The program AnswerThat can be downloaded from http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~crac and the file is called - AnswerthatInstall30july03.zip - which is a full install file Also download any update for AnswerThat - eg AnsUpdate(month-date) These are just updates to the .exe file These update files are will be placed on the site when available as changes to the system are happening quite often as we find new things to do Run the Full Install and it will put the programme on your computer - then if you have downloaded an Update just unzip it to the AnswerThat directory to replace the old .exe file Also read any additional notes that may be in the zip file AnswerThat by VK3DNH ---------------------------------------- Original Program ------------------------------- This program was written for those times you cannot be there for your regular sked You can leave a message for a specific station which he can receive from the OUTBOX Also he can leave a message or messages for you in the INBOX Another feature is that at any time you can click the record button - enter a letter or a file name and record instantly any signal on your radio either so you can play it back to a station wishing a report or to record an unusual or illegal transmission. However the program has grown and can now be associated with MixW and SstvPalMultimode to remotely activate other modes for transmission and message purposes. System Requirements for the basic message system --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The program should run on ALL W95 upward systems that have a sound card and will be able to activate all facilities of a station in STBY mode There is a windows 98 ( Me ) user function to be selected by right clicking the Help Button. The windows 98 user is able to run in STBY voice mode but because of the inability to share the sound card they will be unable to be changed to program association with Mixw or SstvPalMultimode while in STBY. PLEASE READ ALL THESE NOTES AS WELL AS THE HELP FILE - HIDDEN FUNCTIONS WILL NOT WILL NOT BE FOUND IF YOU DONT READ AND UNDERSTAND ALL OF THE HELP FILES AND NOTES AnswerThat - BY Chris VK3DNH crac@iinet.net.au .wav files that YOU can make for your system All of these files must be placed in the AnswerThat root directory how ever premade files are available in the full install ANS.wav .........eg "Hello you have activated the (yourcall) message system, please continue" ID.wav .........eg "(yourcall)" LMESS .........eg " your message will be limited to 45 seconds please speak normally into your radio microphone after the tone (beeeeeep)" RESET.wav..........eg " The system was activated but no further relevant information was recieved the system will reset try again thank you" RMESS.wav..........eg " Your message has been recieved and recorded thank you" SMESS.wav..........eg " Sorry , there are no messages for you in the outbox or your call was recieved incorrectly" !!!!!!!! Important!!!! this file is only to be used if your computer does not support Text to VOICE. MT.wav.............eg " Hello you have activated the (yourcall) MT63 message system an mt63 transmission will follow this announcement" MULTI.wav..........eg " A transmission using SSTVPALMULTIMODE will follow this announcement" CMODE.wav..........eg " Changing to SSTVPALMULTIMODE" MMODE.wav..........eg " Changing to MixW mode" VMODE.wav..........eg " Changing to Voice mode F4.wav.............eg " Changing to MixW MT63 MODE " F6.wav............ eg " Changing to MixW MFSK MODE " F7.wav...... .. eg " Changing to MixW SSTV MODE " F6A.wav ......... eg " Hello you have activated the (yourcall) MFSK message system a MFSK MODE transmission will follow this announcement" F7A.wav ..... eg. " Hello you have activated the (yourcall) SSTV message system a SSTV MODE transmission will follow this announcement" ER.wav............eg " your mail has been removed " PAL3.wav........eg " changing to analogue mode " PAL4.wav........eg " changing to digital mode " ANA.wav.........eg " you have activated the (yourcall) message system currently in SsstvPalMultimode an analogue picture will follow this announcement" Dig.wav............eg " you have activated the (yourcall) message system currently in SsstvPalMultimode