Contents - Index

Contest Radar: 72 Hrs

The 'Plot > Contest Radar: 72 Hrs' menu-subitem lets you plot a list of station-locations as listed on ContestRadar.com (Link will open in your Browser) that have been posted during the last 72 hours. This website, developed by Lou (VK3ALB) and Andrew (VK3MIX), allows operators to create a real-time listing of station positions that are being used in a contest or field-day event. The lists are cleared after a specified time, meaning that you will never be left with a list of old and stale operator positions.


How do I post a listing on Contest Radar?
Enter your station-details using the form provided on ContestRadar.com (Link will open in your Browser) by adding your callsign (inc. prefix /M /P /VK0), your 4, 6 or 8 character grid square, and a brief comment about your station less than 72 hours before the end of event. Comments are optional.


Viewing the entries on Contest Radar
You can download a Google Earth KML file or see the results on Google Maps from the ContestRadar.com (Link will open in your Browser) website, but it is more convenient to view the listings from within the VK Callbook Mapper programme, which gives you a choice of different ways to display the data on the Online and Overlay maps.

Swapping to the Tables tab shows the file-contents, including the Comments added by each station. Latitude and Longitude columns are added by the programme: their values calculated from the center-position of the supplied Grid Locator.

An extra feature, not available on the website, is the ability to perform Spatial Queries on the listings. Both 'User' and 'Row' Spatial Queries are available. Right-click a line, and choose which one you want from the context-menu. A 'User Spatial Query' will order the table by distance from your QTH's latitude and longitude position, assuming that you have entered one in 'Help > Options > Mapping > User Details'. A 'Row Spatial Query' will order the table by distance from the position of the line that you right-clicked on.

Two new columns will be added to the table: 'Distance' (in your unit of choice) and 'Bearing'. You can thus see how far the other stations are from you, or from that line, and what direction you should be pointing a beam to talk to them. Click a column-header to sort the table by that column's values.

You can also copy any line for external use by right-clicking a line and choosing 'Copy to Clipboard' from the context-menu. The relevant line is then copied to the system-clipboard, and you can utilise the data by Pasting in 'All Programs > Accessories > Notepad' or any other programme that accepts copied text.


Saving the Contest Radar Table
To save the table for future use, click 'Export > Export Table to CSV File'.


Re-loading an Exported Contest Radar File
As well as viewing an Exported Contest Radar file in an external viewer, you can also reload it into this programme, list it in the Tables tab-page, and plot the callsigns on the Online and Overlay maps. To reload an exported file, click 'Plot > Load Contest Radar File'. You can then perform Spatial Queries on each entry as detailed above.
NB: this command will only load files previously exported by this programme. It will not load a CSV file downloaded by hand from the Contest Radar website.