CLUSTERMASTER 4.41

Requirements
============

1. Hardware
   -------- 
ClusterMaster operates correctly in the TWO WINDOWS mode (see sect. 9.1. of 
file C_READ.ME) only if your TNC implements the HEADERLN and MFILTER command
according to the original TAPR spec. This last command is not available with
Kantronics KAM and AEA PK-88, and is not properly implemented in the L.L.
Grace DSP-12; therefore owners of these TNCs are adviced to use the ONE 
WINDOW mode.

To operate the TNC with ClusterMaster (see sect. 9.5 of file C_READ.ME) and at
the same time control your rig, two serial ports capable of simultaneous 
operation are required, i.e. with interrupts different and not used by other 
computer devices.

IMPORTANT: the connection between your PC and TNC shall be made with a fully
wired RS232 cable if the handshaking is set to RTS/CTS (menus "Configuration"
"TNC interface")

ClusterMaster is configured to operate with 8 bit, no parity and 1 stop bit.

Rig control requires the ICOM CT-17, or the Kenwood IF-232C or the Yaesu 
FIF-32C interface (or equivalent).

For automatic antenna pointing (see sect. 9.6 of file C_READ.ME), you will
either have:
- to install a KCT board in your PC (the Kansas City Tracker is a product of
  L. L. Grace Communications Products Inc., Box 1345, Voorhees NJ 08043 U.S.A.
  tel. (+1)-609-751-1018 or (+1)-314-391-5323 for technical support
- or to connect an RCI board to a parallel port of your PC (the RCI board can
  be obtained from EA4TX at his Callbook address, or at his e-mail address 
  ea4tx@arrakis.es or at his home page http://www.arrakis.es/~ea4tx).

2. Software
   -------- 
TNC parameters MUST be set as indicated in sect. 9.1. of C_READ.ME.

Note for AEA TNCs (particularly the PK232): if you want to trigger the auto-
baud routine, put an asterisk (*) alone in the very first line of file
CLUSTER.TNC (see sample file CLUSTER.AEA). The asterisk will be transmitted
to the TNC followed by no <CR>, as required by the auto-baud routine.

There are no special requirements in addition to a full Windows installation.
Please verify that fonts "MS Sans Serif", "Courier New", "Arial" and 
"Fixedsys" are installed. The recommended font is "Lucida Console" (file
LUCON.TTF).

Some of the DXCC management functions (see sect. 9.6. of C_READ.ME) require
that environment variable TZ (the same used by the satellite tracking program
InstantTrack) be properly declared in AUTOEXEC.BAT. The line to be added in
AUTOEXEC.BAT for setting the TZ variable is:

SET TZ=UTCn  where n is the difference between the GMT and your PC time

For Italy:            SET TZ=UTC-1
For USA East Coast:   SET TZ=UTC5

Remember to update both your PC time and the TZ variable setting when
daylight saving time begins or terminates in your country.

The executable file was created with Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0. This
requires the presence of files VBRUN300.DLL, THREED.VBX, MCI.VBX,
CMDIALOG.VBX, MSCOMM.VBX, COMMDLG.DLL and MSAFINX.DLL in directory 
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.

For automatic antenna position control, you must:

- for the Kansas City Tracker: install the software driver provided with the
  tracker board (DRV.COM) PRIOR to booting Windows (i.e. while still in DOS).
  Not to forget it, you may put it in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file
- for the RCI board: run the RCI control program (ARSWIN.EXE) concurrently
  with ClusterMaster.

File CLUSTER.CDS updating instructions
======================================
The file CLUSTER.CDS may be simply edited with the Windows Notepad. Each
command requires two lines, the first one showing the command syntax and the
second a description of the command function. A maximum of 100 commands (i.e.
200 lines) may be accepted; additional lines would be ignored.

