W1SQLPSK Version 4
Revised August 28, 2001
W1SQLPSK is a PSK31 decoding program that is capable of logging your PSK contacts directly to a DBASE type file. We picked DBASE as the file format because of it's popularity with third party products. With DBASE can import the log book into any other logbook program that allows DBASE. Many third party report writers are available for DBASE as well. The program has several features not found in any other PSK software. Most programs copy 1 or 3 signals at a time. W1SQLPSK can copy up to 20 at a
time with potential for this to be increased to 50. The program also introduces the vertical waterfall display, a feature first recommended by Del K1UHF from
West Mountain Radio manufacturers of the
Rig Blaster. Many programs already feature a waterfall. Del recommended turning the waterfall vertical to better allow for copying many QSO's at a time. We call this feature the water spray display.
Installation:
If the program was downloaded from the internet you will need to use Winzip
to unpack the installation program. Once you have done this run the setup.exe file that is included in the distribution. At the end of the setup the program will run a wizard that will setup all of the parameters needed to run the program. Be sure to click on all the tabs at the top of the wizard. After the installation is complete, you can start the program by clicking start and choosing programs. In the program listing you will find a group called
W1SQL. Within the W1SQL group you will find the W1SQLPSK shortcut. click on that program and your off and running.
Note: Earlier versions of the program needed to be installed in the directory "C:\program files\w1sql\totallog\data" Installation in Windows using other than English for the default language may find that the program installed to a different location and error 5004 appears when trying to start. To solve this problem please create the directory structure stated above and copy all the files that the program installed to the appropriate directories in the new structure. Many thanks to DJ1J, DL3MC and DL1AAH for bringing this to my attention. Starting with version 3.1 the install directory can be in any location.
Using the program:
Once you have started W1SQLPSK you can turn on the PSK engine by clicking on the "ON" button. This will activate the spectrum and the water spray display. To decode a PSK signal move the mouse to where you see the signal in the water spray and left click on the signal. This will place a
channel on that signal. The program should start decoding as soon as it syncs
with the signal. You can also move a channel from one signal to another by dragging and dropping the
channel box on a new PSK signal on the water spray display.
Click on a section of the image above to see an explanation of that feature.
This is the button control panel. The first two rows of buttons are fixed and are used to control the program. The five rows of buttons below the fixed buttons are for your macros. The
macros can be configured in the from the option menu on
the menu bar. Each of the buttons can be accessed by left clicking with the
mouse or the top six buttons can be accessed by function key FN1-FN6 and the
second row by FN7 -FN12.
Here is a description of each of the fixed buttons:
On: Toggles the PSK engine.
CallLKUp: This button will look up the call sign in the "Call" box of the log info section.
Clr RX: This will clear all the text in the Receive window.
Clr TX: Pressing this button will clear all the transmit text from the transmit window. If you are transmitting at the time it will abort the transmit.
Clr QSO: Use this button to clear the call sign and and from the log info.
Log: Call Press this button to log the information on the QSO to the log page.
Tune: This button will key the transmitter so that it may be tuned.
Tx: Use this button to send any text in the Transmit window.
Maintain: Press this button to access the database maintenance screen.
Park all: This is used to clear all of the data streams from the screen. This is very
useful when changing bands.
LogBook: Opens a form showing the QSO's logged by the program. Data
can be edited from within this popup form.
eCluster: This option is currently disabled and will be available in the near future.
The spectrum display across the top of the screen will show you about 4000 Hz of the radio pass band.
The waterspray display will show the PSK signals that are available for decoding. Use your mouse to left click on the signal on the waterspray and the program will open a channel on that signal. Drag a channel to the receive window to select that channel to transmit.
The waterspray display can be used in color or monochrome. The monochrome display can sometimes show weak PSK signals that are not as detectable in color.
The transmit window is were you type any text that you want to send to the other station. Pressing a macro button will also put the macro text in this window. You can clear the text at anytime by pressing the Clr Tx button on the fixed button control panel. You can also use backspace to clear text one character at a time.
