An explanation of why I wrote the program "MoonSked" for Mac and PC :

I use a Macintosh computer for a number of things including all my Internet
and email activities. I wanted to have a way of quickly making EME schedules
with other stations and also checking what skeds I had in the weekly
VHFSKED.SKD files distributed by K2LME. Until I wrote MoonSked, I had to use
the 'find' function in a text editor to search through the VHFSKD.SKD file
for my Callsign, not an ideal system.

First of all I wrote a piece of software called MacEME which gives realtime
moon predictions as well as Sky Noise charts and Moon Window on a World map.
It made use of the DIR.SKD files to quickly select the location of another
station. It quickly became obvious, that although this software was useful
as realtime tool, it was not what was required for setting up schedules.

I then wrote another piece of software - MoonSked. The first version was
written for the Macintosh and was a 'Common Window Calculator' similar to
'Tracker' by Lance W7GJ. All the usual stuff like DGR, SkyNoise,Spatial
Angle, MNR, Doppler etc. Again I used DIR.SKD as the database of 144MHz
stations to allow easy selection of a sked partners location.

N1BUG et al had written a superb piece of DOS software called SKD80 which
did most of what I wanted, but not on the Macintosh unless I ran a DOS
emulator...

I didn't need a full SKD80 type program (I am not a NET controller setting
up dozens of skeds for stations worldwide), but I did need some way of
quickly seeing the schedules in VHFSKED.SKD and making new proposals.

So I extended MoonSked to read all of the *.SKD files (FREQ,DIR and VHFSKD).
Actually to be more correct I started a third program with only the database
stuff and then decided it was natural to combine my existing 'Common Moon
Window calculator' with the database program and make an integrated
application that would do everything I wanted.

I then noticed that VHFSKD.SKD also contains a list of email addresses for
EME stations so I added a way of displaying that information and allowing
the user to click on an email address to create a new email to that station.

Because SKD80 is the de facto standard for distributing VHF skeds, I had to
make sure that I could export (by way of copying and pasting) newly created
skeds from MoonSked to email. MoonSked can produce either the familiar SKD80
format or a more human readable form if you prefer.

A number of the very useful features of SKD80 are implemented such as
displaying ALL skeds in chronological order, checking that a new sked does
not clash with another either in time or frequency.

I decided to cross compile the software to the PC platform (WIndows
95/98/NT) as I felt there may be others who could make use of MoonSked.

Now I have produced this Linux x86 version for those who have migrated to Linux from Windows.

Although the scheduling part of MoonSked is very much linked to 144MHz ops,
the moon prediction part is more general and handles 144/432/1296
calculations.

This software would not have been possible without the help and inspiration
of many others who have written EME software. G3SEK, VK3UM, W7GJ, N1BUG,
GM4ANB to name but a few.

Please give it a try and let me know what you think, the software is
Shareware so you can try it for free.


73, David GM4JJJ, IO86gb
