21. Closing Comments / Suggestions, How you can help
22. Registering MultiMode
23. Revision History
1. Introduction:
MultiMode allows you to decode several digital modes on your Mac. Best of all, MultiMode is shareware! Please read section 22 to discover how you can register your copy.
I am now releasing a 68K version of MultiMode, for non-PowerPC systems. I don’t know if 680x0 systems can handle the required processing load, so please report back your results if you run the 68K version. If I don’t hear positive results, I will probably stop releasing the 68K version, since I don’t want people to waste their time downloading a program that doesn’t work.
I've done all testing on a PowerComputing PowerCenter Pro 180 (604e). I'm anxious to hear how MultiMode performs on other machines.
Why did I write it? I've always been disgusted with the lack of decent ham/radio software for the Mac. Why should the wintel boys have all the fun? I've written several other Mac radio related programs in the past (check my web page for details), and have often had requests for a CW/RTTY/FAX/etc decoder for the Mac.
Eventually I'd like to add full support for other modes (SSTV, etc). That's where you come in (more details about that later on).
The user interface has undergone massive changes since the previous version (I hope for the better!). Menu selections are gone now, a small window just under the menu bar contains small buttons to select the various modes and settings. This window (called the Signal Window) also displays the received signal, to help with tuning your radio.
2. Basic Operation:
Connecting your radio to your Mac...
You simply need to connect the audio output of your radio to your Mac’s audio input (this is thejack on the back, usually with a little microphone icon). A few models come with audio input cords, most don’t. Also, some models expect an actual microphone to be connected, and require a small adapter (usually included) to allow direct audio to be connected.
Also, you probably want to tap the audio from your radio’s headphone or external speaker jack, rather than a line level or “Record” output, which may be too low in amplitude.
Basic Operation...
The large buttons on the left side of the Signal Window select the mode of operation - CW, RTTY, FAX, etc. or one of the signal tuning aids.
The smaller buttons on the right hand side select various options for each mode, things like the baud rate, inversion, etc. As they are mode specific, the number of buttons and their use changes as you change decoding mode.
Two windows are displayed. One [usually] shows the audio input, so you can adjust tuning and volume levels. The other is the display of the decoded text or image. There are no provisions to print the text or image, although this will come in time.
The following sections describe operation for each mode. Please take the time to read the sections for the modes you’re interested in decoding.
One general tip - watch the audio volume levels. If the audio volume is too high, the audio can be clipped, which will cause lots of errors (garbage) to be displayed while decoding. So, if the decoding doesn’t seem to be working very well, try turning the volume on your radio down before you try turning it up!
3. Saving and Printing Data:
There are several options under the File menu to save or print decoded information:
New Log File...
This allows you to start up a log file. All subsequent text decoded will be saved in this file. Ideal for unattended monitoring.
Open Log File...
Similar to the above, except that it appends new information on to the end of an existing text file.
Close Log File...
Stops writing decoded text to a log file, and flushes any unwritten text to the file. You must select this option when you are done storing interceptions to a file, or some information may be lost.
Save PICT...
This allows you to save a FAX picture to disk. It is stored as a PICT file. The creator/type IDs are set for opening with JPEG Viewer, although any of the popular image applications may be used.
Save Text As...
This allows you to save the decoded text to disk. It is stored as a plain text file. The creator/type IDs are set for opening with TeachText or SimpleText, although any of the popular word processors or text editors may be used.
Page Setup...
The usual Page Setup.
Print...
This allows you to print decoded information. Right now only faxes can be printed, I hope to add support for printing text soon.
Under the Edit menu, there are seevral options:
Copy
This allows you to copy the decoded text or Fax, depeding on which window is selected. Right now, it only selects all of the decoded text, I hope to add support for selecting a portion of the text.
If you want to be able to copy a Fax image, you need to make sure you give MultiMode enough memory, as faxes tend to be quite large. I would suggest 10000K or so, some experimentation may be necessary.
