-bound
and south-bound coverage shown as red and blue lines. |
| V1.0.6 |
Add gnomonic
projection. |
Do you want to use the same prediction code as in WXtrack? Perhaps
you want to call it from Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C#, a Web page, or even a batch file.
This component is for you! I have made available the core SGP4 model
satellite prediction routines used in WXtrack as an Active-X DLL component. This allows you to
call satellite prediction routines from any program, Web pages using ASP, or even from the
command line by using the Windows Scripting Host. Working samples are provided
showing how to obtain a list of passes with Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, Borland's
Delphi 4, 5 and 6, using
the Windows Scripting Host and using Active Server Pages.
As in
WXtrack, the core code is from Dr T S Kelso's Pascal implementation of the highly accurate
SGP4/SDP4 orbital model. Many thanks to Dr T S Kelso for making this code available.
| V3.2.0 |
Add access to
satellite state. 2002 Apr 05 Updated Les Hamilton's VB5 demo. 2003
Jan 15 documentation update. |
| V3.4.0 |
Add Period function and access to Kepler data,
add MeanAnomaly to Kepler data, add MakePassDetails function. 2005 Feb 26
- updated Les Hamilton's VB5 demo. 2005 May 31 - added Nadir's C# demo.
2005 Jul 18 - updated Les Hamilton's VB5 demo to demonstrate the MakePassDetails
function. |
| V3.5.0 |
2005 Jun 16 - fix memory leak with duplicate satellite names.
2005 Jul 17 - increase error-checking in MakePassDetails (where a direction other than N, n, S, s is specified,
where the satellite name is mis-spelt). 2005 Jul 17 Les Hamilton updated the VB5 demo
(V6.0 update to make use of the function 'MakePassDetails'). |
| V3.6.0 |
2006 Sep 02 - add function MakePassDetails2 which includes the range rate.
2006 Sep 13 - add Java class and demo project from Henk Marais. 2007
Jan 15 - update Les Hamilton's VB5 demo |
This is exactly the same core code as used in WXtrack, but is provided
without support. Scott Hather is using a version of this DLL in the current version of his SatScape software.
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If you have an R2FX, R2ZX, R139 or RX2 receiver, you may have wanted to control it from
your computer so that important passes were collected, and not ruined by other
satellites capturing the receiver. My PassControl program allows this
scheduling, and being RS232-based, it works under Windows XP, 2000, NT etc. as
well as Windows 98 and ME.
This program has been fully updated for the new GEO
PIC 1.0 and for Kepler data for NOAA-18.
Hardware requirements: an R2FX,
R2ZX, R139 or RX2
Receiver modified for serial
remote control.
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| V3.1.0 |
Support GEO's R2FX (standard) and R2ZX (pager-proof)
receivers |
Now have their own page - please click this link. |
