Pileup Runner
Contents
1. score to the Clipboard then paste it in the input box on the web page Be sure to copy the whole line including the signature at the end Note that any changes to the line invalidate the signature Only the lines with Competition in the Mode field may be submitted to the online table the lines with Practice are only for your own information DATA FOLDERS Since Windows no longer allows the programs to write to their own folder Pileup Runner stores its data in a special data folder designated by operating system The location of this folder is different on every machine Use the menu commands under File to open the folders containing the I Q WAV recordings and ADIF logs and to access the History file DXERS CALLSIGNS The list of DXers callsigns has been produced by Michael G7VJR from his ClubLog data MNI TNX These are real callsigns of the real DX ers who worked a certain minimum number of DX peditions in the last few years Be prepared to hear many familiar calls in the pileup You can even work yourself if you are lucky enough DSP CHAIN When the program generates the audio for you and plots the waterfall display it does not cheat and does not cut corners After the 1 Q stream containing all signals is generated it is processed by the code identical to that in CW Skimmer as if it were received from a radio The processing includes filtering AGC FFT key click canceling etc This ensures that the quality of the audio and wat2. Pileup Runner v 1 4 User s Manual http www dxatlas com PileupRunner Copyright c 2012 Afreet Software Inc TABLE OF CONTENTS UE As td ell 3 PIEEUP SETTINGS denten deet delata 3 NANGA ON roden enkelen oan heal aclu oh mantel 4 SENDING MESSAGES e tete tement Oe nit endet as 5 LOGGING atando endet 6 DOED nete een 7 DXERS CALDSIONS vonnineneneineen steekassen 7 DSP CHAIN oneens aante coll urea its ctu 7 PUE OP DENAVIR zo tente nnee den eene edn 7 TIPS AND TRICK S sand NEEN OE AN ENAN E 8 VERSION HISTORY A A E O E 10 QUICK START 1 Start the program 2 If you have more than one audio device in your system click on Settings System in the menu and select the device to use in the Output Audio Device drop down list Click on OK It is recommended that you use your headphones instead of the speakers this makes copying CW much easier My own machine has two soundcards one feeds the speakers for Windows sounds music etc the other one feeds the headphones and is used by all of my Ham applications 3 Press F9 to start the audio While the audio is running click on Settings Radio in the menu and adjust Audio Gain and CW Pitch Now press F1 to start transmission and adjust the Sidetone Gain and Keyer Speed settings Click on Run Stop Pileup in the menu to stop the audio You can keep the Radio Settings dialog open if you want and change the settings on the fly while working the pileup 4 You are ready to work
3. e to page through the whole pileup and always work in the areas with a low concentration of the callers As has already been said staying on the same listening frequency for more than a few QSO is a sure way to cause problems to both your callers and yourself Even if you did not have time to find a good new frequency in advance just tune 2 3 kHz up or down this requires only a single mouse click on the waterfall The slow waterfall available in Pileup Runner may give you a rough idea of where in the pileup the density of the stations is low VERSION HISTORY 2012 10 10 1 4 Increased space between the callsigns when the calling station sends its call twice The macro key if pressed twice does not add a duplicate QSO to the log If the operator changes the listening frequency by more than 300 Hz the callsign input box is automatically cleared 2012 10 05 1 3 Competition mode added Macro and keys re assignable by user Arrow up and down keys control filter bandwidth Improved artificial intelligence behind the calling stations Auto send DX callsign every N th QSO 2012 09 28 1 2 Beta Improved performance on slow computers 2012 09 26 1 1 Beta F key mapping ESM mode 2012 09 24 1 0 Beta Initial release
4. erfall graphics are the same in a simulation and on the air PILEUP BEHAVIOUR The pileup simulator tries to model many features of the real pileups I the simulation the DX ers copy your signals most of the time but sometimes they cannot copy their own call or accept an incorrectly sent call or miss your transmission completely You will notice that they use all kinds of variations on the 599 TU theme from plain 599 to something like BK DE XX0OXXX TU 599 599 GL 73 DE XX0XXX TU E E Be patient and do not send your final TU until your correspondent finishes sending his message or you may end up being not in his log The DX ers do their best to work you but their skill levels are different Some of them just keep calling blindly on the same frequency in a hope that you will eventually tune across their signals some at least monitor their own TX frequency and QSY when necessary to ensure that their signal is more or less in the clear but there are also experienced DX ers who try to figure out your listening frequency and they often succeed in this As soon as your correspondent sends 599 to you some of the experienced DX ers know where you are listening and tune to or near that frequency Do not listen on the same frequency for too long unless you want to see half of the pileup squeezed in the passband of your receiver TIPS AND TRICKS Since Pileup Runner has the same waterfall display as CW Skimmer you can use all tricks tha
5. he current function of the Enter key have red labels LOGGING The log panel shows the last 5 QSO including the time callsign frequency continent SNR and a QSO status symbol The following status symbols are used Valid QSO 1 point ki Valid QSO 3 points Incorrect callsign 0 points The correct one is shown in the braces space The QSO is not in the correspondent s log either he is still copying your message or he is waiting for your final TU or the call you have entered is completely wrong and there is no such station in the pileup The full session log is saved in the ADIF format at the end of the session so you can use your favourite log analysis tools to generate statistics or perhaps do some research The results of every session are added to the History file a plain text file that can be opened using the File History command COMPETITION MODE Select the Competition radio button in the Pileup Settings dialog to switch from the Practice mode to the Competition mode The score that you achieve in this mode may be submitted the High Scores table on the Pileup Runner web site The following pileup parameters are fixed in the competition mode Number of callers 100 Average SNR 15 dB Session Length 15 min The color of the log panel changes from blue to red in the competition mode To submit your competition results to the online table open the History file copy the line with your