Clear
This allows you to clear the text window. To clear the Fax window, hit the spacebar.
Preferences...
The Preferences are fully explained under their own section, which is next.
4. Preferences:
Several different sets of preferences may be set, one for each mode of operation, plus a few general settings. They are described below.
General Settings:
Timing Delta - Used to correct the slight variance in timing between different computers. This value is automatically set by the Calibration mode. See the section on that mode for more information.
Speak Decoded Text- If you have the Speech Manager installed, checking this option will have MultiMode speak each word as it is decoded. Warning! This can become very irritating if a lot of garbled text is present. And even if it isn’t... Also, make sure that you really have the Speech Manager present, otherwise your system may bomb. You may need to set the speaking rate to be very fast with RTTY stations.
*Speech has been ?temporarily? disabled.
Reg Code - Used to enter the code for after you have registered MultiMode.
ACARS Mode Settings:
Use ACARS.LST Plane Listing File - Instructs MultiMode to check the plane’s registration number against the plane listing in the ACARS.LST file, to print additional information. See the ACARS documentation section for more details.
Replace chars with parity error with ~ - Characters which are received with parity errors will not be printed, instead a tilde (~) character will be printed.
Suppress packets with parity errors - Packets with parity errors will not be displayed. Useful to supress garbled packets.
Use DACARS Format - Alters the format of displayed packets, to more closely match the format required by the DACARS program, a shareware program for the PC which
Sound Input Settings:
Enable Sound Play-Thru - Checking this box enables the audio from your radio (through the microphone input) to be played out your Mac’s sound output, to any external speakers you may have.
Enable AGC - Enables the Automatic Gain Control (AGC) of your Mac’s sound input port, if it has this ability.
5. Morse Code Mode:
The audio from your radio is displayed in the Signal Window in an amplitude vs time basis. The audio is sampled in one half second chunks, which is evident in the update of this window. Four lines are also displayed - two horizontal and two vertical.
The two horizontal lines are the thresholds for detecting a signal. The ambient noise level should be below the bottom line, the code signal should be above the upper line. The more separation between the two, the better. Adjust your radio's volume and tuning accordingly. The program's audio filter is centered for 750 Hz. When receiving CW, your radio’s AGC should of course be turned off.
The two vertical lines move to show where new data is being placed, and where data is being read. There is a buffer in the area between the two lines. If the speed of the received code is too slow, so that dashes (or even dots) exceed the width of this buffer, you may have decoding problems.
Several buttons are available in this mode. The seven three allow you to select the receive speed, either 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, 20, 26, or 34 wpm. The next button (with the question mark '?') allows you to have the program automatically select the speed, based on previous audio captured. The program defaults to 13 wpm.
The last button (with the red X) clears the speed buffer. This should be used when you've tuned in a new station, or the station has changed speed, or a lot of noise/static was received. Use this button if the program seems to select erroneous speeds.
There is a text window where the decoded text is displayed. You will notice a slight delay between when each character is received, and when it is actually displayed. This is normal. Presently, a character isn't displayed until the next one is received, which means that the last character of a message may never get printed; this will be fixed.
The spectrum display mode is very handy to use when trying to tune in a station.
6. Fax Mode:
When you start decoding in fax mode, a window (titled Fax Window appropriately enough) appears, showing the decoded fax document in real time. Proper tuning of your receiver is necessary to correctly decode and view the fax. If the image appears negative (white on black) try changing from USB to LSB or vice-versa. I've found that you need to very carefully tune the radio, to achieve proper reception. Note that proper tuning for FAX decoding may NOT mean tuning your radio to the actual frequency of the station, some offset may be necessary.
Presently, only 120 line/minute faxes can be decoded. This is the standard for Weather Fax. Support for other modes can be added in the future. I've also added support for gray scale display, up to 256 shades.
Chances are, when you start to decode a fax, you won't be correctly aligned in the horizontal direction. Pressing the left arrow or right arrow key, while holding down option will slightly shift the decoding to the left or the right. Please note that only lines received after this are shifted, old information isn't.
