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Text File | 1992-01-25 | 34KB | 670 lines

QUICKCOMM ver1.01 Terminal Control Program and Shortwave Database for the DRAKE R8 Communications Receiver by: Eric B. Svenson Summit, New Jersey NOTE: Throughout this document reference is made to "Drake" or "Drake R8". This reference is to the Drake R8 Communications Receiver manufactured by the R.L. Drake Company of Miamisburg, Ohio. The author of the program QUICKCOMM ver1.01 is not an employee or affiliated with the R.L. Drake Company and makes no claims as representing the interests of the R.L. Drake Company. QUICKCOMM ver1.01 INTRODUCTION The program QUICKCOMM is designed for use with the DRAKE R8 Communications Receiver and an IBM compatible PC with CGA, EGA or VGA text capability. It uses a serial port to upload and download information from the receiver for a variety of parameters including frequency, bandwidth, VFO, AGC, RF, antenna, mode, noise blanker, notch filter, and synchronous detector. The program is comprised of the files QC.EXE, SWDB.DAT, and COM.DAT and this README.TXT file. QUICKCOMM was written and compiled using Microsoft's QuickBasic ver4.5 and should be able to run on PC's with 512k of memory or more and equipped with either floppy or hard drives (although a hard drive will certainly speed up access time when re-sorting the SWDB.DAT database file). QUICKCOMM contains about 300 frequency listings for international shortwave stations that have been heard here in New Jersey as of January 1992, and provides the capability to the user to continuously add to this database, modify the database, identify stations as: active, inactive, or utility or shortwave. The program also has elaborate search, sort and printing routines and provides for the uploading of each database record to the Drake directly for frequency, bandwidth, mode and each of the programmable features provided as standard features on the Drake R8 receiver. A future enhancement to the program that is still under development includes providing a Maximum Useable Frequency - Lowest Useable Frequency cross-reference for each station/frequency displayed. INSTALLATION AND STARTUP All files must reside on the same directory or sub-directory of a hard disk or floppy drive. Start the program by typing QC at the DOS drive prompt. The program will then display something like the following: QUICKCOMM - COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVER xx:xx:xx TERMINAL CONTROL PROGRAM AND SHORTWAVE BROADCAST DATABASE FREQUENCY NB AGC RF NOTCH ANT MODE BAND VFO SYNCHRO SCAN CHANNEL =============================================================================== =============================================================================== Enter Command: (C)ommands (L)oad (N)ew Record (R)etrieve Shortwave: (SB) (SA) (SI) <--> (T)ime (E)dit (Q)uit Utility: (UB) (UA) (UI) REC# TIME T-S STATION FREQUENCY DAYS W/S ====================================================================-=========== xxxx xxxx-xxxx x-x xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xx.xxxxx xxxxx x xxxx xxxx-xxxx x-x xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xx.xxxxx xxxxx x The number records of shortwave station information displayed will depend upon the time of day (as shown in the upper right hand corner of the screen) and the corresponding records in the database for that hour as well as the next three hours. Your first step is to identify to the program the serial port you will be using to communicate with the DRAKE. Press the "H" key. The following, "Change COM(n) port, n =", should be displayed where the "Enter Command:" statement (in the middle of the screen) was previously. Enter either 1, 2, or 3 depending on the serial port you are using. Next in place of the "Change Com(n)..." the following statement will appear: "Change UTC offset to local time:". Enter the offset hours to convert local time to Universal World Time. For example on the East Coast of the United States enter the number "5" to convert from Eastern Standard Time to UTC. Now power up the Drake R8 (I'll discuss how you can do this via the (C)ommand screen later on). With the Drake power on, press the "R" key - the top portion of the screen of your computer monitor should display the same frequency and other parameters as the Drake. If it doesn't recheck to make sure you have entered the correct COM port number when you pressed the "H" key. The COM port number and the UTC offset are stored in the file COM.DAT such that every time you start the computer, these values will be used. UPLOADING DATABASE DATA TO DRAKE To upload information from the database directly to the Drake R8 receiver simply press the "L" key. At the "Enter Command:" (located in the middle of the screen) you will be asked to identify the Record Number. Simply look at the lower left side of the screen for the record number representing the station you wish to listen, and type this number, and press enter. The Drake R8 should then proceed to display the frequency of the station. The other parameters will change in a matter of a second or two. At the end of the Drake upload operation, the program automatically downloads information off of the Drake's RS232 port and displays this information on the top of the monitor's screen. (NOTE: in about 1 of every 1000 download operation's the monitor may not fully display - this is a minor glich still be working on, but is not in anyway fatal - just an annoyance