Observer Database
The Observer Database is the list of all ground station locations (
Observers)
currently in the program's memory. The
Observer Information Window
is used to manipulate this information. The stations are generally defined in
three
files:
LATLONG.QTH, SPECIAL.QTH, LAUNCH.QTH
These three files are automatically loaded at the start of the program, if they
are found in the startup directory. Additional stations may be loaded (up to
1000 total) by manually reading files (
File Menu
in the Observer Information Window).
Only the entries from LATLONG.QTH are directly accessible from the Observer
Window. The entries are retrieved by the first field, which for Amateur Radio
purposes is the callsign or ITU prefix. Non-Amateur users may wish to replace
these with 3-letter airport identifiers, or other easily-remembered
abbreviations. No provision for sorting the entries is made.
The entries in the other two files are used in the
Show... Sites
options, and for the
Show DX
and
Print...Mutual
functions.
One observer can be selected at a time. The current selection is shown
in the
Main Window.
Entry of the position of this observer can be done by 4 means:
* Select a location from the list box and click "OK"
* Type in known latitude and longitude (see
format information).
* Type in known
Grid Square.
* Ctrl-click the mouse on one of the
Map Windows.
This will not only add that point to the list, but make it the observer.
The current observer can be modified as above. Additional points can be
added by the following methods:
* Shift-click on a
map.
The station will be identified by its
grid square.
* Load one or more additional files into the database.
At present, the only other operations permitted are
Save As...
to save a composite list as a new file, and
Options: Add to...,
to add an entry from the main list to the Launch or Special lists. However,
all the files are text files in the same
format,
so you can also edit them with Windows NotePad.
Converted by Winhelp to Web