Some commands (e.g. SH/S) require a final qualifier (e.g. the full command
reads SH/S <prefix>); in this case:
- a final asterisk "*" shall be added at the end of the command function
  description line, this causing the program to prompt the user for entering
  the qualifier;
- when a space is required between the command and the qualifier (as for the
  SH/S example), remember to add it at the end of the command syntax (e.g. the
  first of the two lines would then read "SH/S ").

Files PREFIXES.TBL and DXCC.TBL updating instructions
=====================================================
WARNING: starting ver.4.41 the .TBL file structures have been changed with
respect to previous versions, to simplify changing the country status from
"current" to "deleted".

1. File updating recommendations
   -----------------------------
- the files structure described in the following must be fully observed,
  putting symbols and spaces where they are required. Otherwise some program
  functions may not work properly;

- make a back copy of the files before modifying them;

- the files are comprised of many lines, some of which are very long. Normal
  editors typically split lines longer than 256 characters and this is
  unacceptable for ClusterMaster. It is therefore recommended to edit the
  files using the Windows Notepad which does not cause the line split
  problem. Immediate access to the Notepad is gained through the "Update
  prefix table" and "Update country table" choices of the "Database"
  selection of the "DXCC" menu, for files PREFIXES.TBL and DXCC.TBL
  respectively;

- sect.5 provides directions for updating files PREFIXES.TBL and DXCC.TBL
  when ARRL either makes a new country or changes its status from "current"
  to "deleted".

2. PREFIXES.TBL syntax
   -------------------
The PREFIXES.TBL is conceived to allow identifying the DXCC country/region
(or countries/regions) associated to the entered prefix, either a 2-character
prefix or a 3-character one. This leaves the operator the possibility to
determine, for instance, the countries/regions associated to the 2-character
prefix 9M (Malaysia or East Malaysia) or to the 3-character prefix 9M2
(Malaysia only).

Before proceding, let us define a the "search string" as a group of
4 characters so defined:

- 3-character prefixes: the entered prefix plus a dash (e.g. for prefix CE3
  the search string is CE3-);

- 2-character prefixes: the entered prefix plus a wildcard (* or ?) and a
  dash (e.g. for prefix OH the search string could either be OH*- or OH?-).

The wildcard simply means "any character" (if the operator has entered OH
he evidently had in mind to find the country (or countries) corresponding to
all prefixes OH1 ... OH0). The difference between the * and the ? wildcards
will< become evident later.

Let us also define the "country designator" as a sequence of 4 characters
(a number of 3 digits and one letter) which uniquely identifies the DXCC
country (or the region). For instance the country designator 087Z corresponds
to country Angola. This association is contained in file DXCC.TBL (see sect.
3).

The PREFIXES.TBL file is comprised of many lines (max. 600 characters each),
each of which includes, in the most simple case, a single search string and a
single country designator.

NOTE: there is no particular order to follow when adding and deleting lines.
However, following an alphabetic order could ease future edits. Similarly,
deleted countries may be conveniently grouped at the end of the list 
(although not strictly necessary).

When the operator enters a prefix, the program searches all lines for the
search string corresponding to the entered prefix and, when it finds that
string, it can immediately determine the associated country designator, i.e.
the designator placed on the same line.

For instance, if the operator enters the prefix D4 (search string D4*-), the
program will determine the corresponding country designator by the fact that
the following line exists in file PREFIXES.TBL:

D4*- 088Z

The 088Z designator corresponds to country Cape Verde, as determined by file
DXCC.TBL.

With the aim to reduce the total numer of lines in file PREFIXES.TBL, the
program has been designed such as to be able to recognize multiple search
strings and multiple country designators on a single line. For instance, the
line:

HC*-HD*- 130Z 131Z

specifies that, if the operator enters either the HC or the HD prefix, the
programm shall associate to it both the country identified by the 130Z
designator (Ecuador) and that by 131Z (Galapagos Is.). Clearly, the program
will show both countries.

