Amateur Radio Features
Whilst the Time Mapper UHD can be used in many situations, it is especially suited to the Amateur Radio Operator. Not only does it have a variety of static map-layers built in, such as CQ Zones, ITU Zones, IARU Regions, Grid Locator Squares, Ham Prefixes, Ham Countries, Ham Capital Cities, and Ham Country Flags, but it also has layers that responds to current events, either time-based, internet-based, or logger-based. No extra charges are required for any features mentioned.
Gray Line: This plots the regions of the earth that are in darkness, and those that are in daylight. The line between the two, known as the 'Gray Line Terminator' has a shape that varies over the seasons. It is of a special interest to Amateur Radio Operators, as they can take advantage of the special propagation effects that can occur when both stations are located on the Terminator Line, enabling low-power communications over many thousands of kilometers. The GrayLine overlay can be either a view of the Earth at night, or a solid color of your choosing. To change the solid color, click the colored box next to the words 'Solid Color'. To set the transparency of the Terminator, and the width of its leading edge, use the controls provided. When the 'Gray Line' checkbox is selected, the GrayLine overlay on the World Map will automatically refresh and update every minute. The Gray Line is the first item to be added to the selected Base Map before other processing, and, as it is not classed as a 'Map Layer', its stack-position can not be altered like other map-layers.
NCDXF Beacons: when this layer is turned on, it shows the position of all the NCDXF Beacons. Colored labels indicate those that are worked and those that are disabled. Beacons currently transmitting have an optional line from the User Location to the beacon, and the Beacon Label text changes to show the frequency that the Beacon is currently transmitting. In addition, type 'I7' to view the Info Bar page that shows a list of beacons, with names, locations, and current frequency, plus any operational Foot Notes indicating service-status.
Ham Logs: You can load up to three of your own Amateur Radio Logs in ADIF or Cabrillo formats. Each log can contain up to 3000 entries. A variety of input filtering options are available. If the QSOs already have positions, those positions will be shown on the map. If they don't have positions, these will be added from a variety of sources, and identified in separate colors by Band, Mode or QSL Status. You can show a colored Point for the position, and add Callsign labels and Great Circle routes linking back to the User Location. You can also show a single point for each country in the log, with country name, prefix, or flag. This is a sensible choice if you have many QSOs in your log.
Logger Feed: Perhaps one of the most exciting features: the Time Mapper UHD will listen for QSOs sent from the 'DXLog', 'Ham Radio Deluxe', 'N1MM', 'N3FJP', 'LOG4OM', and 'WriteLog' logging programs and display the received callsign on the map, colored by band or mode, and with optional lines and labels. If there isn't a position included in the QSO details, the Time Mapper UHD will attempt to geo-reference it online or from internal databases, and if that fails, it will assign a random position from within the land-area of that ADIF entity or sub-entity region as defined through callsign-parsing. The Time Mapper UHD is the first program to have this capability. The Logger Feed database will store 3000 QSOs, of which 400 can be plotted on-screen at one time. The Logger Log can be exported as a CSV file.
When showing QSOs from the Logger Feed, you can also add 'Intensity Decay'. When enabled, this sets the Lifetime Periods that a QSO continues to have its Line, Point, and Label plotted. Each can be selected individually.
The Lifetime that a QSO is shown on screen is split into 2 periods: the 'Full Life Period', when the QSO is shown at full opacity, and the 'Decay Period', when the QSO starts to fade away to nothing. Both are set in minutes.
Additionally, as a feature that is useful when showing the contest to an audience, such as a large-screen TV in your Field Day Tent, you can enable 'Logger Feed Plot Highlighting'. This will outline the last plotted QSO on the map with a large circle, for a specified number of seconds. You can set the size and color of the circle, plus its duration after the QSO is plotted. The Data Bar (the region below the map) also has an option to show details of the latest QSO in large letters: again, this is useful when showing the contest to an audience.
What happens if you haven't got your Logger program set up, and you want to demonstrate the Logger Feed capabilities? No problem: the Time Mapper UHD includes a UDP Simulator that will send out a stream of random QSOs using a pre-selected mode, on a randomly selected band. You can choose the QSOs to come from anywhere in the world, or from just one continent, or just one country. You can also type in single callsigns, with optional random positions, to be sent separately.
What happens if you have your logging program working, but you are not sure if it is sending out data as expected? No problem: the Time Mapper UHD includes a UDP Monitor that works entirely separately from the main program, that you can use to monitor and display any UDP traffic on the specified IP Address and Port.
