Callsign List with Categories
This command will plot the contents of a list of US or Canadian callsigns as Box Markers on the NAOMI maps, as long as those callsigns can be found in the FCC or ISED databases. This command is similar to the 'Callsign List with Icon Markers', but is more suited to plotting large lists of callsigns, where large Icon Markers would tend to overfill the page. More importantly, this command will plot a list of callsigns that have optional categories. Each category can be assigned a separate color. There can be 16 different categories. You can choose which category is plotted, whilst loading the list.
So, lets talk about the list that this command will accept. The list, which can have any filename or suffix, should contain 1 or more lines. Each line, in its simplest form, should contain one US or Canadian callsign, like this:
K8BL
N6EE
W6CS
WX0B
To add categories, use a '|' pipe-character after the callsign, and then add the category:
K8BL|SOHP
N6EE|QRP
W6CS|MSHP
WX0B|SOHP
or perhaps:
K8BL|10m
N6EE|160m
W6CS|20m
WX0B|20m
or even:
K8BL|10m|HP
N6EE|160m|LP
W6CS|20m|LP
WX0B|20m|HP
It really doesn't matter what you put after the first '|' pipe-character: it will be treated as a category, and a list of all unique categories will be created. I recommend you keep each line-length to a maximum of 20 characters, as the entire line, with '|' pipe-characters converted to spaces, will be used as the box-marker pop-up label.
If you have not got an item to test the List Plot commands with, you can use the Samples provided.
What are Box Markers?
Box Markers are small colored squares. There are 16 of them. You can set the size from 4 to 12 pixels. You can set a different color for each. To do this, click 'Config > Set Program Options', and when that window opens, go to the 'Markers 3' tab.
When you click the 'Callsign List with Categories' command, you will be taken to a navigation-page where you select the file that you want to plot. Then comes the fun part: a window opens that shows the lines in the file, and the number of unique categories that it has found, up to a limit of 16. The categories are listed below, and next to each is a checkbox. You should check each category that you want to plot. This means that you can use the same list to create a number of different maps showing just one, or more, or all categories.
In addition, there are two radio buttons. With them, you can choose either of these options:
(a) All categories that you have checked will be plotted in one color. The color used is the 'Box Marker 00' color that you can see by clicking 'Config > Set Program Options > Markers 3'.
(b) Each category, up to 16, will use an individual color. The colors used can be seen by clicking 'Config > Set Program Options > Markers 3'. If there are more than 16 categories, they will just repeat the 16 colors.
Click the 'OK' button when you have made your selection, and the plotting process will start. The list of entries, with their assigned positions, can be seen in the 'Tables' tab-page. The box markers will be plotted on the four maps. Hovering over a marker on the Overlay, Online, or World maps will show a pop-up label that contains the entire line, with '|' pipe-characters converted to spaces. Right-click the marker for more commands.