TM AOR Hawk 5000 User’s Manual © Simon Collings, G4SGI 1995 Software Published and Distributed by: AOR (UK) LTD., 4E East Mill, Bridgefoot, Belper, Derbyshire DE56 2UA ENGLAND Tel: +44 1773 880788 Fax: +44 1773 880780 e-mail: info@aor.co.
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS .................................... INSTALLING THE PROGRAM ................................................ COPY PROTECTION .............................................................. TO INSTALL... ......................................................................... GETTING STARTED ............................................................... RS-232 CONNECTION ..................
INTRODUCTION Welcome to AOR Hawk 5000 for WindowsTM. This is a powerful control and analysis software package for the AOR SDU5000 spectrum display unit and your AOR AR-3000A communications receiver (or compatible). The software has the following features and many more: l Remote control of the SDU5000 and radio using RS-232 commands for control of centre frequency, span, resolution bandwidth, attenuator (AR-3000A only), mode, step size, averaging, maximum hold, up, down, page up and page down.
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS l 80486 PC DX2/66 MHz (or higher) with fast colour graphics display l Microsoft® WindowsTM 3.
AOR Hawk 5000 for WindowsTM is copy protected using a system which places a “token” on your hard disk when you install the program. The program will only work on the hard disk you installed it to. There is no dongle or keydisk, so once installed the program runs completely normally and you will not be inconvenienced (unlike other schemes). Specific points to remember: 1. The distribution disk contains two tokens.
7. The copy protection scheme is known to be compatible with the following disk defragmenters: Central Point’s Compress, Digital Research’s Diskopt, Stac’s Sdefrag and Microsoft’s Defrag. 8. The copy protection scheme is not currently compatible with WindowsTM NT. 9. The copy protection scheme is not compatible with non-standard floppy disk systems.
For Windows® 95 From the button on the task bar... Select the Run... option and type “A:\INSTALL.EXE” into the open dialog. Press or click on the OK button to proceed. You should obtain the window shown below on your screen. This is the installation utility which will copy and install the AOR Hawk 5000 files to your hard disk: Two push buttons are provided inside the window. You can abort the installation by clicking on the “Quit” push button (or by pressing “Q”).
The dialog looks like that shown above. If you want to keep the default directory for the AOR Hawk 5000 files, just click on the “OK” push button. If you want to change it, you can type in an alternative name and then click on “OK” (if the directory does not already exist, it will be created). Once you have selected a directory for the AOR Hawk 5000 files, they are decompressed and copied onto your system in a few moments (the exact amount of time required depends on your computer speed).
The pin configuration of the SDU5000 to PC cable is as follows: SDU5000 9-way PC 25-way 2 3 8 7 5 3 2 5 4 1, 7 (TX) (RX) (RTS) (CTS) (signal ground) (RX) (TX) (CTS) (RTS) (signal ground) You must include the hardware flow control connections for correct operation. If you are using an Icom radio with a CT-17 interface, you will can use the Icom supplied RS-232 cable (part no. OPC-159) to connect the CT-17 to the PC and one of the Icom supplied cables with 3.
AOR Hawk 5000 should then appear on your screen. The main window has a number of components in it as follows (screen shots are for Windows® 95): Menu options: The main menu provides access to all the features of the program and is located just below the top edge of the window. Video controls: Underneath the main menu is a tool bar with video controls on the left. This includes a set of push buttons which provide rapid access to the options on the Video menu.
buttons for some of the extra features offered by the software. Display area: This contains the spectrum data and is displayed as “video” frames (about 1 per second). You can measure the frequency and level of signals simply by positioning your mouse in the display area over features of interest. It is also possible to change the centre frequency by double-clicking on the required frequency in the display area.
Choose the serial port to use on your PC from those available (COM1 to COM4) by clicking on the required one then click on OK to accept or Cancel to abort. Once you have selected the PC serial port, you can begin to use AOR Hawk 5000. Front Panel Push Buttons A variety of push buttons are provided on the front panel area of the main window. Most of these are short cuts to the equivalent functions on the front panel of the SDU5000 unit; some are equivalent to menu options on the AOR Hawk 5000 package.
Type the value required into the dialog and click on OK to accept or Cancel to abort. You will need to click on the ESC push button on the main window’s front panel area to return to normal operation. This duplicates the ESC key on the front panel of the SDU5000 and is normally used to cancel averaging or maximum hold operation Step down through the spectrum by one frequency step. Step up through the spectrum by one frequency step.
Obtaining Help AOR Hawk 5000 has an extensive context sensitive help available at all times. You can obtain help from the desktop simply by pressing [F1] or by selecting the “Help” option from the main menu. Help is also provided from a push button in each dialog. The help information that is provided is hypertext based and fully inter-referenced for your convenience. FILE MENU OPTIONS New The File|New command creates a new, untitled video file and begins recording immediately.
