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BeamFinder user Manual (Manuscript)

1. Using the dialog Select the Dx target areas item in the RadioProp menu to open the dialog similiar to the one displayed in Figure 23 Enter the height of the ionospheric layer in kilometers and the maximum antenna elevation in degrees The user may analyse 1 2 and 3 skip propagation by clicking the corresponding radio button Note The maximum antenna elevation only affects the size of the so called dead zone surrounding the user s home location Using the command language Alternatively you may enter the command DrawEsDX skips height elevation in the Command Editor where skips denotes the number of ionospheric skips 1 2 and 3 respectively height the layer height in kilometers and elevation the maximum antenna elevation in degrees As an example the command DrawEsDX 2 110 10 analyses double hop propagation via the E layer at a height of 110 km and at a maximum antenna elevation of 10 Interpreting the results Figure 27 shows the example of an Irish radio station and its dx target area in the case of double hop propagation via the ionosphere The blue area denotes the geographical regions in which the second skip returns to Earth Please note the silhouettes of the seas and oceans in dark blue color which correspond to iono Page 58 BeamFinder User Manual spheric skips hitting oceans and seawater along its zigzag path between the ionosphere and the ground Hence considering the dark blue areas allows the
2. Okay button If the height data is not available the user may calculate this using the object s actual distance and elevation see Figure 16b Press the Calc height button to transfer the calculated result to the edit field on the left Using the command language Alternatively the user may enter the command DrawHorizon height in the Command Editor where height denotes the object s height above ground in kilometers For example the command DrawHorizon 105 will draw the radio horizon corresponding to the E Region in the ionosphere Any Sporadic E layer within the circle may be accessed from the user s home location or in other words the user cannot access any Sporadic E patch located outside of this area Note The shape of the radio horizon may appear non circular on the map of the world because of the map projection Summary Table 9 Range of vision GUI Menu Functions Enter data BFCL DrawHorizon height draws range of vision Page 42 BeamFinder User Manual Calculating elevation and line of sight data Usage In BeamFinder the mouse cursor acts as a geographical pointing device moving over the oceans and continents of the screen map By LOS 140kmi 290km specifying a height the mouse cursor may also simulate an airborne object in the atmo sphere This function adds extra data to the map header i e the elevation and the line of sight distance LOS corresponding to the po sition in space whi
3. from Clocator to Clocator gt Cancel Page 36 BeamFinder User Manual Using the command language The following command may be applied to draw 3 party data by using the BeamFinder Command Language amp fromSquare gt amp toSquare where amp fromSquare and amp toSquare denotes the grid square from where the path of radio waves originates and where it terminates respectively For exam ple the command EL50SD gt EL9Y7GT will draw a path from the grid square EL50SD to the square EL97GT Should the full six digit locator code not be avaialble you may also use its short form e g EL50 gt EL97 Note The gt symbol is called the from to operator which will also appear in another format further below Please note both the leading and trailing blank which are required for operation i e BeamFinder would refuse the statement JO40DF gt IO64WA for example but will accept JO40DF gt IO64WA Summary Table 7 3 party data the from to operator GUI Menu 3 party data Enter data BFCL amp fromSquare gt amp toSquare draws the path of radio waves connecting the geographical targets amp fromSquare and amp toSquare Page 3 BeamFinder User Manual Display skip markers Usage In a simplified form ionospheric skip propaga tion may be described by a zigzag path of radio waves bouncing between the ionospheric layer and the surface of the Earth BeamFinder can displa
4. e Launch an empty file in your prefered text editor e g the SimpleText editor which is part of the Macintosh standard installation e enter BeamFinder commands and its accompaning parameters line by line i e you may not queue commands in a single line e save the file to harddisk make shure that the text format is selected if the editor considers different types of file formats e choose the Open data item in the File menu to launch the script see the paragraph Controlling the Command Editor on page 80 of this manual for more details Placing comments in the script file Any line starting with the character slash is considered a comment by Beam Finder Comments do not have any effect and may therefore be used for docu mentary purposes As an example the line this is a comment represents a comment line which may be placed anywhere in the script file Sample script Figure 44 demonstrates a simple example of BeamFinder scripts which is ex plained line by line for educational purposes Sample script this is a comment see the paragraph above empty line empty lines may be included anywhere in the script file empty lines do not have any effect on the code execution of the script ClearMap erases any existing drawings on the map of the world please refer to the paragraph Clearing the map on page 79 of this manual ShowSPath enables short path analyses see the para graph Enabling and disabling sh
5. radio operator to identify skip propagation across ocean terrain which is believed to provide better reflections at ground level in multiple skip propagation Figure 27 lonospheric dx targets 2 skip propagation Note BeamFinder considers Figure 28 Height colors different colors to indicate ground targets and atmospheric Hot spots targets respectively The green color in Figure 24 therefore de notes areas in the ionosphere the blue color in Figure 27 cor respond to areas at ground level see Figure 28 Summary Table 18 lonospheric dx access area GUI RadioProp Item Dx access area Action Enter data BFCL DrawEsDX skips height elevation plotting the dx access area in ionospheric skip propagation Page 59 BeamFinder User Manual The Sporadic E analyser Usage Sporadic E propagation is a very directive propagation mode in general i e watching radio operators establishing Sporadic E connections does not guarantee any Sporadic E spot at the user s home location BeamFinder s unique Spo radic E analyser identifies possible Sporadic E conditions available to the user based on observations made by other stations The Sporadic E analyser calculates the geographical position of the Sporadic E and estimates the corresponding dx target and the fre quencies suitable for spotting Sporadic E at the user s home location Using the dialog Geographical analysis Select the Sporadic E analy
6. Maidenhead grid locator latitude longitude geogr coord DrawPath distance azimuth Page 29 BeamFinder User Manual Long and short path calculations Usage The short path is defined the shortest great circle distance connecting two places on the surface of the Earth However there are situations in which radio waves travel more efficiently through the ionosphere by using the longest distance i e the long path around the Earth BeamFinder allows the user to select short and long path calculations or both at the same time Enabling and disabling short path calculations The short path function is activated and deactivated by using the Short path item in the Display menu or alternatively by typing the keywords ShowSPath and HideSPath respectively in the Command Editor Enabling and disabling long path calculations The long path function is enabled and disabled by using the Long path item in the Display menu or alternatively by typing the keywords ShowLPath and HideLPath respectively in the Command Editor Summary Table 3 Calculations along the short and the long path Display Item Short path or alternatively Long path Enable disable menu item ShowSPath enables short path calculations HideSPath disables short path calculations ShowLPath enables long path calculations HideLPath disables long path calculations Page 30 BeamFinder User Manual Plotting grid squares
7. Usage Radio amateurs often communicate in terms of grid squares when discussing the charac teristics of a band opening or when comparing their dx results BeamFinder provides plot functions to display grid squares on the map of the world In combination with the from to operator see page 36 the user may gener ate displays of almost any situation in VHF dxing Enabling and disabling grid squares Select the Preferences item in the Edit menu to select one of the three draw ing styles i e crossed rectangular and filled grid squares respecively Please refer to the paragraph Preferences on page 82 of this manual for more details The function may be enabled and disabled by using the Grid marker item in the Display menu or alternatively by typing the keywords ShowLoc and HideLoc respectively in the Command Editor To plot a grid square please apply the in structions outlined in the paragraph Entering geographical data and targets on page 26 Note If you wish to display grid squares without drawing the path of radio waves and without drawing any target markers on the map please disable the following items in the Display menu Short path Long path and Target marker Summary Table 4 Plotting grid squares GUI Menu Display Item Grid markers Enable disable menu item BFCL ShowLoc enables grid squares HideLoc disables grid squares Page 31 BeamFinder User Manual Plotting the a
8. a double hop scenario The command ShowSkips e3 enables the extrapolate path option by extrapolating single hop propagation to a 3 skip scenario To quit the skip maker function use the command HideSkips Interpreting the results When selecting the segment path option circular markers indicate the geo graphical locations where the zigzag ray path hits the Earth s surface see the explanations in Figure 14 Figure 14 Skip markers Page 39 BeamFinder User Manual Selecting the extrapolate path option allows the radio operator to identify the touch down area of the radio waves if an existing single hop situation would de velop into a multiple hop scenario For example a radio operator in Poland ob serving Sporadic E signals from the south of Sweden on the 2m band is alerted to possible signals from Scotland see Figure 15 In order not to miss an oppor tunity he may decide to check the signals from the Scotch radio beacons Figure 15 Extrapolated skip propagation ec ee ee E Lu DE ze Ig BEL BER Me til N reits te Fu ae hop propagation a BER ee eo It is however important to note that BeamFinder s skip markers are not based on any ionospheric models but are purely geometrical in nature The segment path option divides a given path length by the number of skips and the ex trapolate path option multiplies the path length by the number of skips Hence the skip marker functi
9. be changed by dragging the sliders displayed in Figure 43 Note Changing the model parameters is not recommnded if the user is not fa miliar with Booker s model of backscattering see the References in the Appedix of this manual Summary Table 28 Preferences Preferences Action Select one of the following e Locator grid squares preferences e Colors color preferences e Map map preferences e Models model parameter BFOL Page 85 Scripts and AppleEvents Introduction The user may control BeamFinder manually by using its graphical user interface or alternatively automatically by using BeamFinder scripts and Apple Events Page 86 BeamFinder User Manual Using scripts in BeamFinder Usage In this manual BeamFinder commands have already been discussed as an alter native method of entering data i e typing a command into the Command Editor is fully equivalent to the usage of the graphical user interface which involves menus dialogs buttons and other types of controls However the primary focus of the BeamFinder Command Language BFCL is advanced data processing by using scripts i e text files including statements compatible to the syntax of the BeamFinder Command Language BeamFinder s capabilities are in fact signifi cantly enhanced by using scripts see the following list of possible applications Table 29 Applications using BeamFinder scripts Automated program control Data proc
