QRZ! Ham Radio 6

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Text File | 1993-01-22 | 17.5 KB | 444 lines

#1zz VHLogger This is version 2.05 (01/22/93) of VHLogger a shareware Amateur radio logging program, Copyright 1990 by Vincent J. Herried. Please refer to the copyright files. Acknowledgments: Marcus J. Ranum for his btree routines (see the file copyright.btree for restrictions on his code or where to get your copy) Peter Hardie (VE5VA) for his time zone calculation routines. CHANGES (most recent first) V2.05 01/22/93 add timezone calculations to automatically adjust for your timezone. Use the AmigaDos AddPart() function to generate the path name for the database name. V2.04 12/15/92 if 'find' is from AREXX do not flash the screen. V2.03 07/19/92 cleanup. Add history panel. V2.02 07/06/92 (not public ) fix QTH toggle. V2.01 07/05/92 (not public ) convert to Dos V2.04 look using GadTools. Power Windows code removed. *** note Use your tab keys to navigate from one entry to another V1.02 02/26/92 Add the REXX port. V1.01 Added reorg utility to de-gas the data base. Fixed the peculiarity after doing a 'SAVE' it forgot its place in the data base. V1.00 initial release. DESCRIPTION VJHLogger is a ham radio logging program that uses btree algorithms for storage and retrieval of data. The window interface uses AmigaDos Intuition string and boolean gadgets. During program initial development I used PowerWidows to define the C structures for all of the components of the window including the menus. All of the routine information for logging purposes is provided including a comments section which can store information of your choice. I use it for making 'private' z comments about the other persons CW proficiency. Rather than reinvent the wheel I'm using the AmigaDos V2.0 asl.library file requester, the file asl.library must either be in your current directory or in your LIBS: system directory. asl.library comes standard with V2.04 of AmigaDos. EXCUSE Please note, this is my first 'real' program in 'C' and as such it may not be perfect or elegant, it has, however been beat on a fair bit and I'm confident that you will find it moderately bug free (see list of known bugs at the end of this document). However I have not done much operating on other than the VHF/UHF bands as of late and thus have not used this program in a live logging situation. I wrote this as an exercise, one because I miss my IBM programming days and two because I've not seen much in the way of Ham radio software for the Amiga. If you find bugs or have constructive suggestions for the next version don't hesitate to send them. Also if you have information about other sources of Ham related software for the Amiga, I would like to hear about them. If you feel this worthy program then send me a donation (about $10.00) and you will become a registered owner and will become authorized to send me your complaints about my code, my in-laws or anything else that suits you. TIMEZONE support (New with V2.05) : Setting your offset from GMT: The code that supports the time zone offset was provided compliments of Peter Hardie (VE5VA). If it works, thank Peter, if it doesn't blame me. You will probably wish to keep track of the date and time and store it in each log entry. The current time is also displayed on top of the screen. Just before you start you should first ensure that your clock is set to the correct time (local or UTC) by synchronizing it to one of the time services such as WWV. If your computer time is local time and not UTC, then you must also tell the computer about your local time zone. This can be done using a setenv command to specify your local timezone as hours (and optionally minutes) west (positive) or east (negative) of Greenwich. The program also handles daylight savings time(DST) conversion and this must be specified in the same setenv call if it applies in your area. Finally, if your timezone uses DST, then the program also needs to know whether you are in the northern or southern hemisphere and you encode this bit of information by specifying the DST indicator in lower (North) or upper (South) case. The general format of the command is: setenv [-]hh[:mm][D] This means that the time is specified as a number of hours which can be preceded by an optional minus sign (for EAST) and optionally followed by a number of minutes (e.g. 3:30 for z Newfoundland) and all of this can have an optional letter after it to specify that your timezone uses daylight savings time. The dates of the start and end of DST are different in various parts of the world. You indicate which is used in your zone by one of the following letters. If you are in the northern hemisphere then you must specify the letter in lower case, and if you are in the southern hemisphere then you must specify it in upper case. The letters and the dates of the start and end of DST are listed below: d or D: North America. Start first Sunday in April and end last Sunday in October. u or U: U.K. Start last Sunday in March and end last Sunday in October (approximately! - the precise dates are set by act of parliament each year). e or E: Europe. Start last Sunday in March and end last Sunday in September. c or C: China(!). Start 12th April and end 12th September. If you specify upper case for the southern hemisphere then the start and end of DST are reversed. In all cases the start and end occur at 2am. The best thing to do is to add a setenv command in your s:user_startup If you use any of Peter's programs, such as the CBBS packet program or the CHU program, then you won't have to do anything extra with them if you use setenv TZ_CHU in your startup file because they all use the same routine to check for your timezone and adjust to UTC. Peter uses the command: setenv TZ_CHU 6 in his s:startup-sequence file because he is in the Central Standard Time zone (6 hours west of Greenwich) and they don't use DST. In Germany, which is one hour ahead of UTC and uses European daylight savings time you would use: setenv TZ_CHU -1e I'm in the heart of Ohio Eastern Standard Time Zone, (5 hours west of Greenwich) and I use: setenv TZ_CHU 5d I am not sure what DST is used in Australia or New Zealand but if, as an example, they use the same DST as the U.K. then an Upper case 'U' is specified along with the timezone correction. If you wish to send me a note, I'll make adjustments for in my z code and if you write the note on the back of a US $10.00 bill, I'll even send you a new copy :-) FUNCTIONS VHLogger will create a Database consisting of two files with the suffixes of .ndx and .dat. One can