JAGUAR PRO ONLY
The APPLETS are small round tool windows for extended JAGUAR control. Sometimes applets are also known by their legacy name of BB ("Ballroom Blitz") applets. Many of the functions included in the applets can be controlled also via other Jaguar bars/displays but the applets are handy because they can be positioned anywhere on the screen.
KEY = TAB and ALT-B
The applets can be invoked either individually by pressing the TAB key or via the TOP MENU (note that if you have TIMEWHEEL enabled, the TAB key is reserved that function). The applets appear first in the base location at the centre of the screen; the applets located in this base position will not be remembered at a JAGUAR restart. Every applet becomes permanently enabled if you relocate it by dragging and moving it with the mouse to a suitable location on the screen.
Pressing ALT-B will relocate (and hide) all the applets at once in a shape of a large circle on the screen ("Ballroom Blitz"). If you want to hide the enabled applets temporarily, click the TOOLBAR > CLEAR icon. Click the icon once more to make them re-appear.
The applets can also be launched from TOOLBAR > APPLETS (left-click) or individual applets can be launched from the popup menu after TOOLBAR > APPLETS is right-clicked.
Right-clicking an applet itself removes it from the screen and disables it.
JAGUAR will remember the screen positions of all the enabled applets after a restart.
Here is the current portfolio of the applets:
1. FILTER or RF filters. You can rotate all the available filters by clicking on the filter name button on the top. Currently, active filter bandwidth (BW) is shown on the bottom of the applet (and on AUDIOBAR). The currently active filter offset is shown only on AUDIOBAR by default (note: also AM MODE filter has an "offset"; it is the shift of the filter center from the nominal). You can change the single-side-band (SSB) mode by clicking the left (LSB) or the right (USB) side of the applet (not available for the AM MODE filter).
When you hover the mouse over the applet, and one of the filter edges will be shown as red, you can
* scroll either the inner or outer edge of the filter with the mouse wheel or with the left/right arrow keys. The target edge is shown in red. When changing either edge, also the filter bandwidth is changed automatically. The filter offset is changed when you change the inner edge.
* see the currently active filter offset / bandwidth value as a flag when the mouse cursor is exactly over the red line
* see the "STEEP" flag if you are in the normal filter mode and the mouse cursor is between the red lines: you can get "more filter power" (and toggle between the NORMAL and STEEP modes) by clicking that filter area on the applet. When STEEP is active, the filter area is covered with a red "fish net" (see the STEEP help for more information).
* change only the offset, maintaining the bandwidth, by dragging the filter area left or right - in that case, both edges are shown as red.
Note that filter characteristics (name, bandwidth, offset and STEEP mode on/off) can be also changed using the AUDIOBAR.
If you hover the mouse over "BW" (bandwidth), you'll see the RESET button. If you click RESET, Jaguar restores the default filter settings: 3 kHz BW with a 0.3-kHz OFFSET (except AM MODE = 6 kHz centered) with STEEP disabled. the defaults can be overridden by your own settings (see the CUSTOM > RESET help).
In addition to these standard operations, the FILTER applet also supports CUSTOMFREQS (more info in the CUSTOMFREQS help).
2. TINYEQ - The Tiny Equalizer is a simple 3-band equalizer which shows 10 audio frequency group bars. The user can increase/decrease each of these frequency bands by moving the mouse over the band limit (red line) and scroll with the mouse wheel or the left/right arrow keys. The band limit frequency is then shown on the top area. The number at the bottom of the applet shows the current maximum frequency in the audio spectrum. If this frequency remains unchanged, it usually means that notch is required.
When you have selected the bands you want to control, you can just move the mouse cursor on that band area and increase/decrease the power of all those audio frequencies within that band using the mouse wheel or the left/right arrow keys.
If you move the mouse to the bottom and click "RESET", you can reset all three bands to the normal state.
The TINYEQ is probably the smallest and simplest possible equalizer that can exist. Nevertheless, it seems to be very efficient: the best way to test it is to tune in to a fully free frequency with plain noise. It is amazing how the noise level/quality varies, depending on the selected equalizer settings.
However, normally there is not much extra you can get out of the audio itself by using a plain equalizer; however, sometimes it can be beneficial to shape the "color" of the background noise.
The equalizer is always disabled when the TINYEQ applet is not visible.
3. SPACE WX - The space weather centre, reporting a selection of space weather indices. The service needs to be enabled (STATUSBAR > W > SOLAR DATA). In the LIVE mode, the current values will be shown whereas in the ARCHIVE mode, the values at the time of the recording will be shown.
By default, this applet shows the SOLAR WIND value but you can toggle between SOLAR WIND and ALL DATA by clicking the applet.
