de G4XGTJOHN Sat-03Jan09 16:36 UTC 1 EasyPal Full is the work of Erik VK4AES. Do not bother him with emails about the program. If you need help, someone on the DIGSSTV newsgroup may be able to help you. Be sure to include the version number in any report of a problem. Also keep up to date and use the latest version. This software uses the DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) encoding to allow the sending of image files over an HF voice channel. This is known as Digital SSTV. The GUI was written with Delphi and compiled on a Windows Vista system. It works best when run on a two GHz or faster CPU with Windows Vista. Although less stable, it should run on most fast PC's with Windows XP. Keep in mind that it is still in beta testing. The download is a 2.7 MB ZIP file that contains only one file: "EasyPal_Full.exe". This file should be placed into it's own folder and a shortcut to it should be put on the desktop. Links for downloading the latest version are available at this URL: http://kb4yz.ham.org Help from other users is available from the Yahoo Groups newsgroup "DIGSSTV": http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digsstv =============================== Setup =================================== Setup: Initial Setup - Enter/change Callsign, Soundcard, and CommPort. Click the "OK" or "Apply" button to update/exit. The setup for CommPort includes options for "FAC Green". Using an external circuit this option could be used to mute the speaker while receiving the digital signal. It is recommended that you close the program and re-start after setting up or making changes to the soundcard settings. RX Input - Allows quick access to Recording Control. Select the input where the received audio comes into the soundcard. TX Volume - Allows quick access to Master Volume for soundcard. All inputs should be Muted except for the Master Volume and Wave. RX Input and TX Volume are not shown when running under Vista. BSR Mode Automatic (recommended) - Will automatically switch the DRM transmit mode required by the BSR. BSR Mode User Select (advanced) Allows the user to force the DRM transmit mode to a mode other than that requested by the BSR. Expanded GUI - EasyPal Full runs in a window that is 925x570. The user may optionally select the "Expanded GUI" which will resize the window to fill out the available space on screen. Generally, this will be a 4x3 aspect ratio but the actual number of pixels would be determined by the screen resolution. W/Fall Color - Allows the user to select the color of the waterfall. Using "negative" will display black on white line drawings more effectively provided that the image is made negative prior to being sent. When the received is viewed in the "negative" waterfall, it will appear with the proper contrast. Very Light Encode - Selects the Encode1 level of RS encoding - ".rs1" file extension. Transmission time will be increased by 13%. At least 89% of the segments transmitted must be received. Light Encode - Selects the Encode2 level of RS encoding - ".rs2" file extension. Transmission time will be increased by 31%. At least 76% of the segments transmitted must be received. Medium Encode - Selects the Encode3 level of RS encoding - ".rs3" file extension. Transmission time will be increased by 54%. At least 64% of the segments transmitted must be received. Heavy Encode - Selects the Encode4 level of RS encoding - ".rs4" file extension. Transmission time will be increased by 86%. At least 51% of the segments transmitted must be received. Encoded files will have interleaved redundancy using Reed-Solomon error correction. The encoded file with redundant data is sent so that the original file may be created even though not all segments were received. There is no progressive receive in this mode. The received file will decode after a sufficient number of segments are copied and the image will appear as soon as the decoding is finished. This may happen even before the transmission is complete. Receiving RS encoded files is automatic - no need to select for receive. Use of Encode may reduce the need for BSR's and FIX'es. Compatable only with others running EasyPal. A stand alone decode program is available that will allow those not using EasyPal to decode the .rs files manually. See: http://www.tima.com/~djones/rsdecoder.htm Default (resolution) - Will resize down a large image to fit within 640 x 480 pixels. Small images that are PASTED will be resized larger to fit within 640 x 480 pixels. HiRES (Downsize if > 1280*1024) - Will resize down a large image to fit within 1280 x 1024 pixels. Small images that are PASTED will be resized larger to fit within 1280 x 1024 pixels. HiRES (Best) Will not resize image. This is the best setting to use when an external program such as "sstvPics" is used to resize the image prior to pasting into EasyPal. The HiRES setting will not affect the image when "LoadAny" is used. Show RX