The rule is that one may put multiple search strings on the same line if they
all refer to the same country/region (or groups of countries/regions).
Similarly, one may put multiple country designators on the same line when
they all correspond to the same prefix or group of prefixes.

Observing the file, you will realize that there are many very long lines,
each showing several search strings and several country designators.

IMPORTANT: a given search string for may only appear once across the file.

Program requires that prefixes corresponding to deleted countries be marked
by the symbol "+" instead of "-" in all search strings (for instance, to
search the deleted country Sikkim use the search string AC3+ instead of
AC3-). One shall also take into account that, as discussed in sect. 3,
deleted countries are identified by a country designator the last character
of which is small, opposite to the current countries designators for which
the last character is capital. Therefore for Sikkim one shall use the line:

AC3+ 870z

whilst for U.S.A., with prefix AC3, one may use:

AC3- 158C

3. DXCC.TBL syntax
   ---------------
The file DXCC.TBL contains many lines (max. 1000 characters each), each of
which includes a country designator and the description of the associated
DXCC country (or region). Normally there is a single DXCC country/region
description per country designator, although there may be some exceptions,
as evident later.

NUMBERING NOTES: In principle, there is no particular order to be followed
when adding lines; also it is possible to leave numbers unused. However, to
simplify future edits, it is recommended to list countries in numerical and
alphabetical order. Deleted countries are grouped at the end of the list and
their designators bear a number higher than 850, but this is only due to the
heritage of previous program versions; therefore designators of future
deleted countries may bear any number and be placed anywhere in the list.

The program searches for a country designator and, when found, takes the
DXCC country/region description located on the same line.

The following line example:

007Z 01 -020 +063 Af 53 39 +04.0 3B9 VQ8 VQ9 Rodriguez =

is to be so interpreted:

to the country designator 007Z corresponds to one (01) country located at 20
deg latitude South (-020) and at 63 deg longitude East (+063), in the Africa
continent (Af), in the ITU zone 53, in CQ zone 39, whose local time is 4
(+04.0) hours past GMT, whose standard prefix is 3B9, whose old prefixes 
were VQ8 and VQ9 and whose name is Rodriguez.

Note that the first prefix establishes the alphabetic order for prints.

The = symbol at the end of the country is mandatory. Also, do not forget
spaces as shown above! Note that all fields have a spedified length (you may
not write 1 instead of 01, or +63 instead of +063 or +4.0 or +4 instead of
+04.0, etc.).

When the country is large enough, it is useful to distinguish regions
within a DXCC country to allow a more accurate antenna pointing. This is done
by allocating different country designators to the various regions of the
same DXCC country. You are required to follow a well defined rule, by 
assigning all the regions of a given DXCC country the same number, with a
different suffix. For instance, in the case of Chile, there are 8 call-areas
(CE1 ... CE8), to which the country designators 073A ... 073H correspond.
The file will then contain the following lines:

073A 01 -022 -070 SA 14 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Tocopilla) =
073B 01 -028 -071 SA 14 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Vallenar) =
073C 01 -034 -071 SA 14 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Santiago) =
073D 01 -035 -071 SA 14 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Corico) =
073E 01 -038 -073 SA 14 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Temuco) =
073F 01 -041 -074 SA 16 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Osorno) =
073G 01 -045 -073 SA 16 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Puerto Aisen) =
073H 01 -053 -071 SA 16 12 -04.0 CE Chile (Punta Arenas) =

However, as the possibility is allowed to an operator to enter the plain
2-character CE prefix, there must be an additional line referring to
"generic" Chile (i.e. the center of the country) as follows:

073Z 01 -034 -071 SA ** 12 -04.0 CE Chile (generic) =

Clearly, the 073Z designator corresponds, in PREFIXES.TBL, to the search
string CE*-, while designators 073A ... 073ZH correspond to the search
strings CE1- ... CE8-.

Note that the Z suffix is always used for "generic" countries or when no
distinction into regions is made.

