RadioMax - Scanning and Speech

by Mike Agner, KA3JJZ

Not long ago, I got involved in a fairly large monitoring project involving researching a hundred or more frequencies heard in the area of Southern Maryland. Given that my BC895 scans rather quickly, it seemed a natural choice for the project - but I didn't have any software that I could easily use to program that many frequencies.

Enter RadioMax. It was advertised as being 'fast', supporting several different brands of radios and had what looked like some fairly innovative recording features. So I downloaded it, and have been playing around with it for several months now.

Installation
Once I downloaded the demo version of the software from the Data Delivery Devices website, I unloaded and installed it on a Celeron-powered 500 MHz PC with 64 MB RAM using Win 98 SE. The first thing you notice, apart from a few DLL files that are installed, is that you get numerous files with a .fss extension. These are frequency files RadioMax can use for scanning. You also get a bunch of .wav files - I don't want to give anything away just yet, but these files are necessary for a very unique function of this program. You might be tempted to delete them - but don't, at least just yet. There is a manual, and it's supplied in both PDF and text formats.

Setup
OK, I admit it, I like to throw new software on the PC and just let it fly, just to see what it does. Dangerous, yes, but sometimes it brings out some very interesting results.

Unlike many programs, RadioMax first requires you to configure the serial port. You can get to this screen by selecting 'configure' and selecting 'serial port' from the pull down menu [Figure 1]. This is one of the very few programs I have tested so far that require you to know something about the scanner and the type of handshaking it requires. Figure 2 shows the selections that I found worked for the 895. Note that the baud rate should be set to the highest one the scanner can handle - in my case, 9600 baud. I had to fool around with the various squelch detect options to see which one worked.

Next, you need to select the radio. You can do this from the 'configure' pull down, then select 'radio type'. Fortunately, the 895 does not require any special addressing, so the selection in Figure 3 works just fine. If you use an Icom radio, be sure to read Appendix D in the manual for addresses to be applied.

It's time to create a file from the frequencies already in the radio. To do this, use the 'Edit' menu, and select 'Upload/Download' from the pull down [Figure 4]. After the usual warning about overwriting frequencies, you're brought to Figure 5. Here, you can tell RadioMax just how many memories to download - this is handy, especially if you are using a 895, where a bank can be trunked or not. Once the download is complete, use the 'File' menu, 'Save all channels as' to save your frequencies away [Figure 6].

You would think you were all set to go...

Whoops
To begin scanning, you only need to press the 'Pause' key [Figure 7]. But when I did that, the 895 was scanning all right, but much too fast. It would hear a signal, but never stop to listen and lock on.

As it turns out, there's yet another parameter you must set up. Select 'Scan settings' and 'Timers' from the pull down menu [Figure 8]. Here, you can set up how much time you want RadioMax to spend on a signal, but of most importance here, you must know something very technical about the radio - just how much time is required for it to lock onto a signal (Scan Speed). I had to play around with the settings a great deal before I could get it to work reliably - Figure 9 shows the final results.

The Channel Editor
Before we start talking about the various operations available during scanning, 2 kinds of editors need to be introduced. The channel editor can be accessed from the Edit menu; select 'edit channels' and Figure 10 pops up. You can also access it by right clicking on any channel in the main screen. From here, you can add, delete or modify the channels in the file.

In the upper left, you can see a box to turn on a tape recorder (which RadioMax can control via a serial connection), or to lock out a channel. There's a bar that allows you to skip up or down the file (the green arrows in the middle accomplish the same thing). The white area is an area in which you can key in comments; it's pretty much a free form line, except when RadioMax adds a date/time stamp - all the comments would follow this data (there is an exception, which we'll mention later). A hit counter (which is used in several functions) is on the right, next to a box called 'alarm'.

Among the files unloaded with RadioMax's download are 10 wave files that are labeled alarm0 thru alarm9. You can cause an alarm to play when this channel becomes active.