Screen - Selects the RX tab to view the RX Screen and RX information line. Gamma - Allows for the adjustment of the brightness of the received image. RX Filename - The filename of the received image. Note this when selecting the proper file to select for the "Send Selected Request" BSR. Click on image to display full screen. Animated GIF files will not be displayed full screen. Show TX Screen - Selects the TX tab to view the TX Screen and TX information line. Secs - This is the number of seconds it would take to transmit this image. K - This is the file size for the image to transmit. Does not apply to images loaded using LoadAny. Slider - The setting of this slider changes the level of the JPEG-2000 compression that determines the file size. SET - If the slider has changed position after the image has been loaded, it will be necessary to click the SET button so that the JPEG-2000 compression can be reapplied. TX Filename - The name of the file to be transmitted. The filename will change when the transmission starts. TX mode = RX mode - This provides a way to quickly change the TX mode to match the DRM mode just received. Define Additional Save Directory - Received files will be saved into a user selected folder in addition to being saved in the "Autosave" folder. (Not working) =============================== Action =================================== Action: Send Text - Turns the TX window into a text editor for the sending of text. Text may be typed, pasted, and edited prior to transmitting. Session Log - Logs the calls and time for current session only. QuickTxMode - This screen serves as a quick reminder for what DRM modes are suitable for different conditions. USE Repeater - Show Repeater Commands - Check to enable "Repeater" menu. ============================== Repeater ================================= Show Last Received Repeater Directory - Displays the "Repeater Directory" window. The filenames and file sizes are listed. Select a file by clicking the filename, then use the "Replay Selected File" or "Delete Selected File" button. The repeater command will then be sent. File is saved to external "\Repeater\" (retick each time) - Allows the sending of a file to be saved to the "Repeater" folder on a remote repeater. The "USER Info" allows you to enter a callsign for a recipient. Click "OK" to send loaded file to remote repeater. Either sender or recipient may delete this file from the remote repeater. Start WebCam - Activates the webcam. All FTP Settings should be unchecked. "Run should be checked. Clicking any of the repeater access options from the "Repeater" menu will immediately start transmitting that command to any active HamPAL or EasyPal repeater on frequency. The DRM mode used to send a repeater command will also be the DRM mode used by the remote repeater to send any digital file. Interrogate Repeater - Sends the file "a.r##. Repeater sends out the "reply.wav" file. Default is "REPEATER". If the "reply.wav" file in not in the correct folder, the repeater will not respond. A repeater that has been shutdown can still respond. Replay last received File - Sends the file "b.r#". Repeater sends out the "replay.wav" file. Default is "REPLAY". Repeater replays the last received file. View Repeater Directory - Sends the file "f.r##. Repeater sends out the "dir.wav" file. Default is "DIRECTORY". Repeater sends an .rs2 encoded file providing a list of files found in the "Repeater" folder. When this file is received, The "REPEATER DIRECTORY" window will appear. If you wish to view later, use "Show Last Received Repeater Directory". After files have been added or deleted from the "Repeater" folder on the remote repeater, the order of filenames will be changed. For this reason, the "View Repeater Directory" command should be sent again to get the updated listing prior to sending any "Selected File" command. Repeat Text in Repeater Waterfall - You are prompted to enter a text message. The file "k.r" is sent. The content of this file is the text message. The Repeater responds with the text message in the Waterfall. Request WebCam Picture - Sends the file "i.r##". Repeater sends out the "webcam.wav" file. Default is "WEBCAM". Repeater sends the current webcam picture if available. Note that the file is standard JPEG: "070710041023-WebCamImage.jpg". Request Repeater resend BSR Request - Sends the file "c.r##". Repeater sends out the "filefail.wav" file. Default is "BSR de RPTR". Repeater sends the BSR. Shutdown ALL Repeaters - Shutdown all repeaters within range. Sends the file "d.r". Repeater sends out the "paused.wav" file. Default is "STOPPED". Restart ALL Repeaters - Restarts all repeaters within range. Sends the file "e.r". Repeater sends out the "restart.wav" file. Default is "RESTARTED". Shutdown Specific Repeater - Shutdown specific repeater of user selected callsign. Sends the file "l.rCALL". (lower case "L") "CALL" repeater sends out the "paused.wav" file. Default is "STOPPED". Restart Specific Repeater - Restarts specific repeater of user selected callsign. Sends the file "m.rCALL". "CALL" repeater sends out the "restart.wav" file. Default is "RESTARTED". Activate Repeater Beacon - Repeater sends out the "beacon.wav" file. Default is "BEACON". Not available on distribution versions. Activate as Base Repeater - Manually activates repeater mode. Not available on distribution versions. Repeater BSR An active repeater will automatically send BSR's if needed. Repeater sends out the "filefail.wav" file. Default is "BSR de RPTR". Repeater sends the BSR. Repeater Acknowledgment An active repeater will automatically send an acknowledgment when it successfully receives a file. Repeater sends out the "fileok.wav" file. Default is "FILE OK". Repeater FIX An active repeater will automatically send a FIX in responce to an BSR when it has a FIX available. Repeater sends out the "repfix.wav" file. Default is "FIX de RPTR". Repeater sends the FIX. A repeater is able to FIX a file if it first received the file OK and the BSR used was a "Send Selected Request" for this file. A repeater is able to FIX a file that it has just replayed using any type of BSR. Other Repeater wave files: Repeater sends out the "toobig.wav" file. Default is "REFUSED TX > 10mins". Repeater sends out the "timeout.wav" file. Default is "10min TIME OUT". Delete selected user file - Deletes user selected file from directory if authorized. Sends the file "h.r#". (#=number of file) Repeater sends out the "deleted.wav" file. Default is "DELETED". The repeater could also respond with the "notexist.wav" file. Default is "NOT EXIST". The repeater could also respond with the "notdel.wav" file. Default is "REFUSED". Request Webcam Picture from ??? Repeater - (not available) User specifies the CALL for the repeater to send the webcam image. Sends the file "j.rCALL". Repeater sends out the "webcam.wav" file. Default is "WEBCAM". Repeater sends the current webcam picture if available. Note that the file is standard JPEG: "070710041023-WebCamImage.jpg". Send Back Specified File - Replays user selected file from the directory. Sends the file "g.r#". (#=number of file) Repeater sends out the "selected.wav" file. Default is "SELECTED". Repeater sends out the specified file. ============================== LoadPic ================================== LoadPic: Brings up Window for selecting an image file to load, resize, and convert into JPEG-2000 (JP2) format. When transmitted, the filename is changed to "############-originalfilename.JP2". The "############" is a 12 digit number representing the current year/month/day/hour/minute/seconds. =============================== LoadAny ================================= LoadAny: Allows for the loading of most any file type to be transmitted. The file will be renamed but will keep the original extension. This is useful when sending animated GIF files where conversion to JPEG-2000 is not desired. =============================== Copy =================================== Copy: Standard image copy to clipboard from the RX or TX screen. =============================== Paste =================================== Paste: Standard image paste from clipboard to the RX or TX screen. Paste to the TX screen will compress and convert the image to JPEG-2000 format. The image may be resized based on the setting for HiRES. =============================== FIX =================================== FIX: Brings up Last FIX Request. Use when the receiving station requires the same FIX sent again. After receiving a BSR, you will have a message on the title bar: it may be a message like this: "-W9VMT-Requests-63/92 segments for-070707122834-cat1.jp2" Just click "FIX NOW" to send the FIX. or it may be a message like this: "You can repair 63/92 segments in 070707122834-cat1.jp2 for W9VMT" Just click "FIX NOW" to send the FIX. or it may be a message like this: "This BSR is not for you" You do not have this file. This BSR request is for another station. In this case, you will have to get the file repaired before you will be able to send any fixes. or it may be a message like this: 'You do not have this file for "K9NP ERIC" to Repair' You do not have this file. This BSR request is for another station. In this case, you will have to get the file repaired before you will be able to send any fixes. If there is no message in the title bar and you think that you received the BSR request OK, and you should be able to send the FIX, go ahead and send the FIX anyway. It may work! The FIX sends "FIX" in the waterfall before the data. Any station running EasyPal that successfully receives an image, can send the fix for any other station that sends an BSR for that same image from EasyPal. (The original image may be sent from any program using a compatable DRM mode.) If the original image was transmitted with a filename that had spaces within the filename, it may require