10. between applications on Apple Macintosh computers This powerful feature is also available with BeamFinder i e the BeamFinder application may receive BFCL commands from any other Macintosh application Figure 45 shows the example of an electronic logbook designed with the File Maker Pro database Pressing the Apple Event button in the database tells BeamFinder to draw the corresponding path of radio waves i e the radio opera tor may update BeamFinder s screen map by using the controls of the FileMaker database Figure 45 Example of a logbook database HamlLogbaok OB cor 44 4 E ee Ber ira wer IO62IN race YE Hra cor 1188s ot gaap Ohi A yI Lep Th Apple Event button Page 90 BeamFinder User Manual Event class and Event ID BeamFinder accepts the Event class aevt in conjunction with the Event ID Bfdr or quit The Event ID Bfdr transfers a BFCL command as a string parameter the Event ID quit may be used to shut down BeamFinder Configuring FileMaker Pro databases In order to discuss the implementation of Apple Events in more detail a Filemaker Pro database is used as a sample project The database may represent as an example a logbook database feeding the BeamFinder application with actual grid square informations by using Apple Events Note Instead of using Apple Events the user may also decide to apply Beam Finder s scripting capabilities
11. box of the operation system Drag the slider back and forth to adjust the horizontal scaling of the diagram Figure 38 Distance bar chart Great circle distance distribution Color Max value and resolution ents 100K g Increment 100km 0 km 1000km 2000km 3000km 4000km S000km B000km FO00kKm 8000km 9O000km 10000krm BeamFinder 0 13 11 2 Grassmann DFSAI Page 75 BeamFinder User Manual Summary Table 24 Bar chart analyses tem e Distance bar chart display distance bar chart e Azimuth bar chart displays azimuth bar chart Adjust scale by using the slider SOL Page 6 Controlling BeamFinder Introduction BeamFinder provides versatile functions to manipulate data graphics and to handle disk files BeamFinder also enables the user to customize the appearance of the map of the world and its graphical objects With this chapter the user may apply the following features Saving the current map display to harddisk erasing existing drawings from the map of the world saving data from the Command Editor to harddisk loading data from harddisk into the Command Editor erasing the data in the Command Editor restarting the data in the Command Editor changing the graphical appearance of the Maidenhead grid squares changing the colors to be used with map drawings changing the map orientation selecting the appearance of the zoom control in the map window tuning model parameters
12. button in the Command Editor window and also the Clear command list item in the Edit menu e Clearing the map erases existing drawings see the Clear button in the map window and also the Clear map item in the Edit menu However the Com mand Database is not affected i e all commands remain available and may be restarted on demand Separating the graphical data from the Command Editor data is an advantage because it provides the user with more flexibility For example if the user wishes to redraw the data using a different colour the map can be cleared without af fecting the existing data in the Command Editor After having changed the col ours the user may force the Command Editor to resend all existing commands to the Map Manager by selecting the Restart all commands item in the Edit menu Page 21 Basic functions Introduction The best way to understand BeamFinder s basic functions is to use the program and explore its menus and controls in practice Note New users are advised to enable the BubbleHelp feature in the Macintosh operating system while exploring the program Studying the manual will enable the user to apply BeamFinder more efficiently because useful background knowledge hints and other types of useful informa tion not available in the program is supplied therein This chapter enables the user to apply the following functions and features e configuring BeamFinder to the user s home location e plotting
13. by exporting grid square informations from the da tabase into a text file which BeamFinder may upload It is good practice in database programming to consider a separate data field in the following in order not to affect any original items in the database The data field Command is therefore assumed available in the database maintaining the BFCL command to be send to BeamFinder The BeamFinder command must of course correspond to a legal statement in accordance to the syntax of the BeamFinder Command Language The data field Command may therefore maintain text strings such as IO64WA FAI JN49 JN18 A or any other BFCL command Note The FAI command is described in the paragraph Aurora FAI scatter curve on page 70 of this manual The A suffix is decribed in the paragraph Aurora FAI synoptics on page 73 of this manual Step 1 Allocate an empty FileMaker Pro skript within the FileMaker pro applica tion Name the script Launch BF command or any use any other prefered name Step 2 FileMaker Pro opens the dialog displayed in Figure 46 Select Send Ap ple Event in the list on the left hand side of the dialog to define a new script command in FileMaker Pro Doing so the Send Apple Event becomes available on the right hand of the dialog too Double click that command to define its parameters Page 91 BeamFinder User Manual Figure 46 FileMaker Pro script using Apple Events Script Definition for Lau
14. by selecting the Center home item in the Edit menu Clicking a place in the main map defines a geographical target in BeamFinder and enables the Last target button see Figure 4b Clicking the Home and the Last target button toggles the map center from home to the actual target loca tion and vice versa The Last target button is not available if a geographical tar get has not yet been defined Page 16 BeamFinder User Manual Scrolling the screen map The map of the world scrolls in longitudinal and latitudinal directions by dragging the horizontal and the vertical slider in the map window respectively The arrow keys on the keyboard may be used for the same purpose however this feature requires the mouse cursor positioned in the map area An alternative method of scrolling the map of the world is obtained when moving the mouse with the Shift key depressed In this case any scroll direction is avail able i e horizontal vertical and even diagonal corresponding to the direction in which the mouse is moved Using the mouse as a scrolling device temporarily re places the cross hair cursor by the so called hand icon Zooming the screen map The map of the world may be zoomed in the range of 0 3 to 4 0 see Figure 5 The zoom level is controlled either by the corresponding buttons in the map header by the zoom slider or alternatively by the zoom edit field see Figure Ab Note BeamFinder refuses map views smaller than the actu
15. by the Map Manager Figure 7 Command Editor window bef Inputs ef Time Result Clear 04 04 2002 0 06 56 Uhr EY passed SetRet JO40DF 04 04 2002 0 06 56 Uhr 179 done SetRet JO40DF The Command Editor provides detailed information about BeamFinder s internal activities when enabling the checkboxes Input and Time in the Command Editor window see Figure 7 The example in Figure 7 is explained as follows e Line 1 The Command Editor has received an incoming command on 04 04 2002 00 06 56 CPU time The device identifier KY indicates that the command originated from the keyboard e Line 2 The incomming command is SetRef JO40DF and has successfully passed the Command Editor e Line 3 The Map Manager processed the command on 04 04 2002 at 00 06 56 CPU time The command corresponds to the first item in the Command Database However the Map Manager has already processed a total of nine items since program launch as indicated by the label 1 9 e Line 4 The command execution has been completed successfully done Note A complete list of device identifiers is given in Table 30 on page 94 in the appendix Page 20 BeamFinder User Manual Clearing the data and clearing the map of the world Clearing the data in the Command Editor and clearing the drawings on the map are totally independent actions e Clearing the data empties the Command Database without changing the map and its actual drawings see the Clear
16. by the red frames in Figure 49 note that the sets adjacent to central Europe are only partly visible in this map In the central Euopean area the QTH_ LOC program considers the grid code as it is e g HV13f corresponding to the grid square in Sweden However when specifying a grid locator outside of central Europe a suffix is required i e N NE E SE S SW W and NW corresponding to the directions north north east east and so on As an example the island of Malta now corresponds to HV13f S see Figure 49 Using the European grid system in BeamFinder The European grid system may be used in the BeamFinder Command Language whenever a Maidenhead grid locator is also applicable However the European grid system is not available in the dialog boxes of the graphical user interface Note You may apply the European grid system when entering data in the Com mand Editor or when editing a text file to be uploaded from harddisk You cannot apply European grid squares when using the dialog boxes from the pulldown menu BeamFinder applies identifiers which are identical to the arrangement in QTH_LOC however the charcter is required to separate the grid code and its suffix e g HV13f S European grid locators may be entered in its full five digit code or alternatively in its short form providing only two characters As an example the formats HV and HV S are both accepted by BeamFinder Page 96 Be
17. durch Drehung der Polarisa tionsebene Page 97 BeamFinder User Manual Grassmann V Dubus 2 S 155 156 1986 Der Mehrton Effekt Grassmann V Dubus 1 S 89 90 1986 A scattering theory of VHF transequatorial propagation Ferguson J A Booker H G Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics Vol 45 No 8 9 pp 641 657 1983 lonospheric Scatter by Field Aligned Irregularities at 144 MHz Kneisel T F KAGFG QST 1982 IARU Region 1 locator Rasvall F Dubus 3 S 174 177 1980 Die Untersuchung von Irregularitaten in der F Schicht der aquatorialen lono sph re mit Hilfe der trans quatorialen Kurzwellenausbreitung Rottger J Dissertation Universitat Gottingen 1974 Analyse von Ruckstreubeobachtungen ultrakurzer Wellen an Polarlichtern Czechowsky P Diplomarbeit Max Planck Institut f r Aeronomie 1966 Page 98 BeamFinder Quick reference chart SetRef New target location DrawPath gt operator setRange SetRadial Remarks operator ClearMap User Manual Abbildung 1 Reference table of BeamFinder commands and its cooresponding pulldown menus Page 99
18. existing in put data is erased when switching the format Page 26 BeamFinder User Manual Figure 9 Geographical target dialog Geographical target Geographical target Latitude Maidenhead grid loc Cy Latitude Using BeamFinder s Command Language Situations may arise where the user wants to enter geographical targets as quick as possible e g in the hot phase of a Sporadic E band opening Target data of any format may be typed directly into the edit field at the bottom of the Command Editor window see Figure 7 on page 20 BeamFinder will automatically identify the type of data i e grid locator data and geographical coordinates Page 27 BeamFinder User Manual Entering grid locators Maidenhead grid locators may be entered in the full six digit code or alterna tively in the short form providing only four digits For example the formats JO40DF and JO40 are both accepted by BeamFinder Missing digits in the grid locator may be replaced by an asterisk BeamFinder will therefore also accept the following grid locators JO40 equivalent to JO40 see above JO40 F JO40D JO ODF JO4 DF JO 0 JO4 and even JO Missing digits in the grid locator are replaced by an appropriate estimate which will of course reduce the accuracy of data BeamFinder cannot accept grid lo cators such as 40DF Note When entering JO instead of JO BeamFinder assumes the grid square in accordance to the prede
19. locator system 95 Page 8 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10 Table 11 Table 12 Table 13 Table 14 Table 15 Table 16 Table 17 Table 18 Table 19 Table 20 Table 21 Table 22 Table 23 Table 24 Table 25 Table 26 Table 27 Table 28 Table 29 Table 30 Tables Home location Geographical targets Calculations along the short and the long path Plotting grid squares Antenna pattern Circles and radials 3 _party data the from to operator Skip markers Range of vision Enabling and disabling the elevation display Enabling and disabling the geomagnetic field data display Map title Site infromations The smart mouse cursor The rubberband Layer penetration Hot spot analysis lonospheric dx access area Sporadic E analyser Aurora FAI hot spot analysis Aurora FAI dx targets Aurora FAI scatter curve Aurora FAI synoptic Bar chart analyses Save file functions Clear map Command editor functions Preferences Applications using BeamFinder scripts Device identifiers Page 9 Welcome to BeamFinder BeamFinder is a software tool designed to conduct analyses for radio amateurs interested in radio wave propagation studies BeamFinder enables the user to apply sophisticated scientific models in practical VHF dxing e g Sporadic E Aurora FAl E and F layer multiple hop propagation and other types of radio wave propagation Figure 1 B
