These instructions were made using CentOS release 6.5 with kernel version:

$ uname -r
2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64

on a machine with an AMD processor.

The MIT Haystack Observatory SRT website includes the manuals, documentation, and program code. The code base we are looking at, SRT Source Code ver 3, can be found here.

From the website, linked above, or the download link provided, download the srtnver3 source files from the MIT Haystack website. Once the download is complete, the gzipped tarball should be in your Downloads directory, ~/Downloads/newsrtsource_ver3.tar.gz.

$ cd Downloads
$ tar xzvf newsrtsource_ver4.tar.gz

If you want to move the source code out of the Downloads directory, and into the Home directory, for example:

$ mv srtnver3 ~
$ cd ~

From a clean install of CentOS, you will be missing some of the packages needed to run the software.

Before you do this though, you need to add your profile to the sudoers file, if you do not already have sudo permissions. To do this:

$ su
$ chmod +w /etc/sudoers
$ gedit /etc/sudoers

Down by the bottom of the file will be the line:

## Allow root to run any commands anywhere
root    ALL=(ALL)    ALL

Below this add the line " ALL=(ALL) ALL", where is the username logged in to the computer, in our case 'radio telescope'

## Allow root to run any commands anywhere
root    ALL=(ALL)    ALL
radiotelescope    ALL=(ALL)    ALL

Save the file and exit gedit, then in the terminal, type exit to return to your user status:

[root@localhost radiotelescope]# exit
exit
[radiotelescope@localhost ~]$

Now your user account should have sudo permission, so we can now install package dependencies.

The packages needed are gtk+2, gcc, and libusb. These can be acquired using the CentOS package manager, yum:

$ sudo yum install gtk2-devel gcc libusb1-devel

If successful, you should now have all the packages you need to run the software.

Now, move into the srtnver3 directory

$ cd ~/srtnver3

and run srtnmake:

$ ./srtnmake

This should complete successfully, but may show some warning messages. Now, to run the software:

$ ./srtn

To run with the dongle, receiver simulation must be turned off. To do this, simply

$ gedit srt.cat

In the edit window, find the line that says

SIMULATE RECEIVER

and change it to

*SIMULATE RECEIVER

Save the file and exit gedit. Now, we can run srtn using the dongle with

$ sudo ./srtn

And it should work!

NOTE: Notice how before to run, it was just ./srtn and this time it is sudo ./srtn. If you try ./srtn after enabling the dongle you will get a message similar to:

$ ./srtn
Found 1 device(s)
  0:  ,   SN:  ?????
Using device 0: ezcap USB 2.0 DVB-T/DAB/FM dongle
usb_open error -3
Please fix the device permissions, e.g. by installing the udev rules file rtl-sdr.rules
Failed to open rtlsdr device #0.

As we see above, it is possible to run srtn without sudo, but to do so, we must do a little extra work in installing the provided udev rules. A guide to installing the udev rules will be added later.

To run with the controller/rotator, antenna simulation must be turned off. To do this, simply

$ gedit srt.cat

In the edit window, find the line that says

SIMULATE ANTENNA

and change it to

*SIMULATE ANTENNA

Save the file and exit gedit. Now, we can run srtn using the controller/rotator with

$ sudo ./srtn

To test that the rotator works, try manually changing the az or el in-program using the 'azel' button. (Note: If the the rotator motion is moving in a direction you do not want it to go, you can press the 'S' button on the controller to stop movement.)

If you are unable to run the program successfully, look at the controller setup page to troubleshoot and make sure the controller was set up correctly.