                          SSSSCVUE.EXE Version 1.3

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

SSSSCVUE is a Windows based utility that allows easy viewing of Robert
Smather's (roberts@nmia.com) South Scanner Satellite Services Chart.
Because there is so much traffic on North American C and Ku band 
satellites, the SSSSC file has become over 270K in size and therefore
can be quite difficult to use but at the same time if it were smaller,
it wouldn't be anywhere nearly useful as it is.

SSSSCVUE corrects this problem by splitting the SSSSC file into
satellite by satellite listings, allowing you to get to a particular
satellite very quickly. Once at a particular satellite, command
buttons are provided to take you directly to the band layout
and transponder usage for the selected satellite. 

Command buttons are also provided for next and previous satellite
along with next and previous page allowing you to read through the
SSSSC file using only a mouse. 

Because the Volume 4 Number 1 issue of the SSSSC file contains the
Norad satellite number for each of the listed satellites, SSSSCVUE
is also able to calculate azimuth and elevation for the satellite
from your location. This is accomplished by pressing on the
command button showing the orbital slot (degrees) for each satellite.

ABOUT INCLINED SATELLITES

When satellites are placed into geostationary orbit (known as the Clarke
Belt), they all are placed about 23,000 miles above the planet, all
located on the equator. Station keeping fuel is kept on-board the
satellite and is used to counteract the effect of the planet's
gravitational pull which in time would move the satellite from its
assigned orbital slot.

The lifetime of TVRO satellites is based upon the amount of station
keeping fuel, normally 10 - 12 years. The life of a satellite can be
extended quite dramatically by placing it onto an inclined orbit. Once
in this orbit, the satellite loops in a tight figure eight relative to
the equator which counteracts the gravitational effect of the planet,
therefore keeping the satellite in the same orbital slot without
using anywhere nearly as much fuel.

The problem with this figure eight loop is that it causes the satellite
to move in and out of the viewing angle of most TVRO satellite
dishes. This results in the satellite only being viewable for a few
hours every day without the use of special tracking equipment.

SSSSCVUE contains a utility (the "Inclined" option) that calculates
the daily orbit for inclined satellites and lets you know the
two times during the day that the satellite will cross the equator
and will be therefore viewable without special tracking equipment.

ABOUT THE SETUP MENU

The setup menu  is used to change various operational characteristics
of SSSSCVUE. The following describes each of the fields and how they
effect various things.

 City Database:

  This database contains lattitude, longditude and elevation data for
  about 1700 cities around the world. Use the pull-down selector
  to choose the city closest to your location and then click on 
  the "Transfer" command button.

  If you are in a location that is not coverred by the city database,
  please let me know your details via email and I'll add it to the
  next release.

 Your Settings:

  These fields are set by using the "Transfer" command button or
  by typing into them. Longditude to the west of Greenwich is
  negative and to the east is positive. Lattitude is positive
  within the Northern hemishphere and negative in the South.

 Inclination Accuracy:

  This field determines the accuracy of the inclined orbit calculator.
  When set to one minute, it calculates the orbital position of each
  inclined satellite for every minute in the day. If the calculation
  reveals the satellite will be visible then the time at which it
  becomes visible will be accurate to within one minute. When set
  to ten minutes, the orbit will only be calculated for every ten
  minutes throughout the day and therefore the accuracy of equator
  crossing time will be within ten minutes.

  The lower the Inclination Accuracy value, the longer the math takes
  for each satellite. A value of ten minutes is recommended.

 Equator Offset:

  When determining the times at which inclined satellites are
  visible, SSSSCVUE uses this field to specify the degrees
  above and below the equator that your dish can receive a
  reasonable signal from the satellite.

  I recommend starting with the default value of .5 degrees. 
  If you find that the satellite is not visible at the start
  and end of the times displayed by the inclined option then
  reduce this number. 

 Magnetic Declination:

  This field effects the calculated azimuth from your location to
  the satellite. It specifies the difference between true north
  and magnetic north from your location. Because this number is
  difficult to calculate, you must supply this data to get totally
  accurate azimuth readings.

  The local airport should be able to furnish you with this information.

 Timezone Offset:

  Because orbital statistics are all relative to Univeral Time (UTC
  or the time in London, England during the winter),  SSSSCVUE
  must know the time difference between your computer's time and
  UTC so that the Inclined orbit option times will be displayed
  in your local time.

 Common Timezones:

  This field contains many common timezones. Select the appropriate
  one to set the Timezone Offset field automatically. If your timezone
  is not provided, let me know and I'll add it to future releases.

RELEASE STATUS

SSSSCVUE Version 1.3 contains a large number of new features and corrections
over the previous 1.2 release. Note that version 1.3 replaces the
prior 1.3 beta release and finalies some of the features added to the 
1.3 beta release.

SSSSCVUE is freeware and may be freely distributed and used as desired.
Source code is available by sending an email request to rodhew@ibm.net.

The included SSSSC.TXT file is subject to different distribution
restrictions than SSSSCVUE.EXE. Please ensure you read the "SSSSC
Introduction" section for distribution restrictions for this file.

SSSSCVUE is written in the Standard Edition of Microsoft Visual Basic
3.0 without the use of any special DLLs. Therefore it requires that
the Visual Basic 3.0 runtime module (VBRUN300.DLL) be present in the
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory of your hard drive. VBRUN300.DLL is freely
distributable and may be obtained from a large number of sources.

INCLUDED FILES

The following files are included with the SSSSCVUE 1.3 distribution:

 SSSSCVUE.EXE	This is the actual program.

 SSSSC.TXT	South Scanner Services Satellite Chart. The included
		SSSSC.TXT file is Volume 4 Number 1 with a few changes
		to make the reader operate better. SSSSCs later than
		this version should work without modification.

 TVRO.TLE	Two line elements (orbital data) for most of the
		TVRO satellites in the world. SSSSCVUE uses this 
		data to calculate azimuth and elevation to the satellite
		and is also used to calculate viewing times for
		inclined satellites.

 SSSSC.CTY	Contains a list of approx. 1700 cities and their
		lattitude, longditude and elevation.

All these files MUST be placed in the same directory. I recommend
you use \SSSSCVUE for this purpose. Additionally the viewer also
generates a file called SSSSCVUE.INI in the Windows directory. This
file contains the settings used by SSSSCVUE and is an ASCII file
that you can examine with any ASCII editor.

CLOSING COMMENTS

I wrote SSSSCVUE to make the SSSSC file easier to use and also to give
me a real application with which to learn how to program in Visual
Basic. Because this is the second Visual Basic program I've written,
I'm sure it contains some bugs. If you find any, please let me know
via email and I'll try to fix them.

In the next release, I'm planning to add a Print option to allow you
to get a nicely formatted document containing the pertanant information
related to each satellite; I also need to know how to write code in
Visual Basic to allow me to print! If you would like to see other
features, let me know and I'll take them into consideration.

Enjoy,
Rod Hewitt (rodhew@ibm.net)