20. of the world providing range circles centered around the user s home location with radials indicating the an tenna direction to distant continents Beam Finder allows the user to draw the entire wind rose or alternatively to draw individual range circles and radials Using the dialog Select the Circles and radials item in the Functions menu to access the dia log displayed in Figure 11 Enter the diameter of the first range circle and the de sired spacing between the circles as well as the number of cirlces required Also enter the analogous data to define the radials Note If you wish to disable either the range circles or the radials you may enter zero for the corresponding number of objects to be drawn Figure 11 Dialog for drawing range circles and radials Circles and radials Range Circles First range circle Increment Number of range circles First radial Increment Number of radials E Page 34 BeamFinder User Manual Using the command language Alternatively the user may enter the command DrawRange diameter in the Command Editor where diameter denotes the radius in kilometers of the circle to be drawn In order to draw a radial you may use the command DrawRadial azimuth in the Command Editor where azimuth denotes the azimuth in degrees For example DrawRange 1250 draws a radius of 1250 kilometers and DrawRadial 32 draws a line in the direction of 32 azimuth Note The DrawRang
21. spots of Aurora and FAI backscattering Page 67 BeamFinder User Manual Dx target analysis in Aurora FAI propagation Usage The function discussed in this paragraph is closely related to the Hot spot analysis in Aurora FAI propagation see page 65 of this manual Based on the hot spot analysis BeamFinder may calculate the correspond ing dx access area i e the geographical area in which dx stations may be expected when observing Aurora or FAI propagation Using the dialog Select the A FAI dx targets item in the RadioProp menu to open the dialog similiar to the one shown in Figure 32 Please refer to the discussion on page 65 of this manual to use the dialog Using the command language The following command launches the dx analysis from the Command Editor DrawFAIDX height where height denotes the height of the scatter volumes in kilometers As an example the command DrawFAIDX 105 calculates the dx access region of Aurora FAI corresponding to a height of 105 kilometers Interpreting the results The results displayed in the Figure 34 correspond to the location B discussed in Figure 33 of the hot spot analysis The blue area indicates all the Aurora FAI dx targets available to the ra dio operator at the baltic see coast Please note the sharp border in the north in dicating the highest northern latitudes available for Aurora dxing There is no such border in the south i e the availability of Aurora and FA
22. user s home location see Figure 23 Figure 23 Hot spots dialog Hot spots in the ionosphere lonosphere ls Max Elev Skips 1 DE 3 Ionosphere I 50 F km Ionosphere F2 200 400km Cancel _okay Page 55 BeamFinder User Manual Using the command language Alternatively you may enter the command DrawEsSpots skips height elevation in the Command Editor where skips denotes the number of ionospheric skips 1 2 and 3 respectively height the layer height in kilometers and elevation the maximum antenna elevation in degrees As an example the command DrawEsSpots 2 110 10 analyses 2 skip propagation via the E layer in the iono sphere 110 km at a maximum antenna elevation of 10 Interpreting the results Figure 24 displays the example of a hot spot analysis assuming 1 skip propaga tion Note that the green area reflects the shape e g of the Bristish Isles the Ibe rian peninsula Italy and other parts of Europe This feature denotes the reflecting areas in the ionosphere from where the skip is directed to Ireland England Spain and so on Figure 24 lonospheric hot spots 1 skip propagation Figure 25 displays a closer view for the example of Ireland Note the blue rays emerging from the home location red square to the northern and southern tip of lreland The corresponding reflection area in the ionosphere is located in the middle between the two ray paths i e the green are
23. FCL 1 DrawLayer minheight maxheight elevation draws layer penetration for omnidirectional antennas i e ne glecting antenna azimuth 2 DrawLayer minheight maxheight elevation azimuth draws layer penetration for directional antenna i e con sidering antenna azimuth Page 54 BeamFinder User Manual Reflection areas in the ionosphere Usage Assuming the Earth is surrounded by a spherical mirror at high altitude we would see the image of the continents and oceans mirrored in the sky This situation is somewhat comparable to a radio antenna in ionospheric skip propagation because it sees radio waves in the sky mirrored from the ionosphere BeamFinder may simulate this situation by projecting the ionospheric mirror on the world map This function identifies the geo graphical position of the reflection areas in the ionosphere hot spots resulting in an unusual display of the continents Using the dialog Select the Reflection areas item in the RadioProp menu to open the dialog displayed in Figure 23 Enter the height of the ionospheric layer in kilometers and the maximum antenna elevation in degrees The user may select 1 2 and 3 skip propagation by using the corresponding radio button Note In typical situations the maximum elevation should not exceed approxi mately 15 However the setting only affects the size of the so called dead zone in ionospheric skip propagation which surrounds the
24. I fades away result ing in an irregular pattern caused by BeamFinder s calculation method Note Figure 33 and Page 68 BeamFinder User Manual Figure 34 provide different colors i e green and blue areas respectively be cause very different height levels are shown in both cases The green areas in the hot spot analysis correspond to regions in the E layer of the ionosphere the blue area discussed in this paragraph corresponds on the other hand to geo graphical targets at ground level Please refer to Figure 28 for more details Figure 34 Aurora FAI dx target analysis Summary Table 21 Aurora FAI dx targets RadioProp A FAI dx targets Action Enter data BFCL DrawFAIDX height displays maximum dx access area in Aurora FAI propagation Page 69 BeamFinder User Manual Aurora FAI scatter curve Usage In FAI propagation tests the transmitting and receiving antenna must target an identical scatter volume the test will probably fail other wise BeamFinder may calculate all the scatter volumes which are principally available in the test i e the program will calculate and display the so called scatter curve With this informa tions appropriate antenna directions may be planned and scheduled very precisely Using the dialog Select the A FAI scatter curve item in the RadioProp menu to open the dia log displayed in Figure 35 Enter the target grid locator of the station which par ticipates i
25. Layer penetration item in the RadioProp menu to enter the height layers in the atmosphere and to enter the actual antenna direction see Figure 22 Figure 22 Layer penetration dialog Layer penetration Height Elev _ Azimuth gt Omni 500 Troposphere 15km stratosphere 20 S0km Mesosphere 60 amp 0km Ionosphere I 50 Plkm Ionosphere E 100 120km Ionosphere F2 200 400km Using the command language Alternatively you may enter the command DrawLayer minheight maxheight elevation Page 53 BeamFinder User Manual in the Command Editor where minheight denotes the lower layer boundary maxheight the upper layer boundary in kilometers and elevation the an tenna elevation in degrees This command draws two circles corresponding to the heights of layer entry and exit Alternatively the user may also specify the actual antenna azimuth i e DrawLayer minheight maxheight elevation azimuth where azimuth denotes the antenna azimuth in degrees This command dis plays a line segment along the antenna beam As an example DrawLayer 100 400 12 286 draws the pentration path throught the E and F layer in the iono sphere 100 km and 400 km respectively assuming the antenna beams at 12 elevation and 286 azimuth Summary Table 16 Layer penetration GUI Menu RadioProp Layer penetration Enter data B
26. The BeamFinder User Manual WETS DWV Ke CAE Copyright C Dr Volker Grassmann 2002 2003 All rights reserved No part of this manual may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means or stored in a database or retrieval system without prior written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews Authorised users of the BeamFinder software may of course store this manual together with the BeamFinder soft ware for reference and backup purposes Apple Macintosh Mac OS Power PC AppleEvent BubbleHelp and SimpleText are all registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc FileMaker Pro is a registered trade mark of Filemaker Inc In loving memory of Nora amp Ben License Agreement Program usage You may use the program BeamFinder on any computer or network permit other individuals to use the program either directly or on a computer network but not more than one user per licensed program at the same time make copies of the program in machine readable form solely for archival pur poses provided that you reproduce all proprietary notices on each copy You may not modify translate reverse engineer decompile disassemble create deriva tive work based on or copy except for the archival copy the program or the BeamFinder world map or the accompanying documentation rent transfer or grant any rights in the program or accompanying documenta tion
27. a Figure 49 Extensions to the European grid locator system om mi N f J amp T W i L a ESS rai T T TETE 7 re BR Todo m ee a en gt Erz E E a m a u Li ni a r EJF mu zn se u Be Eu BE oo Bon Be Be ee Er 22 Emp J aa N a m E ee PY a EEE F F oP sl oh I TT re so man mom F 4 4 ph a mf ee frm ee ee Bt el 1 l ss an m MW u F us T i a x a i fe E 3 5 S pF Sea w E weil de a _ oo ar it F fF 8 Ft rr oh oo ss I t Proa an rT Ut 1 i oe 4 i Ss SS a a hae ft a a ie m a MHP SER SHS RADAR BET HL erst ESS Bee SEK Ans E gn a Fi share it i ce m Grid extensions introduced by the QTH_LOC program The existence of ambigous grid locators was in particular a problem to the early home and personal computers used by radio amateurs to calculate geographical distances and antenna headings it was therefore also a problem to Beam Finder s predecessor i e the QTH_LOC program which was introduced in the 1980s see QTH_LOC s screen map of Europe in Figure 49 Page 95 BeamFinder User Manual The European grid system comprises 676 grid squares ranging from the AA square at the west coast of Spain to the ZZ square in the north eastern part of the former USSR The same set of 676 grid squares is repeated outside of cen tral Europe resulting in a total number of nine sets indicated
28. a may be interpreted the projection of Ireland onto the ionosphere Thus whenever the user wants to communicate to Irish radio stations the skip must pass the displayed area in the ionosphere the skip will miss the geographical target otherwise Page 56 BeamFinder User Manual Figure 25 Interpreting the hot spot analysis Geographical arget Figure 24 and Figure 25 analyse the situation of single skip propagation A very different view is obtained in the case of two and three skip propagation Note for example the double image of Iceland and Greenland in Figure 26 indicating the corresponding hot spots in double hop propagation Figure 26 lonospheric hot spots 2 skip propagation 7 ME a a aa a 4 P RER bene Br ee Lt Y ee oe a fiw we a el x F Mi ala Fr il pi 3 F TT ET r Summary Table 17 Hot spot analysis GUI Menu RadioProp lonospheric hot spots Action Enter data BFCL DrawEsSpots skips height elevation draws the reflection areas hot spots in the ionosphere Page 57 BeamFinder User Manual Dx range in ionospheric skip propagation Usage The skip distance in ionospheric radio propaga tion depends on the layer height and the an tenna s vertical beam width Long skip distances are achieved with low antenna elevation and vice versa BeamFinder enables the user to pre dict the maximum dx access area in the case of 1 2 and 3 skip propagation
29. al size of the map window Please downsize the map window if small zoom levels are currently not available Figure 5 BeamFinder zoom levels Page 17 BeamFinder User Manual Inside BeamFinder The Map Manager Figure 6 is a the schematic diagram of BeamFinder s core modules All drawings on the screen map originate from the Map Manager which controls the data processing in the background for example by splitting user commands into indi vidual tasks and processes demanding calculations from BeamFinder s mathe matical library and finally compiling the results and generating the graphical output by using appropriate routines in the Macintosh operating system Figure 6 BeamFinder modules Input devices Output device ol lad Apple Screen map Keyboard Event a Mouse Wy Command Editor BeamFinder command language Map U MapManager lt Command Database maths geo libraries libraries The Command Editor The BeamFinder user will never communicate directly with the Map Manager but will interact with the Command Editor This module receives the data send by the input devices i e the mouse the keyboard the pulldown menu harddisk files and Apple Events The Command Editor analyses the input data with its pa rameters and appends the command to the Command Database The Command Editor finally forwards the database items to the Map Manager and receives the Page 18 BeamFinder Us
