xdx - tcp/ip DX-cluster and ON4KST chat client for Amateur Radio
================================================================
 
Xdx is a DX-cluster client which shows a list with DX announcements and a
separate text widget with WWV, WCY, 'To ALL' and other server messages.
It is also suited to connect to ON4KST chat.

What is a DX Cluster?
=====================
A DX Cluster is a means for Amateur (Ham) Radio operators to tell each other,
in realtime, about DX stations (interesting or rare Amateur Radio stations
from all over the world).

Users who are connected to a DX Cluster are capable of announcing DX spots 
and related announcements, send personal talk messages, send and receive mail 
messages, search and retrieve archived data, and access data from information 
databases.

For a list of DX Clusters see:
http://www.ng3k.com/Misc/cluster.html

ON4KST chat is more suited for VHF and UHF operators. It is a place where
hams meet for planning long distance radio contact, moonbounce and
meteor scatter. For more info on ON4KST chat see http://www.on4kst.com.

Commands
========
Here are some basic DX-cluster commands to get started:

announce/full 'msg': Send a line of text to all connected stations.
bye: Exit the DX Cluster.
dx 'frequency' 'callsign' 'comment': Send DX spot information.
show/dx: View previously logged DX spots.

ON4KST uses a DX-cluster command subset. It is best if you type '/help'
after being connected. All of the commands need to start with '/'.

DX-cluster Command examples
===========================
1) dx 28002.2 xz7a worked with 80m dipole!!
2) sh/dx on hf/cw 50

Callsign and autologin
======================
The callsign in the first page of the preferences dialog is used for
recognizing the DX-cluster prompt (so xdx can colorize it) and for autologin.
When autologin is enabled, a number of commands can be send to the cluster.
You may enter them in the 'Commands' entry, separated by a comma,
e.g. set/page 0,unset beep' will disable paging and stop beeps.
You can also use commands when a password is needed. There is a
0.5 second delay between commands.

Keepalive packets
=================
If you have a bad network and experience random disconnects, you can try
to enable keepalive in the settings dialog. This will send a backspace to the
server every 5 minutes.

Saving DX info
==============
Individual messages can be saved to a file when activated from the preferences
dialog.

$HOME/.xdx/dxspots  DX spots as displayed in the top list.
$HOME/.xdx/wwv      WCY/WWV anouncements with propagation info.
$HOME/.xdx/toall    Chat messages as displayed in the bottom text widget.
$HOME/.xdx/wx       Weather information.

When wwv data is saved, files with "tab seperated values" will be saved for
every WWV host. This is useful for creating graphs. The format of this file:

YYYMMDDHH	SFI	A	K	R

Where SFI is the 10.7 cm solar flux index, A and K both indicate geomagnetic
activity and R refers to sunspot numbers. An example script is included in
the xdx data directory which uses gnuplot to display data from DK0WCY. It is
called with 'gnuplot wwv.gnuplot'. It writes a plot to $HOME/.xdx/DK0WCY.png.

Hamlib support
==============
When double clicking on a dxspot in the top window this will set your rig's
frequency. You need the rigctl binary from the hamlib distribution for this.
Please modify the ID for your rig in the rigctl command line in preferences
dialog, e.g. 'rigctl -m 210 set_freq %d' will use ID 210 (Kenwood TS-870),
see 'rigctl ---list' for a list of models.

Web browsers and mail programs
==============================
A URL in the chat window will appear blue and underlined when your mouse is 
over it. Clicking on it will open the link in your preferred browser or mail 
program (see the preferences dialog):

Start the gnome web-browser when clicking a URL: 'epiphany %s'.
Start mozilla-mail on clicking a mail URL: 'mozilla -compose "to=%s"'.

Highlights
==========
The 'chat sidebar' allows entry of 8 different words, which can be highlighted
in the chat window. When the checkbox is used xdx will search for a highlight
in all of the incoming text. When not used, only the text after the prompt is
searched. Colors for the highlights are configured in page 3 of the settings
dialog. You can quickly turn checkboxes on/off with Ctrl-1 to Ctrl-8, you
can switch between entries with Alt-1 to Alt-8. Alt-0 switches back to the
send widget. 

Sound support
=============
When a highlight is active in the chat window, a sound can be played.
In order for the sound to work you must use a secondary program and
set it in the first page of the preferences dialog: 'play %s' will use
play, which is part of the sox package, 'esdplay %s' uses esdplay which
is useful when using gnome and esound.

Smileys
=======
There is support for a limited number of smileys in the chat window:
:)  :-)  :))  :-))  ;)  ;-)  :(  :-(  :((  :-((

License and support
===================
Xdx is free and published under the GNU GPL license. It is written by
Joop Stakenborg <pg4i@amsat.org>.

Please send a report if you find bugs or if you want enhancements.
