Tutorial - Results Inspector

Lets explore the Results Inspector.

Point-to-Point Results Inspector –

Example – Best Usable Frequency

For this example we need to have a point-to-point prediction available. So if you don’t already have one created, do so now. The quickest was is of course using the map. From the Master-Control Palette, click the “Map” button to display the SmartMap-Geographic View. To create a prediction, hold the keyboard “shift” key and then with the mouse click an area of interest. If you wish, close the SmartMap-Geographic and any default report or chart created by the prediction analysis. This will help clear the screen but isn’t really necessary.

The Results Inspector provides several advantages over both the report and chart prediction view. The key here is flexibility. This prediction view provides flexibility – perhaps to an extreme.

Open the Results Inspector view. From the Master-Control Palette, click the “Results” button then move to the “Results Inspectors” item and click “Point-To-Point”.

In this example, we will "sort" our prediction in an order to show the "best usable frequency" for each hour.

#1 This area hold the tool bar. Most button functions become obvious upon first use. The exception may be the CW and SSB buttons. The CW and SSB buttons related the predicted SNR in a 1 Hz bandwidth with our "quality indicators"; these are of course adjustable from the Signal Quality Selections dialog window.

#2 Near the top of the Results Inspector, just below tool bar, are three tan colored rows. These three rows are the “prediction header label” area. The prediction header label area helps identify each item in the actual “prediction header”. Below the “prediction header labels” are the “prediction headers”. The prediction headers are each three rows, plus the antenna and power information used to create the prediction set.

When a prediction header is “selected” it appears silver (light gray) colored. A prediction header helps identify a prediction by “circuit” and related parameters. For example transmit and receive locations, the day and month, prediction mode and quality.

Any of these header items may be removed from the view by clicking the “Customize” button and then simply dragging and dropping the unwanted item into the customize box. The prediction header items can be arranged in any order by simply dragging. Removing and rearranging prediction header items also causes the same action to the “prediction data” items they identify.

To the left of each three-line-prediction “header” is a “+” sign. Click the + sign to “Expand” a prediction and view the “hours items”.

#3 Notice a gray colored area that reads, “Drag a column header here to group by that column”. Next, notice each column has a header label identifying a specific data item. For example - hour, FN (frequency number), freq, mode, etc - are column header labels.

We will be discussing “headers” and “items’, two different, yet related, topics; for example “hour headers” and “hour items’.

Left click and drag the column header labeled “Hour” up into the “Drag a column header here to group by that column” area then drop, or release the mouse button.

#2 Take notice to actually drag the hour header label up into the area instructed, as there is an area it can be dropped just below the desired target area. As you drag, two green colored arrows indicate where the hour label will be placed when released.

#3 After the hour header is dragged and dropped, you will see that the display changes to show an hour item for each of the 24 predicted hours. Each hour item looks something like this “+ Hour : 00”. You probably noticed that each hour item now has a + sign to the left.

Notice the “hour” label we dragged has a “triangle” symbol that points upward. Click this hour label and note the triangle symbol changes to point downward, and the hour items are reversed into descending sort order.

While we are here - another helpful tip shown by example – scroll the display down so the hour items at the bottom of the display are visible, then click one (not the plus sign yet) – say the next to the last. If you have followed all steps, the next to last will be hour item “Hour : 01”. Now again click the “hour” label to reverse the sort order. Notice the hour item we selected stays selected and in view. If we do not select our hour item before changing sort order the display will automatically scroll so the top portion is in view; if the bottom is the area of interest, this can be irritating since we will have to scroll back down. Please keep in mind for future use, although not required, it is helpful to actually select the area of interest.

#3 When the + sign just left of an hour item is clicked the hour “expands” and all our prediction data for the chosen hour is in view. Click the + sign just to its left of any hour item.

Now it’s finally time for some fun stuff. Each of the column headers can be clicked to sort that column into ascending or descending order. On first click the order is always ascending, or smallest to largest value.

Click the column header labeled “SNR”, then click it a second time to achieve descending sort order. I prefer largest to smallest for this type view, you may of course use either. With the setup described up to here you have a prediction view of “best usable frequency” according to the frequency with the highest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). If you wish to view best usable frequency determined by the highest “signal level” (s-units), click the dB > µV column header. Likewise, click the “Rel” column header for highest reliability. You can view any hour in the same arrangement. In other words, change the sorting of one hour and they will all change. When you find an arrangement you really like, click the “Menu” button and check “Save Layout” and “Load Layout”. Next time you start the Results Inspector your arrangement will be restored. To restore the default arrangement just un-check Load Layout, close the Results Inspector and then open it again.

Before we try another arrangement, first lets return the view to something more close to the default - drag the “Hour” header label outside the grouping area, that did read “Drag a column header here to group by that column”, until the mouse cursor changes to a large “X”, then drop or release. The layout should be restored to almost the default. I say almost the default, as the default is with data sorted by “FN” (frequency number) a now the data will be by hour and FN. You may be wondering why the frequency number (FN) field. The frequency number field is necessary for sorting frequencies into a known order. Otherwise the MUF would always cause the order to be unknown, since we never really know what frequency the MUF will be. Anyway, this slight variation from default order should not matter for our purpose.

Point-to-Point Results Inspector – Example – Best Hour Per Frequency

This example is very much like the one above, so we won’t go into as much detail this time. Say we are only interested in using a particular frequency, or think “band” in this case. In other words, we are interested in finding the “best hour” for a contact on some particular band.

Drag the FN (frequency number) column header label into the area labeled “Drag a column header here to group by that column”.

Notice we now have the display arranged with “items” that look something like “+ FN : 0” through “+ FN : 9”. Of course if you did not use the default “frequency set” in the Circuit-Configuration Manager when you created the prediction you may have fewer FN items.

Click the + sign next to one of the FN items to expand it so the data is view able. You see a view similar to the view from the last example. However this view is for a single frequency and all 24 hours, sorted by hour. Click the header label for “SNR” then click it again. The SNR column should now be sorted in descending order.

You now have a prediction with 24 hours for a specific frequency, sorted in order from best signal-to-noise ratio to worst. As in the previous example, you can sort by any of the prediction data items by clicking the header label. Simple enough, isn’t it?

For the upper bands, perhaps a more useful view would be to group and then sort on MUFday, MDay on above display.

These same techniques can of course be used with the other two Results Inspector prediction views. Also keep in mind the Results Inspector is very useful when used in conjunction with the charts.