Satmaster+

Overview: Satmaster+, is our premium tool for digital point-to-point or point to multi-point link budgets and is a rigorous tool capable of higher accuracy, when needed. Satmaster Pro (also included) is best suited for run-of-the-mill, point-to-point, link budgets and is a little more relaxed.

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Description of Features

Digital Link Budget Calculators

Full up-down digital link budget calculators with input provision for uplink power control (UPC), ALC, various interferences and multiple carriers. Finds HPA size, uplink power requirements, bandwidth and power usage per carrier. Calculates atmospheric losses and rain fade margins for any desired availability on uplink and downlink. Handles BPSK, QPSK, M-PSK or M-QAM with any FEC code rate. Determines power or bandwidth limited modes and calculates the power equivalent bandwidth, if appropriate. Provision for RS codes or 'Turbo' modems. Option for rain up AND rain down scenarios where uplink and downlink are from/to the same city.

Digital link budgets for Satellite TV, SNG, radio and data.
Satmaster Pro (included) can also be used for FM link budgets.
Sun outage prediction (single site and satellite).
Sun outage batch file handling (multiple sites or multiple satellites).
Antenna aiming.
Dual/multi feed positioning.
Dish sizing.
Polar mount alignment.
EIRP, SFD and G/T map viewer.
Automatic magnetic variation calculation.
Solar transit times.
Off-axis gains.
Rain attenuation model (ITU-R P.618-8 or Crane)
Calculates atmospheric absorption and tropospheric scintillation losses.
Loads and displays decoded two line element (TLE) files (SGP4/SDP4 model)
Fast batch processing of up to 500 GEO link budgets
Ionospheric scintillation estimator.
Four satellite, ASI calculator within GEO 'bent pipe' link budget modules.
Automatic 'Antenna Noise' calculation option.
Tabulation of R0.01 values and rain attenuation for a selected country.
Highlighting of key link budget results.
Non-reflector gains and effective apertures accepted
Polarization offset shown in 'Satellites above Horizon' listings.
Generates numerous graphs and tables
Numerous satellite based calculation tools such as G/T and off axis antenna gains.

The software can calculate digital link budgets for GEO satellite 'bent-pipe' and regenerative transponders as well as snapshot digital link budgets for some NON GEO varieties. Minimum system requirements are Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP (Intel) with at least 800*600 display resolution and any i586 (Pentium) or later. Satmaster Pro will run on older processors.

What is not in Satmaster+ compared to Satmaster Pro: No FM link budgets, these are little used now and virtually obsolete. No file compatibility with Satmaster Pro link budget files but a full copy of Satmaster Pro is included.

