Prediction Results

The Master-Control Palette "Results" button provides a drop-down menu with four items: Results Inspectors - user configurable data browsers, Results Manager - the results manager is used to delete predictions that are no longer wanted, Results Viewer - displays the last output from the VOACAP prediction engine, Default Prediction Views - choose the desired default charts and reports for each of the three basic prediction types.

Results Inspectors

The Results Inspectors sub-menu provides an item for each of the three Wizard prediction types. All three results inspectors function basically the same therefore this is a generic description.

The Results Inspectors are basically browsers and may be one of the most powerful features of WinCAP Wizard. They will also be, no doubt, of the least appreciated. The results inspector is configurable in a large number of ways, some useful others not.

Below the window title bar is the controls tool bar. The buttons are: Expand -opens all the "levels" of all predictions, Collapse - close all levels, Customize - choose which columns to show and hide, Menu and Done.

Learning to use the results inspector will require some experimentation. See the Tutorial - Results Inspector section.

Results Manager

The Results Manager is used to remove, delete, prediction sets that are no longer needed.

#1 The top portion of this window provides five buttons. Select one of the five prediction types for which you wish to manage results, by clicking the button by that name. To delete, or remove, a selected prediction set – click the desired entry and then press the "navigator" button labeled “-“, the minus sign. The two grid type predictions cannot be managed in this manner. In other words, for Grid Field and Grid Square predictions, you can only remove them all, not a specific prediction set. The reason being, the tables must be completely rewritten and it would take too long.

The Clear All button removes all currently stored predictions of the selected type. Use the Clear All button to manage Grid Field and Grid Square predictions. The Done button closes the results manager.

Near the bottom of the window is the status line. The status line provides additional information for the display area, or control, under the mouse cursor. This information is often very useful while operating the results manager controls.

Results Viewer

The Results Viewer displays the actual results data from the VOACAP prediction engine. These results data, or output, will be from the last prediction created. It is overwritten each time a new prediction is created.

The Results Viewer provides a convenient means for the user to compare the actual prediction data to that displayed by WinCAP Wizard. If there is any question as to the validity of any WinCAP Wizard "Prediction View", the Results Viewer is the first place to check.

#1 & #3 Two windowpanes are available, a top and a bottom. The use can more easily compare to different parts of a prediction. As shown in the screen capture you can view two different portions of the actual VOACAP results at once.

#2 This is a "splitter" control and is used to change the size of each windowpane. Adjust each windowpane size by dragging the bar that divides the two.

Some of the available data for each hour is defined as follows:

MODE - Number of hops for MUF and mode type

TANGLE - Radiation angle transmitter, degrees

RANGLE - Radiation angle transmitter and receiver end, degrees (for paths longer than 10,000 km)

MUFDAY - is the fraction of the days of the month that the operating frequency will be below the mode MUF. In other words it is the fraction of days one can expect normal ionospheric reflection for the indicated most reliable mode at that frequency.

S DBW - median signal power expected at the receiver input terminals (dBW)

SNR - Median Signal to Noise Ratio, dB

REL - Reliability is the percent of days within the month that the required SNR will be equaled or exceeded.

SNR LW - SNR, lower decile dB, the lower decile value during a month is a value, which is, exceeded 90% of the time - about 27 days.

SNR UP - SNR, upper decile dB, the upper decile value during a month of observation is a value, which is, exceeded only 10% of the time - about 3 days.

SNRxx - Monthly median signal-to-noise ratio in dB at “Required Reliability”

Default Prediction View

A "Default Prediction View" is a chart/graph or report that is automatically displayed after a prediction has been created.

Default prediction views are independently selected for three of the prediction types, the point-to-point, the beacon and the prediction batch. The user may select none or all report and chart types as defaults. Map view cannot be set as default views.

One note on default prediction view behavior - if a specific "prediction view" is selected as a default, and is currently "open" - when the next prediction of the same type is created, the "open" chart or report will refresh and display the data from the new prediction.

In contrast, if a specific prediction view is "not" selected as a default, it may still be "open" - when the next prediction of the same type is created - however the non-default "open" chart or report does "not" refresh but continues displaying the previously selected prediction.

For example: if point-to-point default prediction view type is "chart" and that chart is open when a new point-to-point type prediction is created, the chart will change to show the new prediction. But if the chart is open but not a default prediction view, the data displayed by the chart will stay as is.

This behavior is as designed and considered added flexibility. The user may wish to compare two different predictions without having to reselect a specific prediction.