Index

Map Panel - 2D

The Map Panel displays a map of the world centered on the last call looked up either manually, or automatically from a Telnet DX spot, a TNC packet DX Spot, an APRSServe APRS Spot, or a TNC APRS packet. If the precise location of the spot is known - for example from an Internet lookup, the spot is displayed as a red "+". If the spot's precise location is not known - for example the general location based on the call prefix, then the spot is displayed as a yellow "+". Spots are aged off (removed from the map) 8 hours after they are posted.

The Gray Line is a band around the Earth that separates daylight from darkness.  Propagation along the gray line is very efficient. One major reason for this is that the D layer, which absorbs HF signals, disappears rapidly on the sunset side of the gray line, and it has not yet built upon the sunrise side.

The Beam button will rotate your beam to the azimuth displayed in the Azim: edit box directly above.

The map can be displayed in three different resolutions. You can select the resolution by zooming in or out from the Map Menu in the menu bar, or from the contextual menu reached by control-clicking in the map area. You can also clear all the Map labels from either of these menus.

When the cursor is in the map area, it will display a cross-hair cursor, and at the top left of the map area, the grid square, latitude and longitude of the cursor position is displayed.

If the cursor is over a previous DX Spot, or APRS position, the call sign in square brackets, QSO UTC time, country, comments and frequency are also displayed.

If the spot is clicked with the mouse, that spot is tuned on your radio and a look up is performed.

If you hold the mouse down on the map then large cities in the area will be revealed as small circles.

The Logged QSO's check box will display the QSO's in your log on the map when checked.

The top left corner of the map displays a graphic of the bearing of the station last looked up. (This feature can be enabled/disabled in the Preferences Panel).

Locator Legend

Map Panel - 3D Option

The MacLoggerDX 3D Option is a paid option and is available as a registration key from Kagi or PayPal. Just enter the special 3D Option registration key in the "Station Info..." dialog in version 4.0.2 and later.

(500 MHz+ CPU recommended)

• The MacLoggerDX 3D Option displays a true 3D model of the earth complete with accurate gray line terminator and Sun shading.
  • The terminator line shows the time of sunrise or sunset for any location and is updated in real time.
  • The corridor line shows the 12 degree gray line corridor.
  • The area between the terminator and the corridor lines shows the regions of the world where the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon (which estimates the grayline corridor where HF propagation is usually enhanced)
• A great circle helps to visualize the short and long path from your QTH to the DX Spot automatically.
  • The great circle will be blue if the short path bearing is west of north and purple if the short path bearing is east of north.
  • A small blue circle marks the site, a small red circle marks the spot.
  • The camera is automatically adjusted to be overhead of the spot after each lookup.
• You can easily spin the world with the mouse in real time for a better look at the path.
  • Hold the mouse pointer down on the globe and drag it in the direction you want it to spin.
  • If you also hold down the Option key radio polling will be suspended and the spin will be smoother.
  • See the modifier key chart below.
• DXSpots as well as logged QSO's and cities can be picked from the map to display distance, bearing and QSO data.
  • Rolling over the spots displays their info in the map status line.
  • Clicking on a spot loads it into MacLoggerDX.
  • Cities are marked by orange points.
  • DX Spots are marked by green points if the Locator is precise (eg. iNet LL).
  • DX Spots are marked by blue points if the Locator is general (eg. Call).
  • Logged QSO's are marked by yellow points.
  • APRS packet positions are marked by red points.

The Ambient Slider and 3D Popup are only visible when the 3D Option is registered.

The Ambient Slider allows you to change the level of the ambient light and the grayline falloff.

The 3D Popup selects from...

Mouse dragging modifier keys for spinning the earth model