If you find that the picture is slanted, then the Timing Delta in the Gneral window of the Prefenerences will have to be adjusted. This can be done manually, or with the Calibration mode. If you wish to do it manually, then here’s the procedure: If you find that vertical lines slant to the left as they go down, then the Timing Delta must be made more negative. If vertical lines slant to the right as they go down, then the Timing Delta must be made more positive.
When you reach the bottom of the window, no new image information is displayed. You can press the spacebar to start overwriting at the top of the window.
It is now possible to scroll around the fax window. The stored fax image is 1280H by 1536V pixels. You can view any 640 by 480 portion of the image by using the up/down/left/right arrow keys. It may be possible to screw up alignment by moving around too much, this was a problem with the 680x0 version. (presumably because too much time is spent sloshing pixels around). If this occurs, I would suggest waiting a second or two between each press of the arrow keys when scrolling around the image.
7. Baudot RTTY Mode:
Baudot is the standard mode for transmitting teletype ofver shortwave radio. It uses a 5 bit code, which only allows for 32 symbol total, obviously not enough for all the letters, digits, and punctuation. Therefore, two special characters may be transmitted - letters shift (LTRS) and figures shift (FIGS). These two modes determine which character will actually be printed when a 5 bit symbol is received.
Tuning:
While in the Spectrum Display mode, tune your radio so that two spikes are visible, representing the mark and space tones. You want to mark tone (the lower frequency) to be centered as close to 1900 Hz as possible. Then take a note of the frequency of the space tone. The difference in frequency between the mark and space tones is referred to as the shift.
Go to the Baudot mode, and select the correct shift frequency (the 170, 250, 450, 600, 850 buttons). Select the closest shift if the station’s shift is not exactly one of the available values.
When properly tuned, the mark/space tones are represented by black and white pulses. Gray means the audio tone is neither a mark or space. If you see gray mixed in (or all gray), then either the station isn’t properly tuned in, or the shift isn’t correct.
Select the combination of speed and polarity (Normal or Inverted) for proper display of decoded text.
The various buttons in the Signal Window perform the following operations:
The 170, 250, 450, 600, 850 buttons select the shift frequency.
The 45, 50, 56, 75, 100, and 150 buttons select the baud rate.
The N button selects Normal shift, the I button selects Inverted shift.
The ABC button acts as an LTRS shift, and will return the program to letters mode, from figures mode. Very useful if a burst of noise shifts the program into numbers mode.
8. ASCII RTTY Mode:
This mode behaves very much like Baudot mode. Different speeds are available, representing the baud rates commonly found for ASCII transmissions.
Please refer to the Baudot RTTY section for details on using ASCII mode.
9. SITOR-A Mode:
SITOR-A mode sounds very distinctive, with a chirping sound. In this mode, three characters are transmitted at a time. The receiving station then sends one character back, indicating whether or not the three characters were correctly received. If not, they are re-transmitted. Each cycle takes 450 milliseconds, so you hear two “chirps” per second.
You will notice two types of chirps are heard, one longer than the other. The longer chirp is the data, the shorter chirp is the acknowledgement from the receiving station. Often, you may only be able to hear one of the stations from your location. You must be able to hear the longer chirp to decode data.
The BAD or OK lamp will flash as each packet is received. This can help in properly tuning in the station. Only SITOR-A is supported at this time, Mode for SITOR-B (FEC) will eventually be added. When you can only hear the receiving station transmitting the ACK/NAK symbols (a shorter chirp sound), the OK lamp will flash BLUE, to indicate that something is being received, although it cannot be decoded.
You'll notice that three colors are displayed in the signal window - black, white, and gray. The black and white colors represent valid mark/space tones being received, the gray means neither tone is present. Normally you'll see a burst of white/black bits, surrounded by gray. When you first tune in a SITOR-A station, it may take MultiMode a few seconds to properly synchronize on the signal.