which is easily corrected by pressing the "R" key). The monitor display lists up to 8 lines of station database information. You can scroll to obtain more lines of information (if the database for the UTC time in question contains such) by pressing the up/down arrow keys on your numeric keypad or by pressing the "W" or "P" keys depending on which direction you want to scroll. The scrolled list provides a total of a 3 hour look ahead from the current "on the hour" UTC time. This time is displayed in the upper right hand corner of your monitor's screen. DISPLAYING DATABASE INFORMATION FOR OTHER TIME PERIODS By pressing the "T" key, the database display may be manipulated to provide data from a different 3 hour period than the one presently shown. Press the "T" key. The following will now be displayed: "Enter New Time as xx00=". Therefore, if data from 0100 to 0400 is what you desire, type "0100". DECREMENTING/INCREMENTING THE DRAKE FREQUENCY Within the "Database Display" screen, the current display if you've been sequencing through these instructions, when you press the left or right arrow key on the computer's numeric keypad the Drake frequency will be either decremented or incremented respectively. The amount of decrement/increment is set by pressing the Function F2 key. The "Enter Command:" line in the middle of the monitor screen will be replaced with: "Enter frequency increment in Khz:". If you want to decrement/increment the frequency by 5 Khz (usually most international shortwave stations are located on 5 Khz intervals ...i.e xx.xx0 or xx.xx5 Mhz) simply enter the number 5. This is extremely useful in searching the bands by working your way up or down from a given frequency then downloading the stations of interest into the database. ACCESSING THE COMMAND SCREEN By pressing the "C" key, the lower portion of the display on the monitor will be replaced with a list of direct commands that may be uploaded to the Drake R8. Many of these commands may be found in the Instruction Manual that came with the radio. For example, the "PO" command turns the Drake receiver on, and "PF" the receiver off. I've also provided what I hope is increased user friendliness by allowing one to change the receiver's mode and bandwidth by directly typing them out: "AM" as opposed to using the Drake code "M6" and "1.8" for 1.8 Khz bandwidth rather than the Drake code "W1". The "Command Screen" provides an almost hands-off operation of the receiver using the computer keyboard (with the exception of passband offset, notch filter adjustment, tone, squelch, or volume adjustment). One can move rapidly from the "Database Display" screen to the "Command Screen" to adjust bandwidth, synchronous detector, mode, antenna, to make alternate settings to that which was uploaded from the "Database Display", or simply to prepare the Drake's display for downloading to create or edit a record. To return to the "Database Display" press the "L" key, and then press the "Enter" or "Carriage Return" key. DISPLAY BY TIME AND STATION OR TIME AND FREQUENCY From within the "Database Display" screen one can change the manner in which station information is listed. When first starting the program, data is sorted and listed by hour, station, and frequency. In this way a station that is broadcasting on multiple frequencies for a given hour would have all its frequencies listed in ascending order. This would then be followed by the next station in alphabetically ascending order to that of the prior station. An example of this would be: TIME STATION FREQUENCY 0000 - 0100 BBC LONDON 5.97500 0000 - 0100 BBC LONDON 6.17500 0000 - 0100 BBC LONDON 9.91500 0000 - 0100 CFCX MONTREAL 6.00500 0000 - 0030 RADIO PRAGUE 7.34500 0000 - 0100 SPANISH FOREIGN RADIO 9.53000 By pressing the Function F3 key you can toggle this display (after you re-sort it) to list the same information in ascending frequency order as shown below. I find this feature extremely useful in using the left/right arrow key to search a given band for stations I haven't previously logged. TIME STATION FREQUENCY 0000 - 0100 BBC LONDON 5.97500 0000 - 0100 CFCX MONTREAL 6.00500 0000 - 0100 BBC LONDON 6.17500 0000 - 0030 RADIO PRAGUE 7.34500 0000 - 0100 SPANISH FOREIGN RADIO 9.53000 0000 - 0100 BBC LONDON 9.91500 To re-sort the database in the manner described, leave the "Display Database" screen by pressing the "Q" key. This will take you to the "Database Menu" screen. Once this menu is displayed press the "S" key to initialize and sort the database. If your program resides on a hard disk this should only take a moment or two. However, if you are using a floppy this might take 5 or so seconds. Once the sorting is complete the "Enter Command:" will re-appear in the middle of the monitor's screen. Press "L" to return to the "Database Display" screen and the data should now be listed by ascending frequency. You may toggle back to ascending alphabetical station order by pressing the Function F3 key and repeating the procedure described. LISTING SHORTWAVE/UTILITY STATIONS The database is designed to identify stations by what I term "active" and "inactive". Active means those stations heard, and inactive as not yet heard or possibly was at one time logged but has since shifted frequency. In addition the database is designed to identify shortwave and utility stations. Utility stations are those such as time signals, rtty stations, ship traffic, etc. The database included with this version of QUICKCOMM