Ham Radio 2000 #2/Ham Radio 2000 - Volume 2.iso/HAMV2/LOGS/STATION1/HELP.TXT

Text File | 1997-05-15 | 14.3 KB | 314 lines

              S T A T I O N     (for Windows-95)
     Version 1.01   (c) Copyright 1997 by Billy Pinkerton
                           N4LXL



Part 1,  The legalities.

REGISTRATION

STATION is not free software. The author is the legal copyright
owner of this program and reserves all rights. Copyright laws apply
to both Shareware and retail software. This program is released as
shareware, which provides an opportunity for the program to be
evaluated before it is registered. If you try this program and
continue using it, you are required to register it. Register by
mailing your check in the amount of $16.00 payable to;

                                      Billy Pinkerton
                                      1148 Newbern Street, N.E.
                                      Palm Bay, Florida  32905
                                      USA

         (Do not use this address to order copies of STATION)


LIMITED LICENSE

Non-licensed users are granted a limited license to use this version of
STATION for a single 21 day trial period, for the purpose of determining
if the program is suitable for their needs. The use of STATION beyond
this trial period requires registration and payment of license fee. The
use of unlicensed copies of STATION, other than the single 21-day trial
period by any person, business, corporation, government agency or any
other entity is strictly prohibited.

No person has permission to modify or patch any files provided with the
program in any way, including but not limited to decompiling, dis-assembly
or otherwise reverse engineering the program.

A limited license is granted to copy and distribute this version of
STATION only for the trial use of others, subject to all limitations
indicated in this document and as follows;

1)  STATION and all it's release files must be distributed in unmodified
    form, complete with the file containing this license information.

2)  No fee, charge or other compensation may be requested or accepted for
    such distribution, except as authorized below.

    (A)  Operators of electronic bulletin board systems (sysops) and
         public networks may make this program available for downloading
         only as long as the above conditions are met and the only
         charges for this service are normal user connection charges.

    (B)  Vendors of shareware software and non-profit organizations may
         distribute copies of this version of STATION, subject to all
         limitations indicated. Each disk so duplicated must be labeled
         with the program name & version number, indicating on each
         label that it is a "Shareware Evaluation Copy."  No fee for
         such duplication may exceed $5.00 per disk (or equivalent, if
         the media is CD.

    (C)  Licensed Amateur Radio operators may, and are encouraged to,
         make copies of STATION available to other "Hams" so long as
         all limitations indicated in this document are complied with
         and that both parties to this activity understand that No
         fee can be involved; the copies are strictly for evaluation.

Such distribution or coping as may occur from the activities of any
person or entity does NOT provide transfer of ownership of the program
and any such activity or fee can NOT be considered as substitute for
the author's registration charge / license fee.


WARRANTY

THIS SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANING WRITTEN MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS"
WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, IN TERMS OF CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY,
RELIABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE
PROVIDE BY LAW, BILLY PINKERTON DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS.

IN NO EVENT WILL BILLY PINKERTON BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES
WHATSOEVER ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS PRODUCT
EVEN IF BILLY PINKERTON HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGE.

This Limited Warrranty shall be governed and construed in accordance
with the laws of the State of Florida.

By your use of STATION for any period of time, you acknowledge that
you have read this warranty, understand it, and agree to be bound
by it's terms and conditions.





____________________About (Amateur Radio) STATION____________________


INSTALLING STATION

Insert disk-1 in A: floppy drive. In Windows, click Start, then Click
Run. Type A:SETUP

The setup program will install STATION in any drive/directory of your
choice on the hard disk. All files must remain either in the selected
directory or in the Windows directory, according to the configuration
provided by setup.

STATION requires a 486 or later model computer with at least
5mb of memory, Windows-95 or later version and a mouse device.
Your video display should be adjusted for 800 x 600 resolution
and using Large Fonts.



USING STATION

You will be presented with 5 choices on the Menu-Bar of the first
screen.
           EXIT will close STATION and return you to Windows.
           CODE will initiate the Code Tutor function.
           LOG will initiate the station logging function
           NOTE'S will initiate the Word-Processor function.
           ABOUT will provide information on registering STATION.


 CODE TUTOR

Code Tutor is a code practice oscillator providing random characters
at selectable speeds of 5, 8, 11 or 14 words per minute. Using the Code
function requires that your computer have an internal speaker - some
later model computers do not have this speaker, using only a sound
card and/or "clicker". The actual speed of Code is very close to the
selected speed but will depend slightly on what other programs might
be running at the same time, also to what extent the other programs
use sound.

Practice at the 4 available speeds will provide all the "off-the-air"
practice needed to get you to the best training platform possible,
"On-the-Air" practice. If yoy are comfortable in copying from Code
Tutor then the only way to better your ability is actually listening
to "real" code.

Code Tutor will not default display the characters it is sending, you
must click on "View" to see these characters. Code Tutor send's 150
characters in each session (25 `words' each 6 characters long).

When you have finished with code practice, clicking on "Menu" will
return you to the main display of STATION.


 LOG

The Log function is intended to perform both as normal station log and
as a contest log. Many of the capabilities of log are automated. From
the main display of Log, click "File" on the Menu-Bar across the top,
then click "Defaults". This will display the defaults page. Type any
of the requested information then "Save" it.  NOTE: the area for GMT
offset should not be blank - if there is no off-set or you do not
know the off-set then enter a zero here (not an Oh). The information
entered as defaults will be used to "fill in the blanks" later as
you are using Log.