The spectrum display mode is very handy to use when trying to tune in a station.
10. SITOR-B (FEC) Mode:
This mode can be used to monitor FEC and NAVTEX transmissions at 100 baud.
NAVTEX transmissions may be found on 518 kHz.
There are three indicators, marked PHASE, BAD, and OK.
The PHASE indicator will light up blue when phasing signals are being received. These are typically sent at the beginning and end of transmissions, and during transmissions as filler.
The BAD OK indicator will light up red when garbled or invalid characters are being received.
The OK indicator will light up green when valid characters are being received.
When first tuning in a station, the BAD indicator will light up, until the reception is synchronized with the transmission. It may also light up during reception, if the lock on the signal is lost.
11. Spectrum Display Mode:
This mode is selected by clicking on the FFT button.
It displays the spectrum of the received signal. It is very useful for properly tuning in a station, and finding the shift rate of an RTTY station.
The above sample shows an RTTY station properly tuned it. Notice that the lower frequency has been centered on 2100 Hz, by carefully adjusting the radio’s tuning knob. The shift may be directly read by looking at the difference between the Mark and Space frequencies, in this case around 550 Hz. Selecting the 600 Hz shift option will allow the signal to be properly decoded (presuming the correct speed is selected, and the station isn’t encrypted).
[note: proper RTTY tuning requires tuning to 1900 Hz now, the picture needs to be changed]
12. DTMF Mode:
This mode will decode DTMF. (“Touch Tone” which is probably a trademark of the telephone company) The decoded digits are displayed in the text window.
13. WWVB Time Code Mode:
This mode decodes the time code information transmitted by station WWVB, on 60 kHz. It does not decode the time code transmissions from WWV or WWVH on shortwave. You need a receiver capable of tuning the low end of the longwave band.
Tune your receiver to 60 kHz using CW or sideband mode. Adjust the tuning and volume so that the pulses dispayed in the signal window are clean, and match the beeps you hear from the radio.
There are two status LEDs - BAD and DATA:
BAD flashes RED if a WWVB pulse is not received, or if the pulse is not properly synchronized. When WWVB is first tuned it, this LED will flash, until the reception is correctly synchronized.
DATA flashes GREEN when a proper WWVB pulse is received.
DATA flashes BLUE when a WWVB position identifier pulse is received, normally every ten seconds.
Two position identifier signify the beginning of the next minute. At this time the received time information for the previous minute is displayed.
14. ACARS Mode:
ACARS is the acronym for Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting
System. It is a data transmission between airplanes and ground stations. The purpose is to handle many types of traffic that would normally be done by voice in the past. ACARS transmissions are on VHF. The following frequencies are commonly used:
129.125 MHz
130.025 MHz
130.450 MHz
131.475 Mhz
131.550 MHz
As with all other VHF-Aeronautical transmissions, AM mode is used. Most scanners automatically change to AM mode when tuning the 108-136 MHz aircraft band, but you may want to verify your scanner does this.
The transmissions sound like data bursts ranging from about 0.2 second to 1 second in length. Due to the high altitude of aircraft, transmissions from aircraft may be monitored for several hundred miles. Those living close to airports may also hear the ground transmissions sent to aircraft.
Tuning in ACARS transmissions is fairly easy - just select ACARS mode and adjust the radio’s volume for proper decoding. Please note - it is very important to have the squelch of your radio completely off, that is, so you always hear the background static. The squelch action of any radio is too slow, and you’ll miss the packet!
You will find that many transmissions are garbled or not decoded. This is a very difficult mode to demodulate without external hardware, so good reception quality and strong signals are required.
MultiMode displays the transmitted packet, and parses out some of the information, such as the plane’s wing number, flight number, etc. It does not attempt to parse out other specific information in the text portion of the packet, which is displayed on the second line. A timestamp is also displayed on the first line.
Here is an example of a received ACARS transmission:
.N227AA 5Z 2 [13 Sep 97 20:57:06]
5651 AA0742 OS LGA /ALT00000122
N227AA is the aircraft registration, note the leading periods, to force it to 7 characters.