30. amFinder User Manual References Langverzogerte Radioechos Beobachtungen und Deutungen Grassmann V UKW Berichte 3 92 S 163 169 Ein Verfahren zur Ortsbestimmung von erdmagnetfeld parallelen Irregularit ten in der E Region Grassmann V Kleinheubacher Berichte Band Nr 35 S 123 134 FTZ Darm stadt 1992 Die Beobachtung des Mehrton Effektes Grassmann V UKW Berichte 3 91 S 175 178 Incoherent Scatter Grundlagen und Anwendungen Grassmann V UKW Berichte 3 91 S 170 174 Long delayed echoes Grassmann V URSI News 1990 QTH LOC Funkstrecken am Computer Grassmann V Dubus 1 S 37 39 1990 Zum Dopplereffekt bei Aurora Verbindungen Grassmann V Dubus 3 S 59 61 1989 Ein einfaches Modell zur Identifizierung von Sporadisch E Grassmann V Dubus 2 S 128 132 1988 Amadeus Satelliten Bahnverfolgung de Luxe Grassmann V Beam 5 S 32 34 1988 Gibt es einen FAI Scatterer Uber Budapest Grassmann V Dubus 1 S 21 23 1988 Aurora Ein Computerprogramm zur Analyse von Aurora und FAI Ruckstreuun gen Grassmann V Dubus 1 S 18 21 1988 Long delayed echoes on EME circuits Grassmann V Dubus 3 S 244 245 1987 R ckstreuungen ultrakurzer Wellen an Feldlinien orientierten Irregularit ten Grassmann V Dubus 3 S 182 189 1987 Vorhersage der Schaueraktivit t bei Meteor Scatter Verbindungen Grassmann V Dubus 2 S 169 170 1986 Verschlechterung des Signal Rauschverh ltnisses
31. are denote the Maid enhead grid locators of the radio stations reporting Sporadic E As an example the command FindEs JO01 JN35 analyses the Sporadic E link between JO01 and JN35 and estimates possible Sporadic E targets in respect to the user s home location Extended analysis geography and frequencies If you wish to consider frequencies you may enter the command FindEs amp fromSquare amp toSquare opsFreq yourFreq in the Command Editor where opsFreq denotes the operating frequency in Megahertz of the radio stations from above and yourFreg the minimum fre quency in Megahertz you wish to monitor As an example the command FindEs JO01 JN35 91 7 143 analyses the Sporadic E link established between JO01 and JN35 on 91 7 MHz and estimates whether the same Sporadic E region may support Sporadic E observations above 143 MHz from the user s home location Page 61 BeamFinder User Manual Interpreting the results The Sporadic E analyser provides numerical and geographical informations see Figure 29 and Figure 30 respectively The dialog in Figure 29 states the critical frequency as well as the maximum usable frequency MUF which both de note a geophysical quantity The frequency relevant to the user is however the operating frequency which the user may monitor for possible Sporadic E ob servations 200 kHz or so The Es position calculates the grid locator corre sponding to the Sporadic E patch in the ionosphere Your
32. cessor of the Maidenhead grid system i e the European grid system used in the 1970s and 1980s Please refer to the paragraph Using the European grid locator on page 95 in the appendix for more details Entering geographical coordinates Geographical coordinates may be entered in different formats please refer to the paragraph Formating geographical coordinates on page 24 of this manual Entering distance and azimuth Situations might arise in which the target coordinates are unknown however the antenna direction and possibly the distance is available In this case the Draw Path keyword is required i e DrawPath distance azimuth where distance and azimuth denote the numerical value of the great circle distance or its estimate in kilometers and the antenna direction in degrees For example DrawPath 1250 234 will draw a radio path of 1250 km length in the direction of 234 azimuth Page 28 BeamFinder User Manual Summary Table 2 Geographical targets GUI dialog Menu Functions O Item Geographical target Action Select one of the following panels Loc enter grid locator see Figure 9a DMS enter geographical coordinates in de grees minutes seconds see Figure 9b Dec enter decimal geographical coordi nates see Figure 9c Dist az enter distance and azimuth see Figure 9d GUI mouse Click target location on the map BFCL Type one of the following commands amp targetLoc
33. ch is represented by the mouse cursor The calculations take the cur vature of the Earth into consideration Enabling and disabling elevation and line of sight data Select the Elevation data item in the Display menu to access the dialog box similiar to the one of Figure 16 Enter the height and watch the extra line avail able in the map header see Figure 17 To quit the function click the Elevation data item in the Display menu again Figure 17 Elevation and line of sight LOS data JOB4EL 64 29 235 short Path 494km Az 16 O10 20 4 7 E LOS 110kn S1lkm El 10 Summary Table 10 Enabling and disabling the elevation display Display Elevation data Action Enter data BFCL n a Page 43 BeamFinder User Manual Calculating geomagnetic field data Usage BeamFinder can calculate the spherical har monics of the Earth s magnetic field using the latest coefficients available The geomagnetic data is used for example to calculate the ge ometry of Aurora and FAI backscattering The geomagnetic field data is also available in the map header in which the magnetic dip incli nation and declination may be displayed which correspond to the actual mouse posi tion on the screen map The function may be used for example to identify the so called conjugate magnetic point of the user s home location for analysing trans equatorial radio propagation TEP Enabling and disabling elevation and
34. colors The map of the world provides two orientations i e the Atlantic mode and the Pacific mode respectively The Atlantic mode is advatageous to users e g in Europe and Africa The Pacific mode on the other hand is most suitable for us ers located e g at the west coast of North and South America in the Far East in Australia and New Zealand respectively The map orientation may be changed at any time by using the dialog displayed in Figure 42 i e exisiting drawings on the map of the world are not affected when switching from one mode to the other Page 83 BeamFinder User Manual Figure 42 Map preferences Preferences Map orientation Zoom control Atlantic mode gt Slider The map references also enables the user to change the type of zoom controls in the header area of the map window see Figure 4 on page 16 of this manual Figure 43 Model preferences ooo Preferentes ee Locator Colors Aurora Fal SSS Relaxed Str ict Note if in doubt please choose 58 and 105 110km Page 84 BeamFinder User Manual BeamFinder incorporates a sophisticated model of Aurora and FAI backscatter ing of radio waves in the ionosphere There are two important parameters in this model i e the angle between the Earth magnetic field line and the difference of the k vectors in the vicinity of the scatter volume and on the other hand the height of the scatter volume above ground level The corresponding values may
35. d from the user s home location Optimum conditions in Sporadic E dxing are obtained if the Sporadic E patch is viewed just above the local horizon because longest skip distances and highest operating frequencies are supported by this scenario Figure 31 Sporadic E range circle for long distance communications soleil oes HERNE HER Figure 31 shows as an example the geographical ring area in which Sporadic E clouds would appear between 0 and 5 elevation in respect to a radio station in central France The Sporadic E link between Sweden and Italy represents opti mum data to the Sporadic E analyser because of the geographical position of the Sporadic E cloud which locates within the ring area see the Es bullet in Figure 31 Explore Connect your computer to your favourite dx cluster in Packet radio or the internet to retrieve realtime Sporadic E informations from the 10m 6m and the 2m band respectively Alternatively you may refer to ham radio magazines providing Sporadic E dx informations from the past to feed the Sporadic E ana lyser with real observational data Experiment with the data and explore which type of data is most useful in the hot phase of a Es bandopening Page 63 BeamFinder User Manual Summary Table 19 Sporadic E analyser GUI Menu RadioProp Sporadic E analyser Enter data BFCL e FindEs amp fromSquare amp toSquare geographical analysis e FindEs amp fromSquare amp toSquare opsFreq
36. d to tune the parameters of the Aurora FAI model of back scattering BeamFinder stores the user settings in the preference file in the sys tem folder i e the data is restored on startup when launching BeamFinder the next time Setting preferences The locator preferences controls the appearance of the grid squares when ena bling the Grid marker item in the Edit menu see Figure 40 Please refer to page 31 of this manual where the grid marker function is explained in full detail Figure 40 Locator preferences Preferences C Crossed C Rectangle Filled BeamFinder s screen map considers six types of graphical objects with individual color settings see Figure 41 Page 82 BeamFinder User Manual e Home position denotes the square which indicates the user s home location on the map of the world e Ground targets denotes positions on the surface of the Earth including the path of radio waves and dx access areas e Airborne targets correspond as an example to hot spots in the ionosphere or to any other non ground based objects e Locator squares correspond to the Maidenhead grid squares e Text information denotes text labels legends and map titles e Circles and radials correspond to range circles radials and the windrose when drawing beamer maps Figure 41 Color preferences Preferences Home position Ground targets Airborne targets Locator squares Text information Circles and radials Default
37. display more intelligible and to provide ad ditional information describing the actual map display e g the date and time of observational data The title is also useful if you wish to sub mit your personal dx report to an amateur radio magazine or if you decide to publish your dx results on your personal homepage Using the dialog Select the Map title item in the Edit menu to access the dialog displayed in Figure 20 Enter the map title and press the Okay button The title appears in the lower left corner of the map window Clearing the edit field removes an existing title from the map window Figure 20 Map title dialog Map Title Logbook data 1998 2882 Using the command language The following command creates a title in the map window SetTitle myTitle where myTitle denotes the string to be displayed For example SetTitle Log book data 1998 2002 will place the title Logbook data 1998 2002 in the Page 46 BeamFinder User Manual map window The string is removed by the same command without any parame ter i e SetTitle Note The string parameter may include any number of blanks see the example above Summary Table 12 Map title Edit Item Enter data BFCL SetTitle anyString displays map title e SetTitle removes an existing title Page 47 BeamFinder User Manual The site information table Usage BeamFinder handles different types of geographical information d
38. e command draws one cirlce at a time i e if you wish to draw a number of circles you have to apply the command sequentially The same holds for the DrawRadial command Note The shape of the range circles may appear non circular on the map of the world because of the map projection Summary Table 6 Circles and radials Menu Functions S S Circles and radials Action Enter data BFCL e DrawRange diameter draw s range circle e DrawRadial azimuth draws radial Page 35 BeamFinder User Manual The from to operator Usage BeamFinder generally refers to the user s home location when calculating distances and azimuths Drawings therefore originate from that square on the map which indicates the users home location However the Beam Finder user may also plot observational data from other radio amateurs This function is par ticularly useful if the user wishes to display dx cluster data for example Using the dialog Select the 3rd party data item in the Functions menu to access the dialog displayed in Figure 12 Enter the two grid squares i e the geographical locations defining the terminals of the wave path which needs to be displayed Note that the resulting path of radio waves does not connect the user s home location to the geographical target but an alternative home location corresponding to an other radio operator Figure 12 3 party observation dialog 4rd party observation