then add, delete, update, and display records from this data base. FIRST Positions you to the first record in the data base. NEXT Goes to the next record in alphabetical order. LAST Goes the last record of the data base. PREV Goes to the previous record. FIND This function searches the data base for the entry in the "call sign" field. HISTORY New for V2. This panel will display the last 500 call signs that you have retrieved. You may scroll the list up and down with the arrows or the scroll bar. Clicking on an entry does a FIND on that call sign. SAVE This function saves the displayed data into the data base. The call sign field is converted to uppercase but the other text fields are unmodified. DEL This function deletes the record and key associated with the contents of the "call sign" field. Menu functions OPEN This function uses the asl.library file requestor to select a data base file name and then open it. If the data base did not exist then a new one will be created. Note that if you select a file name that ends in either ".ndx" or ".dat" z these suffixes are removed from the name before opening the data base. This is done because the data base consists of an index file with the suffix .ndx and a data file with the suffix of .dat. By removing your .dat or .ndx from the selection I prevent files with names like data ndx.ndx or log.ndx.dat which might confuse some folks. Both the .ndx and .dat files must be located in the same directory. CLOSE This function is used if one should wish to close one data file and open another without ending the program. If you select END, then the close function is automatically called before the program ends. END Closes the files and terminates the program. ABOUT Displays the version number and copyright statement. PREFS Sets your offset from GMT so that you can use the built in Amiga clock to set the start and end times when logging a contact. Entering data The string gadgets can be navigated by using the tab key or the shift and the tab key. Description of data fields Date By entering <right Amiga s> the current date is placed into this string gadget. This is the starting date of the contact. Note that this date is based on the GMT time. Some of us forget to change the date when the time goes past midnight GMT, don't let you be one of them. Start time By entering <right Amiga s> the current time offset by the number of hours from GMT is stored in this string gadget. E time By entering <right Amiga p> the current time offset by the number of hours from GMT is stored in this string gadget. Call Sign There is room here for up to 10 characters. This is the "key" against which all data base operations are performed. NAME This string gadget is intended to contain the callers name. z RSTS sent "Readability Signal strength Tone" R a digit from 1 to 5 indicating how readable the contact signal was. 1 unreadable, 2 barely readable, occasional words distinguishable, 3 readable with considerable difficulty, 4 readable with practically no difficulty, 5 perfectly readable. S a digit from 1 to 9 indicating the relative signal strength of the received signal. 1 faint signals, barely perceptible, 2 very weak signals, 3 weak signal, 4 fair signals, 5 fairly good signals, 6 good signals, 7 moderately strong signals, 8 strong signals 9 extremely strong signals, T a digit from 1 to 9 indicating the purity of the tone of the received CW. 1 sixty cycle ac, very broad and rough, 2 very rough ac, very harsh and broad, 3 rough ac tone, rectified but not filtered 4 rough note, some trace of filtering, 5 filtered rectified ac, but strongly ripple modulated, 6 filtered tone, definite trace of ripple modulation, 7 near pure tone, trace of ripple modulation 8 near perfect tone, slight trace of ripple modulation, 9 perfect tone, no trace of ripple or modulation of any kind. Note, some cw ops also optionally add a 'c' at the end to indicate the presence of 'click'. This release doesn't support this extra character, if you need it,put it in the comments field. RSTR received "Readability Signal strength Tone" Enter the RST that the other station sends to you. QTH Turn on the check-mark with a mouse click if you worked this station from your permanent station location (home qth in CW speak). note that the rexx exec was.rexx interrogates this flag. The worked all states award requires you to make the contacts from your 'QTH' Address Save the other station's address here z City Save the other station's city here. State Save the other station's state or providence here. If you're into DX you may stuff in a country code here. zip Save the other station's zip code here. MODE Click your mouse here to select the appropriate operating mode. Pwer Click your mouse here to select your transmitter power. Band Click your mouse here to select your operating band. Ant Click your mouse here to select your antenna. QSL Click your mouse here to change the display from: QSL? - to indicate that a QSL card has not been sent nor received. QSLS - indicates a QSL card has been sent but NOT received. QSLR - indicates a QSL card has been received but NOT sent. QSL - indicates a QSL card has been received and sent. TODO 1. Allow printing of log entries. While a desirable goal, with AREXX one may easily print your log entrys. They will not in chronological order. 2. The above implies adding an additional key based on date and time. Maybe in version 3? 3. Support DX operators (not me, I don't work no steenking DX). Maybe if enough hams send money? 4. Add a TENTEN field? 5. Support searches on other fields and support wild cards. 6. Support user customizing of the "names" of the antennas. One could zap them but be careful, these fields may z change in the next release and you may have problems with some incompatible data. If you feel comfortable writing Arexx execs, you could fixed it tho. 7. Change the error messages and confirmation messages to not use requesters. The error messages should not require mouse confirmation unless the error is very severe. 8. Add confirmation messages for such things as the delete and store operations. 9. Other features? Send me some money and some mail with your list of requirements. BUGS 1. The ARexx port doesn't seem to fully close the port when vhlogger is stopped. Thus you can't reliably determine if vhlogger is running with the ARexx command WaitHost. If there is a next release it will probably replace the REXX interface and fix this problem. I would like to hear your feedback. Feel free to send comments to: Vincent J. Herried (KA8CTE) 1688 Staffordshire RD. Columbus, OH 43229-2142 USA c