a digital picture will follow this announcement" eg .................MXA.wav " MIXW AVAILABLE" eg .................MUA.wav " SSTVPALMULTIMODE AVAILABLE" eg .................MXMUA.wav " MIXW AND SSTVPALMULTIMODE AVAILABLE" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REQUIREMENTS FOR STBY STATION WITH PROGRAM ASSOC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO SHARE SOUND CARD ( XP OR 2000 ) 2. YOU WILL NEED TO HAVE MIXW AND OR SSTVPALMULTIMODE ( WITH LOCK TICKED AND A PIC IN THE TX SCREEN EITHER ANALOGUE OR DIGITAL) ON THE DESKTOP AT THE SAME TIME AS ANSWERTHAT. To operate this system in STBY you will need two comm ports - or MAYBE one comm port and Vox or maybe even only Vox if you can get it all set up correctly With two comm ports you can use one for MixW (or Cat/Ptt) and the other for AnswerThat and SSTVPALMULTIMODE - PROVIDING you setup as follows Take the tick from EXCLUSIVE LOCK from the checkbox in both AnswerThat and SSTVPALMULTIMODE - this will then allow both programmes to share the comm port as they both use the same engine 3. STBY BUTTON RED REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CALLING STATION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL USERS OF ANSWERTHAT CAN WORK THE STBY STATION AND ALL FACILITIES SHOULD BE AVAILABLE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROCEDURE REMOTELY CHANGE PROGRAM ASSOCIATION OF THE STBY STATION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOU CALL THE STBY STATION BY CLICKING ON THE 'REMOTE CALL' BUTTON ENTER THE STATIONS CALL SIGN AND CLICK OK . THE STBY STATION WILL REPLY AS NORMAL eg "Hello you have activated the vk3dnh message system please continue" AT THIS STAGE YOU COULD ASK FOR 'MYMAIL' OR 'LEAVMESS' BUT NOW YOU CAN ALSO DECIDE ON A DIFFERENT MODE BY CLICKING THE REMOTE CALL BUTTON AGAIN AND ENTERING A NUMBER 1, 2, OR 3 AND CLICKING OK AND SENDING THE NUMBER (you have about 7 or 8 seconds or you will have to wait for the system to reset) WHEN THE STBY STATION RECEIVES THE NUMBER IT ANSWER SAYING FOR NUMBER 1 "changing to voice mode" FOR NUMBER 2 "changing to mixw mode" FOR NUMBER 3 "changing to sstv mode" AFTER YOU HEAR THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE CHANGE YOU THEN HAVE TO TONECALL WITH THE APPROPRIATE TONE FOR THE MODE. YOU DO THIS BY CHOOSING THE MODE BY RESETING YOUR ANSWERTHAT TO THE SAME MODE AS THE STBY STATION. THE SIMPLEST WAY TO DO THIS IS IF YOU WANT TO GET A PICTURE FROM THE STBY STATION MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN SSTVMODE AND CALL REMOTE FROM THAT MODE AND THE TONE WILL ALREADY BE READY FOR THE TONECALL. THE STBY STATION SHOULD THEN SEND THE TRANSMISSION YOU HAVE REQUESTED. SO CAN RECEIVE THE MODE AND YOU CAN ALSO LEAVE EITHER A DIGITAL MESSAGE OR SEND A PICTURE ON SSTV AS A MATTER OF COURTESY IT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED TO REMOTE CALL THE STATION AND LEAVE THEM IN THE MODE YOU FOUND THEM IN BY THE SAME PROCEDURE --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Update 27 july --------------------- Changes 1. After calling your mail by clicking MYMAIL if you type "X" in the CALL REMOTE and send within 30 seconds of the end of your mail has been played it will be erased from the outbox and the STBY station will know that you have heard and removed your message from the OUTBOX 2. Now when you remotely change a STBY to MIXW mode by Call Remote selection ' 2 ' mode you can change modes by typing 4 or 6 or 7 in the Call Remote and clicking OK to operate MACROS F4 , F6 , F7 eg............F4 MT63 eg............F6 MFSK eg ...........F7 SSTV (analogue) You can use one mode and when you have finished then type one of the numbers (4,6,or7) in CALL REMOTE and try the next mode. Update 29 july 03 now once a station has been remotely called and placed in sstvpalmultimode you can send a remote call of 3 which changes sstvpalmultimode to analogue mode and a TONECALL will make it send a analogue picture 4 which changes sstvpalmultimode to digital and a TONECALL will make it send a digital picture This only works with SstvPalmultiMode 29 JULY03 VERSION and later which will be released soon.