WorldStation™ 3.4 Radio Control Software Specs

Software Installation,   Supported Operating Systems and Networking	WorldStationTM is a networked client server application. No user configuration is required to run the application on a stand-alone PC. The software makes use of the built-in TCP/IP loopback network interface built into the PC's operating system  to communicate between the client and the server. The software is optimized for Windows XP, since the vast majority of customers now utilize that OS.  Windows NT and 2000 are also supported. Windows ME is supported, but not recommended, due to well-known stability problems with that OS. There is no Linux port of WorldStationTM at this time, although it is under consideration  for a future date.  Windows 98 is NOT supported due to problems in its network support libraries. The WorldStationTM client can connect to the WS server remotely over a TCP/IP LAN connection by opening a DOS window any typing the client program name followed by the IP address of the server . Netmeeting or similar H323 conferencing programs (like openphone) can be used for a real-time audio feed. WorldStationTM is shipped as an email attachment zip file with  all required files and run time libraries. There are no external  "run time" modules (such as Java) that need to be downloaded and installed. Included license "key" files must be placed into the WS directory for the software to operate. Other than that, no end-user configuration EXCEPT the serial port of the radio may need  to be configured. The default serial port is COM1 - this can be easily changed by editing the global "dxconfig.txt" configuration file. The WS server opens a DOS console window that prints out various start up and connection messages. When the client  GUI is shut down (by clicking the Power button), the server can  be left running waiting for new connections. In this mode (no client connected) it uses practically no computer resources.
Tuning	Many tuning modes are supported including direct keyboard entry. All tables are "point and click" to set frequency and mode. There are upper and lower MAIN tuning buttons on the GUI.  Also included are FINE TUNING buttons and a fine tuning slider. Fine Tuning automatically adjusts the step size below the main tuning step size. Integrated band slider allows for quick drag tuning within a band.  Each Scan Panel supports point and click tuning and has mini-tuning buttons. Multiple tuning rates are supported in the "Tuning Rates" control including 9 kHz for European AM broadcasting.
Bandwidth Selection	Bandwidth selection is automatically linked to the selected  mode.  All  bandwidth defaults settings are user  configurable via the global text config file. All bandwidths for every radio are supported. The Orion driver supports 900 bandwidths in a step size of 10Hz.
GUI Controls	Customized  GUI (Graphical User Interface) controls were created for each supported radio. The Orion driver adds sophisticated linked controls between the MAIN and SUB receiver drivers and GUI's.  This makes possible  (for example) support for "one-button" SPLIT operation. The Powermate USB tuning knob is supported - Dxtra is a dealer (see the Store).
Supported Radios	Drivers are currently shipping for the Ten-Tec RX-320D, RX-340, RX-350D, Orion ham transceiver, Drake R8A , R8B and the Japan Radio 535D
Frequency Offsets (RX-320D)	The RX-320D driver supports four (4) sets of frequency offsets for: USB, LSB, SYNC-U, and SYNC-L respectively. The  Frequency Offset  algorithm takes 3 user generated offset points and computes a linear regression equation to adjust the offset frequency for any intermediate frequency within the supported frequency range of the radio.  This method produces a very accurate offset - close to 1 Hz. This makes synthetic SYNC mode effective. The RX-320D has no factory built-in support for SYNC reception such as you will find in the RX-340 and RX-350D. The SYNC modes have a wider bandwidth than pure LSB or USB. (See Bandwidth). All frequency offset points are in Hz.
Modes	Mode refers to the demodulation modes supported by a given radio. Examples are AM, USB LSB etc. The RX-340 supports specialized modes such as ISB and DRM and they are supported. All demodulation modes for every radio are supported (see the respective user guides). The RX-320D driver adds synthetic upper and lower SYNC modes and a DRM mode for audio routing. (See Frequency Offset). Simulated SYNC allows for the automatic tuning of the sidebands of an AM signal for greater clarity and resistance to fading. (See Frequency Offset)
Band Table	Every copy of WorldStationTM ships with an integrated Band Table. Common shortwave, utility and ham bands within the HF Spectrum are included. CLicking on a Band Table row sets up the mode, tuning step size, upper and lower band frequencies and bandwidth (See Bandwidth).  There is a Scan button on the Band Table for one-button automatic scanning of a selected band. The Band Table is editable with any text editor such as Notepad.  Multiple band scans simultaneously are supported. (See Scanning)
Memory Table	Every copy of WorldStationTM ships with an integrated memory table. This table contains about 1,000 commonly used utility frequencies for NASA, FEMA, maritime, and the US military. Full form entry of new frequencies is supported. Table Scanning is fully supported. The end  user can create a synthetic band by selecting INDIVIDUAL  rows of the table or GROUPS of rows. Row selection is done by the standard Windows SHIFT select or CTRL select key board commands. Once a group of rows is selected, clicking on the SCAN button on the top of the table will start a scan. The selected rows are automatically re-sorted from low frequency to high frequency  and a synthetic band is created. Pointing and clicking on a channel in the table will automatically  set the frequency, mode etc. for that channel.  Multiple table scans simultaneously are supported. (See Scanning)
Program Scheduler	Every copy of WorldStationTM ships with an integrated scheduler table. This table allows the user to easily set up a programmed listening schedule. A wide range of program intervals are supported  including daily, weekday, weekend, day of the week, and specific calendar day.  Full form entry of new schedule items is supported, including a calendar pop-up to enter a specific date in the future.  There is a one-button Activate / Deactivate scheduler at the top of the table. Individual Start and End times in UTC are supported for each entry in the table. The Scheduler can background record any broadcast in MP3 mode with automated playlist generation. A timed event is supplied that can be set to regenerate a new playlist at a specific time.
