A little while ago, I asked if there was any program that could convert TLEs to 'regular' values. Mike McCants graciously offered to write one if I wrote the program specs. After a couple of refinements, the final result is available as XLATE.exe at Mike's web site. I wrote a batch file to be used with Qsort to sort the XLATE output on any of the columns. I'll email it on request. I offer a big thank you to Mike McCants, John Gardner and Bjoern Gimle for their help and cooperation in writing the TLE utilities that I recently asked for. Aside from the fact that I like observing satellites, I'm happy to have the many helpful friends that share this interest. Thanks to you all. Here is the XLATE READ.ME file. The actual Output Line is 80 characters long. I shortened it here to avoid wrapping the line. -------------------------------- This is a simple program to convert input tles to a single line of output information. The input tle: AMS 1(DMSP F1) 1 09415U 76091A 98219.07937254 .00000090 00000-0 39327-4 0 08 2 09415 98.7550 345.0403 0020000 16.1670 343.8329 14.23788245 03 is converted into the output line: Cat.# Int.ID Name YrMoDa Pd.min MM/dot Inc Ecc Apo-Mi-Peri 9415 76091A AMS 1(DMSP F1) 980807 101.1 .00000 98.8 .00200 513 496 The program prompts for 4 inputs: 1. The input file name 2. The output file name 3. The letter k or K for output in kilometers (The default is miles.) 4. A selection criterion There are 8 possible values that can be tested: 1. Period 2. Mean motion 3. Drag 4. Inclination 5. Eccentricity 6. Apogee (miles or kilometers) 7. Perigee (miles or kilometers) 8. NORAD catalog number The user enters the selection number (1-8), a lower limit, and an upper limit. Only those objects that meet the criterion will have information written to the output file. A blank line or a 0 means "no selection". But if an 8 is entered and no limits, the user will be prompted to enter specific NORAD catalog numbers. Up to 100 ncat numbers can be entered. When a blank line is entered, the selection of those numbers will be performed. Since the input file is processed one line at a time, there is no limit on how many input tles can be processed. If there is no "line 0 name line", the name field will be blank. This program requires a co-processor. ------------------------------------------- -- Jay Respler -- JRespler@surfnj.net Sky Views: http://njsurf.com/skyviews/ Satellite Tracker * Early Typewriter Collector Freehold, New Jersey