RMS II
RMS ChartMaker Application

RMS ChartMaker

• Introduction
• System Requirements
• Software Components
• Software Installation
• Software Setup
• Notes

Introduction

The RMS ChartMaker application lets users create two types of band scan charts, summary charts and "peak and valley" (i.e. line) charts, from a set of scan files.

Summary charts display average S-meter readings for a specified frequency band over a specified time period. A summary chart consists of a matrix, where each cell in the matrix is colored to indicate the average S-meter reading at a given time and frequency. The x-axis of a chart is time, ranging from 00:00 hours to 23:59 hours, where each column of the matrix represents a 30 minute interval. The y-axis lists the frequency settings for the selected frequency band, where each row of the matrix represents the frequencies in 5kHz increments. Separate summary charts can be created for each (frequency band, location) pair, or they can be created for each frequency band and all locations.

Line charts display the actual s-meter readings, for one or more locations, over a given frequency range. The x-axis is the frequency range of the frequency band being graphed (in kHz); for example, the x-axis values for the 7MHz band range from 7100 kHz to 7600 kHz. The y-axis is the actual s-meter reading values, which can range from 0 to 255. If more than one location is being graphed, then the data for the first four locations encountered will be color coded and all subsequent locations will be assigned a "other" color.

RMS ChartMaker lets users identify the set of scan files to be processed by filtering on the following criteria:

• One or more locations (e.g. VIEN, HONG, etc.) or "All" locations
• One or more frequency bands (e.g. 6 MHz, 9 MHz, etc.) or "All" bands
• Date range (e.g. 06/15/99 to 07/15/99) or "Any Date"
• Time range (e.g. 10:00 to 14:00) or "Any Time"

For each frequency band selected in a ChartMaker "scan query", a separate HTML document is created which contains the summary chart or line chart for that band. In addition, a "Table of Contents" HTML file is created. This file contains a summary of the band scan query performed, and it provides links to each of the HTML chart files created. This allows you to open the "Table of Contents" file in a browser and easily view the various summary charts.

A Windows compatible version of RMS ChartMaker is also available which supports the same functionality as the Mac version.

System Requirements

CPU:           Macintosh: Any PowerPC Macintosh, PowerBook, or clone. Windows: any Windows compatible PC
Memory Usage:  4.6MB
Disk Usage:    4.6MB + however much space is needed for the HTML chart files
Network:       none required
OS:            Macintosh: System 7.5 or later, including System 8 or 9. Windows: Windows 95/98/NT

Software Components

• RMS ChartMaker application (v9.8.5)
• Java enabled browser such as Netscape Navigator (v4.04 or later) or Microsoft Internet Explorer (v4.0 or later)
• Locations (sample file for Macintosh), Locations.txt (sample file for Windows)
• Bands (sample file for Macintosh), Bands.txt (sample file for Windows)

Software Installation

1. For Macintosh, copy the application file "RMS ChartMaker" to a folder on the Mac's hard disk. For Windows, copy the application file "RMS ChartMaker.exe" to a folder on the PC's hard disk.
2. For Macintosh, copy the "Locations" and "Bands" files to the same folder that contains the RMS ChartMaker application. For Windows, copy the "Locations.txt" and "Bands.txt" files to the same folder that contains the RMS ChartMaker.exe application.
3. Install Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer using the installer provided by the respective company. Make sure the Java option is enabled in the target browser.

Software Setup

Before you begin creating charts with RMS ChartMaker, you must first make sure the Locations (or Locations.txt) and Bands (or Bands.txt) text files contain the location and band settings appropriate for the data you wish to analyze. Most likely the Bands file will not need to be changed, since the standard Bands file contains a description of all the standard frequency bands used by the RMS software. However, you will likely need to update the Locations file.

Each line in the Locations file contains a single text string, which represents a single location; for example, "VIEN" represents the Vienna RMS location. Location strings are limited to four characters. To edit the Locations file:

1. Open the Locations (or Locations.txt) file in the BBEdit (or NotePad) application. Simply add/change/remove strings from the text file and then save the file. Note that all leading and trailing spaces on a line, as well as blank lines, will be ignored. The next time you run the RMS ChartMaker application, it will utilize the new Location settings in its scan query dialog.

Each line in the Bands file contains a single text string, which describes the frequency band in MHz and the frequency range for the band; for example, "9:9300-9995" represents the 9MHz frequency band, with a frequency range from 9300kHz to 9995kHz. In general, lines within the Scans file have the following format: "<frequency band in MHz>: <minimum frequency in band> - <maximum frequency in band>". To edit the Bands file:

1. Open the Bands (or Bands.txt) file in the BBEdit (or NotePad) application. Simply add/change/remove strings from the text file and then save the file. Note that all leading and trailing spaces on a line, as well as blank lines, will be ignored. The next time you run the RMS ChartMaker application, it will utilize the new Band settings in its scan query dialog.