5Z is the message type
2 is the downlink block identifier
[13 Sep 97 20:56:51] is the date and time, added by MultiMode
5651 is the message sequence, minutes and seconds past the hour
AA0742 is the carrier and flight number (American Airlines flight 742)
OS LGA /ALT00000122 is the text message sent, for those modes which include a message
There is an LED type indicator under called PACKET in the Signal Window which lights up green when a good ACARS packet is received, and red if a packet is received but it is bad. In addition, statistics are displayed for the number of good and bad packets received, along with the percentage of good packets. This is useful for adjusting your radio setup, obviously you want to maximize the percentage of packets which are good.
You may create a file called ACARS.LST, which is a listing of plane registration numbers, along with text that you may enter. This file is read in when MultiMode first starts up, and must be located in the same folder as the MultiMode application. When a packet is decoded, the plane registration number is compared to the registration numbers of the planes in the ACARS.LST file. If a match is found, the text from that line of the file is displayed after the timestamp. You may use this file to display text or comments about each aircraft.
An example of the file format follows below:
.N814US This is plane number 1
.N320US This is plane number 2
.NIM5AA This is plane number 3
.N781NC This is plane number 4
.N609AA This is plane number 5
Note that the first 7 characters of each line are the plane registration number, followed by a space. The rest of the line contains the text to be displayed. Leading periods are required to force the registration number to be seven characters long.
If you are not interested in using the ACARS.LST file, you may simply remove it from the MultiMode folder.
Here are some Web Pages devoted to ACARS which you may find of interest:
http://www.grove.net/~acarslink/ ACARS-Link
http://patriot.net/~jetset/acars.html Northern Virginia ACARS Page
There is also the ACARS mailing list, which is handled by (but not run by) Grove. Requests to join should be sent to majordomo@grove.net with the text "subscribe acars" in the BODY of the e-mail.
There is a book out on ACARS, called "UNDERSTANDING ACARS, 3rd Ed." written by Ed Flynn, with Robert E. Evans. This book should be available at your local shortwave store. I bought my copy from Universal Radio. It does a good job of explaining the formats of the various messages.
Robert E. Evans also writes the column “ACARS Downlink”, which appears bi-monthly in Popular Communications magazine.
BTW - I had never even heard of ACARS before someone mentioned it’s existance and asked if I could add support for it. After spending many hours monitoring ACARS transmissions (while writing/debugging the ACARS code), I became hooked on it. Most routine traffic which used to be handled by voice is now sent via ACARS. If you haven’t tried ACARS mode, and have a radio/scanner that tunes the VHF aircraft band, give it a try!
15. Calibration Mode:
This mode is used to calibrate MultiMode to the particular timing of your computer. Each computer runs at a slightly different speed, which means that the audio sampling may not be exactly the correct value. Any error in sampling will cause FAX and SSTV images to be skewed and distorted. You only need to calibrate MultiMode once for your machine, the calibration is saved in your MultiMode preferences file.
The easiest way to calibrate is to tune into WWV or WWVH, the standard time stations, which transmit on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz. (Users outside of North America can use whatever time stations are audible in their region)
This mode draws a new horizontal line on the screen every second. The second pips from the time station should be displayed as a black dot on each line. There may also be some extraneous small dots due to noise or other audio. These black dots should start to form a vertical line. If the computer’s timing is correct, this line should be perfectly vertical. (There are a series of gray vertical lines spaced across the page to help you determine if the black line is indeed vertical)
If the line is slanted one way or the other, you should use the + and - keys on your keyboard to adjust the timing offset, which is displayed as the Delta in the calibration window. Each press of the + or - key will increment or decrement Delta by 0.1. Holding down the option key while you press + or - will increment or decrement by 1.0, to speed things up.