Detail

Link Budget Calculators:: Full up-down digital link budget calculators with provision for interference input, uplink power control (UPC), ALC, E.S. intermodulation. interference and multiple carriers per HPA. Finds HPA size, uplink power requirements, bandwidth and power usage per carrier. Calculates atmospheric losses and rain fade margins for any desired availability on uplink and downlink. Optional auto-estimation of output back off and transponder intermodulation interference. Handles BPSK, QPSK, M-PSK or M-QAM with any FEC code rate. Determines if transponder is power or bandwidth limited and calculates the power equivalent bandwidth if appropriate. Provision for RS codes or 'Turbo' modems. Option for rain up AND rain down scenarios where uplink and downlink are from/to the same city.
Rain Attenuation Models: ITU-R P.618-8, Crane global or Crane revised two component models are supported without any requirement to consult maps. These models are used for link budgets, graphs and tables and have simple radio button selection. For the ITU-R model it is also possible to enter locally obtained R0.01 values in mm/h.
Atmospheric Losses: For low elevation paths, atmospheric absorption and tropospheric scintillation losses are significant. The program calculates these parameters as standard but there is also an option to zero these parameters for comparison with other link budget tools that neglect them.
Tabulate Availability v Rain Attenuation: Generates tables of availability, rain attenuation, XPD and expected downtimes
Separate Rain Attenuation Module: Quickly calculate XPD, rain attenuation and noise increase due to rain for use with other software and spreadsheets. Tabulate rate tables for any selected country.
Antenna Aiming: Calculates elevation, true azimuth, compass bearing and polarization offset for any geostationary satellite from any location. No need to know magnetic variation values, it's all automated. Finds minimum and maximum antenna elevation for satellites in inclined orbits.
Quick TVRO Dish Sizing: Short form downlink budgets digital TV broadcasts using GEO satellites with minimum dish size optimizer.
Sun Outage Prediction: Presents accurate annual lists of date and time windows for geostationary satellite/ground station combinations worldwide. All time zones supported. Output in Local Civil Time or GMT. Please note, this module is not suitable for elderly satellites placed in inclined orbits. There is also a batch file processes to produce listings for either multiple sites, or multiple satellites, ready for pasting into MS Excel or a similar spreadsheet program.
Dual / Multi Feed Calculations: Finds relative satellite and feed spacing relative to boresight. Calculates antenna "squinting" efficiency for link budget. Execute any number of times for multiple feeds. Tabulate dual feed calculations for major towns and cities in a country with average value.
Footprint Map Viewer: Satmaster Pro can display, scanned or downloaded, footprint maps of your choice in BMP, GIF, PCX, TIFF and JPEG formats.
Flexible Output Options: Prints reports with your company name at the top or output may be copied and pasted into MS Excel or similar as tab delimited text for unlimited customisation. Reports and tables may also be saved in HTML for uses such as emailing, uploading to web sites or importing into other applications
Modified Polar Mounts: Locate true north/south anywhere in the world using the sun's position as your guide. Calculates modified polar mount angles for any latitude with notes on installation.
Wind Loading: Calculates overturning moment (OTM) and ballast required for a given wind speed. Assumes antenna is pole mounted using a base frame weighted with concrete blocks.
Overcome Local Magnetic Anomalies: Select monthly tabulations of the local time when the sun and a selected satellite have the same azimuth. Useful where local magnetic anomalies may affect compass readings.
Tabulate Availability v Rain Attenuation: Generates tables of availability, rain attenuation, XPD and expected downtimes
Data Files: Supplied with a satellite data file and over 30,000 town and city records arranged in over 200 separate country data files. Easy browse transfer of data to input forms. All databases may be user edited. The satellite data is also updated and may be downloaded at any time.
Help File: Large help file which is fully context sensitive by using the F1 key or selecting the button on any active input field.
Table Generator: Tabulates modified polar mount angles, antenna look angles to any geostationary satellite from multiple town/city locations in a selected country, 'visible' satellites from either a single location or two sites.
Graph Plots: Plots graphs relating to digital modulation, ITU-R or Crane rain attenuation models, BER v Eb/No, atmospheric absorption, dish parabolas, lobe patterns and much more. There is also a BER v Eb/No reference chart for Reed Solomon concatenated Viterbi codes and 'turbo' codecs at various FEC rates.
Calculations and Conversions: Performs often used calculations and conversions, including antenna focal distances, rain attenuation with noise increase, off-axis gains and power spectral densities. Includes an editable mathematical expression evaluator.
Tool Bar: Includes convenient toolbar with speed buttons for most often used menu selections. Menu option for quick opening of the six most recently used files.
Multiple Document Interface: Allows mixes of link budgets, maps, graphs and tables within a single application window. Ideal for comparing link budgets.
Persistent Input Data: Input forms under the Graph, Table and Calculate menus have persistence of input data by default but can be turned off.

Description of Batch Processing Module

Batch Link Budget Calculator: Calculates a full set of GEO digital link budget output parameters. It's like running a standard link budget program up to 500 times with different data. Can save hours of tedious link budget work compared to using point-to-point link budget programs.

Batch File Input

Simple text files, listing up to 500 text lines (records), are used as input. Each record is expected to contain the following parameters as input:

Site name, Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, Sat G/T, Sat EIRP, Antenna size

Altitude may be set to zero if you do not have the data. Antenna size may be initially set to zero. Once outbound terminal antenna sizes are calculated (optional) a new batch file may be saved with substituted antenna sizes for the hub inbound direction.Parameters that do not change significantly across the area of interest are input to a separate parameter/control file which may be saved, printed, displayed or transferred via the clipboard to a spreadsheet program. The batch method is flexible, you could use a batch of towns and cities within an area or, say, use a regular 50km lat/long grid of locations in which case you might like to list numerical grid references under 'Site Name'. The batch file is parsed for errors at run time and yields offending line numbers. Any text editor may be used but ones that display line numbers may be an advantage.

Output: Places the calculated link budget data grid on the clipboard for maximum flexibility and user customisation. Please note that 'Microsoft Excel' or a similar spreadsheet application is required to display or manipulate grid output.

A tested and totally free alternative to Microsoft Excel is OpenOffice

General

Security, Usage and System Requirements: Satmaster+ is written in C/C++ as a single executable file which is not reliant on 3rd party DLLs or OCXs. The software installs cleanly into a single directory/folder and the full licensed version is free of hardware locking or other irritating software protection. The program does not contain any code that connects to the Internet. Data is not written to disk unless the user chooses to.

Once licensed, there are no extra upgrade charges for the entire Satmaster+ Mk1.x series delivered by web download. A licensed user may install and use a copy on multiple computers s/he uses but any shared usage contravenes the, single user, license agreement. Minimum System Requirements are an i586 or later processor, Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP with 800*600 or higher display resolution. A spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel or the free OpenOffice is needed to display results of the batch link budget process. There is special upgrade pricing for existing Satmaster Pro users.