If desired, one may also associate multiple descriptions to the same country
designator, by sequentially putting all such descriptions on the same line.
For instance the line:

143H 02 +041 +014 Eu 28 15 +01.0 I Italy (Napoli) = +038 +016 Eu 28 15
+01.0 I Italy (R. Calabria) =

(line would actually not be split as shown above)

means that to the country designator 143H correspond two regions (of the
same DXCC country Italy), i.e. Napoli and R. Calabria. Multiple descriptions
on the same line can be useful when the distance between different regions
corresponding to the same country designator and having the same prefix (I8
in the above example) is large enough to possibly result in significant
antenna heading differences. Clearly, to the I8 prefix request, the program
will show both answers, and the operator will choose one of the two.

IMPORTANT: a given country designator for may only appear once across the
whole file.

For deleted countries the last character of the country designator is small,
opposite to current countries for which the designator has the last character
capital. For instance:

870z 01 +028 +088 As 41 22 +05.5 AC3 Sikkim =

(note the small "z")

4. Files building rationale
   ------------------------
To be able performing appropriate changes to file, one must also understand
how the program interprets files.

When the operator enters a prefix in the "Enter prefix" text box (see sect.
9.6), he can either specify either a two-character prefix (e.g. OH) or a
three-character one (e.g. OH4). Instead, when he double-clicks a call-sign
(see again sect. 9.6.), the program will automatically generate a request
for a three-character prefix (i.e. the first three characters of the call-
sign).

The program logic is as follows:

- when a two-character prefix request arises, the program looks file
  PREFIXES.TBL for a search string obtained appending a *- to the specified
  prefix, e.g. for prefix VP, the search string would be VP*-;

- when a three-character prefix request is generated, the program reacts
  as follows:
  * it firstly looks PREFIXES.TBL for a search string obtained appending a -
    to the prefix (for prefix HC5, it would look for HC5-);
  * if search is unsuccessful, it looks again the for a search string
    obtained adding a ?- to the first two characters of the prefix, e.g. for
    prefix HC5 the search string would now be HC?-
  * if search is again unsuccessful, it looks for a search string obtained
    adding a *- to the first two characters of the prefix, e.g. for prefix
    HC5 the search string would now be HC*-. Please note that this search
    string coincides with that used for two-character prefix requests (see
    above).

With reference to the following example:

HC8-HD8- 131Z
HC?-HD?- 130Z
HC*-HD*- 130Z 131Z

it becomes now clear that, should the second line be missing, the operator
would receive a two-fold answer (Ecuador and Galapagos Is.) for an HC5
prefix request, and this is not nice. The second line causes HC5 to be 
associated to Ecuador only. The prefix HC8 is intercepted by the first line.
Note the importance of the lines order.

In conclusion, the following rules are then to be observed when building the
PREFIXES.TBL file:

- when a two-character prefix is sufficient to fully identify a country,
  just make a line with a search string equal to the prefix plus a *-. For
  instance, all prefixes of the LA series (LA1 ... LA0) correspond to
  Norway with no distinction. You will then simply write the following line
  for Norway:
  LA*- 177Z
  (The 177Z country designator is arbitrary)
  or, if you want to also associate the prefixes of the LB, LC, LD, LE, LF
  LG, and LH series to Norway:
  LA*-LB*-LC*-LD*-LE*-LF*-LG*-LH*- 177Z
- often, three-character prefixes are necessary to identify a country
  (think of New Zealand ZL1 ... ZL4, Antarctica ZL5 and the various DXCC
  islands (ZL7 ... ZL9) or to specify a region (if you wish to distinguish
  regions within a country, e.g. VE1 ... VE8 for Canada). In these cases you
  have several possibilities, as shown below for the New Zealand sample case.
  Note that in all possibilities there is always a line with a search string
  equal to the first two characters of the prefix plus a *- (i.e. ZL*- in our
  example).

