Gpredict 1.0 beta 2 released

Finally, the Gpredict 1.0 beta 2 release has come together, featuring a completely rewritten radio controller / Doppler tuning algorithm. It became a bit more complicated than I originally anticipated, because the incoming requests for improvement of the original controller did not limit themselves to controlling the downlink and the uplink, but also called for using two different radios.

Given that there are very few full-duplex radios out there designed for satellite communications and that they are very expensive, I found this request to be very reasonable and decided to implement it. The resulting controller should be able to work using receivers, transmitters, half-duplex transceivers, and combination of those. Full-duplex has not been implemented, because I am not sure whether hamlib is able to do that properly. That will be implemented in one of the upcoming betas.

The new radio controller
The new radio control UI. See more screenshots.

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The Moon on Blue Sky

I caught the moon tonight right after sunset while the sky was still blue. Here is a video I recorded using my JVC Everio GZ-MG130E video camera. I didn’t use any telescope, just the camera zoom. It can do up to 32x optical zoom and something like 800x digital zoom. The highest zoom on this … Read more