39. e cursor Usage The user may identify the actual Maidenhead grid locator by considering the horizontal and vertical ruler of the map window However a more convinient method is provided by the smart mouse cursor feature which displays the actual grid locator beside the mouse cur sor The smart mouse cursor updates auto matically when moving the mouse across the map Enabling and disabling the smart mouse cursor Enable or disable the Smart cursor item in the Display menu to use and to quit the feature respectively Summary Table 14 The smart mouse cursor GUI Menu Display Item Smart cursor Enable disable menu item Page 50 BeamFinder User Manual The rubberband Usage The so called rubberband is a graphical fea ture displaying dot marks along the radio path This function is highly dynamical because the dot marks permanently change in accordance to the actual mouse position on the map of the world The rubberband is a calibrated tool providing dot marks each 100 km Enabling and disabling the rubberband Enable or disable the Rubberband 100km dot item in the Display menu to use and to quit the feature respectively Summary Table 15 The rubberband Display Rubberband 100km dot Action Enable disable menu item BFCL n a Page 51 Analysing radio wave propagation Introduction BeamFinder supports radio propagation studies by a large number of uniq
40. e operations remote control using Apple Events customisation of the user interface autoexe file to be loaded on start up program and model parameters restored when re launching the program supports Maidenhead grid locators supports the grid system of Europe preceding the Maidenhead system supports Apple Bubble Help optimised runtime performance fast execution code Graphics large screen world map fast scroll functions to change the map view map navigation tools clickable navigation map home and last target centering tool map zoom ranging from 0 3 to 4 0 two map orientations centering the screen map to the Greenwich meridian or alternatively to the 180 meridian plots radio beams along the short path plots radio beams along the long path plots Maidenhead grid squares plots beamer maps versatile colour settings e g for geographical targets atmospheric layers etc smart mouse cursor displays the actual grid locator rubberband feature previews the path of radio waves precise great circle distance line of sight and elevation calculations dynamic calculations corresponding to the actual mouse position on the map saving map views to harddisk Page 14 BeamFinder User Manual Radio propagation and geophysics Multiple hop propagation analysis segmenting and extrapolating mode Sporadic E monitor MUF predictions and estimated Sporadic E dx targets calculates hot spots of Spo
41. eamFinder example analysing transatlantic propagation on 6m I en a oak a 2e ae W E H an E oe er er ee e Ko T Ree Zen en a er J E ke BeamFinder may also be considered a multi purpose geographical instrument optimised to the requirements of radio amateurs i e BeamFinder may display observational data calculated results and dx statistics on a large screen map of the world BeamFinder s easy to use graphical user interface GUI considers quantities the radio amateur is already familiar with e g grid squares geographi cal coordinates distances antenna headings and frequencies The user may de sign scripts und may upload data files from the harddisk using the build in Beam Finder Command Language BFCL BeamFinder is compatible with alternative applications as commands and data may be launched remotely by using Apple Events The making of BeamFinder was an effort of many years and is based on the author s professional work in ionospheric research Studying radio wave propa gation combines elements from engineering communications geophysics and solar terrestrial research in a fascinating discipline Because radio waves ignore manmade boundaries this discipline also stimulates the international cooperation between scientists engineers technicians and of course between radio ama teurs So many people have helped me in the preparation of BeamFinder and its ac companying documentation that it is imp
42. epending on the function and analysis to be processed The following dialog allows the user to study the data for any position on the surface of the Earth or within the atmos phere Using the dialog Select the Site information item in the Functions menu to access the dialog in Figure 21 Enter the geographical position and the height above ground and press the Check button to update the site information table Quit the dialog by pressing the Done button Figure 21 Site information dialog Site informations _ Input data Site data Locator Geomagnetic Field Locator JO4BDF JO40DE Total 0 46105 Gauss Memia go W lee u Decimal coordinates Tip 5 45 67 Latitude 50 22917 ony 5 29167 Geomagnetic Field vector 2 DD MM S 5a e 113 as Horth 0 19053 Gauss Las Geographical coordinates East 0 00002 Gauss S07 13 45 H Vert H 419684 Gauss In OOs 17 S0 E a 58 el Hag i ar Geocentric position vector xX 41 59 1km 0 ven R x 4094 37 lkm Y 1 130km 1 990km H1 063kn T 596 ikm 2 H 436km 1 00km 0 700kn ae H973 T0 lkm Latitude Radio horizon 2 a Radius spherical Earth Lang 7 67 to 24 2 2 Decimals 28 2291667 6371 040km 71 l34km long Lat 60 3 to 40 1 Radius elliptical Earth 6352 306 5 201666 7 Topo H E a xX O 7dlkm O 144km 0 635km J Y O lllknm 0 9390km 0 092 m 2 4 640hkm 0 000km 0 769 k
43. er Manual Map Manager s acknowledgement when an item has been processed success fully Hence whenever BeamFinder receives an input command the Command Editor is responsible for scanning and validating the command before it is handed over to any other BeamFinder module The BeamFinder command language BFCL Communication between the Command Editor and the Map Manager is achieved with text strings For example if the user wishes to change the actual grid square of the user s home location the corresponding command is SetRef JO4ODF If the user wishes to do the same thing using geographical coordinates the com mand string is SetRef 50 13 45 N 8 17 30 E where 50 13 45 N and 8 17 30 E are to the geographical latitude and longitude respectively In other words the BeamFinder command language accepts key words and a number of trailing parameters Pulldown menue dialog boxes and keyboard commands Use of the pulldown menu and its dialogs will therefore generate a text string to be send to the Command Editor The user may alternatively type the corrre sponding command in the command edit field see the botton of the Command Editor window in Figure 7 Explore Choose the Set home coordinates item from the Edit menu Enter the Maidenhead grid locator JO40DF click the Check button and finally click the Okay button Watch the SetRef command in the Command Editor window displayed at the end of the list Now type SetRef JO52CJ
44. essing Linking external applications Archiving and ex changing materials launching recurring analyses without typing data manually recovering standard displays e g user defined beamer maps range circles etc generating configuration files specific to Sporadic E Aurora or any other dx situation uploading large data volumes for analysis purposes generating dx reports including observational data from many operators comparing observational data on a worldwide scale plotting the geographical locations of stations and op erators the user considers important plotting the geographical distribution of radio beacons e g on 2m 6m shortwave or any other frequency band plotting other types of dx indicators e g VOR data importing informations from databases and spread sheets e g electronic logbooks and station lists enabling alternative applications to adopt Beam Finder s graphical capabilities e g programs retrieving dx cluster informations from the internet retrieving useful analyses and displays creating the user s library of important dx events creating a worldwide dx database in the internet exchanging observational data between operators exchanging experimental data e g FAI scatter curves submitting dx reports to ham radio magazines generating figures and displays in publications and articles Page 87 BeamFinder User Manual Creating BeamFinder scripts Creating BeamFinder scripts is a very simple procedure
45. g or a geo graphical coordinate Optional parameters are written in brackets e g arm eel parameters are represented by a leading character For exam ple ShowAnt bwidth denotes the syntax of the ShowAnt command and ShowAnt 34 represents its usage in practice String parameters are indicated by a sign For examle SetMapTi tle mytitle denotes the syntax of the SetMapTitle command and SetMap Title Logbook2002 denotes a practical example Grid locators are indicated by a leading amp character e g SetRef amp myloc where amp myloc may correspond to JO40DF or any other grid locator for ex ample SetRef JO40DF Shaded areas provide additional informations the user may find useful The following characters denote special keys on the Macintosh keyboard Command key Shift key Alt key CTRL Control key The se quence M denotes for example the following hit the M key on the keyboard while keeping the Shift and Command key depressed Page 13 BeamFinder User Manual Overview BeamFinder provides unique functions analyses and graphical features in ama teur radio propagation studies General easy to use graphical user interface English operation language advanced mathematical and physical models applicable in all geographical regions BFCL BeamFinder Command Language build in parser and Command Editor mouse operations on the world map keyboard operations fil
46. g the scatter curve see the lower panel in Figure 36 Choosing one end of the scatter curve reduces the distance between one of the stations and the scatter volume and at the same Page 71 BeamFinder User Manual time extends the distance from the other station s perspective Selecting the midpoint of the scatter curve might be a good compromise in practice Explore Calculate the scatter curve corresponding to a station at a distance of approximately 1000 kilometers in respect to your home location Enable the Ele vation data item in the Display menu see the paragraph Calculating eleva tion and line of sight data on page 43 for more details Make shure that the ele vation data is calculated in accordance to the height setting in the preferences see page Fehler Textmarke nicht definiert in this manual Now move the mouse cursor along the scatter curve and watch the elevation and line of sight data in the map header Summary Table 22 Aurora FAI scatter curve GUI dialog RadioProp Item A FAI scatter kurve Enter data GUI mouse Click desired location while depressing the key BFCL FAI amp targetLoc display scatter curve Page 2 BeamFinder User Manual Aurora FAI synoptics Usage Using the dialog Figure 37 Scatter curve dialog Aurora FAI synoptic Observation From Home location C Other location Synoptic vi Show dx estimate available grid locators vi S
47. how AAFP Al estimate backscatter positions score missing data High scores indicate the most likely positionis of A F al Re adjust after having entered new data SSS Auta Best estimate Re use this dialog to enter as many observations 35 possible okay Page 73 BeamFinder User Manual Using the command language Summary Table 23 Aurora FAI synoptic GUI dialog RadioProp A FAI synoptic Action Enter data eee Reon tn toybeardto deine oar veume key on the keyboard to define a scatter volume amp targetLoc F Ikj l Page 4 BeamFinder User Manual Bar chart analyses Usage BeamFinder provides bar charts analysing the great circle distance and the azi muth corresponding to the data actually available in the Command Editor This function is useful as an example if the user wishes to analyse the results of a contest or a bandopening The azimuth bar chart is in particular useful when analysing dx data over a long period of time because the resulting profile may in dicate the most effective antenna directions for dx purposes Drawing the chart Select the Distance bar chart or alternatively the Azimuth bar chart in the Functions menu The function loads the geographical data from the Com mand Editor and displays the result in a dialog see Figure 38 The color of the bar chart may be changed by pressing the Change button which opens the color selection
48. ials The from to operator Display skip markers Range of vision radio horizon Calculating elevation and line of sight data Calculating geomagnetic field data Creating a map title The site information table The smart mouse cursor The rubberband Analysing radio wave propagation Introduction Penetration path into the atmosphere lonospheric hot spots lonospheric dx targets The Sporadic E analyser Hot spot analysis in Aurora FAI propagation Dx target analysis in Aurora FAI propagation Aurora FAI scatter curve Aurora FAI synoptics Bar chart analyses Controlling BeamFinder Introduction Fehler Textmarke nicht definiert Fehler Textmarke nicht definiert 60 File functions Clearing the map Controlling the Command Editor Preferences Scripts and AppleEvents Introduction Using scripts in BeamFinder Using Apple Events Appendix Device identifier Using the European grid locator References Quick reference chart Page 6 Figures Figure 1 BeamFinder example analyzing transatlantic propagation on 6m Figure 2 DF5Al s DX Toolbox directory Figure 3 Map dimensions in pixels Figure 4 Map window Figure 5 BeamFinder zoom levels Figure 6 BeamFinder modules Figure 7 Command Editor window Figure 8 Home location dialog Figure 9 Geographical target dialog Figure 10 Antenna beam width dialog Figure 11 Dialog for drawing range circles and radials Figure 12 3 party observation dialog Figure 13 Skip ma