the original sender to do the FIX. There is no need to reload an image to fix someone. The "Last FIX Request" includes the Call from the station that sent the BSR, mode, segments, and filename. If the mode details are in any way different from the mode the file was sent, then the FIX will not work. Ask for an "Old Type" BSR instead. =============================== WAV =================================== WAV: Brings up the "Play Wave File" list. Selecting a WAV file and clicking "TX Now" will immediatelly play the audio from this WAV file. Create the wav files using "WFPic", "WFTxt" or an external program such as HamPAL or DIGTRX. These special wave files must be in the main EasyPal folder: BEACON.wav - repeater sends at preset intervals when "Beacon" is checked. BEGIN.wav - sent before each DRM file transmission. BSR.wav - sent before each user initiated BSR transmission. DELETED.wav - repeater sends this when selected file is deleted. DIR.wav - repeater sends before the RS Encoded file (repeaterdir.txt.rs2) in responce to "View Repeater Directory". FILEFAIL.wav - repeater sends before the BSR. FILEOK.wav - repeater sends when it successfully receives a file. FIX.wav - sent before each FIX transmission. NOTDEL.wav - repeater sends this when selected file is not allowed to be deleted. NOTEXIST.wav - repeater sends this when selected file is not available for deletion. PAUSED.wav - repeater sends in responce to "Shutdown ALL/Specific Repeater". REPFIX.wav - repeater sends before the FIX transmission. REPLAY.wav - sent before repeater sends out the last received file. REPLY.wav - repeater sends in responce to "Interrogate Repeater". RESTART.wav - repeater sends in responce to "Restart ALL Repeaters". SELECTED.wav - repeater sends in responce to "Send Back Specified File". TIMEOUT.wav - repeater sends this when selected file is too large to send. TOOBIG.wav - repeater sends this when selected file is too large to send. WEBCAM.wav - repeater sends before the current webcam picture. =============================== WFPic =================================== WFPic: (Waterfall picture) Transforms the image on screen into a grey scale image that becomes analog encoded audio to produce a like image in the waterfall. =============================== WFTxt =================================== WFTxt: (Waterfall text) Transforms a user provided text message with the choice of various sizes and fonts into analog encoded audio to produce the text as an image in the waterfall. To make a waterfall ID click "WFTxt". Type your call into the Waterfall Text window using all caps. You may want to add a space between each character. Select a plain bold font to make it easier to read when displayed in the waterfall. Click Save and use your call as the filename. To send this, click WAV and select the file, then click "Tx Now". =============================== Clear =================================== Clear: Clears the selected (RX/TX) screen. =============================== About =================================== About: Credits. =============================== Info Area =============================== Callsign - The callsign of a transmitting station will appear in the upper left corner while receiving an DRM transmission. RX audio level bar graph. (Higher incoming audio produces more green.) SNR RX signal quality level bar graph - equivalent to SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio). There will be more green area with increased signal quality. TX - DRM submode selected for transmit. Right click mode parameter to toggle through settings. Any changes to the mode are saved for future sessions when the program is closed. Default DRM Mode should be Mode B, Width 2.5 khz, Error HI, QAM 16, and LeadIn 24. Interleave is always Long and cannot be changed. These settings are the best choices for general use on the HF bands. LeadIn 12 will reduce transmit time by reducing the number of redundant segments. For very short transmissions such as Text messages, LeadIn 12 may be too short a time for all stations to achieve MSC sync before the transmission is finished. In this case, select LeadIn 24. RX - DRM submode received. FAC must be green before the mode can be detected and the callsign decoded. In addition to those mode settings that may be changed on transmit, the RX will also reveal the interleave setting. Lng for long and Sht for short. The receive mode settings are automatic and do not require the operator to make any changes for receiving any DRM mode. RX mode display: (red/green bars) MSC - Green light indicates MSC (Main Service Channel) lock. FAC - Green light indicates FAC (Fast Access Channel) lock. Frame - Green light indicates Frame Sync. Time - Green light indicates Time Sync. IO - Green light indicates Soundcard is active. Data cannot be decoded until the MSC has a lock. So the MSC must be green before you will be able to copy anything. Total - "Total" is