World of Ham Radio 1997

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Text File | 1997-02-01 | 24KB | 496 lines

CLUSTERMASTER 4.10 Requirements ============ 1. Hardware -------- This program is able to correctly monitor the PacketCluster traffic in the AUX WINDOW (while connected) only in conjunction with TNCs FULLY compatible with the TAPR TNC2, or with the AEA TNCs. This function will NOT operate correctly with the KAM (at least up to ver. 6), as this kind of TNC does not implement the MFILTER command which is essential for the split-window operation. Furthermore malfunctions were observed with others TNCs declared to be fully compatible with the TAPR TNC2, but implementing the MFILTER parameter in a non-fully standard manner. Under all such circumstances, you are advised to operate on the MAIN WINDOW only, giving up to the traffic monitoring function. This can simply be achieved by disabling monitoring while connected (TNC parameter MCON ON or MCON 0). Please ignore the error message ("What?") given by TNCs which do no support the MFILTER command. You will need a fast MS-DOS PC (80386 or higher), equipped with a VGA or SVGA board, a color monitor, a sound board, a mouse and enough RAM to operate Windows comfortably. Certain features may not work if the PC is not fast enough. Please report on the subject. TNC operation (by means of ClusterMaster) and rig control (by means of either RigMate or RigMaster) require two serial ports capable of simultaneous operation. Please consult the RigMaster K_EXPLA.TXT file for hints on serial ports use and IRQ allocations in the Windows environment. The TNC shall be compatible with the TAPR TNC2, although the program may well operate properly in conjunction with other TNCs. IMPORTANT: the connection between the PC and the TNC shall be made with a fully-wired RS232 cable, as the program makes use of the CTS (Clear-to-send) hardware flow control function. ClusterMaster is configured to operate with 8 bit, no parity and 1 stop bit. Rig control requires the ICOM CT-17 or the Kenwood IF-232C interface (or equivalent). For automatic antenna position control, you will have to install in your PC a Kansas City Tracker board, or a Star Track CCR-2 board, or equivalent (Kansas City Tracker is a product of L. L. Grace Communications Products Inc., Box 1345, Voorhees NJ 08043 U.S.A. tel. (+1)-609-751-1018, while the Star Track CCR-2 is distributed by Tronik's, via Tommaseo 15, 35131 Padova Italy, tel. (+39)-49-654220). Although these boards are originally conceived for satellite operations, you may well use them for controlling the position of your HF antenna, neglecting the elevation control facility. 2. Software -------- ClusterMaster ver. 4.00, differently from previous versions, may only properly work if the TNC parameters are appropriately set. The required parameters are contained in files CLUSTER.AEA ,CLUSTER.DSP and CLUSTER.TN2, for the AEA TNCs, the DSP-2232 and the TAPR TNC2 respectively, always assuming that the other parameters are set to default. When exiting ClusterMaster, to initialize the TNC with the desired parameters you may use the "Set TNC on exit" option in the "Miscellaneous" menu, which delivers the TNC the file CLUSTER.EXI. The user is advised to modify the file CLUSTER.EXI, by means of a normal ASCII editor, to adapt it to his own requirements. As furnished, CLUSTER.EXI contains the parameters required to set the TNC to default. There are no special requirements in addition to a full Windows 3.1 instal- lation. Please verify that fonts "MS Sans Serif", "Courier New" and "Arial" are installed (see Control Panel). For full consitency of time indications, it is recommended that the computer time be set on your local time (e.g. not on GMT). If the environment variable TZ (the same used by the satellite tracking program InstantTrack) is declared in file AUTOEXEC.BAT: - the main window shows the GMT time (in addition to your local time which is shown anyway) - the selected country local time is shown explicitly, instead than as a difference with respect to GMT (see sect. 9.6) - the Sunrise and Sunset time for the selected country (see again sect. 9.6) are shown in your local time instead than in GMT. The instruction to be added in AUTOEXEC.BAT for setting the TZ variable is: SET TZ=UTCn where n is the difference between the GMT and your local time For Italy: SET TZ=UTC-1 For USA East Coast: SET TZ=UTC5 Remember to update both the computer time and the TZ variable setting when daylight saving time begins or ends in your country. You may change the time separator character (a : is conventionally used) in the "International" section of the Windows