Contents - Index

Introduction

Welcome to the 'VK Callbook Mapper' by Tim Makins, EI8IC - an Amateur Radio callbook that can be updated daily, can be visualised on Overlay and Online maps, and can be spatially queried and compared against other data tables, imported lists, and your own ADIF or Cabrillo logs.

Background
Most Callbooks are out of date as soon as they are printed. To refresh the data, you must wait until the following year's edition arrives. Not this one: it can be updated daily, if required, because all of the callbook data comes from the licencing dataset supplied by the A.C.M.A..

Some callbooks can be sorted and listed, but few can be mapped, and even fewer, if any, can have their data compared with a variety of other useful local data sources. This one can do all of that, and much more besides.

Here are some of the Programme Features:

Callbook
This programme will create a callbook of all current VK Amateur licences from the latest information dataset available from the A.C.M.A. Their dataset is updated daily, and you can download it as often as you like and create a callbook  from its latest data. For more information on the 'Spectra dataset', visit the Radiocomms Licence Data Page (Link will open in your Browser).

As with any other dataset or printed list, the Spectra tables will invariably have a small number of address errors and misspellings: these can be easily spotted and ammended, with probable corrections suggested automatically. Some have been done for you already. Errors are filtered out of the database results, and stored separately. The addresses are geocoded from their postcode and suburb details, so callsigns can be plotted on the map without compromising a station's privacy. Call listings can be sorted by call, class, name, address, suburb, state, and postcode. Callsigns can be plotted on two types of map, using a variety of different markers.

Spatial Queries
Using the magic of relational databases, we can sort the calls by distance and bearing. Want to know who is 100km away from you on a bearing of 83 degrees? Want to know all the VK hams at a bearing of 120 to 130 degrees? That's no problem, and we can plot any result straight on to either of the Online or Overlay maps. We can then perform spatial queries on any result too, comparing their position to any other ham, and also to any entity in one of the other 9 included datasets:

Gazetteer - nearly 18,000 cities, towns, and villages, with name, region, state, and position.
Postcodes - nearly 17,000 postcodes defined by suburb, state and position.
IOTA - all VK 'Island On The Air' groups, with island names and plotable boundaries.
SOTA - nearly 5000 VK 'Summit On The Air' entities.
DXCC - all current entities. Plots actual transmission path from home or other location.
Shires - lists 544 Shires with name, id, state, and shire centroids.
WWFF - over 2000 'World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio' entities.
ARLHS - nearly 300 VK 'Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society' entities.
WLOTA - over 160 VK 'World Lighthouse on the Air' entities.

You can then answer questions such as: How many hams are based in grid-square PF95? What is the nearest Shire to SOTA entity AC-021? What are the 5 nearest lighthouses to Merimbula, and what direction are they? How many hams live within 50km of the Bald Rock National Park? Does a QSO with Iceland cross Japan? And many more..

Maps
There are 3 different map pages supplied with the VK Callbook Mapper, and they each provide different facilities.
a/ The Online Map shows maps from a variety of map-providers. You can zoom from world to street level. Full plotting is available, and mouse coordinates are shown continuously. All markers and polygons can be used to perform new spatial queries.
b/ The unique Overlay Map of Australia features 16 different overlays: Background, Country, Satellite Earth, Topo Relief, Satellite Night-View, Time-Zones, CQ Zones, ITU Zones, Grid Locators, Lat/Lon Grid, Names, States, Cities, Prefix, Flags, Scale Bar. The overlays can be stacked in any order over the Background Layer to present a composite map-image, and then Markers, IOTA boxes, and Grid Square polygons can be plotted on top.
c/ An attractive Great Circle Map is included, centred on each of the 8 continental VK call areas. Short and Long-Path bearings are shown continuously. Custom Great Circle maps are also available, and install automatically.

Markers
Choose from 1 of 37 different Markers when plotting items from the callbook or Point-Of-Interest lists on the maps. You can also plot Grid Squares and IOTA boundaries as filled polygons. Markers and polygons are plotted in 7 different layers, each of which can be shown, hidden, or cleared individually.

Logs
You can store two different logs: Main and Auxiliary. The Main log is the master. It stores ADIF logs. You can add additional calls to it from the Auxiliary log, which can input ADIF or Cabrillo format. Logs can be plotted to the maps, with different colours for each band. You can perform a Spatial Query on any marker, comparing that marker's position with any of the data tables. You can also select a plot of Confirmed QSOs, Unconfirmed QSOs, or QSOs for a selected band or mode. The logs can be edited from the program, with positions determined automatically, if required. Logs can be exported in tab-separated format.

Grid Squares
A table is available that shows all the unique Grid Squares in the Main log, sorted by band. Each square per band identifies whether it is confirmed or unconfirmed. Individual counts are available. You can plot one or all of your worked grid squares on the map, or filter by confirmed, unconfirmed, or for a specific band. This provides a handy visual record of your total grid squares worked to-date.

Plotting
You can plot lists that you have made yourself on to the maps, and perform Spatial Queries on each item. The accepted list-types are: Latitude/Longitude positions, Latitude/Longitude positions with Label, Grid-Locator Boxes (4 or 6 character), Grid-Locator Points (4, 6 or 8 character), and VK Callsigns (which will have their positions derived from the callsign-database). You can plot a Cabrillo contest-log (which will have the QSO positions derived either from any included grid-locator in the contest exchange, or from the callsign-database). You can also plot lists of operator positions received from the ContestRadar.com website

Export
Any data-table or list can be exported in the displayed plot-order and saved as a CSV file. Any log on the system can be exported as a tab-separated list. You can also copy individual lines to the Clipboard, for external use.

Search
A single Search box on the main form accepts Latitude/Longitude positions, VK Grid Locators (4 or 6 character), VK callsigns, VK postcodes, VK IOTA groups, or any Gazetteer entity. Identical returns are differentiated. Once recognised, it will display them on the maps, either as markers or bounding box polygons for IOTA Groups or Grid Squares. You can then perform Spatial Queries on them, if desired.

Updates
You can check online to see if there are newer versions of the Spectra dataset, or the other datasets, available, and if so, download and install them automatically. No messing around with zip files, or wondering which file location is safe to use.

Help Guide
There is a fully comprehensive Help Guide available. You are reading it now.

Programme Versions
The programme runs in trial-mode for 7 days. During that time, all programme features are available. When the trial-period ends, the programme must be registered with a purchased password. There are two levels of registration available. You can choose which one best suits your needs:
Standard Version - all features available except the ability to store your own logs, plot them on the maps, and keep a database of confirmed/unconfirmed Grid-Squares, sorted by band.
Advanced Version - all features available, including Main and Auxiliary Log storage and plotting.