This information is retained in the program's INI file and will be
applicable to any & all different logs used, there are only one set
of defaults. This information can be changed as often as desired,
i.e., whenever you select a different log.

During later use, you may find the character "-" in the default
Mode field, if so, this indicates you have selected "Other" as the
default mode (or entered information that STATION doesn't recognize).
Data entered in the default "Call/Name" field will also be used in
subsequent operation of STATION as the displayed ID on the first or
"Menu" page, i.e., you may display your call on the menu page rather
than the word STATION.

Across the "Title-Bar" of the Log display will be indicated the name
(and path) of the currently selected Log (you may eventually have
many logs - Station, Main, SSB-80M etc.) and you will need to be
aware of which log is in use. The program will start each time with
the last log that was used.

NOTE: Default information and log name will actually only be "Saved"
      in the .INI file if you exit from STATION using the "Exit"
      command from the Menu page.

On first use of Log, all blanks will be empty. Mode should reflect
the default mode you previously entered. Click "New" and this will
enable the database with record #1. The "Call" field will have
focus (have a blinking curser). Type the call of the station that
you were in contact with. Log does not require that you press the
"Tab" key to change most fields as is normal with Windows, you need
only press the "Enter"  (Return) key to move to the next field.

At any time that you press Enter while in the Call field and with the
Call field empty, Log will move focus to the Notes field. This is
the only time Notes will become active unless you Click in the field
with the mouse. Pressing Tab will then move focus from Notes to Call,
where you may continue normal operation. NOTE: if, during your data
entry that a record is saved with the Call field empty, you will not
be able to print out the entire log to your printer. The Print-All
capability monitors Call to determine if it has printed the last Log
entry (if Call is empty then print stops).

Having typed the call of the other station, pressing Enter will move
focus to the Name field. Other fields will be filled with Default
data. Call is the only field where data is needed, all others may
remain blank or contain default data. Possibly some fields will need
be updated by you before saving. If you want to update these fields
then pressing the "Space" bar as the first character in the field
will delete all existing characters in that field. Continued pressing
of Enter will cycle through all fields except Date and Time. These 2
fields will contain data according to the instant you pressed the
Enter key while in the Call field.

Any field containing default data may be changed by you at the moment
the field becomes active when you successively press Enter. Having
moved through each field and entered whatever data, if any, when the
Receive Frequency field becomes active, the background will change
to a pale yellow. This indicates to you that the next Enter will move
to the Save button so this is a good time to check all entries,
including mode. This is also a reminder that if you are working split
frequency - that the receive frequency will need be entered here.

The 2 reference (Ref: 1 and Ref: 2) fields are free-form. Either or
both can remain empty or can contain whatever reference data you
want (Grid plot, county, country, contact number etc.) After receive
frequency entry the cursor or focus will move to "Save". Pressing
Enter here will save everything you have typed and then move focus
to "New" & cause a Beep sound, completing the cycle (if you again
press Enter the database will be enabled to record #2 (or next in
sequence). Logging your contacts have been made as fast as possible
to minimize time away from the radio.

If you are a CW operator and prefer to type incoming text rather
than using pencil or memory, you may use Notes as a typing field
for everything copied and the text you type will be saved as a part
of the information for the contact. Notes for each contact can
contain as much as 65,000 characters (if notes are big then the
resultant Log will be equally large and, and if many such,  might
eventually slow the program's operation slightly).

Near the top center of the Log display is a horizontal row of 4
arrow (record) keys. Clicking with the mouse on these respective
keys will move through the Log database from: Beginning,  current
record -1, current record +1, End. You may use the "Find" capability
to locate a specific record. Note that Find will only locate the first
instance in the database of the record you want. If you have many
entries for the same Call, then Find will only ever locate the first.
Find searches only on the Call field and will only locate a record
if the Search field exactly matches the Call field of some record.

At later times you may find an entry in the log that needs changing
or you may want to update the QSL status, etc., you may do this
directly in that field or entry area. When finished, clicking the
Save button or clicking any one of the 4 horizontal "record" buttons
will save your changes.  (Required action)

In "File" you may select a different Log (if one already exists),
make a new log, delete one or all entries from the current log,
print one or all records in the current log, or export a record to
the STATION Word Processor: Note Writer (this export function
does not use the Windows clipboard and does not Export to Notes
on the Log display). Note Writer can Import the record previously
Exported and use this data in preparation of some document.
  Warning: Do not use any .BAK log's as these may be deleted.


 NOTE WRITER

This function is a full text editor with spell checking. It can
be expanded to full screen display, use color, print documents,
open or save documents in either standard DOS Ascii text format or
RichText format (making it file compatable with almost all other
Windows word processors) and import BMP graphics to be incorporated
within your document.

NOTE:  Do the spell checking before importing graphics.

(Note Writer use's Visual Writer and VisualSpeller: (c) products
by/of Visual Components Inc. Please click on the associated "About"
selection for more information on Note Writer).


The End

I have enjoyed programing STATION, though it has taken a lot of time
away from my family and amateur radio. I hope you enjoy using STATION
and that you will register your use.  STATION has been Beta tested
extensively on various computers and with various users, all bugs that
were discovered during testing have been "killed" prior to release.

However, if you find something that doesn't work correctly then write
to me about it, explaining in as much detail as possible what you were
trying to do and what went wrong. Note that STATION is 16-bit software
and was specifically written to operate with Windows-95 (and presumably
later versions), it will not work with Windows-3x (for Windows 3.x users,
get a copy of my program "RADIO LOG").


                Thank you for using STATION,  please register today!

                                Bill Pinkerton
                                     N4LXL