The Global Editor
The global editor can be accessed from the 'Edit' menu; select the 'global editor' from the pull down menu. You get a warning about changing all the contents of a file, then it pops up Figure 11. There's quite a list of items you can choose (changing all the modes in a file for example), and the manual goes through this rather well. I did find one thing very confusing, though. In several cases, there's a 'dont change' option, along with 'yes' or 'no'. To me this seems a bit unclear and illogical; doesn't 'no' imply 'dont change'?

When I wrote Alistair Smith (the author of this program) about this, he replied:

'No' does not mean 'dont change'. There are three possibilities, 1. every channel may be left as is (some may already be set to yes, some already set to no), 2. every channel may be set to yes, 3. every channel may be set to no.

Importing
RadioMax can import several different file formats- perhaps the most useful are those used by Percon and standard ASCII files [Figure 6]. I found that just using a file of frequencies with no other data is about as simple as you can get. Let RadioMax do the work of writing the rest of the data it needs.

Scanning, Logs and Locking
RadioMax has 2 states - 'scanning' and 'paused'. Figure 7 shows that RadioMax is basically in a manual mode, sitting on a frequency - this is 'paused'. The 'scanning' function is enabled simply by hitting the 'Pause' key (at the bottom center of the screen) or hitting the space bar. The direction of the scan - either up or down the file - can be changed by hitting the left/right arrows on the keyboard, or hitting the desired arrow found on the bottom of the screen. As you can see, several operations can either be keyboard driven, or driven from the controls on the screen.

You will notice that there are 2 screen areas - the upper area is for a running log, the other is a graphical interface that shows the number of hits. The scale for the graph can easily be changed by hitting the up or down arrow on the keyboard.

Pay close attention to the running log; it only stores about 100 or so entries before the oldest entries scroll off the screen and will not be retrieved. The color will change when the number of hits exceed the autolock trigger level [Figure 12]. You can set this trigger level by hitting 'scan settings' then 'miscellaneous' from the pull down bar. This could be very useful in determining active/inactive channels.

I mentioned that the log can only hold so many entries, and that the oldest entries will disappear after a while. How can you get that information? Well, you can set up a history file. Referring back to Figure 7 for a moment, press the button labeled 'hist file'. You will then be brought to a file menu like that found in Figure 13. Give the file a name (you must supply the .hst extension) and from that point on, RadioMax will give you a running summary of entries of everything that had hits during your session. You can simply hit the 'hist file' button again to shut that option off. Figure 14 gives you an example of what the history file looks like.

It should be noted that the logs, as well as the .fss files, are basically text files; as such, they are compatible with most word processors, or if small enough, even Notepad will work. They all use the same layout, which is described in great detail in the manual. Additionally, you can resort the data in various combinations, as shown in Figure 15.

Once you have a log, perhaps you would like to remove all those frequencies that didn't get a hit. This would improve your scan speed somewhat; that's a particular bonus for those using Icom radios, which are rather famous for scanning slowly. You could use your favorite editor to cut/paste the offending entries, but RadioMax has a rather unique alternative. Under the 'file' menu, there's a selection for saving all channels with hits. What this does is it takes a log or .fss file and removes those entries that have nothing in the hit counter, all in one fell swoop. This is a rather neat application that could save some time and aggravation.

The 'Autolog' function is something of a misnomer - all it really does is record the date/time of the activity dependent on the setting. When 'first' is selected, the information is only recorded on the first hit; from that point on, all other activity will not be logged. 'Last' will log the *last* hit in a session for that channel. It will try to put the data into the comment area, and it has some intelligence about where in that area to put it. The manual explains this rather nicely.

Now at some point and time, you might want to lock out a channel from scanning. You can pause the scan and use the channel editor, or you can use the 'lock' button (found on Figure 7 in the lower left corner). But there are additional tools for locking a channel. You can, for example, hit the 'L' key on the keyboard. In addition, if the 'autolock' button is turned on, the number of hits on a channel will be compared to the autolock trigger level [Figure 12]; when it exceeds this level, the channel will be locked out. It might be useful for temporarily locking out birdies or other intermod that you really don't want to hear; but I notice that it's a global command, and can't be set by channel. So use this function with some care. You can use the Global Editor to reset any channels that were locked out in this way.