49. in any form to any other person without prior written consent of the author remove any proprietary notices labels or marks on the program and any ac companying documentation Failure to comply with any of the above restrictions will terminate the license This license is not a sale Title and copyrights to the program the world map and the accompanying documentation remain with the author Limitation of liability In no event will the author be liable for any damages lost profit lost data loss of use including but not limited to special incidental consequential or indirect damages arising from the use of the program however caused and on any the ory of liability even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such dam ages You acknowledge that the license fee reflects this limitation of liability General This agreement is the entire agreement If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect Contents License Agreement Program usage Limitation of liability General Welcome to BeamFinder Installation System requirements Installation Getting started About this manual Overview The grid map of the world Inside BeamFinder Basic functions Introduction Setting the user s home location Entering geographical data and targets Long and short path calculations Plotting grid squares Plotting the antenna pattern Range circles and rad
50. in the edit field at the bottom of the Command Editor Note the list in the Command Editor window showing identical lines in both cases Uploading ASCII files from harddisk Because BeamFinder is controlled by text commands the user may also upload a list of text commands from the harddisk i e the user may design scripts and may implement self running analyses plots and calculations very easily Explore Choose the Open data item from the File menu which opens the file selection dialog Navigate to the BF Examples folder which is part of the Beam Finder package and select the file 6m Transatlantic If the program should ask clear data table before loading you may click one of the buttons i e Yes or No You may use the SimpleText text editor on your computer to view the text commands stored in that file Receiving AppleEvents BeamFinder may also receive text commands from another application via the AppleEvent pipeline implemented in the Macintosh operating system This fea ture is useful if for example BeamFinder needs to receive actual dx observa tions from an electronic log book database Page 19 BeamFinder User Manual Protocols and device identifiers The Command Database is a component of the Command Editor and protocols incoming commands and the results of the build in parser which validates the command syntax and the integrity of its parameters The database also tracks the command s execution status reported
51. inder User Manual The hemispheres are denoted by N S E and W respectively BeamFinder as sumes northern latitudes and longitudes east of Greenwich if the corresponding specifier is not available Using the mouse The user s home location may be defined by depressing the key on the ke y board and by clicking the desired location on the map of the world The preferences file in the system folder Typically there is no need to enter the user s home location on program start as this data is permanently stored in the preference file in the system folder How ever this is only true if the dialog shown in Figure 8 was used i e the prefer ences file does not consider the actual home location when typing the SetRef command manually when loading it from a harddisk file or alternatively when using the mouse as decribed above This behaviour allows the user to change the home location temporarily without affecting the setting of his true home loca tion in the preference file Note Please distinguish between the preference file in the system folder and the Preference dialog discussed further below The preference file represents a fea ture in the operating system while the Preference dialog is part of BeamFinder s graphical user interface Summary Table 1 Home location GUI dialog Set home coordinates Enter data GUI mouse Action Click desired location while depressing the key Note Resultant home location is no
52. ing the mouse cursor on and off the map toggles the header display in accor dance to Figure 4a and Figure 4b respectively Explore Move the mouse cursor across the screen map and watch the geo graphical informations in the map header Note that you may identify geographi cal coordinates grid locator distance and azimuth of any place in the world with out typing data on the keyboard Click any place on the screen map and see what happens Figure 4 Map window DFSAI s map of the world 1 1 p EB JOYVOVYE 60 13 36 H short Path 534k AZ 57 O16 47 49 E JF5Al s map of the world 1 1 8 EB Ye CI EDEIED Cent er Miap et OT Trap pe Se Ein a bx PX gu IH Din 2 m dir ELG xX Ox 2 x X doe SM Bigg PM f ee As oe ee ee RER u Centering the screen map Note the small navigator map in the upper left corner of the map window in Figure 4b Clicking a place on the small navigator map centers the main map to the corresponding location i e the actual view of the continents and oceans may be easily changed by clicking target areas in the navigator map Explore Move the mouse cursor on the navigator map and start exploring the world by clicking Australia Greenland and other places and watch the main map change its view The Home button see Figure 4b centers the main map to the user s home loca tion which is indicated by a small square on the main map The same function is available
53. line of sight data Select the Geomagnetic field data item in the Display menu to access the dialog box similiar to the one of Figure 16 Enter the height and watch the extra line available in the map header see Figure 18 To quit the function click the Geomagnetic field data item in the Display menu again Figure 18 Geomagnetic field data INGSPI 49 23 16 N short Path bSe2kn Az 265 OOO 42 51 Hag 110km t66 T 3 t D Geomagnetic inclination and declination Figure 19 shows the North East and Down component of the topographical co ordiante system The geomagnetic declination is defined as the angle between the north and the horizontal component of the Earth s magnetic field see the H component in the figure Deflections to the east and west are indicated by posi tive and a negative declination respectively The geomagnetic inclination or Page 44 BeamFinder User Manual geomagnetic dip is defined the angle between the horizontal component of the field vector and the field vector itself The inclination is counted positive in the northern hemisphere and negative in the southern hemisphere Figure 19 Geomagnetic Inclination and declination Down Summary Table 11 Enabling and disabling the geomagnetic field data display GUI Menu Display Geomagnetic field data Enter data Page 45 BeamFinder User Manual Creating a map title Usage A user defined title can be given to make the map
54. m Longitude Height O 800km at ground level Page 48 BeamFinder User Manual Types of data The site information table displays the following information locator the Maidenhead grid locator decimal coordinates the geographical coordinates in decimal notation geographical coordinates geographical latitude and longitude in degrees minutes and seconds geocentric position vector the X Y and Z component of the position vector used by BeamFinder radius spherical Earth the length of the position vector using a spherical model of the Earth and the length of a 1 latitudinal segment in kilometers radius elliptical Earth the length of the position vector using an elliptical model of the Earth topo the N E and Z component of the topographical coordinate system ex pressed in X Y and Z vector components geomagnetic field the total field strength of the geomagnetic field in Gauss nT and its declination and inclination geomagnetic field vector the N E and vertical component of the Earth mag netic field vector Mag the UP E and S component of the Earth magnetic field expressed in X Y and Z vector components radio horizon visible range in longitude and latitude this data is only avail able when entering non zero height data Summary Table 13 Site infromation Menu Site information Enter data BFCL n a Page 49 BeamFinder User Manual The smart mous
55. n the File menu overrides the text file by using the file name from above Page 80 BeamFinder User Manual Clear command list To clear all data in the Command Editor select the Clear command list item in the Edit menu or alternatively press the Clear button in the Command Editor window Note Clearing the command list does not affect the screen map To clear the screen map apply the corresponding clear function described in paragraph Clearing the map on page 79 of this manual Restart all commands The command list is actually a history file displaying the commands which have been recently processed by BeamFinder However the user may force the pro gram to re execute the commands in the same sequence they were initially en tered This function is useful if the user wishes to redraw the map with alternative styles and settings To do so select the Restart all commands item in the Edit menu Summary Table 27 Command editor functions tem e Open data opens data file e Save data save data using an existing file name e Save data as save data using another file name GU Menu et OOO O Item e Clear command list clears all data in the Command Editor e Restart command list executes all commands from the beginning Click item BFOL Page 81 BeamFinder User Manual Preferences Usage The preferences dialog enables the user to control the appearance of the draw ings and graphics an
56. n the test Figure 35 Scatter curve dialog Aurora FAI scatter curve Path to Clocator Co Using the mouse The target location may also be defined by depressing the key on the ke y board and by clicking the desired location on the map of the world Page 0 BeamFinder User Manual Using the command language The following command launches the dx analysis from the Command Editor FAI amp targetLoc where amp targetLoc denotes the target grid locator of the station participating in the test As an example the command FAI IO64WR draws the scatter curve cor responding to the grid square IO64WR and the user s home location If the full grid locator is not available its short form may be applied as an alternative i e FAI 1064 Interpreting the results The example in Figure 36 displays the scatter curve corresponding to a station in Vienna and another station in the northern part of Spain near Barcelona The scatter curve is given in green color Note The height of FAI backscattering is specified in the preferences see Fehler Textmarke nicht definiert of this manual Figure 36 Aurora FAI scatter curve BeamFinder also calculates the short path between the two stations however in FAI backscatter geometry this path does not correspond to the true path of the radio waves The true path of the radio waves is actually unknown to BeamFinder because the stations may align to different segments alon
57. nch BF Command er Slepi Lerch W Command Sek Fan Sep bayi bimi Geel Agole Erek ee Br ee Er Check Bil Sear Crack our Set Toggi Slabs ares To WY ape Art Tengi W ekre L Fears Pept Up Page aren Fired Send Apple Event aevt Erde BeamFinder Cer ape Evert re a Copy F L I Gi Fit inte Gut Mowe ok Send Apple Event Figure 47 Specify Apple Events in the Filemaker Pro 1 Specify Apple Event Target application BeamF inder Send the event with Document Specify Files Field value Specify Field Sgmmand Script text ne in a Opt ions ee re ee ee ee Cee ee eee err ere Lr rer Creer cee ereceT cree Tre Tree ee eee Tee ere rer eter ee 1 Bring target application to foregroynd 1 Walt for event completion beforg continuing Ee Copy event result to the lipboard n m n TEE EEE EEE ee nn nn nn nn EEE EEE EEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENE a Page 92 BeamFinder User Manual Step 3 FileMaker Pro opens another dialog see Figure 47 where you must specify the Apple Event parameters Press the Specify Application button to select the BeamFinder application as target application Click the radio button Field value and finally the button Specify field to select the Command field we have initially discussed Step 4 Select the Send Other event with item to open
