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alogdisp.asc
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1991-04-15
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UoSAT/Microsat Activity Log Display Program
This program was written by H Price (NK6K) and J Ward (G0/K8KA). It compiles
using Microsoft C and the executable program will run on IBM PCs and
compatibles. If you modify this program for other machines and operating
systems, please send us a copy so that we can make it available to others.
The program alogdisp.c interprets the binary contents of activity log files
built by the file transfer server task on UO-14, AO-16 and LO-19. Each
satellite builds an activity log every day, and stores the login a file called
"ALyymmdd", where yymmdd is replaced by the year,month and day for which the
log was built. You download activity log files from the file server just as
you would any other file, or (preferably) receive them using the Broadcast
Protocol. Activity log files will have the PACSAT File Type 0x0c. Before you
can run alogdisp program on an activity log file, you must remove the PACSAT
File Header from the file using PHS or another file header utility.
The activity log file is a binary file containing variable-length structures
of two basic types. The first type includes a callsign and a variable amount
of data; this is the ALOG_2 structure defined in the file "alog.h". The second
type does not include a callsign; this is an ALOG_1 structure. Log entries
with callsigns included are used to log the beginning of a connected-mode
session or any event caused by a specific station but not related to a
connected-mode session,e.g. starting a broadcast. Log entries without
callsigns are used to log events within a connected-mode session and events
which occur automatically on the server.
For connected-mode sessions, the station's callsign is logged only once, at
the beginning of the session; this ALOG_START_SESSION type log entry also
contains the serial number related to that session.Subsequent log entries for
the session will not have callsigns, but can be identified by their
'serial_no' variable.
All times printed by alogdisp.c are taken from the data file itself and
displayed as UTC.
This program now supports a callsign filter. You can filter out all log
entries relating to a particular callsign by placing that callsign after the
ALxxxxxx file name on the command line. Using the special file name 'admin'
will display only the automatic actions taken by the server task.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
You may just scan the log entries to find out who is active on the satellites
and how often. If you are having problems with your station, however, the
activity logs may help you locate the problem. If you're implementing your own
groundstation software, the activity logs can be an invaluable debugging tool.
- BLOWOFFS
A sure sign of problems in your groundstation is the "BLOWOFF" message with a
reason other than "inactivity timeout". (BLOWOFF with Inactivity Timeout is
what happens when you have LOS in the middle of a message transfer.) This
means that your groundstation software sent incorrect data to the satellite;
either the data didn't represent an valid FTL0 packet or it wasn't the packet
that the FTL0 protocol server was expecting at the time. If you are using a
new PACSAT groundstation program, this is possibly an indication of an error
in that program. If you are using an established PACSAT groundstation program,
the error is probably being caused by incorrect operation of the link between
your computer and your TNC. If you often get BLOWOFF during uploads, your
TNC/PC handshaking is incorrect. If you get BLOWOFF before you even begin
uploading, then there is something more basic wrong with the connections in
your station.
- SELECT DONE
The SEL DONE entry can tell you how efficient you are at keeping up with
activity on the satellite. After the callsign is a field ddd/hh:mm:ss which
tells how many days, hours, minutes and seconds worth of files were searched
to make your selection. If your software is operating correctly, this will be
the same as the time since you last logged on to PACSAT and got a directory.
If the word "start" appears rather than a ddd/hh:mm:ss entry, then ALL the
files on the satellite were searched, which is inefficient and time consuming.
The len: entry tells how many bytes were in the selection equation, and the
selected: entry tells how many new files fit your selection.
The difference in time between the SELECT entry and the SEL DONE entry tells
how long it took for the satellite to search through new files for those you
wanted.
Example :
02:33:00 SELECT JA6FTL-2
02:33:01 SEL DONE JA6FTL-2 003/02:33:00 len:9 selected:14
In this case, JA6FTL-2 sent a 9-byte select equation, which took 1 second to
evaluate and resulted in the selection of 14 files. 3 days, 2 hours and 33
minutes worth of new files were searched.
JWW/HEP