Before passing to the example, please note the applicable part of the
DXCC.TBL file

077K 02 -078 +167 An 71 30 +11.0 ZL5 Antarctica (Scott Sta) =
316A 01 -037 +175 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL New Zealand (Auckland) =
316B 01 -041 +175 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL New Zealand (Wellington) =
316C 01 -044 +173 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL New Zealand (Christchurch) =
316D 01 -046 +168 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL New Zealand (Invercargill) =
316Z 01 -041 +174 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL New Zealand (generic) =
317Z 01 -044 -177 Oc 60 32 +12.7 ZL7 Chatam Is. =
318Z 01 -030 -178 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL8 Kermadec Is. =
319Z 01 -051 +166 Oc 60 32 +12.0 ZL9 Auckland & Campbell Is. =

The example now follows:

Mode 1 (very simple, but poor detail)
------
ZL*-ZM*- 316Z 077K 317Z 318Z 319Z

The operator will receive a five-fold answer (New Zealand, Antarctica, 3 DXCC
islands) for any two- or three-character prefix request and he shall
therefore always take a choice between the five. Furthermore, New Zealand is
regarded as a single entity whose latitude and longitude will necessarily be
those of the central part of the country.

Mode 2 (exceptions recognition)
------
ZL5-ZM5- 077K
ZL7-ZM7- 317Z
ZL8-ZM8- 318Z
ZL9-ZM9- 319Z
ZL*-ZM*- 316Z 077K 317Z 318Z 319Z

If the operator specifies ZL5 ... ZL9 (i.e. the DXCC countries different from
New Zealand) he receives an unique answer. In all other cases the answer is
still five-fold, as in the previous case. New Zealand is still considered as
a single entity.

Mode 3 (countries recognition)
-----
ZL5-ZM5- 077K
ZL7-ZM7- 317Z
ZL8-ZM8- 318Z
ZL9-ZM9- 319Z
ZL?-ZM?- 316Z
ZL*-ZM*- 316Z 077K 317Z 318Z 319Z

In this case the operator receives a unique answer for all three-character
prefixes. Prefixes ZL1 ... ZL4 will still give New Zealand as a single entity
The two-character prefix (ZL) yields a five-fold answer.

Mode 4 (full recognition)
------
ZL1-ZM1- 316A
ZL2-ZM2- 316B
ZL3-ZM3- 316C
ZL4-ZM4- 316D
ZL5-ZM5- 077K
ZL7-ZM7- 317Z
ZL8-ZM8- 318Z
ZL9-ZM9- 319Z
ZL*-ZM*- 316Z 077K 317Z 318Z 319Z

In this case, for any three-character prefix request, the program will
either recognize a particular New Zealand region (ZL1 ... ZL4) or Antarctica
(ZL5) or any of the 3 DXCC islands (ZL7 ... ZL9). It will then be possible to
associate to each New Zealand region different latitude and longitude values,
to improve the antenna pointing accuracy. A two-character prefix request (ZL)
again yields a two-fold answer: note that now New Zealand has been marked as
"generic", with latitude and longitude values corresponding to those of the
central part of the country).

As far as the DXCC.TBL file is concerned, just take note that the program
will always show all the regions associated to the same country designator
(i.e. those which have been written on the same line).

5. Files editing for new and deleted countries
   -------------------------------------------
When a new country is added to the DXCC list, you shall:

- add in file DXCC.TBL a new line describing the country (according to the
  rules described above), obviuosly giving it a free number. It will be
  convenient to put this line in incremental order, such as to facilitate
  future edits;
- add (according to the rules described above) the prefix of the new country
  in file PREFIXES.TBL, making reference to the country number just given in
  DXCC.TBL. If the prefix was already existing, possibly associated to
  another country, one shall update PREFIXES.TBL consistently with the new
  situation.