The receive window displays the text from the selected channel. When transmitting it will display you text as it goes out. You can select text within the window then right click to display a popup menu. Choosing an item in the pop will place the selected text in that log info area. For instance if you select the call sign then right click and choose call sign the selected text will be placed in the call sign field. Also once you click in the receive window all incoming text will be buffered until a selection is made from the popup or the selection is canceled from the popup. There is a buffer status LED over the receive window. Green means the the text is flowing Red means the text is being buffered. The buffer will hold about 2 billion characters but at the expense of system memory so you may experience system slow downs if you are running low on memory and the buffer has been on for extended periods of time.
The log info console contains the information that is used to create a log entry as well as a couple of program controls. The "Call" box is where you put the other stations call sign. This can be populated by dragging and dropping channel on the receive window or you can manually type it in.
The "Name" box is used to put the other station operator name. This is not filled in automatically from the database because most hams go by a nick name. The database contains the legal name of the operator such as Joseph instead of Joe.
RST in/out is used to put the other stations signal report and the report that you received from the other station.
City and Country have been added to make logging easier. If you have eCallBook and the station is in the lookup the city will be logged for you but anything that is typed in the city space will override the eCallBook listing and be placed in the log.
Xmitter Freq Mhz is used to enter the freq that shows on your transmitter. Type in the frequency to the fifth decimal. The program will use this number and add the tone frequency to determine the transmit frequency for the log and fill in the Xmit freq
PWR is the power level that you want entered in the log record
Track SN checkbox is used to keep a running count of QSO's. This comes in handy when operating in a contest that uses serial number as part of the exchange. The starting value is set in the maintenance screens.
LOG INFO 2:
This tab allows for more details to be printed in the log. All of the fields are optional. Use QSL Via to note a QSL manager callsign. Prefix is the prefix for the QSO. IOTA is the IOTA number of the station. Continent is used to track WAC information for a Worked All Continent award. Grid Square is the grid Square of the station. QSO note is used to enter a simple comment about the QSO. QSL note can be used to include a note to the Operator on a QSL card. Contest is a free form field used to group contacts. For instance you might put in this space for Field Day. Any record that is logged will be tagged with this contest code. You must remember to remove it when you are done with the contest and it is not saved when the program is closed.
Signal Control:
This will be modified with additional features as time goes on but currently you can control the squelch level, AFC and Net controls for all channels. Please note that these settings are applied to all 20 channels.
Each of these channels are used to decode one of 20 different signals. Dragging and dropping a channel on the receive window will select that channel for transmit. When selected, the background color will turn yellow. Right clicking on any channel will produce a pop up menu. Below is an explanation for each of the menu items.
Make Transmit Channel:
Choosing this option makes the current channel the transmit channel. This has exactly the same effect as dragging the
channel and dropping it in the receive window in the lower right of the screen just above the transmit text box.
Find call sign in signal text:
Selecting this option makes the program scan the channel for the
call sign of the station. It then looks up the call sign in the optional database and places the
Call sign, name and QTH into the channel note. If the call sign can not be found or you don't have the database it will put the just the call sign in the popup note. This allows you to use the note as we described in the Create Note section but populates it automatically.
Mode:
This option allows you to set the channel to the PSK mode of your choice.
Clear Window:
Clears the text from the channel. The text also clears if you drag and drop the
channel even 1 pixel. This may be faster then right clicking and selecting the menu.
Park Channel:
By clicking on this option you will remove the individual
channel from the water spray display. The park all button on the control panel will park all
channels and clear the display. This is very useful when changing bands.
Clear Window:
This will clear all the text from the current channel.
Expand Window:
Because the channel window is so small we decided to give the user the ability to expand the
channel into a separate window. Each of the 20 channels can have expanded
windows running at the same time. The windows are free floating and
resizable.
Create Note:
W1SQLPSK allows you to place a note on the channel, so that you can keep track of each signal. You can create notes manually so that as you move the mouse over the
channels the note will popup. This feature works very well if you find a station that you want to work and want to wait until the current QSO finishes.
Show Channel info:
This will display a popup window showing channel specific setting such as channel number, freq, RST and mode.
