Steps to set up gpredict. This is on the presumption that you have installed the software. See my post entitled Satellite links and software for details.
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Open gpredict. Edit > Preferences. In the General section, select Ground Stations
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At the bottom, click on the Add new button. This will create a new locale (‘Ground Station’) from which satellites will be tracked. Enter a Name. Then enter either your decimal coordinates, or enter your locator (e.g. the OTC is CN89oc). The other values are optional. Then click OK.
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Select TLE Update. Check your TLE (two-line elements) sources. Ensure that you at least have http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/keps/current/nasabare.txt as a source. If not, add it. Optionally, select if you want to auto-update the sources or do it manually.
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(Optional). In the Number Formats tab, you can select to show passes in local time instead of UTC. This may be beneficial if you have a hard time converting from UTC to local time. On the flip side however, when you are logging, you must use UTC time, so keeping it UTC may also be beneficial.
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(Optional). Remaining in Preferences, click on the Predict setting. In the first tab Pass Conditions, you can modify some options, including minimum elevation, number of passes to predict, etc. For example, I have selected a min. el. of 1. For most people, a satellite with 1 degree elevation is impossible to operate, and as such you will have extra useless passes. To avoid this, try a higher elevation, say between 10-20.
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Exit the Preferences window. Click Edit > Update TLE data from network.
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Click File > New module. Name your ‘module’. Select the ground station that you added in step 2. Select the satellites you want. For beginning FM, chuse ISS, SO-50, and PO-101 (you can always add more satellites later). At the bottom left of the window, select Properties. In Layout, you can select your desired layout. Try selecting from the drop down menu; there is a preview of each layout. I have chosen All views (wide). Click OK. Back in the Create new module window, click OK.
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You have now a world map and tracking a few satellites. Basic setup is complete.
At the bottom table, right click on a satellite and click Future passes. In this writeup, I chose ISS. A window will popup with upcoming passes for the satellite. For each pass, you will see AOS (acquisition of signal, when the satellite first comes above the horizon and into view), LOS (loss of signal, when the satellite goes beyond the horizon and out of our view), duration, the maximum elevation, the AOS and the LOS azimuth.
Double click on one pass. Another window will appear. Here you can see the data for the satellite at each time entry with the azimuth, elevation, range, and footprint.
Click on the Polar tab. This shows a compass polar view of the whole satellite pass. Here I have screenshoted a pass of ISS beginning at 2024-05-11 04:37:28.
On the same table at the botton right, again right click on the satellite and select Satellite info. You can view satellite data and on the Transponders tab, you can see the uplinks and downlinks of the satellite.
In the layout I have chosen, a polar view is also seen at the right. When a satellite is in view, it will show up in the view. The bottom right portion shows instant data for a chosen satellite. There is a drop down menu to chuse which satellite you want to be viewed.
This is a basic setup of gpredict and how I have personally set it up.