Quick Start

First thing after you close the Read Me - Please, left click the title bar of the "Master-Control Palette" window and drag it elsewhere on your desktop. We suggest the desktop lower left, just above the "Start" button.

All displays are initially created in the upper left of the desktop. This is because we never know what display resolution the user will be running and don't want "stuff" to appear off the desktop; actually even partially off the desktop would not be good.

If you are upgrading from a previous version of WinCAP Wizard you may want to quickly browse the What's New and Revision History section. You may also be interested the section Update or Upgrade. The default install uses "Simplified Circuit Parameters" therefore some parameters are disabled; see Miscellaneous Defaults.

How to use an existing VOACAP engine

If you downloaded the full install, skip this paragraph. If you already had VOACAP installed and therefore downloaded the interface only version, make sure you have VOACAP version "06.073" or newer. (This is very important, look on the VOACAP interface "About" window or else look at the header for a prediction.) Then - please follow these steps. Click the "Menu" button, move to the "Options" item, and click "Miscellaneous Defaults". In the Miscellaneous Defaults dialog window click the "VOACAP Path Setup" button and follow the instructions there. For more details see Where VOACAP.

Purpose of this Quick Start

Use this quick start to get acquainted with basic WinCAP Wizard prediction creation techniques and at the same time illustrate some of the available management windows and tools. The first two prediction types, Beacon and Point-to-Point, are included in the QSL-ware version. The last two types are Prediction Batch and Grid and are available in the premium trial and premium registered versions of WinCAP Wizard.

While working in WinCAP Wizard please note - most every window, or display, or view in WinCAP Wizard has a help topic link. Simply press the keyboard F1 key to access a help topic with relevant information.

You may notice there are several tutorial type sections included in the help file and documentation. These tutorials are inserted near related topics and should be very helpful in learning to use WinCAP Wizard.

Initial Setup

1. From the Master-Control Palette, click the "Circuits" button to open the Circuit-Configuration Manager. The default settings after installing this software are for creating "NCDXF Beacons" type predictions.
2. Click the "Receiver" button near the top to change to that page. Beacon predictions are reversed from typical circuits. Please see the Reversed-Circuit Receiver topic to complete this step. On the Reversed-Circuit Receive page (or tab) you must at least enter your geographic coordinates.
3. Note on the "System" page and the "Xmtr Antennas" page the default group name of "NCDXF Beacon". This configuration is for "Reverse Circuit" and CW of "Fair" quality. Group names will help you get more from this software tool.
4. Still in the Circuit-Configuration Manager, click the button (or tab) near the top that is labeled "Xmtr Antennas" to change to that page. Note the default Xmtr (transmit) antenna and power are for creating beacon predictions.
5. For everything else it's probably best to start with the defaults - they should already be configured for beacon predictions. See the About The Defaults section. That is all of the configuration we need for now.
6. There is no need to close the Circuit-Configuration Manager. In fact some functions are a bit faster with it open. But if you wish, click the Done button to close the Circuit-Configuration Manager.

To create a "Beacon" type prediction:

1. On the Master-Control Palette, click the Analyze button - a menu will appear; on the Analyze menu click the Beacons item.
2. In a few moments the beacon prediction set should be ready and the Beacon SmartChart should appear.
3. Explore the two Master-Control Palette menus named Charts/Beacons and Reports/Beacons. 

To create a "Point-to-Point" type prediction:

Initial Setup

1. From the Master-Control Palette, click the "Circuits" button to open the Circuit-Configuration Manager.
2. Note the original default "System" page is for NCDXF Beacon predictions. We can easily change these settings to suit our needs. On this "System" page, click the button labeled "Manager" to access the System-Parameters Manager and have a good view of other pre-configured system-parameters groups. In the System-Parameters Manager, click a system-parameters group of your choice - we suggest either the group named "SSB - Short Path" or "CW - Short Path" - you may then close the System-Parameters Manager window.
3. Again in the Circuit-Configuration Manager - click the "Station" button near the top to change to that page. If the location you entered for yourself is not currently shown, click the Manager button to display the Station-Parameters Manager click your location to select it then click the Done button to close the Station-Parameters Manager window.
4. For everything else it's probably best to start with the defaults. See the About The Defaults topic. If you wish to customize the antennas to more closely match your station please read the sections HFAnt and External Antennas.
5. There is no need to close the Circuit-Configuration Manager. In fact some functions are a bit faster with it open. But if you wish, click the Done button to close the Circuit-Configuration Manager.
6. On the Master-Control Palette, click the Analyze button - a menu will appear; on the Analyze menu click the Point-to-Point item.
7. The DX Gazetteer will appear shortly. Select (click) a "target" location of interest and click the Analyze button in the upper left of the DX Gazetteer.
8. After a moment your two default prediction views, a chart and a report, should appear. On the Master-Control Palette, explore the Point-to-Point items on the Charts and Reports menus. See this topic to change the Default Prediction View.

In addition to using the DX Gazetteer to select point-to-point targets, you can select a "target" using either the SmartMap-Geographic View or the Coverage-Analysis View maps. To directly create a prediction - while viewing either the SmartMap-Geographic View or the Coverage-Analysis View, hold the keyboard "shift" and left-click any desired map location.

"Prediction Batch" type prediction:

A prediction batch type prediction is similar to the beacon type prediction, but provides much more flexibility. The beacon type predictions all use the same circuit parameters. In contrast, the prediction batch type prediction is created with a user-selected-target location for up to 18 "circuits". Each circuit in a prediction batch can use different antennas, power levels and system parameters. The 18 circuits can contain a mix of parameters - some circuits can be standard forward, some reversed while some can be long path. This feature is a powerful tool for comparing various circuits and stations for most any purpose.

Some “input parameter groups” are common to other prediction types. For this type we need to specify "Station", usually your station, Month - the current date is default, SSN - typically use the default, and Frequencies. Again, the target location and other input parameters are selected and configured for each circuit in a batch, with the Prediction-Batch Manager.

Lets look at the Prediction-Batch Manager. On the Master-Control Palette, click the menu button and then the "Prediction-Batch Manager" item. Wizard installs several pre-configured prediction batch "groups". One is of course the default prediction batch. Another general type prediction batch is named DX-expeditions. The default prediction batch is a copy of the DX-expeditions batch so you will have a prediction batch with which to experiment - without further action. The default prediction batch is therefore "full", it holds 18 circuits, and no additional circuits can be added. These pre-configured prediction batches should be ready to use as circuits in conjunction with you the "User" station.

To create a "Prediction Batch" type prediction: 

Initial Setup

1. As mentioned above, we need to select several “input parameter groups”. From the Master-Control Palette, click the "Circuits" button to open the Circuit-Configuration Manager.
2. The "Station" is, if you followed this quick start from above, "your" location and should be ready.
3. Month and SSN, use the default settings. You can experiment later of course.
4. Frequencies, the default is "all amateur bands". This should provide for interesting example predictions. Again there are several pre-configured frequency sets.
5. For everything else it's probably best to start with the defaults already selected in the default prediction batch. See the About The Defaults topic.
6. There is no need to close the Circuit-Configuration Manager. In fact some functions are a bit faster with it open. But if you wish, click the Done button to close the Circuit-Configuration Manager.
7. Again, look at the Prediction-Batch Manager; click the Analyze button in the upper left corner.
8. Shortly you should see the default prediction views appear. When you are don exploring the default "views" - on the Master-Control Palette, explore the Prediction Batch items on the Charts and Reports menus. Configuration of the default prediction view is described in the Default Prediction View topic.

You can click the Prediction-Batch Manager "Clear All" button to delete the circuits from the default group - and add your own chosen circuits. For further information see the Prediction-Batch Manager topic and the Tutorial - Prediction Batch.

To create a Grid Fields or a Grid Squares Prediction Set:

See the Tutorial - Preparing a Coverage-Analysis Prediction Set section. When you begin a grid type prediction set the "Coverage Analysis - Confirm Inputs" window appears so you can do a quick check and insure you actually create predictions with the parameters you intended. Additionally see the "Coverage-Analysis-Animator Preview" section.

A few notes on grid type predictions seem appropriate:

1. It seems best to use omni directional antenna types. We recommend Isotrope type antennas. Do you really want prediction results that are directional - if you are actually going to rotate a beam probably not?
2. A "reverse" circuit seems to make no sense for these prediction types. That would mean a significant number of predictions to your station. Besides it requires a different prediction engine configuration at best.
3. WinCAP Wizard allows antenna azimuth to be entered as -1 and so the main antenna beam is pointed toward the target. This is not possible for these prediction types and a -1 is replaced with a zero; you are however free to specify a specific azimuth.
4. Please try and always insure you have 1 GB of available hard drive space as "work space".
5. Allow windows to "manager" its own paging file; else insure the drive you select has enough space. This "may be" less of an issue with more than 512 MB or RAM, yet still an issue.
6. Grid Square predictions can use a LOT of hard drive space. You may want to use the Results Manager often - to clear old predictions you no longer need.
7. Continuing from the previous note - if you have done several grid prediction sets and then decide to "back up" your hard drive, the back up could be much larger and require much longer than you anticipated.

Finishing Up

You probably don't want the "Read Me" message to display every time you start WinCAP Wizard. To disable display of the read me message - from the Master-Control Palette - click the "Menu" button then move down to the "Options" menu item and then click Miscellaneous Defaults. In the Miscellaneous Defaults window, un-check the 'Pop Read Me" item.

In additional to the Beacon Time Wizard and GeoAlert-Extreme Wizard tools, we recommend you also download and enjoy our "QSL-ware" HamTools application named "ID Wizard". ID Wizard provides you with several useful tools and accessories: Notes - a full-featured “text” editor, Convert - a unit conversion tool, KCal - a custom calendar, Calculator - with “tape” display, Net Utility - Trace Route, Ping and WhoIs, and Time setting via the net with “Simple Network Time Protocol”. The ID Wizard isn't included in the WinCAP Wizard install in an attempt to help keep the download size reasonable.

You can download ID Wizard from:

http://www.taborsoft.com/softstuff/idwiz/

If you see errors or areas for specific improvement in this quick start, and help doc in general, please do email. Please always use a subject line like "WinCAP Wizard"; we receive a large number of monotonous junk emails - so important ones can be overlooked if not for a pertinent subject line. Yours is important and we will respond as soon as possible.

We "still" firmly believe that after awhile, the apparent complexity of operating WinCAP Wizard will fade and you will only see pure beauty. <VBG> Hey, email if I'm wrong - tell me how to improve this tool.