Keyboard SHORTCATS are short keywords that must be given with uppercase keyboard keys (the lowercase keys will trigger the old standard keyboard shortcuts).
SHORTCATS can be divided into "WORLD SHORTCATS" and "USA SHORTCATS". Their functionality differs a bit. Any SHORTCAT consists of 1-4 characters and it must be ended by pressing ENTER.
SHORTCATS require the TURTLE database version TURTLE-2020-04 or newer.
Type in a SHORTCAT using uppercase keyboard keys and press ENTER. If you want to return back from the SHORTCAT results, click TOOLBAR > 9 / TOOLBAR > 10, or click the continent button on the top. If you want to keep the result dial (VFO stepping), but show all stations on each frequency, press ESC.
If the SHORTCAT given is a standard ITU code, JAGUAR creates a frequency list (dial) to VFO, and you can immediately see the list of the stations in that country on the TURTLE window, and start scanning those frequencies by the mouse wheel and/or the left/right arrow keys. Some countries have stations on all MW frequencies (e.g. USA and MEX) so this is not very useful for them (more about USA/CAN/MEX below). In addition, there are DX-wise interesting networks in some countries, so instead of E (Spain), you can also type the network name: SER, COPE, RNE1 or RNE5.
ITU (and network) shortcats can be given on any frequency: if matches are found, the control is moved automatically to a matching frequency (also the continent is changed automatically).
At the moment, there are not many network shortcats included but this service can grow little by little if there is more interest in this.
USA/CAN/MEX shortcats are a bit different: the shortcat (format, network or state) search is focused only on the stations on the currently-playing frequency and no "dial" is created (so the shortcat is released automatically when you change the frequency). The US station shortcats are created with "fuzzy logic": shortcats are based on the language, formats and networks. For example, if you hear Spanish on AM 1400 when DXing North America, you can give the shortcat SS and press ENTER. You will see all the stations from USA and MEX which are tagged with the shortcat SS (in spite of the format listed).
NOTE: If you want to extend the USA SHORTCAT search to cover the full MW (ie. list all stations in the selected state or list all stations that are affiliates in the selected network), you must use the DATABASE BAR: SHOW MW ... FIND TEXT using the SHORTCAT as the text input.
USA shortcats will support "clues what you hear on the frequency": if you hear "Relevant Radio", you can use the shortcat RELR; if you hear something related to Fox ("Fox Sports" or "Fox News"), you can use the shortcat FOX; if you hear a familiar song or a slogan containing the word "Hits", you can use the shortcat HITS; if you find programming with Christian content, you can use the shortcat REL, etc.
Talk-oriented stations are difficult to categorize, and there is no sense to copy the "FORMAT" column here so there are no shortcats as NWS or TLK. Instead, you may try to type in what you hear: at the moment, there are shortcats such as RER ("Red Eye Radio" affiliates) and C2C ("Coast-to-Coast" affiliates), later probably more.
The currently available "USA SHORTCATS" are as follows:
HITS - stations playing "hits"
OLD - stations playing "oldies" (well, they are "HITS" too)
CW - stations with C&W orientation
NOS - stations with nostalgia / adult standards orientation
SS - spanish speaking stations in USA and Mexico
MEX - Mexican stations
CBC - Canadian CBC stations
REL - religiously oriented stations
RELR - Relevant Radio affiliates
NPR - National Public Radio affiliates
EWTN - EWTN affiliates
ETN - Multicultural ("ethnic") stations: programming language being something else than Spanish or English
FOX - Stations carrying Fox News or Fox Sports programming
ESPN - ESPN affiliates
BIZ - stations with "business talk" orientation
RER - Red Eye Radio affililiates
C2C - Coast-to-Coast affiliates
CC - Coast-to-Coast affiliates (just a faster shortcat for Coast-to-Coast)
This service can never be perfect, and anyone can say that "no, this is not correct", and he/she is absolutely right: it is very easy to find an exception. For example, the MWLI database lists 71 hits for Red Eye Radio, but the Red Eye Radio web site lists 141 affiliates. We have included those 141 stations even though there seems to be stations which are no more RER affiliates. The same with C2C: there are 415 C2C affiliates on their website but even that is not correct (for example, one station listed as a C2C affiliate has moved to Spanish back in 2019).
However, this feature may be helpful if you just want to make a quick check for "potential hits" on a U.S. frequency based on what you hear. It does not take much time to try. And if there happens to be only one hit for any U.S. shortcat on the currently-playing frequency, JAGUAR at least will show it clearly enough. For example, if you happen to hear NPR on AM 1400, type it in and see what you will get: