FREQUENCY MANAGER SUITE

Data Tools Wizard

User’s Guide
Copyright © 2021 Jeff Knapp N8GJL [email protected]

Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 1
System Requirements .............................................................................................................................................. 1
Change Log ............................................................................................................................................................... 2
Using Data Tools ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
The Data Tools Wizard ......................................................................................................................................... 3
Selecting a database action .............................................................................................................................. 3
Appendix .................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Generic File Import Fields and Data Types ........................................................................................................... 9
Troubleshooting ..................................................................................................................................................... 10
Error Messages ................................................................................................................................................... 10
Known Issues.......................................................................................................................................................... 11
Notices ................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Introduction
The FMSuite Data Tools Wizard (called DT in the rest of this guide) is a utility program designed to download
and import frequency databases for use within the Frequency Manager + Scanner (called FM in the rest of this
guide). It gives you a choice of importing several internet databases, importing the default SDR# Frequency
Manager’s database, importing a generic file, and exporting an FM database to a generic file.

System Requirements
Basically, if you can run SDR Sharp, you can use Data Tools.
• Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows 8.x, and Windows 10. The binaries are compiled for a 32-bit
environment for the broadest compatibility but run equally well in an x64 environment.
• Processor: 1-gigahertz processor or faster; 2 or more cores is recommended. Hyper-threading/multi-
threading should be enabled for the best performance. NOTE: SDR# and my plugins are feature-rich
multi-threaded applications, which means they perform multiple tasks simultaneously. The more
threads your processor supports, the better SDR# and FMSuite will run.
• Memory: 1 gigabyte or more total in the computer.
• Hard Disk: The software requires about 890KB.
• SDR Sharp: Revision 1812 or newer.
• Frequency Manager + Scanner from the Frequency Manager Suite.
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 Important Note
SDR# is a hobby project created by other people and I am not involved in it. I have no control over
changes made to SDR#. I am completely at their mercy as to how their changes affect DT. They are
under no obligation to inform me of changes; I won’t know if their changes will break my software
until the software is run with the new version of SDR# and you tell me there is a problem. As a result
there will be a period after they make a breaking change in which my software may not work. Please
be assured I will make any necessary changes, and release updates, as soon as practical after SDR# is
changed and I have identified the issue.

Change Log
• Upgraded the Data Tools Zip file processing to use a built-in Microsoft function.
• Removed the "Custom" delimiter option and replaced it with the "Pipes" option due to reliability issues.

Using Data Tools

Data Tools is a standalone program separate from SDR# and its plugins. It offers a way to download frequency
databases from the internet and import them into an FM database. It also permits you to import data from a
generic data file format and to export an FM database to a generic file format. Data Tools operates as a wizard;
you make choices, fill in some blanks, and it takes care of the rest.

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The Data Tools Wizard
Selecting a database action

Download a database from the Internet

Data Tools already knows about several popular frequency databases on the Internet and lets you download and
import them into a Frequency Manager + Scanner database.

The download function has 4 steps. The amount and type of information required for a download can vary
according to the desired database. To move between steps, simply click the Back and Next buttons.
1. Select an Internet database to download.
2. Select an FM database in which to store the data. If you specify a filename that doesn’t exist you will be
prompted for permission to create it.
However, if the FM database
exists, and it already contains
data from the selected
internet database, an
additional choice is presented
to you: Append new data to
the existing data, or Replace
the existing data with fresh
data from the download.

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 3. Specify the Internet download address (the URL) of the database. DT comes with these addresses
already supplied; however, many databases change their URLs periodically, so if you type the new URL
here it will be saved for the next time you wish to download the data.
4. The download will start and a
progress bar will display.
When the data is fully
downloaded and imported the
wizard’s “Finished” page will
display.

Some of the databases require

additional information before you can
download them.
1. The Classaxe download needs
to know which of three
databases you want to
download: Europe, North
America, or World Wide. The
last choice combines the first
two choices into one file and
will take longer to download.
2. The FMList download needs to
know your latitude and
longitude so that the database
can be customized for your
location. DT, by default, uses
the latitude and longitude of
the Royal Observatory
Greenwich in the UK. If this is
acceptable you can proceed
with the download. However, if
you know your latitude and longitude you can type them into the designated fields in decimal format;
but Data Tools will look up your latitude and longitude for you, based on your internet IP address, if you
click the “Find my Location” button.