(next day or so) WAVS TO MAKE ER.wav............eg " your mail has been removed " PAL3.wav........eg " changing to analogue mode " PAL4.wav........eg " changing to digital mode " ANA.wav.........eg " you have activated the (yourcall) message system currently in SsstvPalMultimode an analogue picture will follow this announcement" Dig.wav............eg " you have activated the (yourcall) message system currently in SsstvPalMultimode a digital picture will follow this announcement" crac@iinet.net.au yes another update 06 AUG 03 when right clicking on the ToneCall button you used to have 3 choices type ' 1 ' put you in voice mode and the tone is 1375 and plays ID.wav if you are in STBY and pinged with 1375 tone type ' 2 ' put you in MIXW mode and the tone is 1300 and plays MT.wav if you are in STBY and pinged with 1300 tone type ' 3 ' put you in SSTVPALMULTIMODE and the tone is 2000 and plays MULTI.wav if you are in STBY and pinged with 2000 tone ( to USE MIXW OR SSTVPALMULTIMODE OR BOTH in STBY one or both progarms have to be set up and on the desk top running at the same time as Answerthat and OS XP) NOW YOU HAVE 3 EXTRA CHOICES type ' 12 " put you in voice mode and the tone is 1375 and plays ID.wav + MXA.wav if you are in STBY and pinged with 1375 tone (will show on MyMail) type ' 13 " put you in voice mode and the tone is 1375 and plays ID.wav + MUA.wav if you are in STBY and pinged with 1375 tone (will show on LeaveMESS) type ' 123 " put you in voice mode and the tone is 1375 and plays ID.wav + MXMUA.wav if you are in STBY and pinged with 1375 tone ALL THIS MEANS IS IF YOU TONE CALL A STBY STATION WITH A 1375 TONE THE STATION WILL TELL YOU IF ANY OTHER MODES (PROGRAM ASSOCIATIONS) ARE AVAILABLE. YOU WILL STILL HAVE TO CALLREMOTE THE STATION IN STBY WITH HIS OR HER CALLSIGN TO CHANGE THEM TO THAT MODE WAV FILES TO MAKE FOR ABOVE eg .................MXA.wav " MIXW AVAILABLE" eg .................MUA.wav " SSTVPALMULTIMODE AVAILABLE" eg .................MXMUA.wav " MIXW AND SSTVPALMULTIMODE AVAILABLE" Update 8 Aug 03 ----------------------- 1. Now if a station is in STBY and a remote station calls and changes the STBY station from Voice mode to MixW or SstvPalMultiMode a 1200 second time limit is set ( the time will count down where the Play button is and flash RED & YELLOW) and when that time elapses the STBY station will return to voice mode and announce the change. 2. TOOLTIPS have been added to STBY button , ToneCall button , spectrum scope and Help button by holding the mouse arrow on any of these 3 buttons 0r the spectrum scope a tool note will display. UPDATE 15 AUG 2003 ---------------------------------- Here is new Answerthat exe file to enable pictures to be loaded from the web cam to TX screen of SSTVPALMULTIMODE Load SSTVPALMULTIMODE and AnswerThat as normal - then in AnswerThat right click on the No 9 led which will bring up the camera - then right click on the extreme right led No 11 which will then update the picture on the TX screen every 20 seconds To have the program load a picture automatically when you start up the camera right click on the No 9 led THEN when your station is called into the Analogue mode and plays the wave file (PAL3.wav - Which says CHANGING TO ANALOGUE MODE) this will then start automatically updating the web cam pic to the TX screen every 20 seconds Now when you are pinged with a 2000hz tone by a remote station and your station goes to TX it will stop updating the pic to the clipboard and the picthat was current on the TX screen at that time will be transmitted To get the next picture from the web cam you must be called again with the 3 and play the PAL3.wav again to enable the picture loading process again You should put a picture on the TX screen before you start because it will send that picture if you turn the camera off. I do not know whether 98users will be able to use the web cam but of course 98 users will have to have Answerthat not in STBY mode to grab pictures to sstvpalmultimode for TX ing manually.Unfortunately 98 users cant share the sound card ALSO now if a remote station attempts to put you into a mode that you havent indicated is available by the appropriate selection in the TONE CALL eg............ 12 or 13 or 123 your station will tell the other station it is" not available" If a remote station puts you in Sstvpalmultimode and asks to change to digital mode and the web cam is running the remote station will be told " not available while camera is active" this requires 2 new wave files NA.wav....................eg " not currently available" NACAM.wav............eg " Digital not available while camera active" FOR those wishing to use the camera in conjunction with SstvPalMultimode (XP users) you are reminded it is purely experimental but a few things you might do to help are 1. in the sstvpalmultimode sstv config try ticking autostop,autorestart,autoresync, decode fskid, do not tick autoslant. 