NOTE: when you shall install future program versions, these will possibly 
include updated DXCC.TBL and PREFIXES.TBL files, which may contain new
countries designated by the ARRL in the meanwhile. If you have already
modified your old files to include such countries, it is likely that the
numbers assigned by you will not coincide with the corresponding ones of the
new files. In such case, if you have already entered data concerning
worked/confirmed countries, you may want to change the country number(s) in
the new files and use those assigned by you (not to lose entered data).

When a country is deleted you shall:

- in DXCC.TBL, make small the last character of the country designator (or
  designators);
- in PREFIXES.TBL, change the "+" into "-" for all prefixes referring to the
  country, and also make small the last character of the referred country
  designator.

6. Resolving 4-character prefixes
   ------------------------------
Starting with version 4.41, the program is now able to parse prefixes taking
into account also the fourth character of the call, i.e. it can automatically
distinguish between e.g. VP2E (Anguilla) and VP2M (Montserrat). So, the
number of cases in which the operator is required to manually select a 
country among those corresponding to the spotted call will decrease (but will
still not go down to zero, e.g. the automatic resolution of FR7 Reunion
against FR7 Tromelin is not possible). This feature also improves the
-new country- declaration reliability, as e.g. a 10-meter spot with call LU3BC
(Argentina) will not be declared -new country- simply because country
Antarctica (prefix LU3Z-) is not confirmed on 10 meters (before there was no
way to distinguish LU3BC from LU3Z-, so the program declared the -new country-
condition if either of the two countries was unconfirmed in the spotted band).

To achieve this purpose, it was sufficient to add some extra lines which can be
found at the end of file PREFIXES.TBL, which the program is now able to
properly interpret. The number of cases in which 4-character parsing is
required will be rather small, if one accepts to limit the search to resolving
ambiguities at DXCC country level only, and not to also distinguishing e.g. the
various regions of Asiatic CIS UA0 (that is UA0A ... UA0Z), which anyway
correspond to the same DXCC country (UA0). In conclusion the number of
additional lines required will usually be limited.

For parsing 4-character prefixes, 5-character search strings are now
required. Syntax is very similar to the one previously discussed. For
instance the lines:

vp2e- 269Z
vp2m- 270Z
vp2v- 271Z

allow to distinguish the three countries corresponding to the VP2 prefix.
Note that ALL 5-character search strings MUST be in small letters! The rules
for deleted countries (a "+" in place of "-"; the last letter of the country
designator must be small) are still the same, as witnessed by the following
example: 

vs9a+ 948z
vs9h+ 950z
vs9k+ 952z

The program allows a wildcard (*) at the third position in the string, e.g.

ft*w- 114Z
ft*x- 115Z
ft*z- 116Z

this allowing to consider e.g. FT5WA and FT8WA belonging to the same country.

The program also allows a wildcard (?) at the fourth position. To explain the
usefulness of this, let us now consider the Kingman Reef (KH5K) / Palmyra 
KH5-) ambiguity. If one just adds the line:

kh5k- 167Z

the program identifies Kimgman Reef as the country corresponding to the call
e.g. KH5KA, but when the call e.g. KH5AM is spotted the program still presents
an alternative between Kingman Reef and Palmyra, to be manually resolved. To
circumvent this problem, one could add the following 25 lines:

kh5a- 166Z
..........
kh5j- 166Z
kh5l- 166Z
..........
kh5z- 166Z

To avoid such a high number of lines, the program is now able to also recognize
a line with a wildcard (?) at the fourth position, i.e. like this:

kh5?- 166Z

which yields the same effect of the 25 lines hypothesized before. Note that the
two lines must be put in the correct order, i.e.:

kh5k- 167Z
kh5?- 166Z

so that the first line can "capture" the KH5K prefix before this is grabbed by
the second line.

Following the same reasoning, the program can also accept both wildcards (* and
?). In this way the Antarctica (LU-Z)/Argentina (LU--)ambiguity can be fully
solved by means of the following two lines:

lu*z- 077G
lu*?- 178Z

Again, the correct order of the two lines is essential.