The URL for the FMList file cannot be edited directly nor can text be pasted into the text box. You may
type your latitude and longitude into the respective text boxes and the URL will be updated while you
type.

Important Note
The location is approximate because these free services cannot derive the latitude and longitude
down to your specific house, office, or school; instead it locates the equipment where your
neighborhood connects to the internet provider. This might be 100 feet away or several miles away
depending on your internet provider, but it will be close enough for the FMList database to be
accurate for this purpose.

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 Important Note
The ability to customize the database to your latitude and longitude is dependent on that feature
being offered by the owners of the FMList database. At the time the Data Tools Wizard was
developed it was a planned feature by its author and was not generally available for use.

In addition, at the time this guide was written the FMList database download included only European
stations. For other worldwide locations you can obtain data from http://www.fmlist.org, convert it
manually to a generic file format, and import it using the DT’s generic import feature.
When the FMList download progress page displays you may see the text “Download Requested. This
may take a few minutes.”
3. All database downloads test the download URL before requesting the download. In this manner DT tries
to let you know of any issues with the URL before committing to a download.
However, the MWList download may require much more time to respond to the URL request than other
databases so you may see additional text on the URL wizard page that says “Validating the URL. This
website may take a few minutes, so please be patient.”
When the MWList download progress page displays you may see the text “Download Requested. This
may take a few minutes” before the progress bar starts to increment.

Importing a Generic File

The choice “Import a Generic
File” permits you to take a
delimited file from any
source and import it into an
FM database. There are
necessarily some restrictions
which are quite common
with generic files, and they
are described here to help
you format your file properly.
1. Delimiters are the
characters in a
generic file that
separate one data field
from the next. DT supports 3 kinds of delimiter characters:
o Commas
o Pipes (the vertical bar: | )
o Tabs
2. If comma delimiters are used, text fields containing commas must be surrounded by the double-quote
character ("). For example, if the City of a radio station is Las Vegas, NV the field in the Comma-
delimited generic file should look like this:
,"Las Vegas, NV",
With other data fields before and after the City. Numeric and date fields do not require surrounding
double-quote characters but do require a delimiter between fields.
3. Any one frequency’s data must be all in one line of content in the generic file. The end of the line must
be marked with a carriage return and a line feed.
4. The fields in your generic file must be in a specific sequence and each field must be a specific data type.
See the Appendix for a table that describes the field sequence and data types.

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 5. Most of the fields in the file are optional; if you have no data for a field, you may simply leave it with no
content between the field delimiters.
6. Fields with the highlighted words Data Required must have valid data in them.
7. You may import a list of Groups by combining them into a list of Groups separated by a caret character
(“^”). For example, you might have the local Police helicopters in your source data assigned to the
groups “Police” and “Aero”. To import these into an FM database, format this as the two words
separated by a caret:
,”Police^Aero”,

As the generic data is read from the file, each line is checked to ensure it is acceptable. Any lines that are not
acceptable will be displayed in an error message containing up to 10 of such lines. Any line in which the
Frequency value cannot be interpreted as a number will be skipped.

One more thing – having the first line of your file filled with the names of the fields is optional. DT doesn’t
require it, and will ignore it if it is found.

Important Note
Do not use Microsoft Excel to edit or create CSV files. Excel will not surround text fields with double
quotes, and will “helpfully” garble your data by converting large numbers like frequencies into
scientific notation and by removing leading zeros from other numbers. If you must edit a CSV file try
one of the several free CSV editing programs available on the Internet.