2. put the tick in the lock square on the program page (SSTVPALMULTIMODE) while using the camera and make sure you are in analog when you do it. At the moment the picture is updating every 20 seconds this is done to see what problems will occur and probably I might move that out to 30 seconds or more later on but just want to see what problems we run into at the moment and there will be problems. cheers Chris 19 AUG 03 ---------------------------------------------- yes another update I have made a couple of fixes that I hope will fix a couple of the probs 98 was suffering from ALSO 1. Now as you receive characters they will be displayed on the right hand side under the play button so you do not have to wait for the centre display to appear and you can see immediately if characters are missed. however if you are activated your last character will not appear until after your wave finishes playing. 2. Now when you call remote and change a station to voice, mixw or multimode you do not have to go to the tone call to set up the appropriate tone call (tone) it should do it automatically . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade 11 OCT 2003 VER A 60 for XP 1. Webcam is now activated by clicking with the left mouse button on the camera button on the right handside this should start up SstvPalMultimode , the web cam and put Answerthat in STBY voice mode (multimode available) . 2. other changes now if sstvpalmultimode is already on your screen the program will detect that the program is already running and continue instead of waiting on the error window 3 . 2 more wave files required for full use 1. ANACAM.wav.................eg " YOU HAVE ACTIVATED VK3DNH MESSAGE SYSTEM WEB CAM PICTURE TO FOLLOW" 2. MUACAM.wav.................eg " WEB CAM ACTIVE" ps this version has not been tested fully so there could be a few problems but seems ok this end . I am interested to see how it goes your end ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 OCT O3 UPDATE 1. MEMORIES INCLUDED FOR CALL REMOTE ACCESSED BY RIGHT MOUSE CLICK ON CALL REMOTE 2. QUICK ACCESS TO MODE SELECTION APPEARS AFTER CLICKING MEMORY CALL SIGN ALSO THE MIXW AND SSTVPALMULTIMODE QUICK SELECTION CAN BE RESET IF THE FIRST CALL IS MISSED BY RIGHT MOUSE CLICKING ON THE MIXW OR SSTVPALMULTIMODE BUTTON AND LEFT CLICK AGAIN. 3. NOW IF A STATION LEAVES A MESSAGE ON YOUR SYSTEM WHEN THEY ARE TOLD THAT THEIR MESSAGE HAS BEEN RECEIVED THEY WILL ALSO BE TOLD IF THEY HAVE A MESSAGE WAITING FOR THEM IN THE OUT BOX AND FOR THIS ANOTHER WAVE FILE IS REQUIRED OUTMESS.wav...............eg " THERE IS MAIL FOR YOU IN THE OUTBOX" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 OCT 03 update trying to make more user friendly 1. NOW IF A STATION LEAVES A MESSAGE ON YOUR SYSTEM WHEN THEY ARE TOLD THAT THEIR MESSAGE HAS BEEN RECEIVED THEY WILL ALSO BE TOLD IF THEY HAVE A MESSAGE WAITING FOR THEM IN THE OUT BOX AND now you can get your mail instantly by clicking MY MAIL NOW button then you can remove it by clicking REMOVE MESS or cancel by clicking CANCEL button these button appear automatically at the appropriate times ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 OCT 03 1. FIXED A NUMBER OF SMALL FAULTS WHERE BUTTONS WERE LEFT WITH THE WRONG CAPTIONS AND I HOPE I FIXED IT SO THAT IF YOU ARE PUT BACK TO VOICE MODE THAT THE RIGHT WAVE FILE IN RESPECT TO WHICH MODE YOU WERE IN ORIDGINALLY IN IS PLAYED. 