Open... The File|Open... command displays the “Open” dialog box so you can select a video file begin replaying it. AOR Hawk 5000 video files have a .VID extension. Save As... The File|Save As... command allows you to save a new untitled video file. The command displays the standard Save As dialog box. You can enter the new file name, including the drive and directory. NOTE: Video files must be saved using a .VID extension. This file type is used by AOR Hawk 5000 to store frames of spectrum video data.
SETUP MENU OPTIONS Communications... This menu option opens the Communications dialog which allows you to select the PC serial port to use for RS-232 communications with the SDU5000. Further details are given in the “Setting Up” subsection of the “GETTING STARTED” section. Configuration... You can select the “configuration” options of the SDU5000 using this option. It is also available from the CONF push button on the front panel area of the software.
spectrum display. You can enter any frequency in the range of the receiver you are using from the following dialog: You can also obtain this dialog from the CF push button in the front panel push button area of the main window. Enter the new centre frequency in MHz and click on OK to accept or Cancel to abort. NOTE: It is possible to change the centre frequency by doubleclicking on the required frequency in the display area of the main window with your mouse. Use the Tools|History...
This dialog can also be opened from the MODE push button in the front panel area of the main window. Click on OK to accept the mode or Cancel to abort. Step... The tuning step size can be altered from the dialog that is displayed. Enter the tuning step size you require in kHz and click on OK to accept or Cancel to abort. The dialog is also accessible from the STEP push button in the front panel area of the main window. Attenuator...
Attenuator operation is only supported with the AR-3000A. Span... The display span can be changed from this dialog: Enter the span you require in kHz and click on OK to accept or Cancel to abort. This dialog can also be opened from the SPAN push button in the front panel area of the main window. RBW... You can alter the resolution bandwidth from the following dialog: Select the resolution bandwidth you require (either 5 kHz or 30 kHz) and click on OK to accept or Cancel to abort.
VIDEO MENU OPTIONS The Video menu contains the options needed to control video recording and playback. The video push buttons on the tool bar also provide the same functions. Rewind While paused, step backwards one video frame. Forward While paused, step forwards one video frame. Play Open and start playing a video (.VID) file (see the File|Open menu option for further details). Stop Stop playing the current video file. If you have been recording, you will be prompted to save the video (.
Record Start recording video frames in an untitled video (.VID) file (see the File|New menu option for further details). TOOLS MENU OPTIONS Sonogram A sonogram is a special form of spectrum display which helps to make changes in the spectrum over long periods of time clear. It does this by displaying frames of video data as vertical raster lines with one line per frame. The AOR Hawk 5000 sonogram display scrolls data from right to left for maximum legibility and an intuitive appearance.
NOTE: The display on your PC may slow down slightly when using the sonogram because of the extra graphics processing that is required. The following menu options are provided with the sonogram display: Clear This blanks the sonogram display. Threshold This sets the threshold that signals must cross in order to be displayed. If a signal is above the threshold, it appears as a black trace on the sonogram display. If it is below the threshold, the signal does not appear on the display.
Click on the close push button to remove the History dialog. NEA The New Energy Analysis (NEA) is a powerful feature of the AOR Hawk 5000 software which allows you to extract active frequencies, correct for channelisation of the spectrum and export a PC-MANAGER format memory file (which can be read by PC-MANAGER for DOS, PC-MANAGER for WindowsTM and AOR Searchlight (may require an upgrade)). The NEA works with live and pre-recorded video data.
An array of push buttons are provided along the right hand side of the dialog for controlling operation. Click on the Start push button to begin analysing video for active channels. As new energy is found (ie it is at least 6 dBm above the noise floor), the frequency of the nearest channel is calculated. This is done on the basis of the tuning step size that is currently being used and the position of new energy appearing in the video data. This feature helps to pin-point active channels precisely.
Note: The standard “Save As” dialog is used to save the exported file as follows: The exported file will be written in PC-MANAGER .MEM format to the directory you specify. Enter the name you require in the “File Name:” box, select the target directory required and click on OK to export the list of active channels or Cancel to abort.
To transfer the token onto the distribution floppy disk, run the Copy Protection Move utility: When you have done this, the following window is displayed: To transfer the token onto the distribution floppy disk, click on the Move to master floppy... push button. If the token is already on the floppy disk, you can transfer it to hard disk using the Move from master floppy... push button.
AOR HAWK 5000 for WindowsTM User’s Manual - Page 27
AOR LTD, 2-6-4 Misuji, Taito-Ku, Tokyo 111, Japan Tel: +81 3 3865 1681 AOR Manufacturing LTD, AOR (UK) LTD 4E East Mill, Bridgefoot, Belper, Derbyshire DE56 2UA, England Tel: +44 1773 880788 Fax: +44 1773 880780 Serial No: Page 28 - AOR HAWK 5000 for WindowsTM User’s Manual