Exporting a database
When exporting an existing FM database, you perform these steps:
1. Select the FM database that you wish to export.
2. In the Export Options step of the wizard, specify the file to export the data into. The other options here
are:
o Your choice of Delimiter:
▪ Commas
▪ Pipes (the vertical bar: | )
▪ Tabs
o Include Column Headings will put the column names in the first row of the file.
o Enclose text in double quotes: this is highly recommended for the best compatibility with other
software.
o Remove Special Characters: this too is highly recommended because it will remove characters
from your text that might cause problems with the software that ultimately imports the file. For
example, double quotes inside text data are converted to single quotes.
3. After clicking Next on the Export Options page your file will be created.
The export includes the Group(s) you have defined for each frequency. If you have defined more than one
Group for a frequency all of the groups will be listed in the Groups column of the exported data as a single list;
the Group names in the list will be separated by the caret symbol (^). For example:
,”Clark County Misc^Transporation^Aero”,
The caret symbol is used instead of commas or other common punctuation in order to avoid confusing the
application into which you import this exported data; if commas or other common punctuation were used, and
if you did not choose Enclose text in double quotes, the groups would throw off the column alignment of the
remaining columns on each row and your data import would not work.

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Edit default values for missing data
Sometimes a downloadable database will not contain all the data you would like. Using this option you may
define default values for missing data before performing a download. When the database is downloaded,
missing data from the internet will be replaced with your default values.
Select this option and then click the Next button. A window will appear which looks similar to the Edit window
of the Frequency Manager + Scanner. You may enter your default values and click Save to record them. All

values are optional; if a value is left blank then the corresponding value will be blank if the incoming data does
not contain that value.

As with the Edit window, there are Basic and Extended tabs into which you may enter data. Click Save to save
the data. Click Erase All to delete all default values and return them to their empty state. And click Cancel to
exit out of the window without saving any changes.
After saving your defaults you are returned to the “I want to” page of the Data Tools Wizard. You may now
select a database for importing. In this example we have chosed the AOKI database and have clicked the Next
button.

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If you put a checkmark in “Apply default values for missing data”, any defaults you created earlier will be applied
when the data is imported.

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Appendix
Generic File Import Fields and Data Types
ALL FIELDS MUST BE PRESENT, EVEN IF EMPTY. Empty Text fields must have a pair of double-quotes e.g., "". Fields marked as “Data Required” must
have values in them.
Field Nbr Field Name Data Type Size Notes
1 Frequency Numbers Up to 11 digits In Hertz; zero or numbers. Data Required.
2 Center Numbers Up to 11 digits In Hertz; zero or numbers. Data Required.
3 Call Sign Text Up to 20 characters Letters and numbers
4 Description Text Up to 32,767 characters Letters, numbers, punctuation
5 Protocol Text Up to 20 characters Letters, numbers, punctuation
6 Service Text Up to 20 characters Letters, numbers, punctuation
7 Groups Text Zero or more characters Letters, numbers, punctuation; group names must be separated by a caret
character (“^”)
8 City Text Up to 50 characters Letters, numbers, punctuation
9 Country Text Up to 3 characters Letters, numbers, punctuation. Use of ITU country codes is recommended for
consistency and ease of searching.
10 Language Text Up to 20 characters Letters, numbers, punctuation
11 Latitude Text Up to 20 characters Letters, numbers, minus sign, decimal point
12 Longitude Text Up to 20 characters Letters, numbers, minus sign, decimal point
13 Azimuth Text Up to 4 characters Letters, numbers, minus sign, decimal point
14 Target Text Up to 20 characters Letters, numbers, minus sign, decimal point
15 Days Text Up to 20 characters Letters, numbers, minus sign, decimal point
16 Start Time Text 4 digits 0000 through 2359
17 Stop Time Text 4 digits 0000 through 2359
18 Power Numbers Up to 7 digits Zero or numbers only. No separators or wattage indicators. The scale (Hz, KHz,
etc.) depends on the source of the data.
19 Notes Text Up to 32,767 characters Letters, numbers, punctuation
20 Flagged Numbers 1 digit Zero or 1
21 Ignored Numbers 1 digit Zero or 1
22 Heard Numbers 1 digit Zero or 1
23 Date Text 0 to 20 characters Letters, numbers, punctuation. This is normally the last date the station was
monitored.
24 Mode Text Up to 20 characters From the options provided by SDR#. Data Required.
25 Shift Enabled Numbers 1 digit Zero or 1