Worked Grid Locators: Collecting 4 character Grid Squares is a popular part of the hobby. The Time Mapper UHD will show a layer of Grid Squares that overlay the map. Choose to display Grid Squares for entries in your imported Ham logs, or for entries in your Logger Feed. When choosing the latter, entries for the entire 3000 QSO log are shown, not just the 400 QSOs on the screen. Grid Squares for QSOs that have a randomly-generated location are not included.
Ham Satellites: the Satellite list is divided into the standard groups, one of which is the Amateur Group, which, at the time of writing, includes 115 satellites. You can choose to show any one of these on the map as an icon, with optional footprint and a range of paths options.
Screen Space: You might want to have some other programs open at the same time as the Time Mapper UHD, and are rather short of screen space. That's not a problem. The Time Mapper UHD map is always 180 degrees of latitude high, but the map width will fit the available window-size, up to a maximum of 720 degrees of longitude wide, or double the width of a normal world map. If you do this regularly, you might want to configure a dedicated User Style with smaller label-sizes.
PSK Reporter - receive QSOs from the PSK Reporter website - a project to automatically gather reception records of digimode activity - and then plot those records on the map for Receiver or Sender callsign as either QSOs or Countries Worked, with a variety of label-types: Callsign, Band, Mode, SNR, Country Name, or Prefix.
Info Bar Data
The 'Info Bar' (the region to the left of the map that is turned on when needed) has a number of pages to do with Amateur Radio: Propagation Info, Propagation Images, Satellite Data, DX Cluster, DX News Feed, Contest Calendar, NCDXF Beacons, Logger Feed, Ham Logs, PSK Reporter.
Propagation Info - Thanks to the nice guys at HamQsl.Com, the Time Mapper UHD displays the latest data for 20 types of propagation data, and also shows the current conditions for 8 HF bands, and VHF E-Skip details.
Propagation Images - Thanks to the nice guys at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Service, the Time Mapper UHD displays a cycling selection from 15+ different Propagation Images, Graphs, and Chart. Type 'P1'-'P6' to expand the thumbnail and show it in the Image Viewer. Type 'P1'-'P6' again to close the Image Viewer.
Satellite Data - Although you can show some details of the currently selected satellite in the Data Bar, the Satellite Data page in the Info Bar gives you more details: Latitude, Longitude, Azimuth, Elevation, Range, Altitude, Speed, Footprint Radius, and a list of details for the next 5 satellite passes over your home location. There is also a Polar Map of your location, that shows the predicted path from horizon to horizon, with details of Azimuth and Elevation plus current sun position.
DX Cluster - This page shows a list of HF DX Spots with selectable band option from the DX Cluster, courtesy of the nice guys at www.hamqth.com. To change the band option, type: 'DX' for All Bands, 'TB' for 160m, '80' for 80m, '60' for 60m, '40' for 40m, '30' for 30m, '20' for 20m, '17' for 17m, '15' for 15m, '12' for 12m, and '10' for 10m.
DX News Feed - This page shows DX News items from the nice people at DXNews.Com. If there are more items than can be shown at once in the available space, the list will be split into pages.
Contest Calendar - This page shows the latest Amateur Radio Contest details from the online WA7BNM Contest Calendar, courtesy of Bruce Horn, WA7BNM, the nice guy at https://www.contestcalendar.com/
NCDXF Beacons - Shows a list of NCDXF Beacons, with names, locations, and current frequency, plus any operational Foot Notes indicating service-status.
Logger Feed - The Info Bar display for the Logger Feed is very comprehensive, and has a number of sub-pages that cycle through to show all you want to know: QSO count; Band count and list; Mode count and list; Intensity Decay settings; List of most recent QSOs with Call, DateTime, Band, Mode, Short Path Bearing, Distance; List of Total Countries; List of Total Grid Squares; List of Countries by Band; List of Grid Squares by Band; List of Countries by Mode; List of Grid Squares by Mode.
Ham Logs - The Info Bar display for the Ham Log has a number of sub-pages that cycle automatically: Country count; List of Total Countries; Band count and list; List of Country Prefixes by Band; List of Country Flags by Band; Mode count and list; List of Country Prefixes by Mode; List of Country Flags by Mode; List of Total Grid Squares; List of Grid Squares by Band; List of Grid Squares by Mode; List of most recent QSOs with Call, DateTime, Band, Mode, Short Path Bearing, Distance.
PSK Reporter - The Info Bar display for the PSK Reporter has a number of sub-pages for the selected Callsign that cycle automatically: List of Total Countries; List of Total Grid Squares; List of Country Prefixes by Band; List of Country Flags by Band; List of Grid Squares by Band; List of SNR (Signal-To-Noise Ratio) In Ascending Order; List of SNR (Signal-To-Noise Ratio) In Descending Order; List of the 25 Most Recent Reports. To change the selected Callsign, see the Point or Line settings in the Layers Menu.