Ransom site elsets
Eric Vondra (evondra@usaor.net)
Fri, 12 Jun 1998 10:50:40 -0400
Thanks to Philip Clarke for providing one means around the
OIG problem.
As a very casual computer user but avid satellite observer,
I am wondering what this will mean for others like myself,
whom I suspect may be the majority. I tried downloading the
gbYYMMDD.zip file from Dave Ransom's site and came up with
almost 10,000 elsets. The file is useless for SatSpy 2.5, in
that the program relies on the common name for
identification and comes up with a blank listing of
satellites (since the file uses no common names). I haven't
yet memorized numerical designators for all the 10,000 sats.
Many of us go strictly by the common name and only use the
NORAD or Internatl. designation if reference is made here
only to that, and to see the launch date. Even if the names
appeared, the time to produce usable pass data would be
increased by a factor of at least 5.
I hope what you are all talking about is a method of
producing a molczan-size file with common names that will
also be useful to casual observers like myself. 100 elsets
is too small a file, but 10,000 is too big. I'm glad to see
that those who are capable are doing some constructive
thinking to solve the upcoming problem. As for my thoughts
on NASA/OIG, I will keep that to myself, but will certainly
join Bart in lending my name to a petition or other
communication to OIG.
Thanks to all who provide us casual observers with the
usable data!
Eric Vondra
Wampum, PA, USA