The DBase date format was added to the date formats available in Turbo- Log.
A powerful monitoring facility for the CAT and TNC handshake on the interfaces of TurboLog is now available on all screens. The function is activated by simply pressing CNTL-B. Select a task from the popup window and you can check the commands and data TL has sent to the inter- face and received from it in the upper or lower box respectively. To clear the boxes press C. This facility was added to TL based on the experience with checking out the new CAT. Most users should now be able to identify interface problems by means of this tool. At least there is now a source containing the kind of information which we need to have in order to fix a problem remotely. In case you get stuck: please send us a hard copy of the info contained in the boxes.
G0VAX succeeded in modifying a TNC2C.TNC such as to work with the BAYCOM TNC2X under firmware version TF-2.7 . Based on info which Brian provided we have now included this TNC on the list of TNCs available to TurboLog. Thanks for pioneering in this case, Brian. This is a nice proof of the usefulness of TL's new open interface structures.
Many users compress their backup files by means of a software tool like PKZIP. This tool ,though recommended is not provided by TURBOLOG COMMUNICATIONS and requires separate licensing from its manufacturer(*) as pointed out in the handbook as well. If you use PKZIP from somewhere, please make sure to license it and contact your software dealer for assistance in case of troubles. Roger, G3KMA, reports trouble to occur with unnamed versions of PKZIP and 32-bit operating systems, such as WINDOWS 98. George, G3NOH, has found out that any version of PKZIP after 1.11 will not work when the program is used in WINDOWS. He recommends to go back to version 1.01 which works fine for him. In order to provide you with an alternative in case of problems we include the LHA compressing tool with this version. LHA is freeware. There are two versions of LHA placed under the root directory: A DOS-version and a version for 32-bit systems. If you want to use these tools please carefully study the documentation which comes along with them. PKWARE,INC.; 7545 North Washington Road; Glendale, WI 53217, USA
As a first step towards adapting TL to CLX 4.0 cluster formats the extraction of WWV-information from the basic packet stream is now implemented in the program.( CLX = Cluster software running under LinuX ). The widely used PAVILLION cluster format is still supported without any restriction. It has to be noted that the PAVILLION software which was developed for DOS sytems till 1992 by AK1A, Dick Newell, remained at its status ever since.
The handshake between TL and TNC and TNC and packet cluster is now displayed in well defined windows. The data shown is exactly the same as before but the information will no longer eventually overwrite the banner line. If this line was corrupted there was a spill over into the logging window. These facilities now work properly even when you choose to monitor the handshake via a couple of digipeaters. There will be no hand- shake info displayed but windows opened in case you turn off this option in the packet menu. This option is now rigorously implemented.
Great news: you now can scroll all windows in TL. This includes the "Filtered" as well as the "Unfiltered" window. The filtered/unfiltered spots are collected in separate ... .INT files which build up automati- cally. Just like in the basic window formerly you will find the spots which you recorded during your last session reappearing on the screen. If you scroll off the basic position with the light bar and a new spot comes in the light bar will stay on the spot which you just highlighted. The script of the highlighted spot, however, turns into red colour. This indicates the presence of information which was not inspected yet. Please do not forget to prune all of the scrollfiles by means of the pruning facilities from time to time. Instead of formerly displaying bites of information to be pruned we now offer lines of information which appears to be much more meaningful. Spots from clusters running Pavillion software as well as from CLX- clusters are filtered out from the basic packet stream. Behind these facilities there is a completely new implementation of filtering algorithms and data handling procedures.
Within the set of matching records ( blue field in place of the log records ) you can now scroll upwards 500 records. This number was limited to just 100 records before. This caused troubles on matches from large logs. There will be a more up to date dynamic memory allocation in one of the future versions.
The maximum length of the file CALLS.DAT which keeps the selection of ambiguous calls you came across is not limited to 500 records any longer. The length of the file is now managed dynamically with a backup on disk. You can edit the file as before but please note that there is no comment allowed in the header any longer.
Importing from EI5DI was extented to transfer modes like FM and RTTY as well. Former import was restricted to CW and SSB only.
The scan facilities were greatly enhanced. In addition to the existing parameters ( scan intervals and set of frequencies/modes ) you can now determine the dwelltime on each channel. This allows you to monitor the dx channels cyclically and to listen on each channel long enough in order to check what's going on there. This makes this facility a real bargain.
The alarms and signalling facilities were reorganized, extended and im- plemented in a new shell. This now allows to extend these procedures to database queries as well. This will be exploited in the next version. As before you can adapt the signalling tones and CW outputs from a menu containing a table of the complete set of messages. You need to move into the advanced setup in order to familiarize yourself with the new concept.
In "Contest Real Time" logging mode you can now check prefixes or leading parts of a call for dupe checking. Pressing "Cursor Down" from the call- field initiates the check which stops in case a match with band and mode is found for a partial or full call. A second "Cursor Down" will show the whole mode/band situation. A dupe is indicated by a beep and a red popup window at screen center which cannot be disregarded erroneously. If you press "Enter" despite of the warning the QSO will be logged. You can force logging dupes as many times as you want but the count will not exceed 2. Please note: if you log a call by pressing "Enter" right from the callfield you would bypass dupe checking!
Thanks to your overwhelming feedback and help on the new CAT-interface we were able to fix all known/reported problems. Following our earlier announcement we have now removed the old CAT-interface in order to gain some 10 KB of valuable memory space.
We have added a couple of new print drivers to the list from which you can select your device. The list is available from the ADVANCED SETUP-- DEVICES--PRINT SPOOLER menu. More information is available in version info 3.13 .
Following a suggestion by G0PSE a new printer command was included for those printers supporting this feature, e.g. FUJITSU. The sequence ^G is available for this old dot matrix printer in order to enable printing characters of double height.
A new way of resolving ambiguous prefixes was implemented. All ambiguous prefixes are now attached to a lower case letter for country identifi- cation, e.g. FO0a for Austral-Islands. The identifying letter is read from the country's name where it has to be included in [ ]s at the end of the name. Thus any meaningful character can be attached to a prefix without needing to change anything on the program itself. All determining information is now solely contained in COUNTRY.DAT. This makes servicing a straight forward task for the future. This new procedure covers i.e.: FO0t,c,a,m, CE0e,j,s, FRr,g,j,t, PY0,f,s,t, etc.
Following an information from Ken, VR2LC the following prefixes were included for Taiwan: BM, BO, BP, BQ, BU and BX. Ken also reports that the prefix BV9 is no longer unique for Pratas Island but issued to clubstations on BV mainland as well. For this reason Pratas is now specified as B*9P but BV9P kept as main prefix. Thanks for information, Ken.