primarily contains active shortwave and utility loggings. When QUICKCOMM is first started, the "Database Display" screen lists both shortwave active and inactive stations. To list the utility active stations press "U" followed by "A" in either upper or lower case. To display shortwave active stations press "S" followed by "A". Likewise, to display inactive stations press "S" followed by "I" for shortwave stations and "U" followed by "I" for utility. One can also display both active and inactive stations by pressing "S" or "U" followed by "B". LOGGING NEW STATIONS INTO THE DATABASE Let's say you have tuned in a frequency of 9.44500 Mhz for the Voice of Turkey at 0400 UTC. You note that you don't have this frequency in your database. You may add this station to your database from within the "Database Display" screen by pressing the "N" key. Immediately, the program listings on lower portion of the display will be erased. The monitor will now display the Drake's frequency. The "Enter Command:" line will also be replaced with the statement "Use Drake Frequency (Y/n):". Assuming that you've proceeded through these instructions as I've described, and the Drake was set up for the desired antenna selection, mode, bandwidth, notch filter, noise blanker, RF gain setting, you can now press "Y". (Note, if upon entry into the new record screen you decide you do not want to proceed you can also press the Escape key to return back to the "Database Display" screen). Immediately to the right of the frequency field you will be prompted to enter information in the Radio Station or "R. Station =" field. You are allowed up to 25 characters. However, if you were typing VOICE OF TURKEY, which contains only 15 characters you may after the last character press the "ENTER" key or "CR" key on keyboard. This will immediately bring you to the next field "Start UTC =". In the "Start UTC =" field type the UTC time that the broadcast starts. You should be careful to assure that all four character positions of this field are filled (i.e. 0400). This is important if the database is to later sort properly. Likewise upon completing this field the "End UTC =" field will appear. Enter the UTC time that the broadcast ends. The next field is the "Days Operating (MTWHFAS) =" field. Many international shortwave stations do not broadcast every day of the week. If the station broadcasts Monday thru Sunday, enter MTWHFAS where H represents Thursday and A represents Saturday. Data entry in this field, however, is not critical to proper sorting or displaying of records. The next field is "Drake Download String =". This field will automatically display the string that represents the frequency, mode, bandwidth, antenna selection, etc. that you've downloaded off the Drake in the initial step to this section. (Refer to the Drake R8 Instruction Manual for a description of this download string). Simply press the enter key if you are satisfied with the mode, bandwidth, and other parameters of operation that you've downloaded. If you are not, refer to the Drake Instruction Manual for typing in the first 9 characters of this string (I rarely use this feature since one can use the "Edit" record function after the record has been entered and let the computer generate the appropriate download string). Once the above field is either modified or the enter key has been pressed, you are prompted to enter the following information "(W)inter, (S)ummer, (A)ll =". Many international broadcasters change the frequency used during winter versus summer to take advantage of changes in propagation conditions. If you know this data enter "W" or "S" or if the frequency is used all year long type "A". It should be noted, however, that data entry here is not critical to sorting or displaying of records. The next field is "(S)hortwave or (U)tility =". You must enter either "s" or "u". If any other letter is entered you will hear a warning beep. The program also automatically converts uppercase to lowercase. Without an "s" or a "u" this record will not be properly displayed or printed. The next field is "(A)ctive or (I)nactive =". You must enter either "a" or "i". Again, a mis-typed entry will result in a warning beep. The program converts all uppercase entries to lowercase. Correct data entry is essential to assure proper display and printing of the record. The final record field is "Remarks =". In this field you are allowed 25 characters of information. I frequently use this field to identify the transmitter location, or other information about the station. This field is not critical to proper sorting or display of the record. At the end of the completion of the "Remarks =" field (note one does not have to type a full 25 characters of information in that field) the user will be prompted by "Edit (Y/n)?". If you find that you have mistyped information in any of the fields, you have an opportunity to go back and edit the field(s) containing the error. I will describe the edit mode in the next section, but for immediate purposes assume that data entry was correct. Press "N" in either upper or lower case followed by pressing the enter key. The command line in the middle of the monitor's screen will then ask if you want to enter another record. This feature is useful if you know that the station's broadcast will continue into the next hour. For example, Radio Netherland broadcasts to North America on 9.59000 Mhz at 0330 hour to 0425 hour UTC. In the database, for proper sorting