After finding the correct Delta for your machine, select Preferences from the Edit menu. In the box for Timing Delta, under General settings, there should be a number equal to the Delta from the Signal Window. Click the OK button, and the Delta will be saved in your preferences file, so that it is automatically loaded the next time you use MultiMode.
You may want to record the Delta for your machine, so that in case you should lose your Preferences file, you can simply re-enter it, rather than going through the calibration procedure again.
16. SSTV Mode:
This mode is under contruction. It seems to decode M1 under some conditions, but much more work is necessary.
17. Bit Rate Mode:
(The funny little digital waveform button)
This mode will help you determine the bit rate of an RTTY station. The length of each bit received is converted into an effective baud rate. The bit lengths are sorted into bins, with the resulting histogram displayed, with a bit of averaging, to get more accurate results and offset the effects of noise. Therefore it takes several seconds to get a good reading.
The following picture is the analysis of a 75 baud Baudot transmission:
The three x-axis are the baud rate of the signal. Why three? Well, imagine how two adjacent bits of the same value (0 or 1) are read by the computer - they appear as one bit which is twice as long. The same thing with three adjacent bits of the same value. So some bits of a 100 baud transmission would appear as 50 baud bits, or even 33.3 baud bits.
In this example, the main peak is at 75 baud, which is what we would expect. Then there are smaller peaks at what would be 37.5 baud (75/2) and 25 baud (75/3). Hence the second and third axis, where these smaller peaks also read as 75 baud.
But what about the other peak around 50 baud? It is due to the stop bits, which are typically 1 1/2 bits long. A stop bit at 75 baud appears like a 50 baud data bit. This also explains the other small peak between the second and third 75 baud peaks - it is the result of a stop bit, with the data bit preceeding it having the same value as a stop bit.
18. Processor CPU Time:
In the upper right hand corner of the Signal Window, you will see the amount of processor time required for the current mode, in ticks (1/60 of a second). If you could, please report this time for each mode that you use. Please note whether or not you were actually decoding data in this mode, since slightly less time is used if there’s no signal to decode. This time will be very useful to me in helping to speed up MultiMode.
Here are the CPU times I’ve found when running on my PowerCenter Pro 180:
180MHz 604e
CW 2
RTTY 6
ASCII 6
FAX 14
SITOR 6
Spectrum 18
ACARS 2-10
The ACARS varies so much because little processing is required except when there is an actual packet to process.
19. Sound Information:
There’s a pseudo-secret window you can bring up, which prints out all sorts of gory information about sound input on your Mac. This may be of help to me in debugging MultiMode on systems where it doesn’t properly run. Here’s how to get to this window:
1. Open the “About MultiMode...” window from the Apple Menu.
2. In the About Window, you’ll see a bunch of colored blinking dots on the right hand side. Click on them. (clicking anywhere else clears the About Window)
3. You can write down what you see, or press Shift-Command-3 to take a snapshot (this of course saves the image of your screen as Picture 1, Picture 2, etc... on your startup volume). You can email this snapshot to me.
20. Known Bugs, Hints and Suggestions:
Some users have been reporting conflicts with RamDoubler. If you have RamDoubler, and are experiencing problems you may want to try disabling it to see if that helps. The same goes with other extensions - you may want to try disabling them if you’re having problems, to see if that helps.
Don't try to do too much multitasking when decoding. If your Mac is busy and can't get a sound sample in time, it will be lost, causing garbled display. Holding down the mouse button can cause this also. (It's not a bug, it's a feature!) Quit all other applications, if possible.
In Fax mode, all drawing is done to an offscreen port with an 8 bit pixel depth. If CPU utilization is too high in fax mode, you may want to set your monitor pixel depth to 256 colors, this will speed things up. (For example, on my PowerCenterPro 180 system, the CPU time is around 10% in Fax mode, when I am in millions of colors. If I switch to 256 colors, it drops to 3%. On this system, it isn’t much, but on slower systems, it can be critical. )
You also may wish to try not running other applications in the background.
