The SOFTWARE
Writen by Miguel for MS-DOS, this nice software can be downloaded, free of charge, as a zip file but without the hardware, it runs as a demo . All the features are present. It uses a data base to generate the values. Anyway, you can test all the software and report any bugs. The actual software will be available together with all drawings, list of components and PCB as a complete kit, soon. Keep an eye on your favorite site !
Keep an eye on this page !
Download the software by clicking hereunder
The ESCORT file is a ZIP file of about 91K.
Thanks to Malcolm.J . (G8AYP/G4OFF) for giving me the trick to place this line here !
Once unzipped, the ESCORT software should have the following components :
Note : the zip files are not required !
The software contains the 3C catalog of radio-sources as shown hereunder
You launch the software by typing escort and the following screen appears.
In the bottom windows you can see that all the 337 sources in the data base have been loaded sucessfully. These data will be used by the soft to tell you that a source is currently in transit. (This data base can receive up to 500 radio sources, so you have place enough to install your own sources)
From here you have 4 possibilities :
F1 to customize your software
F2 to start with default values
F5 to test the board (only available with hardware connected)
ESC to quit (do you really want to quit now ?)
Press F1 to go to the setup screen
Select an item by typing the letter in front of it (like B or C or D ) and fill with your value.
Attention, northern latitude and eastern longitude are positives !
G , H,I, L, M, values are sent to the ESCORT board to control it. Actually the serial communication feature is disabled as you have no ESCORT board attached to your lovely RS232 com port.
Once the configuration has been done, press ESC to save the data in the cfg file. Attention do not edit the cfg file manually to modify it, otherwise you will have nightmares !
Now you are ready to have good time. Press F1 to start ... we arrive in the following screen
Here it works ! you can say Wow !!! because we spent hours to determine what should be integrated in this screen, and Miguel (under the warm sun of spain) written the soft !
Anyway, what you get is the following :
first line Version of this software + actual local time + actual date
second line : options available (discussed hereunder)
the ESCORT output gives you an indication of the actual value of the signal coming from the sky, the integration time (here 10 sec.) and the DC gain (here 100)
The following line gives you indication of which LNB (antenna) is in use (ESCORT has two entries), the antenna elevation above horizon & the actual tuned frequency.
The next line gives the actual RA and declination values
The flux in %, @ 408 MHz, is derived from a data base included in the soft.
The next empty case will display a message when a radio source is in transit
The bottom case tells you what is doing ESCORT
Press F4 to see the length of your data file
Press F5 to open a new data file
The saved file looks like hereunder
Some parameters are in the header to enable you to trace your observation. The measured data start after the word 'data'
Any comments or idea should be sent to polard@skynet.be
Together with Miguel, we will take care of your comments
and we will try to make this software 'a dream'
download the escort zip file
© ON4EU & EA4EOZ (1999)