purposes, this station's broadcast has been entered as two loggings. The first logging is 0330 to 0400 UTC, and the second is 0400 to 0425 UTC. If instead of using the Drake frequency at the very beginning of the new record display, you had desired to enter something else, you could have pressed "N". This would put the cursor within the "Frequency =" field. At this point you could type in the frequency you wanted to use - however, in doing so you must enter 8 characters of information in the form xx.xxxxx (i.e 9.59000 could be "09.59000" or " 9.59000" - in the latter case the space bar was pressed on the computer keyboard for the first character - also note you must enter the "." at the third character position). Then enter data as previously described for the subsequent fields. When you come to the "Drake Download String =" field the field will automatically display a default string setting of " 00 612<8" which is equivalent to Channel 00, Noise Blanker = Narrow, AGC = Fast, RF= off, Notch filter = off, Antenna = 1, Mode = AM, Bandwidth = 6.0, VFO= A, Synchro Det. = off, and Scanning = No. Another way to enter information into the frequency field when the "N" key is pressed following the prompt to use the Drake frequency is to retune the Drake to the frequency and setting you desire, and then to press the Function F1 key followed by "Enter". This retrieves the new Drake settings, displays the frequency, and will later display within the "Drake Download String =" field the mode, bandwidth and all other relevant parameters. Once complete with the new record logging simply type "N" when prompted whether there additional records to enter. Press the enter/return key and the program will initialize and sort the database. Upon completion of this sorting the user is then returned to the "Database Display" screen. An alternate way of entering new records is using the "Database Menu" display described previously by pressing the "Q" key from the "Database Display" screen. Once the "Database Menu" is displayed, one can simply press "A", which provides the same new record entry screen as described before. There are advantages and disadvantages of adding records from this screen. The advantage is that if one is adding from a published list of frequencies one can do so quickly using this screen. When one stops adding records, the program does not automatically sort unless commanded to do so. The disadvantage of adding records from this screen is that the automated features of leftkey/rightkey to decrement/increment the Drake's frequency are not provided. Concerning published frequency listings, "Monitoring Times" and "Passport to the World Band Radio" are extremely helpful. "Monitoring Times" is a Grove Enterprises monthly publication. It contains a wealth of information concerning current English language broadcasts, their frequencies, time of broadcast, and provides anticipated Maximum Useable Frequency (MUF) and Lowest Useable Frequency (LUF) propagation data for that month. (Grove Enterprises telephone number is (704) 837-9200). "Passport To World Band Radio" is an International Broadcasting Services, LTD. publication. (also available thru Grove Enterprises). The "Passport to World Band Radio" is also an excellent reference that identifies frequencies of all shortwave stations used, not just English language broadcasts, and provides very useful information about station transmitter location, the listening area the broadcast is intended, and transmitter power used. EDITING RECORDS One can edit records from the "Database Display" screen by pressing "E" followed by the record number to edit. Record numbers are those displayed under the "REC#" field. The "Edit Screen" displays information by field in the same format that was displayed during initial data entry. The user is prompted with the statement "Edit (Y/n)?". If you decide not to change anything then simply press either "N" followed by "Enter" or simply the "Enter" key. If on the other hand you decide to change the records information type "Y" followed by "Enter". If you decide to change frequency information you may either type it in directly, remembering that you must enter 8 characters of data (xx.xxxxx). Again it should be noted, the first character may be a space if the frequency is less than 10 Mhz. (i.e. frequency to enter is 9.59000 one would enter " 9.59000). Another way to enter the frequency would be to retune the Drake to the frequency desired and the download settings desired and then within the first character position of the "Frequency =" field press Function F1 followed by "Enter". The new Drake frequency will then be displayed, as will later the "Drake Download String" when that field is accessed. If you need to change a field somewhere in the middle or end of the record, and desire to keep the other fields unchanged, simply press the "Enter" key for each field of data you wish to retain. This skips from the first character position of one field to the first character position of the next field. Once, you start typing though, you must continue retyping all the information you want in the field It should be noted that the field will display the characters of the prior entry until written over. For example, let's say in the "R. Station =" field I had mistyped when entering the original data "BBC LLONDON". The mistake here obviously was too many L's. In the Editing mode I would retype "BBC LONDON" followed by pressing "Enter". Pressing "Enter" marks