Take time to make sure your signal is properly tuned in, with minimal interference. That's the best way to get clean copy. Don't overdrive the audio input into the Mac either, that will only distort the signal. If the audio volume is too high, the audio can be clipped, which will cause lots of errors (garbage) to be displayed while decoding. So, if the decoding doesn’t seem to be working very well, try turning the volume on your radio down before you try turning it up!
21. Closing Comments:
I hope you enjoy using the program. Please forward your comments and suggestions, along with any bugs to me. I'll try my best to help you out. Email is preferred, and I cannot provide any support over the telephone. Please always mention which version you are using, and what type of Mac system you have (model, System version, etc). As always, try starting up with extensions disabled if you have problems.
The documentation will be improved over time, suggestions for areas that need additional clarification are always welcome.
I would appreciate it very much if everyone who tries this program emails me to let me know whether or not it works (including the version number, and your system configuration as described above). This will let me build a matrix of functional system configurations. Please also include the CPU utilization times for each mode you use, so I can see how different systems behave. This will help me tune the software so that all users may benefit.
What other types of digital signals are you interested in decoding? Tell me, and I'll do my best to add support for those modes. Even better, send me a cassette tape with a clean recording of that mode, so I have some audio to use for testing purposes. (And if you could include a printed copy of the text sent, that would really be appreciated!)
I am presently working on adding support for the following modes:
SITOR-B (FEC)
RDS (The format for transmitting data over am FM subcarrier)
SSTV (I could really use some clean recordings of SSTV modes, better yet some SSTV audio captured directly from the computer sending it, without any noise or static)
These modes may appear as buttons available in the Signal Window, but are for my testing purposes only. Don’t expect them to be very functional at this point!
Also, if you’d like, you can request to be automatically informed, via email when, when a new version of MultiMode is available from my web site. Just send me email requesting this, along with your return email address. It’s that easy.
The most recent version will always be available at the following URL:
http://www.access.digex.net/~cps/sss14.html
22. Registering MultiMode:
MultiMode is shareware. The registration fee is only $25. Take a moment to compare this to the prices charged for commercial decoding programs, which, in addition to being many times more expensive (often by around a factor of ten), are also only available for the PC.
By registering your copy of MultiMode, you’ll help support my efforts to develop newer versions, which will further increase the number of modes which can be monitored, and the features available. I’d like to be able to continue developing new versions of MultiMode, so that we Mac users won’t be forced to abandon the Macintosh for the wintel platform.
Paying for MultiMode is fairly simple. Open the Register program that accompanies My Program. Enter your name, your email address, and the number of single user licenses you desire for each program you wish to purchase. Save or Copy or Print the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to Kagi. More specifics on the Register program to follow. Kagi handles my payment processing.
If paying with Credit Card or First Virtual, you can email or fax the data to Kagi. Their email address is sales@kagi.com and their fax number is +1 510 652-6589. You can either Copy the data from Register and paste into the body of an email message or you can Save the data to a file and you can attach that file to an email message. There is no need to compress the data file, it's already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just Print the data to the Kagi fax number.
Payments sent via email are processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an email acknowledgement when it is processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days and if you provide a correct internet email address you will receive an email acknowledgement.
If you are paying with Cash or USD Check you should print the data using the Register application and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-SZ
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
You can pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries but at present if you pay via check, it must be a check drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies, the conversion rate for non-USD checks is around USD 15 per check and that is just not practical. If you have a purchasing department, you can enter all the data into the Register program and then select Invoice as your payment method. Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people. You might want to highlight the line that mentions that they must include a copy of the form with their payment. Kagi can not invoice your company, you need to act on my behalf and generate the invoice and handle all the paperwork on your end.
Please do not fax or email payment forms that indicate Cash, Check or Invoice as the payment method. As far as we know, there is still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or email and without the payment, the form cannot be processed. Payments send via postal mail take time to reach Kagi and then up to 10 days for processing. Again, if you include a correct email address, you will hear from Kagi when the form is processed.
Please make sure you include your email address with your payment. That way I can send the registration code to you.
