If you just want to evaluate antenna beams and directions without defining any antennas, you can use the ANTENNAS display for "virtual antenna" tests.
JAGUAR PRO ONLY
If you have defined your antennas in the JAGUAR.INI > [ANTENNAS] section, the ANTENNAS display will show them correspondingly. You can select an antenna, for example, by clicking it on the map, or pressing the A key repeatedly until the desired antenna becomes red.
The selected antenna becomes your current antenna in the system, and the name defined for it will be added as a suffix to the file name of your recordings. In addition, Jaguar can also be used to physically switch the antennas if you use Devantech or Velleman relay boards (or any third-party antenna switch which can be invoked from within Jaguar).
KEY = A
The ANTENNAS map can be invoked by pressing A key or by clicking SLIDER > ANTENNAS (by pressing A again you can return back to the original display). The ANTENNAS display has many additional functions:
* You can move the display up/down with the standard mouse drag'n drop
* You can zoom in/out the display by rolling the mouse wheel when the mouse cursor is over the map
* You can show directions (0 to 359 degrees) by moving the mouse over the ANTENNAS map
* If you left-click the map, a virtual antenna is drawn with a 60-degree beam
When an antenna is selected (i.e. the red beam is visible), you can increase/decrease its beamwidth in 5-degree steps as follows:
* Using the mouse wheel when the mouse cursor is over the beam or over the ANTENNAS button
* Using the left/right arrow keys when the mouse cursor is over the beam or over the ANTENNAS button
* Using left-click/right-click when the mouse cursor is over over the ANTENNAS button
JAGUAR PRO ONLY
How to define the antennas?
You can define your antenna setup in Jaguar by opening JAGUAR.INI with Notepad and adding the definitions to the [ANTENNAS] section. The defined antennas will be shown on the ANTENNAS map. Antenna switches are also supported as JAGUAR has a built-in support for the Velleman and Devantech antenna relay boards. These boards can also be used to switch the preamp on/off. If you have Velleman/Devantech relay boards, their drivers must be installed first, and the COMPORT=port parameter may need to be defined in the [CUSTOM] section.
Let us assume that you have four beverage antennas, directed to 293, 320, 80 and 35 degrees (with an estimated beam width of 60 degrees) and a preamp is also in use. In the following example, a Velleman relay board is used: the slots 1-4 have the antennas and the slot 8 has the preamp.
[ANTENNAS] 1 = 293, EASTCOAST, 60, VELLEMAN 2 = 320, MOUNTAIN, 60, VELLEMAN 3 = 80, AUSTRALIA, 60, VELLEMAN 4 = 35, OCEANIA, 60, VELLEMAN 8 = 0, PREAMP_ON, 0, VELLEMAN 9 = 0, PREAMP_OFF, 0, VELLEMAN 10 = 0, RESET, 0, VELLEMAN // note: 9 & 10 are just notational
Each [ANTENNAS] line consists of the antenna number and three parameters: direction, name, beam width. The fourth parameter is optional: it can be VELLEMAN or DEVANTECH.
The antennas can now be switched as follows:
* by choosing from the TOPMENU > ANT
* by pressing A on the keyboard (rotates the antennas 1-4)
* by clicking the antenna on the bearing map
* with the PF (function) keys 1-4, and Preamp ON with PF8, Preamp OFF with PF9. This requires
[CUSTOM] ANTENNAKEYS=Y
* scheduled in [MESTOR], for example:
[MESTOR] 21:55 ANTENNA 2
Note that the antenna reset (for all antennas) is available via the menu only.