the end of the string that you have entered and which will be stored in the SWDB.DAT file. When you have completed the editing of the particular record, you will again be prompted "Edit (Y/n)". If you mistyped something you can again go back through the record and make your changes, otherwise simply press "N" followed by "Enter". You should note, that unlike entering new records or records edited immediately following the creation of new record, the database is not sorted upon conclusion of the edit. Therefore, if you have changed the UTC time of a station or changed the frequency field, the record will still be displayed in its original position to that of other records in the display. If this is the case, go to the "Database Menu" and press "S" for sort, and then return upon completion of the sorting back to the "Database Display" screen. FIND AND EDIT From within the "Database Menu" screen a feature is provided to allow the user to search the database for a record or set of records. Press "F". The middle of the monitor's display will prompt the user with the following: "Enter Field(s) to Search on (e.g. UTC or UTCRST):?". A few lines below this the screen will display field identifiers of UTC, FRQ, RST, #####. If one enters a number (up to five digits long), the database record corresponding to that number entry will be displayed. If a "0" or a number exceeding the maximum number of records presently held in the database is entered, the program will beep and seek a new data entry. Upon a correct record number entry, the record is displayed the user may edit the record as previously described in the "EDIT" section above. If one wants to find all the records associated with a given UTC time one would first enter "UTC". Directly beneath this command line, the user would be prompted by "Enter string to search (<xxx> sounds like):?". Here enter either the start UTC time you are are seeking (i.e. 0100) or the first two digits of the hour as such "<01>". The former will provide you the first record that the search comes across with the start UTC time for the hour being searched. One can either edit that record or simply press "Enter" to skip to the next record that is found. If the latter choice was used,"<01>", the program searches to match the first two digits of the start UTC time. It should be recognized that 0115, 0130, and 0145 as examples would equally satisfy this search criteria. Similar searches may be performed by searching the R. Station field. Enter RST at the first prompt and then either all the characters making up the string to be searched or <xxxx> (note:xxxx represents the characters and the number of characters to be searched in each R. Station field). Using the latter case, suppose I'm searching for RADIO THAILAND, I could enter <RADIO THAI> and I would get all the records for where there is a match of that string. Note, however, if I had used simply <RADIO> I would get matches to stations including RADIO NETHERLANDS, RADIO MOSCOW, etc. not just RADIO THAILAND. One can likewise search by Frequency by entering FRQ at the first prompt followed by the eight digits of frequency (i.e xx.xxxxx) or simply <xx.xxx>. If latter <xx.xxx> is used make sure you enter at least the first 3 digits of information up to and including the "." One can also search using the following combinations: UTCRST or UTCRSTFRQ. When seeking to search by time and station, use UTCRST at the prompt. You will be subsequently prompted to provide search string. You could for instance search for "0000BBC LONDON" or you could have made the search string "<00><BBC>" or "0000<BBC>". When seeking to search by time, station and frequency use UTCRSTFRQ. Several combinations of search strings could be used to find the same record. For example if one were searching for BBC at 0000 hour on 6.175 Mhz: "0000BBC LONDON 6.17500" or "0000<BBC>< 6.175> or "<00><BBC> 6.17500" OR 0000BBC LONDON< 6.> to name only a few. PRINTING RECORDS You can print your entire shortwave or utility database records to any printer which accepts EPSON type commands. First align your paper to start at the top of a page. In the "Database Menu" press "P", and the following prompt will appear "Enter (SB), (SA), (SI), (UB), (UA), or (UI):". Enter the letters corresponding to the data you want printed (ie. UA stands for all Utility Active loggings, SB stands for both Shortwave active and inactive records, etc.). REGISTERING AS A USER OF QUICKCOMM This program is intended for distribution as shareware. This means that if you like the program and intend to use it regularly send $15 to: Eric B. Svenson, Jr. 37 Stockton Road Summit, New Jersey 07901 By registering as a user you will be notified of future updates to the program. (Note: that development work on upgrading the program is dependent upon the level of user interest shown). If you have questions or problems in the programs use or have suggestions for improving the program I may be reached by Telephone at (908) 522-1962 on evenings and weekends or via PRODIGY by using my mail ID: CBTG18A You may make as many copies of this program as you wish, and you are encouraged to share or distribute this software with others. However, no modifications by anyone other than myself to the program QC.EXE are authorized. I also claim no responsibility for potential misuse of the program or for potential incompatibility of the program to user hardware. Your use of this program represents your acceptance of the above terms.