As a DXBase user on the topbands I find it necessary to go into USER OPTIONS twice daily to set up my alerts. In the evening about 22:00z I have to go in and put a check mark by 30CW, 40CW, 40SSB, 80CW, 80SSB, 160CW and 160SSB. That is seven check marks in the evening. The following morning I have to go into USER OPTIONS and uncheck all seven.
Granted I could make my cluster options to avoid all but North America but after 7:30am local time I would still get spots for 5's, 6's, 7's and 0's which would do me no good as propagation here has long gone if we even have any. I have one of two suggestions. The first would require less code but not quite as simple to use. I suggest another box be put in User Options, Alerts labeled TOP BAND. If you click that option it automatically fills all seven, or those you have checked. If you uncheck it the check marks for all seven disappear. Using this technique would require only 2 checks a day versus 14. Also using this technique a ICON could be placed on the toolbar to turn TOP BAND on or off. The second method would require more code but certainly MUCH better. With this suggestion Jack could use the PC clock. Let's say for example you put two boxes in the User Alert box labeled TIME ON and TIME OFF. The user puts in the TIME OFF box a time of 12:00z and TIME ON box he puts in 22:00z. When the PC clock equals 12:00z DXBase would automatically uncheck all seven boxes. When the PC clock equals 22:00z DXBase would automatically check all seven boxes, or those you have checked. If for example you only have 40SSB, 80SSB and 160SSB checked then the DXBase would set those three based on the PC Clock. There are times when us old folks forget to put in the checks each evening and along comes a new one and guess what ? No alert and you miss one. Worse yet you forget to uncheck them in the morning and about 8:30, long after sunrise, you get a alert and run in the shack only to find out it was on 160 and you had forgot to uncheck the alerts on TOP BAND. :( :( Using one of these two methods, especially the last, would eliminate this problem. Am I way off base with this one ???
