RE: What's the best TLE file?
Jeff Hunt (jhunt@eagle1.eaglenet.com)
Sun, 29 Oct 95 18:34:10 EST
Tim Linder recently asked this question. For those who already know this
info please bear with me. Maybe others can benefit.
With regards to the Molczan files:
One ftp source for these is Neil Clifford's
ftp:ftp.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/sat/mirrors/molc
These files are compressed in the gzip format. I seem to recall Neil said if
you didn't want to receive them compressed you can decompress them on the fly
by not including the *.Z suffix. The disadvantage is that it is going to
take about 3 times as long to receive them uncompressed.
The next site is ftp://kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/space/elements/molczan
(which Neil mirrors). In that subdirectory you can find a utility program
called gzip121.zip which contains the gzip.exe program for PC's to
decompress *.Z files. Using it saves a lot of transmission time. This site
may also allow decompressing on the fly, I don't recall for sure.
For myself, I like Allen Thomson's (sp?) +600K compressed file found at
ftp://kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/space/elements/satelem compressed in Z. If
you decide to uncompress that on the fly bring a lunch! However I don't
recall that Neil mirrors that file. Don't forget to shift to binary mode.
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Jeff Hunt, Charlotte Hall, Md. 38.51N, 76.76W
E-mail: jhunt@eagle1.eaglenet.com
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