You can also control the amount of time RadioMax stays on a channel and how long it stays after the carrier is lost. Use the settings found on the timers menu [Figure 9] - but be careful, as the 2 controls (After Signal Loss and Maximum Delay Time) work in tandem with one another. By the way, this box can also be accessed by hitting the 'Timers' box in the bottom right part of the screen [Figure 7].

There are times when you may want to use more channels than are available in your radio; a special airshow, a Presidential visit, ect. You need a way to define more frequencies than you could otherwise hold. RadioMax has a function called 'multi file scan', where multiple .fss files are temporarily linked together and scanned as 1 during that session. Each .fss file can hold up to 5000 frequencies per file. It does not matter how many freqencies the radio can hold. Multifile scanning allows up to 100 FSS files to be linked, so 500,000 unique frequencies may be scanned in order.

To begin, press the 'multi file' button on the left. Then, from the File menu, select 'multi file scan list'. You will then be taken to a screen [Figure 16] where you can select and deselect the files you wish to scan, in any order you wish. Once you're done, save your selections, and away you go.

One bug that I found is that RadioMax remembers the last file you used in a previous multi file session; so, for the first cycle, it scans this file (whether you wanted it or not) before moving on to whatever was selected. It works reliably from that point on.

Recording
There are 2 different kinds of recording RadioMax can do. Before you do anything, though, you need to configure the sound card for the correct option. Select 'config' then 'sound card options' [Figure 18]. Make sure the audio recording option is checked.

You also need to be aware of a couple of things. RadioMax always names the recorded files 'MAXnnnn.wav', where the nnnn is a number beginning with 1. You cannot change the n aname here (although you can do it using Explorer once the file is released), and the file name is not captured if you are writing a history file. You *must* write these names down seperatly, and as we'll see, it complicates the recording process.

The first type of recording is referred to as manual recording. Press the 'manual wave' button on the upper right while the program is paused on a channel, and RadioMax will record all the audio. It also records dead air, so a 1 hour recording on a frequency that's not very active will result in lots of boredom. You will notice that the file name also shows up next to the button as a handy reminder of the file name.

The other type of recording is 'auto recording'. This allows you to mark several channels for recording at one time. To enable this function, you must first bring up the channel editor and check the rather oddly named 'run tape recorder' box [Figure 10]. (By the way, this function can also control any other device - an alarm, or a tape recorder - which is why this box has this name.) Then click on the 'auto wave' button; the value next to it changes to 'auto'. Now anytime activity is detected on the channels you've selected, a wave file is recorded [Figure 17].

This has the unfortunate side effect of having multiple wave files for the same frequency. If the log in the screen gets too big, the cross reference between file name and frequency is lost. Thus, I'd recommend using this function only when you have a couple of frequencies you are trying to track.

There are some limited playback functions. A single left click while pointing to the file name will play it back; a double right click deletes it. There's no controls for pausing or rewinding, and I found myself wishing for it time and again, especially when trying to listen for a 25 wpm CW ID.

Speech Synthesis Functions
Of all the programs I've reviewed, this is the only one that can actually say the date/time of the activity and/or actually speak the frequency. There's a few things to set up before this can happen.

First, return to the configuration menu and select sound card options [Figure 18]. Make sure the speech generation selection is checked. When you do this, the option labeled 'speech configuration' which is normally greyed out will become visible.

Click on this, and you get a screen that allows you to select a male, female or a custom voice [Figure 19]. The custom voice would be any voice you could record that would copy the speech the wave files produce. Choose the one that best suits you.

Once these steps are complete, notice the 2 boxes in the upper right hand corner of the main screen. They've changed to 'freq' and 'time' [Figure 20]. These values will change dependent on what you select to be spoken by the program.

Finally, you need to select the channels that will be announced. You can announce the frequency, the date/time stamp, or both. Bring up the channel editor; the selections you need are 'say freq' or 'say time' [Figure 21]. As you can see in the example, I've chosen to announce the frequency.