2. FOR XP USERS NOW WHEN YOU CLICK ON THE MIXW OR THE SSTVPAL MULTIMODE BUTTON IT SHOULD START THE APPROPRAITE PROGRAM THEN WHEN YOU CLICK THE MT63 BUTTON IT SHOULD CHANGE MODES AT BOTH ENDS YOUR END AND THE REMOTE END THE SAME SHOULD HAPPEN WITH THE MFSK,SSTV,ANALOG AND DIGITAL BUTTONS. also I had some runtime error reports these errors occurred because the programs being called were in different directories with this version if it cant find the mixw and sstvpalmultimode programs it should ignore the error and continue . However if you are XP user and you wish to take advantage of the fully automatic proceedures your programs will have to be situated in the right directories C:\Program Files\SstvPalMultiMode\SstvPalMultiMode.exe C:\Program Files\MixW\MixW2.exe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 NOV 03 1. Now when you click CallRemote with either manual (lft mouse click) input or memories (rt mouse click) after the call is sent a window should appear (if not close memories window ) you are then given the choice of clicking Mixw or SSTVPALMULTIMODE if you click either of these after the remote station has been activated the remote station will change to that program or tell you it is not available. When you activated the Remote station will announce that the station is activated and also announce what program if any is available eg after the remote station is called the response should be similar to this " hello you have activated vk3dnh message system mixw available" or " hello you have activated vk3dnh message system sstvpalmultimode available" or " hello you have activated vk3dnh message system " Also you apart from the mode buttons there are 2 other buttons labelled Voice and Leave Mess on the mode selection window the voice button can only be used after you have changed the remote station to mixw or sstvpalmultimode then after you have finished with the remote station in either mixw or sstvpalmultimode you click the voice button and the remote station should reply " changing to voice mode" then you can click the leave mess button without having to re activate the remote station , however there is a timer so you have to send the leave mess call with in a few seconds of hearing " changing to voice mode" from the remote station. 2. Similarly now when you click on the tonecall button with the right hand mouse button you no longer have to enter numbers just make the button choice for cw id cwid+ voice mixw fixed mixw available sstvpalmultimode fixed sstvpalmultimode available or mixw & sstvpalmultimode available. This is to try to make it less confusing. 3. A number of small faults as far as announcement waves have been fixed ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ update 21 NOV 03 1. I have attempted to start the required programs more efficiently and the close downs now should close only the programs that should be close. 2. By clicking with right hand mouse button on the help button you can now tell the program the full directory path of mixw and sstvpalmultimode on your computer by using the browse window to highlight the directory which contains the EXE file you click ok the directory path the program will tell you if it can find it .You only have to do this once and the program will remember from then on -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 dec 03 now you can make sure your call has been received in full because the remote station will say " there is no mail for VK3 XYZ " and if received in correctly it might say " there is no mail for VK3 XZ " and you will know to try again because you now know the remote station missed getting the Y (VK3 XYZ stands for your call) it will still send the ID.wav and SMESS.wav as before if you wish to use speech recognition rename ID.wav to XID.wav and SMESS.wav to XSMESS.wav If you wish to use your own wave file just rename back to original name how ever the SMESS will NOT be able to identify the station the other station in voice . but will say there is no message for you or your call was received incorrectly IMPORTANT if your computer will not run TTS (text to speech)try down loading 2 files spchapi.exe and tv_enua.exe then run them on your computer if it still does not work please contact me and I will send you a text program to expose any problems ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contents of F4 F6 and F7 Macros FOR MixW (these macros should be default for all modes) Macros created by VK2DSG Les F4 macro --------------------------------------------------------------------- Call it ANSMT63