For summary charts, the s-meter ranges assigned to each color can be changed. Simply invoke the Preferences command in the File menu. A dialog appears in which to change the various s-meter ranges.

Notes

• When you run RMS ChartMaker, it displays a window containing controls which let you specify the scan query to perform. In addition, the window lets you specify where to search for scan files and which folder to save the HTML chart and table of contents files RMS ChartMaker creates. To terminate the application, simply choose Quit from the File menu or click the window's close box.
   
• Before performing a scan query to generate one or more band scan summary charts, you must first specify the folder which contains scan files that are to be searched. In the "Input Folder" box, click Select Folder to select the folder to search. RMS ChartMaker will search the selected folder and all embedded folders for scan files which match the scan query.
   
• To define a scan query, you must specify the set of scan files to search for. In the Locations list box, select one or more of the locations you wish to include in the scan query, or select the "All" entry to include all locations. Use the shift key or the command key in combination with clicking on the location names in order to select more than one location. In the Bands list box, select one or more of the frequency bands you wish to include in the scan query, or select the "All" entry to include all bands. As with the Locations list box, you can use the shift and command keys to select more than one frequency band. For each frequency band selected, a separate HTML chart file will be created. Only those scan files which are included in the selected set of locations and frequency bands will be processed by RMS ChartMaker.
   
• In addition to specifying the set of locations and frequency bands to search for, the RMS ChartMaker window requires you to specify a target date range or "Any Date". Only those scan files which fall within the specified date range will be processed. Likewise, you must also specify a target time-of-day time range or "Any Time". Use the time range setting controls to specify the desired time range. Only those scan files which fall within the specified time range will be processed. Defining the set of locations, frequency bands, the date range and time range allows you to control which set of scan files are to be included for processing by RMS ChartMaker.
  
• Two radio buttons, with associated icons, are available to select whether to generate line charts or summary charts. In the case of summary charts, you can additionally select whether to generate one chart for each (band, location) pair, or one chart for each band that includes all locations.
  
• The last item to specify before beginning the chart making process is to specify the folder in which ChartMaker will create the HTML chart files and the table of contents file. In the "Output Folder" box, click Select Folder to select this target folder.
  
  
• To begin the process of creating the HTML chart files, click the Make Charts button in RMS ChartMaker's main window. A status dialog is displayed indicating that RMS ChartMaker is processing the scan files in order to create the charts. If you wish to terminate the operation, hold the command key down while typing the '.' key (on Windows use <control key>-T to cancel). After a few moments, RMS ChartMaker will terminate the operation and redisplay its main window.
   
• Once the chart making operation is complete, open the folder which you designated as the location where RMS ChartMaker should create the chart files. In this folder, you'll find a table of contents file, one or more chart files and either the Java applet file, ScanPlotApplet_24Hour.jar or ScanPlotApplet.jar. Following is a description of each of these files:
  
  
  1. Table of Contents file - As mentioned previously, this file contains a summary of the band scan query performed, and it provides links to each of the HTML chart files created. Opening this file in your browser allows you to easily view the various summary charts by simply clicking on the links to the chart files. The table of contents file is named "Summary Charts TOC YYMMDD.htm", where YYMMDD represents the starting date of the scan query. If "Any Date" was chosen, the YYMMDD string will be replaced with XXXXXX.
     
     
  2. Summary Chart file - Each summary chart HTML file contains the information necessary to chart a single frequency band you've selected in the original scan query. To view the summary chart for a specified frequency, simply open the HTML chart file in your browser. Each chart file is named according to the following format: <frequency band> Scan Chart YYMMDDHHMM.htm", where <frequency band> specifies which frequency was sampled and YYMMDDHHMM specifies the starting date and starting time of the scan query. For example, the chart file titled "15MHz Scan Chart 9906150105.htm", represents the 15MHz band's data, for the scan query with a starting date/time of 99/06/15 at 0105 UTC. If "Any Date" was chosen, the YYMMDD string will be replaced with XXXXXX, and if "Any Time" is chosen, the HHMM string will be replaced with XXXX.
     
     
  3. Java applet files - In order to draw the summary and line charts in your browser, the chart files utilize the ScanPlotApplet_24Hour.jar and ScanPlotApplet.jar Java applets. These applet files are automatically created by the RMS ChartMaker application, and it places a copy of the Java applet(s) in the same folder as that containing the HTML chart files. This file is required by the HTML chart files, so be sure to always leave the Java applet file(s) in this folder.
     
     
• When RMS ChartMaker has finished processing, you can either quit the application (i.e. choose Quit from the File menu or click the window's close box) or enter a new scan query to process.