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 Field Nbr Field Name Data Type Size Notes
26 Shift Numbers Digits In Hertz, in the range supported by SDR#
27 Filter Type Text Up to 20 characters From the options provided by SDR#. Data Required.
28 Filter Bandwidth Numbers Digits In Hertz, in the range supported by SDR#. Data Required.
29 Filter Order Numbers Digits In the range supported by SDR#. Data Required.
30 Squelch Enabled Numbers 1 digit Zero or 1
31 Squelch Numbers 0 to 3 digits In the range of 0 to 100
32 CW Shift Numbers Digits In Hertz, in the range supported by SDR#. Data Required.
33 Step Size Numbers Digits In Hertz, from the list supported by SDR#. Data Required.
34 Source Text Zero or more characters Give the source of the data a name

Troubleshooting
I wish I could say that there will never be any challenges, but in reality, stuff happens. Please try the following remedies if you have these problems.

Error Messages
Problem Potential Solution(s)
The URL could not be verified; please check it for accuracy. Before requesting a download, DT tests the URL to make sure it is valid.
This message appears when that test fails. Obtain the correct URL and type
it into the relevant text box; it will be saved for future use if it is correct.
An error ocurred while getting the Latitude & Longitude: followed An unexpected error was received when attempting to look up your
by the text of the error Latitude and Longitude. Resolve the error and try again.
An error occurred while attempting to download the data. The An unexpected error was received when attempting to download the
error is: followed by the text of the error internet database. Resolve the error and try again.
An error ocurred: The downloaded file was empty. The download was successful but the file that was downloaded had no
content.
No data was downloaded. Check the URL for correctness or try The website URL was genuine but did not have a file to download.
again later.
The downloaded file was empty or could not be converted into The download worked but the resulting file was empty or contained invalid
data. or unexpected data.
Line X has less than N columns. The generic file being imported has too few columns. This can happen
because the file has too few columns overall, or because a character such as
a carriage return has split a single line into 2 lines. Open the file in a text
editor and examine line X to see what the problem is.
Line X has more than N columns. The generic file being imported has too many columns. This can happen
because some field had a delimiter character in it (for example a comma in
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 a name or description) and the line was split into an additional column.
Open the file in a text editor and examine line X to see what the problem is.
You may need to remove delimiters from inside text fields, or surround text
fields with double quotes, in order to get an accurate import.
Line X has an invalid ‘Y’; line was skipped due to the error: Z The generic file being imported has invalid data in line X, column Y. Error
message Z explains the problem with the data.
Line X has data that cannot be interpreted in column ‘Y' : ‘Z’ The generic file being imported has invalid data in line X, column Y. Error
message Z explains the problem with the data.
An error occurred while attempting to import the data. The error This generic file import error typically occurs because the specified file is in
is: followed by the text of the error an incompatible format.
An error occurred while attempting to import the data. Some The generic file being imported had field formatting errors.
data is in an unexpected format or data is in the wrong column.
Check your file and make sure that there are no column
headings,that only text is in text columns, that only numbers are
in numeric columns, etc.
An error ocurred: The zip file did not contain the desired file: Some database downloads, like HFCC, send a zip file containing one or more
followed by the name of the expected file data files. The named file did not exist in the zip.
An error occurred while parsing the HFCC files: followed by the One or more of the HFCC files could not be read accurately.
text of the error
The file contains data but it is not in a compatible format. Unable Generally occurs when an SDR# Frequency Manager database (NOT the
to import. Frequency Manager + Scanner database) is not in the expected format.
The data is in an unexpected format. Unable to import. The file to import is in an unfamiliar format.

Known Issues
None.

Notices
• “SDR Sharp”, “SDR#”, and the SDR# software are Copyright © Youssef TOUIL 2012-2021.
• “FreqMgr”, “Frequency Manager + Scanner”, “Frequency Manager Suite”
and software distributed with the Frequency Manager Suite are Copyright © 2013-2021 Jeff Knapp.

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