[Introduction]
[Settings]
[Operation]
[Maps]
[FAQ]
DX Monitor
Installation
- Unzip the all the files in dxmon0x.zip to a new directory
(c:\DXMON for example).
- Create a shortcut to the DXMON.EXE program from your desktop.
- Run DXMON.EXE using the shortcut.
- If this is a new installation of DX Monitor, you will have to fill
in a few local setup items. The Settings window will appear if necessary.
Fill in the required information and press OK.
- Make sure you are connected to the internet.
- Press the AUTO button.
- Watch the status messages in the lower right panel and do not press any other
buttons until the program has completed its initial operations.
Settings
Press F10 to access the DX Monitor Settings
- Owner Callsign: your callsign.
- Email Address: your email address.
- Latitude: North is +, south is -. (Press the ? button for an estimate.)
- Longitude: West is +, east is -.
These will be used for beam headings
and plotting Azimuthal (Great Circle) maps
- For UTC add: adjustment to your computer clock for UTC. (Change if necessary)
This value will be automatically corrected by accessing internet time servers.
- The URLs used to access the data. You can change these to
automatically retrieve spots from DX Summit for specialized modes and bands.
Use the arrow to the right of the URL and select from the list or
type a new URL in the edit window.
- The URL used to access the QRZ online database.
- Retrieve every: the time between automatic retrievals.
Times less than 2 minutes are not allowed in order to not tax the
system bandwidth. The actual access time will be randomized within
the minute to reduce synchronized polling of the web site.
- Highlight latest: the time of spots posted within this
time period will appear in red.
This value is also used to plot recent spots on the maps.
- Retain last: the number of spots to retain as new spots come in.
If the number is too high, sorting and updating will become slow.
This will depend on your computer.
- Save deleted spots in OLDSPOTS.TXT: Check or uncheck the box to save the spots
which are deleted when new spots come in.
This file will grow very quickly.
The file is in text format with tabs between columns.
If you are short of disk space, do not check this box.
If you uncheck the box, the file is not deleted.
You may wish to delete it using Explorer.
- Highlight spots within: a distance range around your QTH for highlighting
spots by "local" stations in blue. Set to 0 if you don't care, or if you live in the US
where the distance cannot be determined from the callsign, unless you have the
Callbook feature activated.
This value is used for plotting local spots on the maps.
- Callbook is in drive: Enter the drive (d: for example). If you copy the Callbook data
to your hard drive, enter the path (e.g. d:\racc\). Copy the DATA
folder into the d:\racc\ folder. This is highly recommended if you want
to use the callbook for distance highlights.
- Test Pressing this button will test the Callbook access to ensure that the path is
correct and that the version you have is compatible. A green OK
will appear if everything is working. Only the RAC Callbook CDRom is compatible
at this time.
- Enable Callbook on double click.
If checked, double-clicking on a callsign will pop up a window containing the address,
beam heading, sunrise/sunset times, county, state, and buttons to plot the station on the maps.
- Enable Callbook lookup for locating US calls.
If the this box is checked, all
US locations will be based on the Callbook data. This will affect the data displayed
in the lower left panel when you click on a callsign - US state, beam heading,
distance, sunrise, and sunset.
- Enable Callbook lookup for distance highlights.
If this box is checked, spots originating within the selected
range of your QTH will be highlighted. This may slow down your display update
and cause considerable CDRom or disk drive activity as each US call is looked up
every time the display is refreshed.
- Enable QRZ web lookup on double click. If this option is selected,
double clicking on a callsign will activate your default browser and access the
QRZ online database.
DX Monitor will automatically obtain the current UTC time
based on the US Naval Observatory
official clock from one of the many
Public Time Servers
available on the internet.
- This computer: The date and time as retrieved from your system clock.
After the actual time has been retrieved, move the cursor over the computer time
to see the calculated error in your computer time setting.
- Actual UTC: The date and time as retrieved from one of the internet
time servers. Move the cursor over the time display to see when the time was
retrieved.
- Server:
Select a server that is close to you using the pop-down list, or type in a new server.
If the new server works, it will be added to the list. Most ISPs maintain the correct
time on their mail and web servers, so this is a good source of the time with minimum
network delay. Some servers are only accessible from certain domains or within a country.
If you wish to delete a server from the list, press the Delete key.
The server list is in the file, TIME.TXT, and can be modified with any text editor.
If a server is entered in the Server field, DX Monitor will automatically
check the correct time about once an hour. Leave this field blank if you do not
wish DX Monitor to perform this automatic operation.
- Retrieve Actual Time Press this button to retrieve the current time from
the selected server.
- Adjust Computer Clock
Set your computer clock to the current time by pressing the this
button. For this to work properly, your system Time Zone must be set correctly.
The W98 CDrom contains a secret utility TZEDIT.EXE which allows you to
create and modify the time zones on W95 or W98. Without this utility, it was
sometimes necessary to tell your computer you are in mid-Atlantic to get proper UTC operation.
- Warn if clock is off. If an automatic time retrieval notices that your
system clock is inaccurate by more than the number of seconds chosen, a popup
window will alert you to that fact. You can then press the Adjust Computer
Clock button if you wish to.
- Correct clock automatically. If your system clock is inaccurate by
less than the number of seconds chosen, it will be adjusted automatically if this
option is selected.
- View Log.
If you have checked the Correct Clock Automatically feature, your system clock will
be updated if the received time is accurate.
Clock adjustments are logged in the file TIME.LOG which can be viewed by clicking
on View Log. After a few weeks, you will have
a pretty good idea of the drift of your cpu clock. Windows 95 has the capability to adjust
for errors in the hardware clock by making 100 nanosecond adjustments every clock tick, but
I have not seen software to do this. Perhaps I should write some.
- Clear Log. This button deletes the TIME.LOG file.
- Proxy Server: If you are behind a Corporate firewall, it may be necessary
to enter the parameters of your proxy server. If not, leave all items on this page
blank. Proxy information can be obtained from your network administrator, or you
can look it up in the settings used to configure your web browser.
-
Username. Some proxy servers require a username and password.
If yours does not, this entry must be blank.
-
Password. This password will be saved in the DXMON.INI file in plain text. If you
have a security concern, you have been warned. If anyone asks for it, I can probably
add a simple encryption scheme to the entry.
These parameters will allow http protocol transactions through your proxy server.
Time retrieval is done using TCP protocol via Port 37. Your firewall may not be
configured to allow this access. In many cases, you can obtain the correct time
by entering the IP address of your proxy server, which itself should be correcting its system
time from another time server, or using a GPS receiver. Contact your system administrator
for further information or to change the configuration. If your firewall prevents
this access, leave the server entry blank on the Time tab of the settings.
Note: When the settings window is open, all automatic updating by DX Monitor stops. This is
to prevent problems caused by changing parameters while an update is in progress which could
cause loss of data or a program crash.
[Introduction]
[Settings]
[Operation]
[Maps]
[FAQ]