BB Terminal |
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BB Terminal is an integrated Terminal to manage the in RTTY, PSK31, FSK, MFSK and GMSK Modes. it works on the base of the famous engine MMVARI ® created by Makoto Mori, JE3HHT. It can be activate from the menu TOOLS selecting BBTerminal. The BBTerminal screen will appear: |
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The Terminal can be shown alternatively to the Log Sheet. This is the Terminal appearance: | ||||||||||||
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The menu bar of trhe Terminal contains the following options and commands: Mode: for now you can choose 14 modes: FSK31, GMSK, MFSK8, MFSK16, PSK31, PSK63, PSK125, QPSK31, QPSK63, QPSK125, RTTY 45 baud, RTTY 75 baud, RTTY FSK Normal and RTTY FSK reverse. Band selects the band, according with those selected when we created/modified the Log. Please notice that the little blue window beside the mode selector reminds that RTTY 45 and 75 baud work always with radio sideband selector on Lower Side Band (LSB), unregarding the band, RTTY FSK Normal and Reverse work with selector on FSK and all other digital modes work always with Upper Side Band (USB), unregarding the band. Beside the Callsign window there are two small alerts that indicate if this call is EPC member and LOTW member. The menu QSLs allows to record in real time what to do about the sending of the QSL card for that contact. Below the screen where the signals appear there are some windows and buttons: the left window (that shows the number zero) allows to move the graphic frequency ruler forward or back at steps of 10 Herz. S/N =ndB shows the signal strenght, the key W.F. alternate to FFT one, allows to view the signals in waterfall mode or in wave mode. The AFC key allows to insert or remove the Automatic Frequency Controller (on/off). Settings opens a window to manage the Sound Card and the levels for incoming and outcoming signals. Mixer Audio opens the internal soundcard managing window, TX COM PORT allows to select the COM port connected to the interface for digimodes. The program allows tho choose a port physically existing. If your computer does not have COM ports, you need an USB-COM converter. With AutoCq Delay the user can set the delay between two transmission if the AutoCq has been activated in some Macro (more info later). | ||||||||||||
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Tag shows a box in which we can enter all our info, useful for exchange of data during the QSOs: | ||||||||||||
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B.W. means Bandwidth and the user can choose the best bandwith for his monitor. The options are 1, 2 or 3 kHz. | ||||||||||||
With Scope we can select the display options: NET (fTx = fRx): selected means that the TX frequency is the same of RX frequency. Unselected it allows to transmit and receive with a shift (split mode). AutoFrequencyControl: selected allows to keep centered the operating frequency also in case of waving of the correspondent's signal View Wave and View Waterfall show the signals as waves or waterfalls. | ||||||||||||
TX is a key and allows to turn the TRX to transmission for a free typing. The key change its caption to RX and if pressed again turns the TRX to RX. Call and Name are two windows in which the user can write the Call and the Name of the correspondent. If we notice in the traffic window a callsign we can select it with double click of the left button of the mouse, then with the right button import it in the Call Window. If the Insert QSO window is open, that will transfer the callsign also in the call box of the Insert QSO window. In the same way we can import the NAME in the proper box, and another text in the Comment box. The last box is for the report, currentrly preset to 599 but it can be editable anytime. If a callsignis present in the box Call, running the arrow of the mouse on it you will open a balloon containing the info related to that callsign | ||||||||||||
The bottom bar contains the Macro Keys, all them can be edited by click with the right button of the mouse: | ||||||||||||
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Name contains the caption of the button and the window is for the text to transmit. We can use the tags in the left window of the form.Some macros are pre-defined, some other buttons are empty. All them are fully editable. The three checkboxes at the bottom have there functions: Auto TX: put the transceiver in TX mode before the execution of the macro, Clear Text after TX cleans the lower window after the execution of the macro, Auto RX after TX put the transceiver in RX mode after the execution of the macro. | ||||||||||||
lThe two windows of the BBTerminal are for the decodifying of the received signal (upper window) and for the text to send (lower window). It is possible to write a text or to import a text file and send them clicking on TX in the upper bar, otherwise you can use the Macros, clicking on them with the left button of the mouse or with Ctrl+F1, Ctrl+F2 and so on. There are two sets of Macros. To switch from one to the other, press CTRL+SHIFT. Also the Auto Cq funcion has been implemented: to use it just put the tag <AUTOCQ> before the text. The delay in seconds can be sat from Setting as seen before. Each macro turns the radio to RX automatically. If you wish the radio stays on TX, just add the tag <TX> at the end of the text in the macro. It is also possible to put the TRX on-air with Alt+T, and to come back to receiving mode Alt+R. | ||||||||||||
BB Terminal can be opened and used at same time with other windows. F2 open the inserting QSO window (that will give us all the info from the callbook) and we can save the QSO and all its info with the proper key in the currently open log. Saving of the QSO can be done also without to open the F2 window, just clicking F12. If unused, we advice to close BBTerminal (from menu Strumenti-Tools) since it uses a large part of the RAM and keeps the CPU working for nothing. |