Macros are maintained by choosing option then macros from the menu bar.. Use this page to define your custom macros. The navigation bar at the bottom of the page will scroll through all 30 macros. For each macro two things must be filled in. The label to appear on the button and the actual text to be sent. W1SQLPSK, like most PSK programs uses switches to send certain text variables. To insert a switch into your string simply click the mouse on the macro text in the position that you want to insert the switch. Then choose and double click on the switch that you want to insert. The program will place the text for you. You can also type it in yourself but you must be sure to type the switch correctly and the program is case sensitive so <<t is different from <<T. If you would like to include speed keys for you macros all you need to do is place the & in front of the letter that you want to use as the speed. Please note the Button label in the graphic above. This label would appear as CQ on the face of the button and can be accessed by pressing Alt-C. W1SQLPSK offers 30 macros. If you can't fill all 30 just leave the remaining macro text fields blank and place NA or Not Used in the label. The label can be anything you like as long as it fits on the button face .
Below is a list of switches and what they do:
<<t Keys the transmitter
<<z Un-keys the transmitter
<<m Sends your call sign
<<c Sends the other stations call sign
<<r Sends RST
<<p Sends your transmitting power as it appears in the log info area of the program
<<n sends the other stations name
<<cl Checks to see if station has been logged. If not it logs it for you.
<<d Will send Date/time
<<i Will send the other station IMD
<<l This will send a new line to the other station (that is a lower case L)
<<sqso to save the recieve window from a macro
<<clearrx to clear the main recieve window from a macro
<<clearlog to clear all the log info from the main screen
You can use <<cl <<sqso <<clearrx <<clearlog to log the contact, save the qso text and clear the window and finally clear all logging information all from your final macro. What a time save for a contest!
You can use the macros already in the database as a set of examples and change them to fit your
needs. Be sure to test your macros off air.
W1SQLPSK uses an underlying database that will log your call, look up call sign information and control the program. This screen is the table maintenance screen. It is used to view data or make changes. The table shown here is the configuration table. The parameters contained in it control the program and the operational defaults of the program. To change tables use the drop down box at the top of the page. Below is a list of the values in the config table and what they mean.
Commport: This is the serial port that connects your computer to your radio switching for PTT control. Changing this setting requires you to restart the program.
NET & AFC: These values are True or False and are the same as checking or unchecking the NET and AFC boxes on the main screen.
Squelch: This is the initial setting for the squelch level.
AFC Range: This will limit how far the program will allow a channel to move off frequency.
Mycall: Enter the call sign that you want to the program to send.
RTS/DTR: This is used to control the PTT from your serial port. Changing this setting requires you to restart the program. The valid values are as follows:
0 No serial port PTT
1 Use RTS Only
2 Use DTR Only
3 Use Both RTS and DTR
DEFRadio, DEFAnt, DEFMode, DEFpower, DEFstation and DEFPSKFreq are all defaults that is used to put the radio used entry in the log. Some of these values are changed when using PSK such as DEFMode.
RXchannels: This is used to set a maximum number of available channels. This value must be between 1 and 20. On slower machines lowering this value will offer better performance. Changing this setting requires you to restart the program.
The maintenance screens are very simple views to certain tables. You may edit the data directly to the tables. A list off tables that are available to edit are listed in the pull down list. Click on the list and choose the table. A word of caution. If you are not familiar with relational databases, you may want to contact W1SQL Software before making changes. The table above shows the current DXCC list with various award tracking information that is associated with the prefix.
Call Sign Lookup is another feature that sets W1SQLPSK apart from the other PSK programs. In order to use the lookup feature you will need to download the data file. We have placed a sample file on our web site. This sample contains all US call signs from Region 5. For access to the full database and unlimited updates you will need eCallBook. Lookup is activated several different ways. You can right click on the channel and choose find call sign to find the call sign in the data stream and look it up in the database. From the menu bar you can choose lookups and call sign to manually enter any call sign. The third way is to click on the button labeled "Call Lk UP" or press F2 to find the call sign that is located in the call sign box of the log info page. The information presented includes the basic eCallBook information. Previous contacts, WAS status and Most Wanted status. Most Wanted is a new feature in version 4.2 that allows the user to maintain a list of station that are of a special interest. For example it could be used to remind you of special event stations, DXpeditions and club members. The list is maintained from the Options menu.