ILG Shortwave Database	The ILG shortwave database is a free download from ilgradio.com. ILG is noted for providing highly accurate shortwave schedules. WorldStationTM greatly enhances the ILG database by indexing it by every minute of the day and by frequency. The resultant "What's On"  table is updated automatically every minute in background. If you are busy clicking the "What''s On" table, the software will detect this and not update the table "from under you". It will wait for at least one minute where no clicking activity has taken place before resuming updates. To select a station, the end user just clicks on a row of the table. Likewise you can tune to a shortwave frequency and the "Frequency Lookup" table will list all the station "playing" on that frequency -  without filtering. Extensive ILG filtering is supported via the global text configuration files. You can filter by language or exclude (using free form text) any station in any field that matches your exclusion text. Typical conversion time for the ILG to Dxtra indexed format is under 2 minutes for a typical Pentium 4 system, proportionally longer for slower systems. Conversion is only done once each time a new database is downloaded - usually quarterly. Under "Tools" the user would select "Create ILG Tables". The software will open a file selection panel with a file mask of  ".dbf". The user should have already downloaded this file from ILG into a known directory. The user can set his or her latitude and longitude in the configuration file. An additional column will be computed using the ILG data for "distance". This is the Great Circle Distance in miles between the users defined location and the ILG defined lat and long for the station in question. (See Configuration file)
Scanning	WorldStationTM supports powerful integrated Band and Table scanning.  HF signals are notoriously "jumpy" and WS therefore uses signal averaging  to smooth out these random noise spikes. WS scanning is optimized for the HF bands, which unlike VHF and UHF scanning always have a "signal" present - even if the signal is just noise.  Band Table (see Band Table)  and Memory Table (see Memory Table) scanning are supported.  Scanning proceeds from left to right across a band or list of channels. The step-size of the scan is defined in the defined in the Band Table. A "Scan Panel" is created that draws a signal bar for each returned signal strength.  The height and color of that scan bar is proportional to the signal strength.  If a scan bar is clicked the scanning will stop and the radio will be set to that frequency or channel.  Multiple simultaneous Scan Panels can be run at one time (See HyperScanTM). A user can select multiple bands to scan at once from the Band Table by using SHIFT or CTRL mouse select and then by clicking the Scan button. The software will then open the multiple selected bands for scanning. Each Scan Panel sports mini-controls that ease use of  scan facility. There are tuning controls for example that allows up/down tuning without having to move the mouse to the main GUI.
HyperScanTM	A unique feature of the software is the ability stack multiple band scans at once. The sophisticated messaging system built-into the software keeps track of data flowing from the server and assigns each  signal strength packet to the appropriate Scan Panel.  For advanced users a Clustering scanning capability is also available at additional charge that permits background scanning. (See Clustering)
Clustering Support	Multiple RX-320D's (lithe typical configuration) can be set up as a "scan bank" to scan in background. One radio (.i.e. the primary radio) is set up for listening. Clicking into a Scan Panel will tune the primary radio instantly while allowing scanning to continue non-stop in the background. A "work load" manager built-into the software ensures that each radio gets parceled out an even amount of work.  The more radios that are added to a scanning cluster the faster the scanning will be, since the cluster operates in true parallel mode. In the case where all the radios in the scanning cluster (including the primary of course) are RX-320D's, a special  "Turbo" mode is provided whereby the main or listening radio can be temporarily added to the scanning cluster for increased scanning performance. Clicking the Turbo button in any Scan Panel can turn this feature on and off. In a small cluster of two radios (the minimum configuration), this feature can significantly boost performance. Adding more radios to a scanning cluster gives a linear (on for one) scale-up of scanning performance (2X, 3X, 4X etc.)   Each radio requires a unique serial port. There is a section in the global configuration file which shows example lines in setting up a cluster.  As shipped, the cluster section is commented out. If the end-user has a Cluster license and the cluster is not being used,  the software will note this and print a message in the server console  window.
Motifs	WorldStationTM ships with five (5) interchangeable"brushed metal" styled front-panels that are user  selectable from the main control panel.
Clocks	The standard WorldStationTM  GUI (Graphical User Interface) front-panel has two clocks, one for Local time and one for UTC time. UTC time is commonly used for shortwave schedules.
Logging	Dxtra provides a web based logging service available 24/7 on our web site at www.dxtra.com WS 3.5 will feature a real-time download capability into a WS table for point and click access to the latest user contributed logs.
Configuration File	The text configuration file that ship with the software has the following user customization features:  default bandwidths for each mode for each  supported radio, ILG languages and text filtering,  RX-320D frequency offsets for USB. LSB, SYNC-U and SYNC-U, serial port for main radio, cluster radio serial ports and drivers, user latitude and longitude (see ILG).
Serial Ports	The software supports any legal serial port name under Windows and will work perfectly with USB serial port adapters. The software as shipped defaults to the "COM1" serial port, since most PC's come with at least this port enabled.
General Use of Software	The standard use of the software revolves around the use of the Band Table. The user should open this table and click on  individual bands of interest. The Band Table also limits the chunks of the spectrum that the radio can scan through for one band.  The PC screen can only accommodate a limited (but useful) number of scan "channels" at once.  In addition  to frequency limits, the Band Table automatically sets Mode, Step size and also bandwidth.