There are four parameters which illustrate the current space weather in numbers and colours. The Bz value shows the current direction of the interplanetary (= the Sun's) magnetic field. When the Bz value turns to high negative values, it means disturbed conditions. KYOTO DST is a well-known indicator for trans-Atlantic openings, together with POLAR (= Tromso, Norway) A and K values. Highly increased PROTON flux values typically result in radio black-outs in the polar cap area. The threshold for a storm is 10. The following colour scheme is used: GREEN = normal, YELLOW = unsettled, RED = storm/alert. A "space weather timestamp" is shown on the bottom of the applet in the ALL DATA mode.
4. S-METER - Signal Strength Meter with one-decimal accuracy. JAGUAR uses this format instead a more commonly used dBm for displaying signals strengths.
The S-METER applet offers three different display formats, and the format can be changed by clicking the applet:
DIGITAL (default) > "SPECTRUMIZED" (red line showing the absolute low level) > GAUGE.
5. WAVE - The WAVE applet shows a dynamic playback waveform for the last second played. If the audio has no issues, the background colour of the applet is black. A red flash is a sign of an AGC hit; a yellow flash is an AGC warning. A clear audio is shown as a continuous steady sine wave but this is seldom achieved with DX signals. Instead, the waveform is often irregular, trashy and/or full of noise.
CR - The Click Remover. If you hover the mouse over the applet and scroll with the mouse wheel or the left/right arrow keys, you can fine-tune the level of click removals. Sometimes, a signal can be very low but there can be clicks just above the overall signal level, and you may need utmost fine-tuning. In the images you can see the effect area: the grey hatched area can be moved up/down defining the CR cut limits, and when the CR kicks in, this area is shown in red. In theory, the CR is meant only for "independent clicks" in the audio (caused e.g. by horse fences etc.); however some users have found it beneficial also in smoothing static crashes and splatters. But the cut limits must be far enough from the audio itself, otherwise the CR will start to eat the real audio parts, too.
If you have enabled the CR, clicking the WAVE applet gives you another tuning tool: you can define the duration of the CR operation. If the system has already made one or more CR cleanups, the real effect of the last CR process on the signal is shown on the WAVE applet: the red spectrum shows the original audio and the white spectrum shows the resulted audio after the CR process. The CR process just cleans all the audio samples to zero (as seen in the example) and you can tune this duration by keeping the mouse over the WAVE applet and scrolling by the mouse wheel or the left/right arrow keys. The CR process duration can be between 1 ms and 6 ms; the clicks in audio normally are 3-4 ms long.
6. AUDIO - Audio settings. You can tune and change the following audio-related features:
* SSB: Toggle USB and LSB
* CR: Toggle CR (Click Remover) ON and OFF. You can also fine-tune the removal level while the mouse is over the CR button and scroll with mouse wheel, or with the left/right arrow keys.
* AGC: Click to rotate between AGC ON > AGC OFF > AGC OFF+. You can hover the mouse over the button, and scroll with the mouse or the left/right arrow keys: the AGC mode is changed to AGC OFF (if it was AGC ON) and you can increase/decrease the GAIN value. Click again to return to AGC ON.
* LO NOISE HI: Toggle LO NOISE and HI NOISE filters ON and OFF: More information in the LO/HI help.
* WAV format: Set the output audio sampling rate. It can be rotated between 8 kHz > 16 kHz > 32 kHz (when the 1.6-MHz bandwidth is used) or 10 kHz > 20 kHz > 40 kHz (when the 2-MHz bandwidth is used). More info about these in the AUDIO help
* The value on the bottom of the applet is the current Signal Strength (QSA).
7. RADAR - Set the main beam of the receive antenna for the FLAGS offset pole display (see TOOLBAR > FLAGS). The great-circle map on this applet is centred on the user's coordinates. Click once on the white beam to release the lock (or to see the beam itself if it is not visible) and move the beam toward the main beam of the antenna. Use the mouse wheel scroll to increase/decrease the beam width for the red beam. Click once more to lock the beam in place (the beam color returns white). The RADAR beam controls the target pick area for the FLAGS shown on the spectrum displays. Note that RADAR does not have any antenna-related functionality; it just defines the coverage area for FLAGS, even though it works like an antenna map.
Move the mouse cursor to the top area of the applet and click "RESET" if you want to delete the RADAR beam.
8. CLOCK - A real-time clock with a cuckoo clock option. If you enable the CUCKOO feature (clicking the button on the top of the applet enables/disables it), this mode alarms about the top-of-the-minute time spots with various Team Lurx alarm-clock videos. An internet connection is required. A top-of-the-hour reminder is a special video showing one of the "Finnish national heroes" in his favourite action - also music experts abroad may recognize this guy.