58. ntenna pattern Usage In long distance communication it is often not obvious which regions of the world are being illuminated with the actual antenna direction BeamFinder allows the radio operator to draw the antenna s main lobe on the map i e the operator may easily identify the dx access area corresponding to the actual antenna di rection Using the dialog Select the Antenna pattern item in the Display menu to enter the desired antenna beam width see Figure 10 The function may be disabled by de selecting the Antenna pattern item in the Display menu To plot the antenna beam the user is requested to notice the instructions outlined in the paragraph Entering geographical data and targets on page 26 Figure 10 Antenna beam width dialog Beam width Page 32 BeamFinder User Manual Using the command language The following command enables the antenna function ShowAnt bwidth where bwidth denotes the antenna beamwidth in degrees For example the command ShowAnt 33 shows a 33 degrees antenna lobe targeting the geo graphical position on the map of the world The command HideAnt may be used to disable the function Summary Table 5 Antenna pattern GUI Menu Display Item Antenna pattern Enter data BFCL e ShowAnt bwidth displays antenna beam width e HideAnt disables function Page 33 BeamFinder User Manual Range circles and radials Usage A beamer map is a map
59. olbox directory Figure 2 DFSAI s DX Toolbox directory DF SAS DS Toolbox Runtimelibs Beamfinder To open the BeamFinder application from the Finder double click on the Beam Finder icon When you want to quit using the application choose the Quit item in the File menu Page 12 Getting started About this manual It is assumed that the user is familiar with the basic operations of Macintosh computers i e clicking double clicking and dragging Familiarity is also assumed with the Macintosh user interface such as pulldown menus windows dialog boxes buttons radio buttons and checkboxes If you are not familiar with these you are requested to review the documentation of your operating system The following fonts styles symbols and terminology is used in this manual Descriptions and labels adopted from BeamFinder s graphical user interface are displayed in bold characters For example Quit denotes the item in the pulldown menu File which forces the BeamFinder application to quit Text and information to be entered by the user are highlighted as in HideLoc The same style indicates results and outputs generated by BeamFinder Commands and parameters in the BeamFinder command language BFCL are shown in the format Keyword parm1 parm2 parm3 where keyword denotes the command code and parm a parameter required for code execu tion The parameters may represent a numerical value a text strin
60. om the Edit menu to open the dia log in Figure 8 Enter your personal Maidenhead grid locator or alternatively your geographical coordinates and click the Check button Finally press the Okay button to apply your settings The Name field in the dialog is optional A small square indicates your home location on the screen map Note The Okay button is not accessible if BeamFinder detects illegal statements or data is missing Please correct and click the Check button again Using the command language To use the BeamFinder Command Language BFCL the user may enter the command SetRef amp myLoc or alternatively the command SetRef latitude longitude in the Command Editor where amp myLoc denotes the users Maidenhead grid lo cator and latitude and longitude the geographical latitude and longitude re spectively For example the command SetRef JO40DF defines the grid square JO40DF as the home location in BeamFinder The command SetRef 50 13 45 N 8 17 30 E defines 50 13 45 northern latitude and 8 17 30 east ern longitude as the home location Important note Please always enter the geographical latitude prior to the geo graphical longitude Formating geographical coordinates BeamFinder accepts various formats for geographical coordinates The following formats are equivalent 50 13 45 N 8 17 30 E 90 13 45 8 17 30 50 13 45N 8 17 30E 50 13 45 8 17 30 50 2291667 8 291666 7 Page 24 BeamF
61. on is a fairly simple method of evaluating multiple skip propagation Nevertheless it may often provide useful information for the radio operator Summary Table 8 Skip markers Display Skip markers Enter data ShowSkips s skips enables the segment path option ShowSkips e skips enables the extrapolate path option HideSkips disables skip markers Page 40 BeamFinder User Manual Range of vision radio horizon Usage The radio horizon defines the geographical region in which for example a balloon re mains in view without disappearing below the observer s topographic horizon Its radius de pends of course on the object s height above ground i e the radio horizon corresponding to a ballon for example is much smaller com pared to that of a satellite The radio horizon function is also useful for analysing the area in which the user may access Sporadic E clouds Aurora and FAI backscatter vol umes or any other phenomena in the upper atmosphere Figure 16 Height above ground dialog Radio horizon Height Calculate above Ground Dist Manually Elew fee Gee Radio horizon Height Calculate above Ground Dist 350 km C Flew io Cale Height Page 41 BeamFinder User Manual Using the dialog Select the Range of vision item in the Functions menu to access the dialog displayed in Figure 16a Enter the object s height above ground and press the
62. ort path cal culations on page 30 of this manual ShowPos enables the target marker function of Beam Finder see the paragraph Entering geo graphical data and targets on page 26 of this manual SetRef JO40DF defines the Maidenhead grid square JO40DF as the user s home location see the para Page 88 BeamFinder DrawRange 1000 IO64WA EN24f User Manual graph Setting the user s home location on page 23 of this manual draws a range circle of a diameter of 1000 km see the paragraph Range circles and radials on page 34 of this manual draws the path of radio waves to the target grid square IO64WA see again the para graph Entering geographical data and tar gets on page 26 of this manual draws the path of radio waves to the target locator EN24f note that this grid square cor responds to the locator system preceding the nowadays Maidenhead system see the paragraph Using the European grid locator in the Appendix of this manual Please note that BeamFinder scripts are easy to read once the user is familiar with the BeamFinder Command Language The user is advised to study and to run the example scripts available in the BF Examples folder of the BeamFinder directory Figure 44 Sample script Sample script ClearMap Show SsPath Show Pos SetRet JO400F Drawkange 1000 Page 89 BeamFinder User Manual Using Apple Events Usage Apple Events are system level commands sent
63. ossible to acknowledge them all person ally I have gained much from the many conversations on the 2m band with my friends and fellow radio amateurs have been inspired by many ham radio magazines and their authors discussing radio propagation phenomena and ex Page 10 periments am grateful to Reiner Hess from XCAD AG for supporting the Beam Finder web appearance and to The Living Earth Inc And the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center for providing valuable data supporting the design of the screen map of the world am grateful to my wife Aileen for the corrections and for making this manual somewhat more acceptable to English readers hope BeamFinder will support amateur radio propagation studies and would en courage in particular the young people s interest in science and engineering Enjoy Installation System requirements In order to use BeamFinder you need the following an Apple Macintosh Power PC PPC running at least System Mac OS 8 0 BeamFinder does not support native Mac OS X at the present time a minimum of 60 megabytes free RAM Random Access Memory ahard disk with approximately 12 megabytes available to store BeamFinder and related files a computer monitor supporting high resolution and a minimum of 32 768 screen colors Installation Copy the BeamFinder folder into the DF5Al s DX Toolbox directory see Figure 2 Please make sure that the Runtime Libs folder is also available in the to
64. radic E calculates total Aurora and FAI access area calculates hot spots of Aurora and FAI calculates curves of backscattering estimates Aurora and FAI positions in real time estimates Aurora FAI dx targets in realtime plots the zero elevation radio horizon and range of vision penetration path of radio waves into the atmosphere distance and azimuth bar chart analyses site information panel Earth magnetic field data supports all world and atmosphere locations The grid map of the world The screen map of the world is probably BeamFinder s most eye catching fea ture The map shows continents oceans political borders and the worldwide Maidenhead grid locator system Because of its large size your computer screen may not be capable to display the total map area but only a section depending on the size of your computer screen see Figure 3 However you may change the map view by using BeamFinder s zoom controls and its navigation tools see below Figure 3 Map dimensions in pixels The map window shows the actual segment of the map of the world and also some numerical informations see Figure 4 The geographical information re main available as long as the mouse cursor is positioned within the map area However if the mouse cursor is positioned somewhere else the geographical in Page 15 BeamFinder User Manual formation is replaced by BeamFinder s zoom and navigation tools Hence mov
65. rker dialogs Figure 14 Skip markers Figure 15 Extrapolated skip propagation Figure 16 Height above ground dialog Figure 17 Elevation and line of sight LOS data Figure 18 Geomagnetic field data Figure 19 Geomagnetic Inclination and declination Figure 20 Map title dialog Figure 21 Site informations dialog Figure 22 Layer penetration dialog Figure 23 Hot spots dialog Figure 24 lonospheric hot spots 1 skip propagation Figure 25 Interpreting the hot spot analysis Figure 26 lonospheric hot spots 2 skip propagation Figure 27 lonospheric dx targets 2 skip propagation Figure 28 Height colors Figure 29 Sporadic E analyser dialog Figure 30 Plot results of the Sporadic E analyser Figure 31 Sporadic E range circle for long distance communications Figure 32 Aurora FAI hot spot dialog Figure 33 Aurora FAI hot spots analysis Figure 34 Aurora FAI dx target analysis Figure 35 Scatter curve dialog Figure 36 Aurora FAI scatter curve Figure 37 Scatter curve dialog Figure 38 Distance bar chart Figure 39 Clear data dialog Figure 40 Locator preferences Figure 41 Color preferences Figure 42 Map preferences Figure 43 Model preferences Figure 44 Sample script Figure 45 Example of a logbook database Figure 46 FileMaker Pro script using Apple Events Page Figure 47 Specify Apple Events in the Filemaker Pro 1 92 Figure 48 Specify Apple Events in the Filemaker Pro 2 93 Figure 49 Extensions to the European grid
66. s the map automatically before drawing any new object Action Clear map click item Auto clear enable disable item BFCL ClearMap clears the screen map Page 9 BeamFinder User Manual Controlling the Command Editor Usage BeamFinder is actually controlled by text commands which are stored and main tained by the Command Editor see the paragraph The Command Editor on page 18 of this manual The Command Editor window provides a list of the most recent commands processed by BeamFinder This paragraph describes the methods the user may apply to manipulate the command list Loading commands from harddisk Select the Open data item in the File menu to load a text file from harddisk containing BeamFinder commands BeamFinder loads the data and will imme diatly start processing the data However before uploading the informations from harddisk BeamFinder may prompt the user if data already exists in the Command Editor see Figure 39 Clickling the No button appends the file data to the existing informations clicking the Yes button will erase existing data from memory i e the new data will over write the old data in the Command Editor Figure 39 Clear data dialog Loading data gt Clear data table before loading Saving commands to harddisk Select the Save data as item in the File menu to save the command list to harddisk using the file name and location specified by the user The Save data item i
67. ser item in the RadioProp menu to open the dialog displayed in Figure 29 Enter the grid locator of the station that actually establishs any Sporadic E connection and enter the grid locator of the corre sponding Sporadic E target Press the any frequency button if you wish to analyse the Es geography without taking frequenies into consideration Press the Analyse button to start the calculation The result may be transfered to the screen map by selecting the Plot button Extended analysis geography and frequencies Alternatively you may press the above button to enter the minimum operating frequency you prefer In this case you have to enter also the Sporadic E operat ing frequency of the two radio stations from above Press the Analyse button to start the calculation The result may be transfered to the screen map by selecting the Plot button Page 60 BeamFinder User Manual Figure 29 Sporadic E analyser dialog Spor dic E analyser Sporadic eE fram locator to locator at freg MHz Analysis J any frequency m Analyse above 145 8 MHz mma SPOR ADIC E ALERT Critical frequency 25 9MHz above 143MHz Max usable frequency 144 3MHz Es position JMNZSBM Your target locator INS0MU Optimum frequency 145 5MHz Using the command language Geographical analysis Alternatively you may enter the command FindEs amp fromSquare amp toSquare in the Command Editor where amp fromSquare and amp toSqu