Thanks again for giving MultiMode a try. 73's !
Chris Smolinski
4708 Trail Court
Westminster, MD 21158
email: cps@access.digex.net
Web: http://www.access.digex.net/~cps
22. Release History:
0.9.1 2/15/97
1. Implemented SITOR-B / FEC / NAVTEX mode. Hopefully this will be the foundation for
support of additional synchronous modes.
0.9.0 1/2/97
1. Completely re-wrote FAX receive routine. It seems to decode much better now, and
3. Changed RTTY center frequency to 1900 Hz (from 2100 Hz)
4. Changed 110 baud button to 150 baud for RTTY mode
5. Added statistics display to ACARS mode showing percent and number of good/bad
packets.
6. Tweaked morse code receiving routine.
7. Fixed bug in morse code mode - the letter P was displayed as an H.
8. Improved memory management, reducing memory required by around half.
9. Sound input is interrupt driven, so data shouldn’t be lost if performing other background
tasks (to a point of course).
10. Printing faxes should work, the text window can’t [yet] be printed.
0.4.7 9/19/97
1. Removed Speech (temporarily?) as this was causing problems for some users, especially those with OS8.
0.4.6 9/14/97
1. Overhauled Preferences substantially, it is recommended that this section of the documentation be reviewed to see what has been added
2. Added ability to save all subsequent text output to a log file, ideal for unattended ACARS monitoring.
3. Continued to improve Bit Rate mode.
4. Added ability to have MultiMode speak decoded text, enabled in the
Preferences->General window.
0.4.5 9/10/97
1. Fixed a problem where you often had to repeatedly click on buttons to actually activate
them.
2. Added tighter audio filtering to CW mode, this should help reject more interfering signals. It may make tuning a little different than before.
3. Added display of the percent CPU time being used, to help gauge processor loading
4. Major internal software changes, which aren’t visible to the user, but should make it easier to add some additional modes in the future.
0.4.4 8/31/97
Fixed (again!) a major bug that would cause crashing when clicking on or moving/resizing the text display window. Hopefully this bug will stay fixed this time!
Added time display to ACARS mode.
Added support for ACARS.LST file for plane information display.
Added display of date/time stamp with ACARS loggings.
0.4.3 8/29/97
Added Preferences.
Added DTMF decoding support.
Added Calibration mode to calibrate FAX and SSTV timing.
Added support for saving text files and FAX pictures to disk.
Modified 680x0 filter routines to speed them up.
0.4.2 8/23/97
Fixed a major bug that would cause crashing when clicking on or moving/resizing the text display window.
Added display of Processor CPU Time, to help gauge how busy a given system is.
Changed format of ACARS display.
Changed sampling period of ACARS mode, and data is buffered between reads, so packets aren’t lost if they occur inbetween updates.
RTTY mode now displays gray in the signal window if a mark or space tone isn’t present.
0.4.1 8/15/97
Added support for ACARS mode.
Added support for WWVB Time Code decoding.
0.4.0 8/3/97
Now compiled for PowerPC, PowerMac now required.
Started major changes to the operator interface.
Improved audio filter routines for better noise immunity.
Added support for SITOR-A
Added FFT for spectrum display
Added 600 Hz shift for RTTY
Started to add automatic bit-rate detection for RTTY
0.3.2 4/2/97
Added support for gray scale faxes
Added ability to adjust sampling rate for faxes, to correct skewing of vertical lines
0.3.1 3/19/97
Turned sound play-through back on, so you can hear the radio's audio through your Mac's speakers.
0.3.0 3/18/97
Added support for Baudot RTTY.
0.2.1 3/16/97
Added scrolling for fax reception.
0.2.0 2/23/97
Added support for Weather Fax reception.
0.1.1 12/31/96
Increased sampling frequency to 22 kHz.
[Hopefully] fixed bug that caused crash if no signal present for too long.
[Maybe] fixed a bug that caused a crash on some systems at launch.
