The packet menu bar contains all controls which are required to display spots in a suitable manner, apply search and retrieval tools and connect to various sources. The menu bar is depicted below:
Figure 225: The Packet Menu Bar
This menu item acts as a filter button. It sets the input filter to "received spots only". If the packet grid was customized as to include the TxRx field this field would show Rx. This filter works in connection with the selection made from the Sorted Spots.. menu item. If for example DX_de was chosen then all received spots including the keyword DX_de would be displayed on the grid.
Complementary to Received Packet this button selects the "Tx" filter option. All sent spots of the category selected from the Sorted Spots.. menu item will be displayed on the grid.
This is the principal display menu item. It includes the following sub items:
Figure 226: Sorted Spots Menu
All Spots will display the raw packet data. This option is equivalent to the BASIC window in TurboLog 3.
DX de displays all DX spots, irrespectively of band and mode.
Talk shows talk messages as long as they can be uniquely identified as such.
WX shows all weather reports.
WWV displays ionospheric reports as provided by the US NAA service.
WCY displays ionospheric reports provided by DK0WCY, also transmitted on 10142,1KHz in CW.
Mail shows mail messages exchanged via the packet cluster system.
This menu includes the following sub items.
Figure 227: Filtered Spots Menu
The displays commanded from these items are most likely the most interesting displays for the discerning DXer.
Filtered Spots: All spots which already have passed the DX_de filter are submitted in a secondary step to a user defined filter for bands of interest. These bands are to be checked in the Bands & Modes table in the column Packet Filter. Spots from unchecked bands will be suppressed for display.
Spots by Band allows to retrieve all filtered spots from a particular band. Clicking this sub item will open the following select box:
Figure 228: Spots by Band Filter
Clicking the Accept button in this screen shot example will display all spots from the 40m band.
This menu allows you to introduce another filter into the filter cascade. You can select from the following:
Figure 229: Packet Source Menu
Clicking this menu item will immediately open the dialogue box for the General Filtering:
Figure 230: Packet Search Filter
This search dialogue box is explained in greater details in the paragraph on General Filtering.
Please note:
Setting up a query requires to use the predefined notations of the items you are looking for. The terms to be used are introduced and discussed in customizing the packet grids.
When you have finished entering the query string click the Apply button to start the search. Likewise you can simply press the Enter key. Click the Cancel button in order to leave the frame.
Spots containing the search item or matching the search criterion will be displayed on the grid. The background color of the grid will turn into sky-blue. This indicates a filter being active. The filter can be released by selecting any other item from the menu bar or by right mouse key click from the context menu as described in customizing the packet grids.
Transmitting spots and data to the packet cluster is described in more details in the paragraph on packet operations. The most important transactions can be initiated by suitable shortcuts which are available in all frames and windows. Likewise they can be started from the following sub menu:
Figure 231: Send Packet Spots
Clicking a sub item will start the action. Likewise the attached shortcut can be used without entering the menu.
This menu controls connecting and disconnecting from predefined packet clusters. Control is available by means of the following sub items:
Figure 232: Con-/Disconnect
Clicking a sub item will start the connection to the cluster which was defined in the Log Setup cluster connect strings. A check mark in front of the item indicates an existing connection. Clicking a checked item will initiate the disconnect procedure.
Independent from running the packet information window embedded in the main screenor packet screen the check marks will always be synchronized by TurboLog 4's ingenious internal broadcast message handler. This is just one smaller application of the versatile facility.
This menu has just one toggle item from which the input line can either be turned on or off, e.g. to be visible or invisible.
Figure 233: Input Line
Clicking this item will start the action.
This menu item is a toggle button. Clicking this button while you are running the packet information window in the multi purpose window of TurboLog 4's main logging screen will turn control to the packet screen. The reverse applies if you have assigned top control to the packet screen by running it in the foreground. Please note the arrows and captions on the button which indicate the direction to toggle to ( To Packet Screen vs. To Main Screen ).
Pressing this button will save a range of selected packet spots ( separated samples or compact blocks ) for later use in a packet demo file or other purposes. The file select box will open and you are free to save the spots file to be exported where ever you want. In order to use it as a demo packet file, however, it must be saved in the directory specified under the packet configuration menu, sub item Packet commands. The default directory is ...\TL4Data. Selecting just one record will export the complete database that is on display, such as Filtered, All Spots, etc.
The export command is also available on the context menu ( ...right mouse key click... ) of the packet grids.
This topic was last edited on Monday, 03-Jul-2023, at 23:57