Control Panel. The executable file was created with Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0. This requires the presence of files VBRUN300.DLL, THREED.VBX and MCI.VBX and MSAFINX.DLL in directory \WINDOWS\SYSTEM. These files will be copied into this directory by the installation program. For automatic antenna position control, you must install the software driver provided with the tracker board (DRV.COM in the Kansas City Tracker case, or ROTODRV.COM in the Star Track CCR-2 case) BEFORE booting Windows (i.e. while still in DOS). Not to forget it, you may call the driver with a batch file named WINSTART.BAT to be placed in the \WINDOWS directory. The driver will then only be available to the virtual machine common to all Windows applications and will be automatically removed when going back to DOS, thus freeing memory. In the Star Track CCR-2 case, remember to include the /C1 switch in the driver command line, should you experience a conflict between the driver and Windows. You may share the same tracker board between the satellite antennas and the HF antenna, by means of a suitably arranged switch. In this case, you shall each time replace the file ROTOR.DAT with the version corresponding to the antenna system being currently used (Kansas City Tracker case) or appropriately change the driver command line (Star Track CCR-2 case). Files PREFIXES.TBL and DXCC.TBL updating instructions ===================================================== 1. File updating recommendations ----------------------------- - the files structure described in the following must be fully observed, putting symbols and spaces where they are required. Otherwise some program functions may not work properly; - make a back copy of the files before modifying them; - the files are comprised of many lines, some of which are very long. Normal editors typically split lines longer than 256 characters and this is unacceptable for ClusterMaster. It is therefore recommended to edit the files using the Windows Notepad which does not cause the line split problem. Immediate access to the Notepad is gained through the "Update prefixes" and "Update countries" selections of the "Prefixes" menu, for files PREFIXES.TBL and DXCC.TBL respectively; - the cumulative length of files PREFIXES.TBL and DXCC.TBL shall not exceed about 60 Kbytes; - when ARRL makes a new country, add, following the rules illustrated below, the new country number & description in DXCC.TBL and the new prefix and country number in PREFIXES.TBL. Similarly, when a country is deleted, properly change the relevant number and move the country prefix and description to the appropriate parts of the files, also updating syntax where so required. BE CAREFUL TO FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN IN SECT. 5; - AFTER ANY CHANGE REMEMBER TO INITIALIZE THE UPDATED FILES BY MEANS OF THE "Re-init tables" SELECTION IN THE "DXCC" MENU. 2. PREFIXES.TBL syntax ------------------- The PREFIXES.TBL is conceived to allow identifying the DXCC country/region (or countries/regions) associated to the entered prefix, either a 2-character prefix or a 3-character one. This leaves the operator the possibility to determine, for instance, the countries/regions associated to the 2-character prefix 9M (Malaysia or East Malaysia) or to the 3-character prefix 9M2 (Malaysia only). Before proceding, let us define a the "search string" as a group of characters so defined: - 3-character prefixes: the entered prefix plus a dash (e.g. for prefix CE3 the search string is CE3-); - 2-character prefixes: the entered prefix plus a wildcard (* or ?) and a dash (e.g. for prefix OH the search string could either be OH*- or OH?-). The wildcard simply means "any character" (if the operator has entered OH he evidently had in mind to find the country (or countries) corresponding to all prefixes OH1 ... OH0). The difference between the * and the ? wildcards will< become evident later. Let us also define the "country designator" as a sequence of 4 characters (a number of 3 digits and one letter) which uniquely identifies the DXCC country (or the region). For instance the country designator 087Z corresponds to country Angola. This association is contained in file DXCC.TBL (see sect. 3). The PREFIXES.TBL file is comprised of many lines, each of which includes, in the most simple case, a single search string and a single country designator. NOTE: there is no particular order to follow when adding and deleting lines. However, following an alphabetic order could ease future edits. When the operator enters a prefix, the program searches all lines for the search string corresponding to the entered prefix and, when