Re: [amsat-bb] Cost comparison

["Don Woodward" <dbwoodw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Excellent points. There are lots of alternatives to UniTrac.

Since, I own/use a UniTrac, that's what I'm familiar with, and so I used that
example.

In my setup I use Nova to drive UniTrac which in turn drives my G5500 rotor and
tunes my FT-847 radio all in a powerful easy to use package. With Nova's script
tracking - I can setup (point/click) a whole day's (or longer) worth of passes
and just walk into the shack and start talking when the pass times arrive.

73's

Don Woodward
KD4APP
AMSAT 33535
kd4app@amsat.org
http://kd4app.webhop.org


----- Original Message -----
From: "Estes Wayne-W10191" <W10191@motorola.com>
To: <amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 16:28
Subject: [amsat-bb] Cost comparison


Don Woodward wrote:

A more apples to apples comparison would be to bundle UniTrac (radio tuning and
rotor automation) at $260 with the G5500 - with UniTrac you don't need Yaesu's
GS-232 - so $525 + $260 = $785.

Wayne replies:

Several "plug and play" rotor control solutions are much cheaper than UniTrac.
In Germany, there are the HalloSat and WinRotor32 that both cost less than $100.
That is a complete and extremely compact hardware interface (with driver
software) that plugs into a parallel port on your computer, and to the DIN
connector on the G-5500.  For radio tuning, several satellite tracking programs
support Doppler tuning using only a $5 serial cable.  I'm using a HalloSat
interface that seems to work quite well.  The only "problem" is that all the
documentation is in German.  That's not much of a problem after you've run the
automatic calibration routine.

Nevertheless, the SatEL system does seem to be cheaper...  I don't know why, but
I think I would rather have "real time" computer control of the rotors, rather
than download a file to a standalone rotor control unit.  It seems like the
SatEL system is very inconvenient to switch from one satellite to another.  The
web site is mum about it, but I hope the driver supports manual rotor control
for terrestrial operation.  Finally, I think the Yaesu (Kenpro) G-5500 rotors
are slightly more rugged than the Alliance U-100 rotors.  There are so many
differences, I don't think it's possible to make an "apples to apples"
comparison.

Wayne Estes W9AE
Mundelein, IL, USA
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