the number of segments in the image file being received. OK Segs - "OK Segs" is the number of segments successfully decoded so far. Position - "Position" is the segment number that was last decoded. not processed - This is the number of segments that still need to be received. Transmit progress bar indicates the % transmitted. (Visable only during transmit). =============================== Buttons =================================== TRANSMIT - Starts the transmission of the file. Tune - Immediatelly sends the three tone tuning tone for 7 seconds. Green markers in waterfall should match the "Tune" signal or pilot carriers. Replay RX - Replays last received image file. It may be renamed but it will have the exact same content. ABORT - Allows for stopping a picture, WAV, BSR, or FIX transmission. Encode - Left click to toggle RS encoding for transmitted files. Right click to toggle through the four levels of encoding. ProgRX - Progressive RX Check to enable viewing image as it is coming in. Using Progressive RX may slow other processes such as the waterfall display. BSR Requests - Brings up the BSR Requests window. For those transmissions that have a partial file stored, there will be a file name listed. The sender's call is listed first. Click a file name from the list to display a partial image (if available) and other information. There may be more than one file for the same image. If this is the case, you should select the one that has the fewest number of missing segments. Selecting the file first is only necessary when using the "Send Selected Request". "Send Selected Request" - CAUTION - TRANSMITTING THIS TYPE OF BSR MAY LOCKUP NON-COMPATABLE SYSTEMS. (DIGTRX and HamPal) This type of BSR is available even after EasyPal has been closed and restarted. Use when you require a third party FIX from another station running EasyPal. You must select the file from the list to be fixed before clicking the "Send Selected Request" button. "Old Type BSR (compatable all)" Use this type BSR when requesting segments from non-compatable systems. Only the original sender or one that replayed the file will be able to fix you with this type of BSR. "Old Type Fast BSR (not compatable)" This is the normal type of BSR to use when requesting segments from the original sender that is also running EasyPal. This type of BSR is a bit different from the BSR format used in the past. It is called a "Fast BSR" because it uses a form of shorthand to indicate contiguous segments. This new "Fast BSR" will send faster because the text file listing the missing segments is smaller. One drawback to the use of the new "Fast BSR" is that older programs such as HamPal may not recognize all the segments required and if there are many, HamPal may only be able to send fixes for two or three segments at a time. This is only a problem when pictures are sent from HamPal to EasyPal. "Old Type" BSR's do NOT require that you select the filename. "Old Type" BSR may not be available. You will get the message, "nothing to fix". This is most likely the case where you have received a BSR from another station but not copied any of the FIX. In this case, have the original station send part of the file and abort. The "Old Type" BSR should now be available. "Bad Segment Report" Each type of BSR starts the transmission of a short text file that lists the segment numbers that were missing on the last received file (or selected file). During this transmission, many instances will be sent to ensure that the information gets through. When many segments are required, the transmission time for the BSR may be much longer. =============================== TABS =================================== RX tab - Click to view RX screen and RX information line. TX tab - Click to view TX screen and TX information line. View tab - Click to view thumbnails of Last RX Pictures. Click to view thumbnails of Last TX Pictures. Send to TX - This allows for a replay of the thumbnail image. Transfers selected thumbnail to TX window. JPEG-2000 compression is applied and filename is changed when transmitted. Quality is reduced each time this type of replay is used. Full Screen - Displays selected thumbnail to full screen. Image displayed will always be the original size. The image is displayed againgt a black background. Animated GIF files might not be displayed. To return to the program screen, click the mouse or hit the "Esc" key. Delete to Recycle Bin - Selected thumbnail will be deleted. Since not all selected thumbnails will actually be deleted, it may be necessary to open the "RxFiles" or the "TxFiles" folder to manually delete these files. Selecting the very last thumbnail to delete for the second time may actually delete the first. Send to Repeater Directory - ("USE Repeater" checked) Transfers selected thumbnail to "Repeater" folder. Additional JPEG-2000 compression is applied based on setting of slider on the TX window. If "Encode" is