it finds that string, it can immediately determine the associated country designator, i.e. the designator placed on the same line. For instance, if the operator enters the prefix D4 (search string D4*-), the program will determine the corresponding country designator by the fact that the following line exists in file PREFIXES.TBL: D4*- 088Z The 088Z designator corresponds to country Cape Verde, as determined by file DXCC.TBL. With the aim to reduce the total numer of lines in file PREFIXES.TBL, the program has been designed such as to be able to recognize multiple search strings and multiple country designators on a single line. For instance, the line: HC*-HD*- 130Z 131Z specifies that, if the operator enters either the HC or the HD prefix, the programm shall associate to it both the country identified by the 130Z designator (Ecuador) and that by 131Z (Galapagos Is.). Clearly, the program will show both countries. The rule is that one may put multiple search strings on the same line if they all refer to the same country/region (or groups of countries/regions). Similarly, one may put multiple country designators on the same line when they all correspond to the same prefix or group of prefixes. Observing the file, you will realize that there are many very long lines, each showing several search strings and several country designators. IMPORTANT: a given search string for may only appear once across the file. Prefixes relevant to deleted countries (bearing designators comprised between 0850Z and 999Z) shall be put at the bottom of the list. To signify that a prefix corresponds to a deleted country, use the symbol "+" instead of symbol "-" in all search strings (for instance, to search the deleted country Sikkim use the search string AC3+ instead of AC3-). 3. DXCC.TBL syntax --------------- The file DXCC.TBL contains many lines, each of which includes a country designator and the description of the associated DXCC country (or region). Normally there is a single DXCC country/region description per country designator, although there may be some exceptions, as evident later. NUMBERING NOTES: numbers 000 to 849 are reserved to current countries, while numbers 850 to 999 are reserved to deleted countries. In principle, there is no particular order to be followed when adding or deleting lines; also it is possible to leave numbers unused. However, for future edits simplicity, it is recommended to list countries in numerical and alphabetical order. The program searches for a country designator and, when found, takes the DXCC country/region description located on the same line. The following line example: 007Z 01 -020 +063 Af 53 39 +04.0 3B9 VQ8 VQ9 Rodriguez = is to be so interpreted: to the country designator 007Z corresponds to one (01) country located at 20 deg latitude South (-020) and at 63 deg longitude East (+063), in the Africa continent (Af), in the ITU zone 53, in CQ zone 39, whose local time is 4 (+04.0) hours past GMT, whose standard prefix is 3B9, whose old prefixes were VQ8 and VQ9 and whose name is Rodriguez. Note that the first prefix establishes the alphabetic order for prints. The = symbol at the end of the country is mandatory. Also, do not forget spaces as shown above! Note that all fields have a spedified length (you may not write 1 instead of 01, or +63 instead of +063 or +4.0 or +4 instead of +04.0, etc.). When the country is large enough, it is useful to distinguish regions within a DXCC country to allow a more accurate antenna pointing. This is done by allocating different country designators to the various regions of the same DXCC country. You are required to follow a well defined rule, by assigning all the regions of a given DXCC country the same number, with a different suffix. For instance, in the case of Chile, there are 8 call-areas (CE1 ... CE8), to which the country designators 073A ... 073H correspond. The file will then contain the following lines: 073A 01 -022 -070 SA 14 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Tocopilla) = 073B 01 -028 -071 SA 14 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Vallenar) = 073C 01 -034 -071 SA 14 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Santiago) = 073D 01 -035 -071 SA 14 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Corico) = 073E 01 -038 -073 SA 14 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Temuco) = 073F 01 -041 -074 SA 16 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Osorno) = 073G 01 -045 -073 SA 16 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Puerto Aisen) = 073H 01 -053 -071 SA 16 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Punta Arenas) = However, as the possibility is allowed to an operator to enter the plain 2-character CE prefix, there must be an additional line referring to "generic" Chile (i.e. the center of the country) as follows: 073Z 01 -034 -071 SA ** 12 -04.0 CE Chile (generic) = Clearly, the 073Z designator corresponds, in PREFIXES.TBL, to the search string CE*-, while designators 073A ... 