What will now happen is that anytime activity is detected on this channel, RadioMax will spell out the frequency. For example, in my case, it will quite literally say 'four five two point five five'. Keep in mind that if you decide to record a custom voice, it must speak the digits and decimal clearly. This is what many of those wave files that I alluded to in tbe beginning are used for!

This has enormous advantages for those that are sight-challenged. The ability to speak the date, time and frequency, along with being able to change the indexing of the graph by the up/down arrows on the keyboard, are a very big first step for these people.

The Bug Report
The program itself is very stable; throughout many months of fooling around with the various settings, it didn't crash at all. However, RadioMax is showing its age. For example, you are limited in naming your files - you can use filenames only up to 8 characters (shades of early Win95). There were a couple of instances - creating a history file, for example - where the file name extension (.hst in this case) wasn't added when the file was created; so when it was finally located, there was no valid file type, and thus no way to create an association to have an application load it automatically. You had to go into Windows Explorer to rename it.

The numerous .fss frequency files are outdated and a bit too regional. In fact, there were files for cellular and cordless phones, both illegal to monitor (and nowadays, the way most scanners are set up, not possible anyway). The AIRINC (notice the spelling) file is also a bit too regional - a much better approach is to just supply 1 or 2 examples. In addition, with the availability of email lists and file areas that are associated with them (such as that found with Yahoo Groups), .fss files could be easily shared between users.

The wave recording routines could use some work. Manual recording shouldn't record dead air; it simply eats up way too much time and space. In addition, the naming convention is clumsy and confusing; unless you write down each name, if you have numerous wave files for a given session, it becomes impossible to associate a wave file with a frequency.

The logging and recording functions should be more tightly integrated. Since you lose entries if a session goes on too long, the clumsy wave file names lose all their meaning. It would be much more helpful if the wave and frequency logs were recorded in the same file at the same time.

Perhaps the most serious problem is the setup routines. There are just too many hooks that aren't mentioned in the manual. Having to set the 'Scan Speed' in the timings section would present a major obstacle, particularly to first time users, or those that are sight challenged. This is a setting that should be hard coded for each radio supported.

When I wrote Alistair about this, he replied:

Many users want to continually adjust the scan speed depending on what they listen to. Most radio squelch times vary greatly depending on the mode used, eg, FMn, FMW and AM squelch times are completely different on many Icom radios. Hard coding at it at a very slow rate to work in all modes would prevent fast scanning in other modes.

Some intelligence is badly needed in the setup routines to grey out or otherwise disable options that a receiver does or does not support. For example, in the channel editor, the 895 does not support RTTY or CW; so these options should be removed/disabled.

A little logic in some of the options wouldn't hurt, either. The multi file scanning list selection shouldn't be available unless the 'multi file' button is pressed first. In other words, the file selection should be greyed out until the mode is available.

Finally, a context sensitive help would be a major plus. A program like this one, with its many modes and operations, is complex to set up, so having this available would make working with this program a whole lot easier. There are various tips shown on the bottom line for several functions, but sometimes it's just not enough. The manual is not as complete or as well indexed as it should be.

And the Final Word
On the plus side, RadioMax does have a flexible set of logging tools; there are several sort sequences, and scanning functions work well. Wave file recording works, though as was noted above, there are some rather serious limitations to it. The speech synthesis module works quite well, and if not for the clumsy and confusing setup procedures, those that are sight-challenged would find RadioMax very nearly invaluable. In addition, RadioMax supports a wide range of radios (though an update for the new Uniden models would be most welcome). If you happen to own more than 1 radio that RadioMax supports, the actual price versus usage comes down considerably.

With that said, the software does what it claims to. The author is very responsive to questions (a big plus), but has said in some correspondence that he currently has no time to update the program. That's a real shame, because this program could easily fill a niche that has been too long ignored by software developers.

If you're interested in trying out this software, you can get it here: RadioMax web site

Mike Agner, KA3JJZ
ka3jjz@erols.com