checked, then this level of RS Encoding will be applied and the filename extension will be changed to the one for that level of RS Encoding. Quality may be reduced for this type of conversion. Thumbnails are standard JPEG (.jpg) images that are re-compressed copies of the files received and sent. Image files in the "LastRX" folder may not have the quality and characteristics as the original files sent. The original files received are stored in the "Autosave" folder. These files should be identical to the quality and characteristics of the original files sent. =============================== NOTES =================================== The waterfall may be paused - just left click to pause/restart. When EasyPal is closed, the contents of the "Transient" folder is deleted. Temp files in other folders are also deleted. Partially received files (ones with missing segments) will be saved into the "Corrupt" folder. They are stored here until they are repaired or manually deleted by the user. Hints will appear after mouse pointer is placed over selected buttons and areas. =============================== Updates =================================== The latest version of this file is available here: http://www.tima.com/~djones/easypalfull.txt Please notify Dave - KB4YZ of updates and corrections: djones@tima. Small simplified HamDRM glossary: MSC MAIN SERVICE CHANNEL: can be modulated in 4QAM, 16QAM or 64QAM. FAC FAST ACCESS CHANEL: auxiliary channel always modulated in 4QAM. Transmits the station prefix and data on the used TX mode. QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation: vectorial sum of two waves in quadrature and modulated in amplitude, what results in a wave modulated in phase and amplitude. CONSTELLATION The points that represent the extremity of the possible vectors of a QAM wave. All the vectors have origin at the center of the constellation, or I Q zero coordinates. COFDM CODED ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEX Large number of equaly spaced carriers, with a frequency space between carriers of 1/Tu. Tu is the useful duration of the symbols impressed on the carriers. If the receiver integration window time is also Tu, the spectrum of each modulated carrier will have zero energy on all the other carrier center frequencies, that is the carriers are orthogonal. FEC FORWARD ERROR CORRECTION The FEC code inserts supplemental information in the transmitted data, the CRC, that is used in the reception for direct error correction until a certain limit, without data repetition. CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check The Mode A is faster than Mode B but it doesn't support negative effects caused by multi-path propagation as Mode B, which is more robust. The QAM modulation can be in 4 or 16 or 64 vectors or symbols. 64 QAM is much faster but needs a very good signal to noise ratio (SNR), or a high quality channel. 4 QAM is the slowest but it supports more noise, or smaller SNR. Interleaving consists of changing the natural symbols sequence. If long (2 seconds), it allows better error correction with slow fading, but it causes a little larger delay in the reception. Short interleaving = 400 ms. UPDATES FROM THE PROG 24 DEC 2008 The Italian language has been added. Thankyou Mario IW1CYZ for the hard work. Waterfall Audio Calibration: This will not enhance decoding. It will only make the audio tone readout of the waterfall more accurate if there is a very large soundcard timing error. Very few will have this problem. The 500Hz and 600Hz tones alternate and sometimes are absent. The lines may only be aligned in one pixel movements. Each pixel is a 11.63Hz change. After calibration, the readout error may be up to +- 12 Hz max but usually much less. The "do not allow my TX pictures to be uploaded.... is now set to OFF by default. New users were having this set to ON by default when they did not intend this. The changes may disturb your present settings; so please check and set again if necessary TX picture preparation. Sometimes one may want to TX a different picture quickly; but doing this would erase the previous one. This picture may be saved for future modificatons to the "Last TX" in the "VIEW" screen. Right Click the TX picture and select "Save to VIEW" in the drop down menu. This picture may then be restored to the TX screen for later use. Delphi7 does not use the UTC API in the operating system as expected. I have made a replacement routine to achieve this. A new German language file has been added, updated and maintained by a different Author. I am off on holidays so have a very "MERRY CHRISTMAS" I don't know what 2009 will bring for EasyPal. Suggestions, ideas please. 