073ZH correspond to the search strings CE1- ... CE8-. Note that the Z suffix is always used for "generic" countries or when no distinction into regions is made. If desired, one may also associate multiple descriptions to the same country designator, by sequentially putting all such descriptions on the same line. For instance the line: 143H 02 +041 +014 Eu 28 15 +01.0 I Italy (Napoli) = +038 +016 Eu 28 15 +01.0 I Italy (R. Calabria) = (line would actually not be split as shown above) means that to the country designator 143H correspond two regions (of the same DXCC country Italy), i.e. Napoli and R. Calabria. Multiple descriptions on the same line can be useful when the distance between different regions corresponding to the same country designator and having the same prefix (I8 in the above example) is large enough to possibly result in significant antenna heading differences. Clearly, to the I8 prefix request, the program will show both answers, and the operator will choose one of the two. IMPORTANT: a given country designator for may only appear once across the whole file. 4. Files building rationale ------------------------ To be able performing appropriate changes to file, one must also understand how the program interprets files. When the operator enters a prefix in the "Enter prefix" text box (see sect. 9.6), he can either specify either a two-character prefix (e.g. OH) or a three-character one (e.g. OH4). Instead, when he double-clicks a call-sign (see again sect. 9.6.), the program will automatically generate a request for a three-character prefix (i.e. the first three characters of the call- sign). The program logic is as follows: - when a two-character prefix request arises, the program looks file PREFIXES.TBL for a search string obtained appending a *- to the specified prefix, e.g. for prefix VP, the search string would be VP*-; - when a three-character prefix request is generated, the program reacts as follows: * it firstly looks PREFIXES.TBL for a search string obtained appending a - to the prefix (for prefix HC5, it would look for HC5-); * if search is unsuccessful, it looks again the for a search string obtained adding a ?- to the first two characters of the prefix, e.g. for prefix HC5 the search string would now be HC?- * if search is again unsuccessful, it looks for a search string obtained adding a *- to the first two characters of the prefix, e.g. for prefix HC5 the search string would now be HC*-. Please note that this search string coincides with that used for two-character prefix requests (see above). With reference to the following example: HC8-HD8- 131Z HC?-HD?- 130Z HC*-HD*- 130Z 131Z it becomes now clear that, should the second line be missing, the operator would receive a two-fold answer (Ecuador and Galapagos Is.) for an HC5 prefix request, and this is a poor choice. Note that the lines order is in this case important. In conclusion, the following rules are then to be observed when building the PREFIXES.TBL file: - when a two-character prefix is sufficient to fully identify a country, just make a line with a search string equal to the prefix plus a *-. For instance, all prefixes of the LA series (LA1 ... LA0) correspond to Norway with no distinction. You will then simply write the following line for Norway: LA*- 177Z (The 177Z country designator is arbitrary) or, if you want to also associate the prefixes of the LB, LC, LD, LE, LF LG, and LH series to Norway: LA*-LB*-LC*-LD*-LE*-LF*-LG*-LH*- 177Z - often, three-character prefixes are necessary to identify a country (think of New Zealand ZL1 ... ZL4, Antarctica ZL5 and the various DXCC islands (ZL7 ... ZL9) or to specify a region (if you wish to distinguish regions within a country, e.g. VE1 ... VE8 for Canada). In these cases you have several possibilities, as shown below for the New Zealand sample case. Note that in all possibilities there is always a line with a search string equal to the first two characters of the prefix plus a *- (i.e. ZL*- in our example). Before passing to the example, please note the applicable part of the DXCC.TBL file 077K 02 -078 +167 An 71 30 +11.0 ZL5 Antarctica (Scott Sta) = 316A 01 -037 +175 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL New Zealand (Auckland) = 316B 01 -041 +175 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL New Zealand (Wellington) = 316C 01 -044 +173 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL New Zealand (Christchurch) = 316D 01 -046 +168 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL New Zealand (Invercargill) = 316Z 01 -041 +174 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL New Zealand (generic) = 317Z 01 -044 -177 Oc 60 32 +12.7 ZL7 Chatam Is. = 318Z 01 -030 -178 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL8 Kermadec Is. = 319Z 01 -051 +166 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL9 Auckland & Campbell Is. = The example now follows: Mode 1 (very simple, but poor detail) ------ ZL*-ZM*- 316Z 077K 317Z 318Z 319Z The operator will receive a five-fold answer (New Zealand, Antarctica, 3 DXCC islands) for any two- or three-character prefix request and he shall therefore always take a choice between the five. Furthermore, New Zealand is regarded as a single entity whose latitude and longitude will necessarily be those of the central part of the country. Mode 2 (exceptions recognition) ------ ZL5-ZM5- 077K ZL7-ZM7- 317Z ZL8-ZM8- 318Z ZL9-ZM9- 319Z ZL*-ZM*- 316Z 077K 317Z 318Z 319Z If the operator specifies ZL5 ... ZL9 (i.e. the DXCC countries different from New Zealand) he receives an unique answer. In all other cases the answer is still five-fold, as in the previous case. New Zealand is still considered as a single entity. Mode 3 (countries recognition) ----- ZL5-ZM5- 077K ZL7-ZM7- 317Z ZL8-ZM8- 318Z ZL9-ZM9- 319Z ZL?-ZM?- 316Z ZL*-ZM*- 316Z 077K 317Z 318Z 319Z In this case the operator receives a unique answer for all three-character prefixes. Prefixes ZL1 ... ZL4 will still give New Zealand as a single entity The two-character prefix (ZL) yields a five-fold answer. Mode 4 (full recognition) ------ ZL1-ZM1- 316A ZL2-ZM2- 316B ZL3-ZM3- 316C ZL4-ZM4- 316D ZL5-ZM5- 077K ZL7-ZM7- 317Z ZL8-ZM8- 318Z ZL9-ZM9- 319Z ZL*-ZM*- 316Z 077K 317Z 318Z 319Z In this case, for any three-character prefix request, the program will either recognize a particular New Zealand region (ZL1 ... ZL4) or Antarctica (ZL5) or any of the 3 DXCC islands (ZL7 ... ZL9). It will then be possible to associate to each New Zealand region different latitude and longitude values, to improve the antenna pointing accuracy. A two-character prefix request (ZL) again yields a two-fold answer: note that now New Zealand has been marked as "generic", with latitude and longitude values corresponding to those of the central part of the country). As far as the DXCC.TBL file is concerned, just take note that the program will always show all the regions associated to the same country designator (i.e. those which have been written on the same line). 5. New countries and deleted countries ----------------------------------- When a new country is added to the DXCC list, you shall: - add in the "current countries" part of DXCC.TBL a new line which describes the country (according to the rules described above), giving it a number lower than 850 (among the unused ones). It will be convenient to put this line in numerical order, such as to facilitate future edits; - add (according to the rules described above) the new country prefix, putting it in the "current countries" part of PREFIXES.TBL, making refe- rence to the country number just given in DXCC.TBL. If the prefix already exists (this can only happen if the same prefix corresponds to several countries) you must edit, in PREFIXES.TBL, the current prefix-to-country number association by adding a reference to the new country number When a country is deleted you shall: - firstly take note of bands/modes in which the country is worked or con- firmed and the relevant call-signs (these data will be otherwise lost); - move the country description contained in DXCC.TBL to the "deleted countries" part of the file, giving it an available number higher than 849, while the old number will disappear; - modify the file PREFIXES.TBL, by moving the country prefix to the "deleted countries" part, associating it to the new country number and modifying the syntax ("+" instead of "-"). If the same prefix is used to designate both a current and a deleted country, the prefix shall be indicated both in the "current countries" and in the "deleted countries" parts. Remember that the "current countries" and the "deleted countries" parts effectively constitute two distinct data bases; - calling "Search and point" in "DXCC" menu, verify that the country is now really considered as deleted and re-enter the data relevant to the various bands/modes/call-signs. AGAIN REMEMBER, AFTER ANY CHANGE, TO INITIALIZE THE UPDATED FILES BY MEANS OF THE "Re-init tables" SELECTION IN THE "DXCC" MENU. Best wishes!