Imagine The Value of Having A Shortwave Database That Tells You EXACTLY "What's On" - updated Every Minute!

Shown below is WorldStation™ 3.4 and the RX-320D PC Radio Only $374.95 For A Complete System!

Dxtra has shipped over 1,000 RX-320D systems worldwide - your order is routed directly to the Ten-Tec factory

The Ten-Tec RX-320D DSP shortwave receiver - with Dxtra's advanced control software for Windows ME/NT/2000/XP - is only $374.95! Now, the RX-320D has built-in support for the new digital shortwave standard - DRM. No other consumer shortwave radio has this (see details on DRM below). PC controlled radio is the hottest trend in shortwave listening with Dxtra R&D providing the most advanced software available anywhere. Shown below is the RX-320D "PC radio" and some screen-shots of Dxtra's feature-rich WorldStation™.1 control soft ware. WS 3.4 features "metal" intecgangeable faceplates. Click here for a flash demo of this feature.

Dxtra's Shortwave Packages Give You the Best Value For Your Dollar

As a Ten-Tec Value Added Reseller, our bundles give you a radio that beats any portable on the market. Add to that the power of our control software and you have a an unbeatable combination. As a comparison, consider that the heavily advertised Grundig 800 costs $499.95 and has only 3 filters, NO DSP (Digital Signal Processing), and NO PC interface! That's a $140 dollar difference. Dxtra's WorldStation™ software plus the Ten-Tec PC controlled RX-320D receiver gives you much more capability for MUCH less money. Why waste your time manually tuning through rapidly changing bands, when our software makes it easy to mouse "point and click" on a station? Click here for a recorded audio sample of how good the RX-320D receiver sounds.

For Only $374.95 You Get the Ten-Tec RX-320D and Dxtra's WorldStation™ Software!

This all inclusive shortwave package is ONLY $374.95 with FREE ground shipping included. Included in our software are valuable features like support for the free ILG shortwave database, a built-in memory and band table, advanced scanning, scheduled listening, and much more.

 

WorldStation™ 3.4 Re-defines Shortwave Listening

WS 3.4 has many breakthrough features: a full-featured Scheduler with automated mp3 recording, an optional web-controller, HyperscanTM and Clustering. HyperScanTM gives you the ability to monitor several bands at once, so you can track the ever changing shortwave bands. Clustering gives you the capability of "ganging" two or more RX-320D's to provide background scanning. Adding more radios automatically increases the scanning speed of your cluster. Adding even one more RX-320D for a total of two radios in your scanning cluster provides a dramatic improvement in scanning speed because there is no need to stop and re-start scanning. We added a special feature for Cluster users - the TURBO feature -that allows you to temporarily add your primary radio to the scanning cluster for additional speed. Shown below is HyperScanTM scanning a half-dozen bands simultaneously.

DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) Digital Shortwave Support Now Built-Into in the RX-320D!

If you are not familiar with DRM already - it is a new ITU standard for the transmission of digital shortwave broadcasts. The RX-320D is the first DRM software "off the shelf" compatible receiver on the market

By simply connecting the DRM output signal from the RX-320D to the "microphone" or "line-in" jack of your PC sound card, and using using the DRM software, your PC can decode the DRM transmissions. The DRM decoding software is available at http://www.drmrx.org/. The audio decoding of the software is automatic via your sound card and has nothing to do with WorldStationTM 3.4 to avoid any confusion.

DRM, www.drm.org is the leading ITU standard for the digital transmission of radio signals in the shortwave bands.

Ten-Tec Receivers Are Made in the USA

The RX-320D, RX-340 and the RX-350D high-performance radios are made in the USA and are fully PC controllable. The shortwave bands are packed with hundreds of uncensored English language broadcasts each day. Turbo-charge your shortwave listening with the finest radios and software from Dxtra! Any Questions? Please call us toll-free at 1-866-DXTRA-WS (1-866-398-7297). For your convenience, you can order 24/7 from our on-line secure store.

PC controlled radio is the hottest trend in shortwave listening. If you are considering purchasing a new shortwave radio insist on full PC control and DRM cpability to "future proof" your investment. Why settle for a tabletop receiver with no PC control capability? 

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