MESTOR is JAGUAR's schedule-based, automatic recording utility. All MESTOR definitions are given in the SETTINGS > MESTOR window. The currently active scheduler list is shown on the left panel of the SETTINGS dashboard; the list is sorted so that the next upcoming scheduled recordings are always on top. All times used in MESTOR are UTC (your PC time can be your local time).
You can define your basic operation environment (bandwidth, center frequency, recording disk, QTH, etc,) in the SETTINGS > WORKSET window; this MESTOR window is used to control the scheduled recordings only.
Most users leave JAGUAR running overnight in order to record TOHs (top-of-the-hours), BOTs (bottom-of-the-hours), or any other desired time periods, or even the whole night. The active scheduler list is automatically repeated daily. In addition, you can schedule changes in the operation environment (antenna, scan target) dynamically as part of the scheduling system.
In the example window above, a scheduler list has been defined which records top-of-the-hour periods beginning 30 minutes before the local sunset, these TOHs are recorded up to 30 minutes after the local sunrise. This definition can be done with a few mouse clicks thanks to the template driven "smart MESTOR". In addition to the TOHs, you can also schedule the recordings of the "bottom-of-the hours"; in the example that selection is just being made from the MESTOR template menu. The exact times/duration of recordings can be changed after the selection.
You have only nine rows available for defining the scheduler list for 24/7 recordings, makes it possible to record a maximum of 216 separate time periods (or independent files if the time periods are short) within one day; more than adequate for standard MW DX needs.
MESTOR can be opened by clicking TOOLBAR > SETTINGS > MESTOR, or clicking directly STATUSBAR > M (when the M button is clicked, also the SETTINGS dashboard will be opened). You can add/change the rows using the CHANGE button, left/right-clicking it.
The top row in the MESTOR window ("MESTOR_STATUS") is used to enable/disable the scheduler. You can disable it temporarily (for any reason: MW conditions are down, etc), just don't forget to enable it back again when leaving the setup unattended.
The next rows are reserved for the scheduler actions. The recording times defined by the MESTOR rows can be overlapping (MESTOR combines the settings into correct non-overlapping time slots) and also remembers the recording start times if JAGUAR is started in the middle of a recording slot. If you have defined a recording between 04:57-05:15 and you start JAGUAR at 05:03:22, JAGUAR will start recording at 05:04:00 and end it as scheduled at 05:15
Each MESTOR row definition is based on a template which is selected from the template menu. You can select any template to any row (ie. you use the same template multiple times) and even if some templates use sunrise/sunset based definitions (including "SS" or "SR", referring to your local sunrise and sunset times), you can replace any SS... or SR... with real fixed HHMM time in any textbox. Note that in order to use SUNRISE LONG/SUNSET LONG/DARK TOPS/DARK BOTS correctly, you must define your recording QTH and the corresponding coordinates first in the WORKSET > LOCATION window. On any MESTOR row you can freely edit the start/end times and any other value before saving the row (by pressing SAVE), after that the defined row is dynamically parsed and displayed as a real time scheduler list on the left frame.
NOTE: When exact hours and minutes are used in the templates, they must always be given as HHMM. The HH:MM format is not supported yet.
There are 13 pre-defined template options available:
To give you an idea of what you can do with MESTOR, here are a few examples. You can creatively combine these examples and templates for your own purposes.
Example 1: Classic "top-of-the-hour" 21-05: if you want to capture TOHs from 21 UTC to 05 UTC (8 minutes per TOH, creating files 2058-2106, 2158-2206, ...., 0458-0506), you can select the RECURRING template and edit the times as follows:
MESTOR ............. FROM 2055 MINUTES 58-06 TO 0510
Example 2: Short "top-of-the-hour" between 22-06 (2159-2201, 2259-2301, etc) plus the COPE breaks at 22:55-23:00 UTC: Add one row using the RECURRING template defining only two minutes for the exact TOH and another row using the CONTINUOUS template defining time slot 2254-2301 UTC.
The COPE break recording partially overlaps with the TOH definition but it does not matter. Also the exact FROM and TO times in RECURRING can be anything before and after the exact recording period (including the exact start minute of the first recording etc).
MESTOR ............. REC FROM 2159 MINUTES 59-01 TO 0601
MESTOR ............. REC FROM 2254 CONTINOUSLY TO 2301
Example 3: Prolonged "top-of-the-hour" recordings at night (15 mins starting at XX'54), long recording (3+ hours) in the morning starting at 0252 and using the attenuator during the night. We need one RECURRING template, one CONTINOUS template and one ATTENUATION template for this.
MESTOR ............. REC FROM 2150 MINUTES 54-09 TO 0210
MESTOR ............. REC FROM 0252 CONTINUOUSLY TO 0615
MESTOR ............. SET 0305 ATT0 SET 2000 ATT1
Here the attenuation can be set at any time before the start of the night time recording (JAGUAR will do the attenuation switches even JAGUAR is started after the exact defined switch time). Here the attenuation is set OFF (ATT0) at 0305 UTC (and also here JAGUAR will do it later if it notices that attenuation is ON even when the time is past 0305 UTC). Attenuation switches can be done during recording.