11 DEC 2008 The Dutch language has been added. Thankyou "Willem" PE1AIU and "Harm" PD0CIF FTP Uploads: Some WebSites have slightly different rules for accepting uploads. Several changes were made to fix this. A new "\BeaconFiles\" directory has been made in the EasyPal sub-folders. These pictures are used when the Repeater Beacon is set to send random pictures. The user puts the desired pictures into this directory manually. "JPG", "JP2", "BMP" and "GIF" files are accepted. Files may be any size. EasyPal will resize automatically. Any non-image files are deleted from this directory automatically. 01 DEC 2008 Japanese language added: Thanks to "Yoshi" JA1HHL and "Nobu" JA6AQV for their hard work. It was not an easy task. The Windows regional settings must be set to Japan, otherwise the translations will be meaningless. Some repeater commands and file transfers will be faster if "Detect remote RX decode ........." is checked. Both the repeater and user must have this checked. 23 NOV 2008 Language Files: A new language file or your own personal changes to the GUI text may be made. 1. With EasyPal running: press F12 2. A file "languageuser" is generated in the EasyPal folder. 3. Edit this file with a text editor. Make changes to the text after the "=" signs. Do not alter anything else. 4. Except for the "menu items", do not make the new text longer than what is already there. Text too long may not fit on the buttons etc. There is some leeway, so experiment. 5. When finished rename "languageuser" to "language.userdefined" 6. In EasyPal, select the language "user defined" to see result. 7. If a new language is made up this way, send me the "language.userdefined" file and I can include the new language in the next Easypal update. Some problems with new versions of EasyPal after updating: There are many registry entries of EasyPal. If EasyPal is not totally uninstalled, there may be conflicts if 1. EasyPal is installed in more than one directory. The worst case is in the "\programs files\" directory. 2. Things like "cannot find hamdrm.dll" or "ntdll.dll" etc may appear. 3. This is a real possibility as the installer just overwrites the new easypal and not uninstall the previous version. This was done to make the new install simple. 4. If these troubles persist: Uninstall every Easypal and start again. In extreme cases, the registry needs to be cleaned of all Easypal entries. Reinstall into only one folder. If more than one is absolutely necessary, then there is no guarantee of stability. However, most systems allow multiple install directories without problems. 5. DO NOT COPY"HAMDRM.DLL" INTO THE EASYPAL FOLDER. This will not help and EasyPal will fail if the wrong version of "hamdrm.dll" is copied. 6. Sometimes the "App.cfg" file in the Easypal folder gets corrupted (rarely) The symptoms may be all your settings are corrupted or will not work. In this case, delete the "App.cfg" file and enter all your settings again. If deleted, this file is generated again on program close with the new settings you entered. 14 NOV 2008 RS files have powerful error correction capability. Various error correction depths may be set. "RS4" is the deepest but makes the file about 40% larger. This takes more time to TX. The RX station must wait for the TX to finish although he had the picture some time ago. There is an option "Detect remote RX decode success with RS files" in the EasyPal FTP options. All participiting stations must have this enabled. These stations must also have an active internet connection. If an "RS4" file is sent, as soon as the RX station has decoded the picture; a small file is sent to the inbuilt website. The TX station monitors for this file and terminates the TX automatically when received. This usually takes up to 10 secs. But better than waiting sometimes minutes for the TX to stop. This system would make "RS4" the desired TX file type. (also works for any RS file) It is the best of both worlds. There are two options after selecting: 1. "Auto-abort TX on first remote success" This will terminate the TX when anyone has received the file OK. This is most suitable with only two stations involved. 2. "List calls with successful decodes, manually abort TX" If in a group, as the stations receive the file, they are listed. The TX station may wish to wait till everyone has received the file. The TX station may abort when he is happy. In good conditions, use a stop watch to time the picture decode without RS encoding. Send the same file with RS encoding and the time for the picture is often faster. (interleaving + not tail required) Some systems may not work as desired as a lot depends on the Internet speed etc. With FTP Auto-upload; some stations may indicate they do not wish their pics to be uploaded to the internet. The option "Do not allow listed calls to upload to my website" will exclude these stations from uploading. It can also be used to ban certain users who upload objectionable material. The "WAV" button on the EasyPal GUI allows the setting of any wav file to be a "begin.wav" or "end.wav" Some "end.wav" files may change the RX mode settings and so upset the BSR requests and fixes. (rarely)