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.
Full list of changes:
- Improved implementation of the radio controller to include uplink.
- Added transponder data management (GUI editor to be added in beta 3).
- Libcurl is now required to build.
- Feature request 2756021: Doppler tuning using two radios (duplex).
- Feature request 2691963: Doppler tuning on uplink (Simplex TRX).
- Feature request 2192404: Starting time for pass predictions.
- Feature request 2347471: Use system goocanvas.
- Feature request 2130940: Transponder info in gpredict.
- Fixed a bug that could cause gpredict to hang during pass predictions.
- Fixed bug 2139102: rigctld port.
- Fixed bug 2130912: Crash when no rig or no rotator are defined.
- Fixed bug 2130914: Gpredict doesn’t handle PTT.
- Fixed bug 2170642: Small error in user manual.
- Fixed bug 2750119: Unable to set the time correctly in Time Controller.
- Updated PDF user manual.
- French translation.
I hope the turnaround time for the next beta will be weeks instead of months.