6. ls from the difficult continents are weaker than from the easy ones but a QSO with such continent adds 3 points to your score while a normal QSO gives you only 1 point Session Length Enter the length of your session in minutes The pileup will stop automatically after the time entered in this field Of course you can click on Pileup Stop to terminate the session at any time and get your score Record 1 Q WAV file If this check box is ticked the program records your session in the I Q format that can be played back in CW Skimmer and many other SDR programs 48 kHz of spectrum are recorded Practice Competition Only the Practice mode is currently implemented NAVIGATION Pileup Runner has the same waterfall display as CW Skimmer and its navigation commands are a subset of the Skimmer commands Use the PageUp and PageDown keys to scroll the display one page up or down Click on the waterfall display or on the frequency scale to tune the receiver to the frequency under the mouse cursor The button with arrows near the frequency display when clicked with the left and right mouse buttons performs the PageUp and PageDown commands respectively The green rectangle on the frequency scale represents the passband of your receiver with the light green triangle marking the center frequency Drag the passband rectangle with the mouse vertically or use the Up and Down arrow keys to change the bandwidth of your filter The red triangle mark
7. s Key Code input boxes or by clicking on the buttons with ellipses and then pressing the desired keys Do not assign the A Z 0 9 and keys to the macros you will need those keys to enter the callsigns The DX callsign is automatically included in the TU UP message every N th QSO turning it into TU lt my_call gt UP The value of N may be set between 1 and 10 in the Settings Dialog To abort transmission press the Escape button To clear the callsign input box press Ctrl W Alt W or F11 To write the QSO to the log press Enter or click on the Save button If the callsign in the callsign input box has changed after it was sent last time then the macro key automatically re sends the callsign before finishing the QSO HINT To answer a call quickly you can type in the callsign prefix and press the 3 key While the program is sending the prefix type in the rest of the callsign The ESM Enter Sends Message mode allows the operator to perform different tasks at different stages of the QSO by pressing the same key Enter This mode can be turned on and off in the Settings dialog using the ESM check box At the initial stage when the callsign input box is empty the Enter key sends the QRZ message Once the callsign is entered the same key sends lt his_call gt 599 After you copy the exchange and press the Space key Enter sends TU UP and writes the QSO to the log The message buttons corresponding to t
8. s your transmit frequency the pileup starts 1 kHz above it Unlike CW Skimmer Pileup Runner has a second slow waterfall display The mouse clicks on that display work the same way as on the main display You can change the width of the slow display or hide it completely by dragging the splitter between the display and frequency scale Drag the frequency scale vertically with your mouse to see the signals above and below the current screen Drag the waterfall display to the right with your mouse to see the signals that have already scrolled away This puts the pileup in the pause state as if you clicked on Run Pause Pileup in the menu Click on Pause Pileup to resume the session SENDING MESSAGES The messages can be sent either by clicking on the buttons under the callsign input box or by pressing the F keys The following messages are supported Fl QRZ DE lt my_call gt UP F2 599 F3 TU UP F4 lt my_call gt FS lt his call gt F6 NIL F7 AGN The mapping between the F keys and the messages can be changed in the Settings dialog The following macro shortcuts are easier to use than the F keys especially for those who type with ten fingers m QRZ DE lt my_call gt UP lt his_call gt 599 J lt Insert gt TU UP lt Write to log gt ll meon You can assign different keys to the and macros in the Settings dialog either by entering the key codes in the Macro
9. t you would use if you were running a pileup with the Skimmer Here are a few for you to try The QSO with the difficult continents are more valuable than with the easy ones which is also true for a real DX operation Since you get 3 points for a difficult continent you can spend up to 3 times more time on such QSO and still have a better score Find a 3 point station on the waterfall visually while your correspondent is sending 599 to you then click to tune to that station while you are sending TU UP Look for the weak signals on the waterfall as these are often 3 point stations Learn to read Morse Code visually off the waterfall display With some practice you will be able to visually copy all signals that you can copy aurally including the high speed and very weak stations This skill has multiple uses from finding the 3 point stations to verifying the calls you copy by the ear to making a QSO with a station that is not even in your passband Indeed you can copy the callsign visually and answer her call then copy her 599 again visually and save the QSO to the log all without hearing the station If you use this technique to work a station a few kHz away from where you are listening those who are chasing your QSX frequency will move there well at least some of them allowing you to work a few more stations in the clear Do not neglect the PageUp command The pileups are often much thinner near the top than at the bottom be sur
10. the pileup Click on Run Start Pileup click on OK to accept the default parameters of the pileup and the DX ers will start calling you right away Copy and type in a callsign and press the key on the keyboard to send the call and 599 Once the DX er answers press to send TU UP and write the QSO to the log PILEUP SETTINGS The Pileup Settings dialog that opens when you start a pileup allows you to set the parameters of the pileup DX pedition Callsign Enter any callsign you want there Operator s Callsign Be sure to enter your own home callsign in this field Number of Callers Enter a value between 1 and 1000 You can either select one of the pre defined values from the drop down list or type a custom value in One of the advantages of a simulated pileup is that all of 1ts characteristics such as the number of calling stations and signal strength of each station are always known Using this software you will quickly learn how to determine the actual number of callers in the pileup just by looking at the waterfall display Average SNR dB This is a parameter that you can change to simulate different propagation conditions The values between 3 dB and 30 dB are accepted 30 dB sounds like 10m in 1978 while 3 dB sounds more like 160m in 2012 The SNR is computed the same way as in CW Skimmer Difficult Continent Select either AS EU or NA as difficult continent SA AF and OC always count as difficult The signa
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