68. t considered by the preference file in the system folder BFCL e SetRef amp myLoc set Maidenhead grid locator e SetRef myLatitude myLongitude set geographical coordinates Note Resultant home location is not considered by the preference file of the system folder Page 25 BeamFinder User Manual Entering geographical data and targets Usage Processing geographical data is one of BeamFinder s core functions The geo graphical data is used to calculate the target distance and heading and to draw a connec tion between the users home location and the corresponding target The connection corresponds to the path of radio waves trav eling between these geographical positions Settings Please apply the following settings before entering a geographical target e Enable the Short path or alternatively the Long path item in the Display menu e enable the Target marker item in the Display menu if you wish to place a small bullet marker at the end of the path Using the mouse By clicking any location on the map of the world BeamFinder will consider the corresponding position to be the geographical target Using the dialog Select the Geographical target item in the Functions menu and choose one of the panels shown in Figure 9 to enter the geographical data Note You may access the dialog faster by using the shortcut 1 on the ke y board You may change the actual panel selection at any time however any
69. target locator finally estimates the position of a possible dx target which might be available in the cur rent situation Figure 30 shows an example of the Sporadic E analyser s plot results Note the Sporadic E link between JO01 England and JN35 Italy and the corresponding position of Sporadic E in the ionosphere see the Es bullet The path between the south of Sweden home location and Spain denotes the Sporadic E ana lyser s prediction In the case the Sporadic E analyser denies any Es observation from the user s home location no path is displayed on the screen map of course This may result from geographical reasons or alternatively from the frequency setting in the extended analysis described above Note The Sporadic E analyser assumes single hop propagation in all cases i e multiple hop scenarios cannot be evaluated by the Sporadic E analyser Figure 30 Plot results of the Sporadic E analyser Page 62 BeamFinder User Manual Optimum usage of the Sporadic E analyser It is important to understand that no significant data is achieved if the user enters his personal Sporadic E observations into the Sporadic E analyser On the other applying Sporadic E observations made by radio stations at a distance of many thousand kilometers also provides little informations in general because the cor responding Sporadic E patch probably remains invisible below the user s local horizon i e the Sporadic E cannot be accesse
70. the Temporary height button may be used to enter an alternative value Page 65 BeamFinder User Manual Using the command language The following command may be used to launch the function from the Command Editor DrawFAlSpots height where height denotes the height of the scatter volumes in kilometers As an example the command DrawFAlSpots 105 calculates the regions in 105 km height where the scatter geometry is fulfilled in respect to the user s home loca tion Figure 33 Aurora FAI hot spots analysis ae Hot pots An i 2 Bee to Cs i Page 66 BeamFinder User Manual Interpreting the results The radio operator in B and C see Figure 33 may observe Aurora and FAI backscattering if field aligned irregularietes would exist in the corresponding green areas Field aligned irregularities may also exist outside of this areas of course but cannot be utilized because the backscattering would not meet the geometrical requirements The green areas therefore identify E layer regions suitable for Aurora and FAI propagation and may be called hot spots for this reason Please note that no green area exist corresponding to the location A i e Aurora backscattering is not available in the far north which is a consequence of too high geomagnetic inlination in high latitudes Summary Table 20 Aurora FAI hot spot analysis GUI Menu RadioProp A FAI hot spots Enter data BFCL DrawFAlSpots height calulates hot
71. the dialog shown in Figure 48 Enter the Event Class and the Event ID as shown in the figure Figure 48 Specify Apple Events in the Filemaker Pro 2 specify Event Specify the event class and type to send Event Class aeut Event ID Bfdr Note The user is requested to consult the Filemaker Pro documentation for more details on the design of FileMaker scripts Whenever the FileMaker Pro script is launched the database will send the actual content of the Command field to the BeamFinder application Page 93 Appendix Device identifier The device identifier indicates the input device from which an incoming command originates The device identifier may be displayed in the Command Editor window when enabling the Inputs checkbox Table 30 Device identifiers Input device Identifier Internal Mouse Menu Keyboard Harddisk file Apple Event Page 94 BeamFinder User Manual Using the European grid locator European grid system In the 1980s the Maidenhead system was introduced by the International Ama teur Radio Union IARU Region 1 Conference to replace the previous system which was used by European radio amateurs for many years In fact there was a need for a global system which does not involve any ambiguities resulting in the same grid code for different geographical locations The grid locator HV13f as an example corresponds to a place in Sweden and also to the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Se
72. the path of radio waves on the map of the world considering short and long path radio propagation plotting grid squares to display dx results and band openings creating beamer maps range circles and antenna bearings analysing third party observations e g by adopting dx cluster information plotting the antenna beamwidth displaying the geographical area illuminated with the actual antenna direction displaying elevation data in the map header displaying geomagnetic field data in the map header using the site information table enabling the smart cursor feature to identify Maidenhead grid locators enabling the rubberband feature to preview the path of radio waves using BeamFinder s graphical user interface operating BeamFinder s build in command language Page 22 BeamFinder Setting the user s home location Usage Before using BeamFinder the user is ad vised to store his personal geographical data in the program as the majority of commands and functions refer to the user s home location e g when calculating great User Manual cirlce distances antenna headings etc Figure 8 Home location dialog Home location Choose Format d Locator a Latitude opemm ss 58 13 45 ee 3 Decimals Longitude _ e pie S Latitude 58 2291667 Longitude Cancel Check Okay Page 23 BeamFinder User Manual Using the dialog Choose the Set home coordinates item fr
73. ue analysis tools emerging from the practice of vhf dxing Studying this chapter the user is enabled to apply the following analyses e Evaluating the penetration path of radio waves into the atmosphere e identifying ionospheric hot spots in the Sporadic E dxing e analysing the maximum dx access area corresponding to 1 2 and 3 hop propagation e using the Sporadic E monitor for calculating the maximum usable frequency MUF the frequency of optimum traffic FOT the geographical position of Sporadic E patches and for estimating possible dx targets identifying hot spots of Aurora and FAI backscattering analysing the maximum dx radius in Aurora and FAI propagation calculating the scatter curve in Aurora and FAI radio propagation estimating the geographical positions of Aurora and FAI in realtime predicting possible dx in an Aurora and FAI bandopenings plotting bar charts of observational data Page 52 BeamFinder User Manual Penetration path into the atmosphere Usage BeamFinder displays the penetration path of radio waves into the atmosphere This function is in particular useful with satellite and moon bounce communication at low antenna eleva tion AS an example Moonbounce operators claim geomagnetic storms may degrade the signal to noise ration in EME operation Using this function the EME operator may identify EME signals travelling through the polar iono sphere Using the dialog Select the
74. used by BeamFinder s calculations Page BeamFinder User Manual File functions Usage Any map display may be saved to harddisk by using BeamFinder s save map functions The function creates a PICT file on the user s harddisk corresponding to the actual size of the map window Saving the map Select the Save map as item in the File menu to access the file selector dialog in which the user specifies the name and the location of the map file AS soon as a file name is available BeamFinder will also enable the Save map item in the File menu This function overwrites the initial map file with a new copy of the map window display Summary Table 25 Save file functions tem e Save map saves map using existing file name e Save map as saves map under another file name Enter file name if required SFOL Page 8 BeamFinder User Manual Clearing the map Clear map Select the Clear map item in the Edit menu to clear the map The same function is obtained by pressing the Clear button in the map window Enter ClearMap in the Command Editor to clear the map by using BeamFinder s Command Lan guage Autoclear map The user may instruct BeamFinder to clear previous drawings before placing any new objects on the screen map To enable this function select the Auto clear map item in the Edit menu Summary Table 26 Clear map GUI Menu Edit e Clear map clears the map e Auto clear map clear
75. y the footprints of such a zigzag path on the map of the world and allows the operator to extrapolate a single hop propagation to a multi ple hop scenario This allows for example a what if analysis of Sporadic E i e what dx tar gets might become available if the current Sporadic E band opening develops into a double hop scenario Using the dialog Select the Skip markers item in the Display menu to access the dialog dis played on the left hand side of Figure 13 Drag the slider to the number of skips to be analysed To disable the skip markers drag the slider to its outer left posi tion Figure 13 Skip marker dialogs skip propagation skip propagation Number of Hops 3 Number of Hops 2 SS segment path segment path extrapolate path extrapolate path Cancel Cancel Page 38 BeamFinder User Manual The user may extrapolate a single hop to a multiple hop scenario by clicking the extarpolate path button in the dialog Refer to the paragraph further below to understand the difference between the segment path and extrapolate path option Using the command language The following commands enable the skip marker function by using the Beam Finder Command Language Showskips s skips ShowSkips e skips where skips denotes the number of skips to be analysed For example the command ShowSkips s2 enables the skip marker option using the segment path option in the case of
76. your Freq extended analysis geography and frequenies Page 64 BeamFinder User Manual Hot spot analysis in Aurora FAI propagation Usage BeamFinder incorporates the model of backscattering of radio waves caused by ir regularities in the E layer which are oriented along the Earth magnetic field lines This model can precisely describe the corre sponding scatter geometry i e the geo graphical orientation of the transmitter and the receiver respectively in respect to the the scatter volume and its local magnetic field lines The following function calculates the regions in the ionosphere fulfilling the geometrical requirements for Aurora and FAI propagation Using the dialog Select the A FAI hot spots item in the RadioProp menu to open the dialog displayed in Figure 32 in which the user specifies the height of backscattering Figure 32 Aurora FAI hot spot dialog Aurora FAI backscatter areas select FAI Height fe 105 km see Preferences dialog J Temporary Height In typical situations it is recommended to adopt the height setting of the prefer ences dialog i e by enabling the radio button xxx km see Preferences dia log where xxx corresponds to the slider position in the preferences dialog see Figure 43 in the paragraph Preferences on page Fehler Textmarke nicht definiert of this manual However if the user wishes to consider any other height without affecting the preferences

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