PANTS, or Playback antennas. Hardcore DXers often use many Perseus setups for recording simultaneously on a DXpedition, each setup saving recordings to an external hard disk. When a specific recording is analyzed later, it can be very useful to check how signals were heard by the other setup(s) at the same time; sometimes the identity of a station can quickly be solved with the help of a recording from the other setup.
PANTS serves as a "virtual antenna switcher in the ARCHIVE mode". You can set the "A" key as the "playback antenna switcher". Then you can rotate two hard disks in the ARCHIVE mode just as pressing the "A" key rotates the antennas in the LIVE mode. This makes it easy to compare the signals between different antennas on the currently-playing frequency/time point.
If no recording exists on the selected disk, "NO HITS" will be shown, and PANTS stays silent, showing the playback time until you switch back (or to the next hard disk).
PANTS is also available if you have moved your recordings from various hard disks to one hard disk (in separate folders) after the DXpedition.
The keyboard key "A" can be used for rotating antennas in the LIVE mode or for any other audio comparisons - including PANTS.
If you want to use "A" for PANTS, click TOOLBAR > COMPARE > PANTS. When using PANTS, your "playback antennas" must be pre-defined using the PANTS plugin in SETTINGS > PLUGINS.
When you close the COMPARE tool (by clicking "X" next to the COMPARE button), PANTS is remembered as your setting for the "A" key: next time when you press "A", the PANTS buttons are opened automatically.
For example, if you have the external hard disks L:\ and O:\ in place for JAGUAR recordings, you can set PANTS as follows:
PANTS=L,O
and you can use the "A" key for toggling the recordings on the L:\ and O:\ disks.
The currently active disk setup is displayed on the AUDIOBAR as "PERSEUS1" or "PERSEUS2" (in this example the L-disk is "PERSEUS1" and the O-disk is "PERSEUS2":
These "PERSEUS1" and "PERSEUS2" labels can be changed with an additional PLUGIN line PANTS_LABELS, for example
PANTS_LABELS=EASTCOAST,WESTCOAST
will show "EASTCOAST" and "WESTCOAST" as the button names:
You can also set file paths instead of hard disk letters in PANTS (thus making it possible to use the same disk); for example, if you set
PANTS=F:\PRec\PAX128-Disk1,F:\PRec\PAX128-Disk2
you can toggle the two folders by pressing the "a" key.