
			Documentation for SATUPDAT
				by F6BVP
			version 1.82e October 1994

                        Linux version for SATUPDAT
                                by F6FBB


satupdat program will read messages from AMSAT copied via packet radio. 
It extracts keplerian elements both in NASA and AMSAT formats and updates
the data into the satellites data base of the F6FBB's BBS file that should 
be in the directory fbb/system/sat/satel.dat 

satupdat program must be put in the fbb/bin directory, together with binaries.

Running satupdat without arguments will print the following message on 
your screen (between lines -----): 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Automatic update of satellites orbital parameters for F6FBB's bbs
Version 1.83e - November 1994 - Bernard Pidoux, F6BVP
Linux version - April 1997 - Jean-Paul ROUBELAT F6FBB
Usage: satupdat [file name<.txt>] </option> </option> </option>

Reading option:       /a AMSAT format (default)
                      /n NASA format
Update option:        /f merging new and old data (default)
                      /u update only satellites being in the data base
                      /s keep only satellites being in the input file
Delete option:        /dxxx delete data older than xxx days
                              (default xxx=100 days)

<<769 satellites maximum>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Version 1.82 October 1994
=========================
This version replaces earlier versions to be compatible with REQKEP, a new
satellite KEPlerian elements REQuest service for F6FBB BBS. A few minor bugs
have  been fixed  and the  number of  satellites that  can be  managed by  the
program was increased to 768. 

Version 1.80 November 1993
==========================
This new version incorporates a new feature that deletes automatiquely from
the satellites data base, keplerian parameters older than a specified number
of days. Default is 100 days. This cleans the data base, removing decayed
satellites without sysop intervention. 

Both AMSAT and NASA format checksum are verified, providing uncorrupted data
feeding of the BBS data base.

SYSOP information:
For automatic update of keplerian elements into F6FBB's bbs, just create
a virtual BBS into bbs.sys file. Its name could be AMSAT for example. 

30 F5NUF
31 F5JAD
32
33 AMSAT   <- Modify a free entry of bbs.sys to add AMSAT
34
35
36
37

Then declare the following forward in the file forward.sys :

------
*
A AMSAT
*
   G AMSAT
   P @
*
*  Adjust the next line depending of the xfbb root directory
*
   C /fbb/system/sat/amsat.txt
*
------

CAUTION: The path name should be the exact one of your configuration.

In order to run automatically satupdat when xfbb makes its maintenance,
you must modify the xfbb.sh batch file like the following example:

maintenance()
{
  echo "Running maintenance"
  sleep 2
  epurmess
  epurwp 40 90
# Added lines for satupdat
  if [ -f $XFBBDIR/system/sat/amsat.txt ]
  then
    cd $XFBBDIR/system/sat
    satupdat amsat /n > satupdat.res
    satupdat amsat   >> satupdat.res
    rm amsat.txt
    cd $XFBBDIR
  fi
}

SATUPDAT OPTIONS
================

The default extention for input file is .txt, however you can specify 
another extention.
 
Both arguments after the filename in the command line are optional:
the first one indicates the reading format, either the AMSAT format
or the NASA "2-line" format. The first one is selected by default.
 
The second option is for the choice of update mode.

By default the program will merge the old list with the new one (same
if you select option /f). Old data of satellites which are not present in
the input file are kept as is and the other ones are updated.

Option /u can be selected if you dont want to add new satellites to the ones
already present. Only keplerian elements from known satellites are updated.
This prevents the list to grow with incoming satellites that you are not
eventually interested in.

Option /s, on the contrary, gives you the possibility to keep only in the 
data base the data from the satellites whose name is in the input file.
This can help you to suppress old satellites from the data base.

Option /d is optionnal. Default is 100 days. This means that the program
will remove data older than 100 days from the satellite data base, and
will not take into account keplerian elements older than 100 days from
the input file.

In all cases the program takes care of the permanent data of satellites
such as the frequency (for doppler) and the step for computing the 
tracking (the SYSOP must provide both manually only the first time). 

If the keplerian elements of the input file are older than the ones already
present in the BBS data base, the old ones are kept.

The list is sorted by name in order to help finding of the satellite
name when someone is connected to the BBS.

If elements for one satellite are duplicated in the input file, the program
will look again for the newest data.

Of course, if CRC computed by the program is not the same as the one in the
input file, the program informs you that the CRC is BAD and it does not take
the keplerian elements. 

In the batch file example given above you have certainly noticed that I call
twice the program satupdat with two different format arguments. The first
time I ask the program to read the NASA format and the second time to read
the default format AMSAT. The reason is that the probability for an error
to occure in both formats for the same satellite is very small. Thus if an
error occurs in one format the program will complete the update when it founds
uncorrupted keplerian elements in the other format. Thanks to the checksum 
adopted by AMSAT! The results of the update operation is written into the 
satupdat.res file.  

All remarks and suggestions will be appreciated by F6BVP.

73's de Bernard, F6BVP @F6BVP.FRPA.FRA.EU