Example 4: Record "top-of-the-hours" (for 10 minutes, XX57-XX07) and "bottom-of-the-hours" (5 minutes, XX27-XX32) whenever it is dark in the recording QTH. This one is easy: pick the DARK TOPS and DARK BOTS templates and modify the times as follows:
MESTOR ............. REC FROM SS-30 MINUTES 57-07 TO SR+30
MESTOR ............. REC FROM SS-30 MINUTES 27-32 TO SR+30
The effective recording window here starts 30 minutes before the local sunset (changing daily) and ends 30 minutes after the local sunrise. These can be tuned as needed.
Example 5: Overnight recording. Let it roll from 2058 to 0910. Easy - one template (CONTINUOUS) needed:
MESTOR ............. REC FROM 2058 CONTINUOUSLY TO 0910
Example 6: Force the file breakpoint in the recorded files always at each HH'58. If you use the 1.6MHz sampling rate, the system produces 10 minute files so the file breaks will never happen at the exact TOH, if you schedule your TOH rec starting at HH'58: in that case you don't need this BREAKPOINT parameter. However if you use the 2MHz sampling rate, the files will be 8 minutes long and during the continuous recording the file breaks will vary => at times it will match the exact TOH. This can be avoided with using the BREAKPOINT parameter (the allowed values are between 55 and 59):
MESTOR ............. SET FILE BREAKS AT HH58
Example 7: Switch to the EASTCOAST antenna at 2030 and to the AUSTRALIA antenna at 1430. This requires that you have defined the ANTENNAS settings window. The switches can be done by activating two SET ANTENNA rows. Note that the antenna switches are "single events": if you start JAGUAR after the switch time has passed, you must make the antenna switch manually to the correct antenna.
MESTOR ............. SET ANTENNA EASTCOAST AT 2030
MESTOR ............. SET ANTENNA AUSTRALIA AT 1430
Example 8: Switch to LIVESCAN MW10 at 2030 and to LIVESCAN MW9 at 1430. The switches can be done by activating two SCANTARGET rows. Note that the scan target switches are "single events": if you start JAGUAR after the switch time has passed, you must make the scan target switch manually to the correct frequency set.
MESTOR ............. SET SCANTARGET MW10 AT 2030
MESTOR ............. SET SCANTARGET MW9 AT 1430
Example 9: Finding a good calibration frequency is sometimes difficult. Or if you find such, it may not transmite 24x7. On the other hand, at the night time there are often more choices available. In this example the system is calibrated using Russia (828.0000) between 0200-2200 UTC and using Italy (899.9988) between 2200-0200 UTC. These scheduled calibration frequencies are used in LIVE listening, in addition the currently active frequency is saved to the recording file header in scheduded recordings - to be used later in the playback as the default calibration frequency in the ARCHIVE mode.
MESTOR ............. SET CALFREQ 828.0000 AT 0200
MESTOR ............. SET CALFREQ 899.9988 AT 2200
You can mix the CONTINUOUS/SUNRISE LONG/SUNSET LONG and RECURRING/DARK TOPS/DARK BOTS settings in any combination you like - or you can override any time setting in them from SR/SS to fixed HHMM and vice versa. SR and SS denote for local sunrise and local sunset, and you can shift the exact SR/SS times in the settings by adding or subtracting minutes from the exact SR/SS time, for example:
SR = exact local sunrise time
SR-30 = 30 minutes before the local sunrise time
SS+60 = 60 minutes after the local sunset time
etc.
However in this version the SET ANTENNA and SCANTARGET times require the HHMM format.
Besides controlling the wideband recordings, MESTOR also offers some special timed services and a support for changing the "operating environment" on-the-fly.
POWERSAVE: If you are running JAGUAR in a battery-driven environment, the POWERSAVE option is recommended: activate the POWERSAVE template, no parameters are needed for this.
MESTOR ............. Hibernate when not recording
POWERSAVE requires that the following operating system settings are in place for correct functionality, i.e. that your computer must support wake-up timers, and they must be enabled. Also, the wake-up logon must be disabled in Windows:
AUTOREC: Using this option the system will activate recording whenever "good MW cx is detected". This can be the only recording option in MESTOR - or it can be bundled with other recordings if the user does not record continuously overnight. The "good MW cx" is not based on space wx indicators, instead it relies on the JIX value (see GUIDE > JIX for more details). The user can select the target (MW9 or MW10) and the JIX threshold value for recording. When this user defined JIX value exceeds the threshold, recording is triggered automatically up to when JIX goes down again.
This is kind of a "Mickey Mouse implementation" and not useful in Lapland where also during low JIX exotic stations can be heard; however, this system will be improved in the upcoming versions. For example, the AUTOREC trigger could be some specific offset ("start recording if the carrier on a given offset increases high enough") - that offset could belong to an indicator station for user's favorite signal area or that offset could belong to the user's "most wanted station" etc. In JAGUAR V7 only this JIX based AUTOREC is available using the AUTO REC template. In the example below recording is started when the MW10 JIX value exceeds 30 and ends when the JIX value goes below 30:
MESTOR ............. REC WHEN MW10 JIX > 30