[KCDXC] A Universal Translator for DXers
W0WOI at aol.com
W0WOI at aol.com
Sat Aug 28 14:17:27 EDT 2010
PERHAPS USEFUL
____________________________________
From: k0rc at citlink.net
To: tcdxa-list at tcdxa.org
Sent: 8/28/2010 10:11:02 A.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: [TCDXA-list] Fw: [DX-IS] A Universal Translator for DXers
CQ DX...
Operators not familiar with the DXLab Suite program might be interested in
this language feature that was recently added.
73 de Bob - KØRC in MN
----- Original Message -----
From: _aa6yq_ (mailto:aa6yq at ambersoft.com)
To: _DX-IS at yahoogroups.com_ (mailto:DX-IS at yahoogroups.com)
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2010 10:01 PM
Subject: [DX-IS] A Universal Translator for DXers
If you've read the "Special Language Techniques" chapter of W9KNI's
excellent "The Complete Dxer", you know that being able to understand and speak
"QSO French" or "QSO Swahili" can make a big difference in your quest to
work an all-time new one. Including a "mon ami" or "shukran" in a CW or RTTY
QSO makes it more memorable for your QSO partner. Between ~20 years of
international business activities and DXing, I can say something appropriate and
timely in maybe 10 languages, but this is a small fraction of the
languages in use by "the DX". What I've long contemplated is a "Universal
Translator" for DXers.
If you can type quickly under pressure and have a fast, reliable internet
connection, Google's Translation page can approximate this function.
However, many of its translations aren't exactly correct; when you discover that
"my report" in Italian is "il mio rapporto" rather than "la mia relazione",
there's no way to update Google to display the correct translation next
time. What's needed is a translation capability that can be populated with
DX-oriented phrases and quickly updated.
DXView is a component of the free-ware DXLab Suite. DXView's role in life
is to show you everything that can be determined from a callsign – it's
DXCC entity, location, CQ zone, ITU zone, IOTA tag, shortpath and longpath
headings, LotW participation and last upload date, eQSL AG registration, etc.
DXView automatically interoperates with whatever other members of the DXLab
Suite are running on your PC, so double-clicking a spotted callsign will
cause DXView to display that callsign's information, as will double-clicking
a decoded PSK or RTTY callsign.
DXView accomplishes this by searching a set of databases that it installs
and maintains on your PC: a DXCC database that relates prefixes to entities
and regions, a USAP database that knows the State and zipcode-based
location of every callsign issued by the US FCC, an IOTA database containing all
IOTA tags, an LotW database augmented with "last upload date" information
obtained weekly from the ARRL, and an eQSL AG database that's also updated
weekly. Because some of these databases are so frequently updated, the
process of downloading and updating a database has been automated to the point
of requiring only a few mouse clicks.
I have extended DXView to serve as a Universal Translator by equipping it
with a Translation database that knows ~50 DXing words and phrases in 68
languages. Type in or double-click a callsign, and DXView's Translation
window will display the words and phrases you employ most frequently in each of
the languages used in that callsign's DXCC entity. Here's what my
Translation window looks like after activating a Vatican callsign:
_http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxview/English-Vatican.jpg_
(http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxview/English-Vatican.jpg)
This capability isn't designed exclusively for English speakers; you can
select any of the supported 68 languages as your native language. Here's
what a Japanese Dxer working a Vatican operator might see:
_http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxview/Japanese-Vatican.jpg_
(http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxview/Japanese-Vatican.jpg)
If more than one language is in use in the DX station's DXCC entity,
multiple translations are shown; here's what a Norwegian DXer working a station
in Cameroon might see:
_http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxview/Norwegian-Cameroon.jpg_
(http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxview/Norwegian-Cameroon.jpg)
There are plenty of holes in the Translation database -- the words "one"
through "ten' in Urdu are missing, for example – but the user community is
helping to both fill in the holes and improve the translations; DXView's
"Universal Translator" feature isn't a week old yet, and there have already
been two updates to the Translation database. There's some up-front setup
involved: 50 words and phrases take up lots of space, so you'll want to
arrange their order so that the ones you expect to reference frequently can be
seen without scrolling. I expect the Translation window's user interface to
evolve based on user feedback – just like most every other capability in
DXLab.
While DXView is a component of the DXLab Suite, it can be used as a
standalone application alongside whatever station automation software you prefer.
It's free, and available via
www.dxlabsuite.com
Documentation for this feature can be found by viewing
<_http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxview/Help/Operation.htm#Displaying_
(http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxview/Help/Operation.htm#Displaying) translations of
amateur radio phrases>
or by clicking one of DXView's Help buttons.
Dobar DX!
73,
Dave, AA6YQ
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