EchoLink Favorites
How to Use and Control
By: Rob Rude AJ0C
Download the Master FRUPAC EchoLink
"favorite.txt" File
If you want to get started quickly, you may
download the master FRUPAC EchoLink favorite.txt file and
either replace your favorite.txt file or copy and paste the
contents of the master into your favoire.txt file.
If you left-click the above link the file
will display in your browser where you can copy and paste
its contents into your favorite.txt file located in your
"My Documents\Echolink" folder. You may also
right-click on the link and select "Save Target
As..." and thereby download the file to your computer
where you may e-mail it to a friend or rename it
favorite.txt and replace your original favorite.txt
file.
How to see your favorites!
EchoLink's favorites list requeires you
to use the Station List "Explorer View".
Two different "views" of the
Station List are available: Index View and Explorer View. You
can switch from one view to the other at any time by
selecting one of the tabs at the bottom of the Station
List.
Although both views display the same list
of logged-on stations, Index View shows the stations as a
single list, whereas Explorer View organizes the stations
into various folders and sub-folders, similar to Microsoft
Windows Explorer. Many operators will prefer Explorer View,
particularly when many stations are logged on at once.
In Explorer View, all logged-on stations
are displayed within each of several groups of folders and
sub-folders. This presentation is familiar to users of
Microsoft Windows Explorer, although the information
displayed is stations, rather than files.
Many of the folders contain sub-folders. To
see the list of sub-folders, click the small plus sign to the
left of the folder list on the left-hand side. If you
double-click on a folder, its contents are displayed on the
right-hand side. A folder can contain stations, sub-folders,
or a combination of both. The number in parentheses after a
folder name indicates the total number of stations it
contains, including those in any sub-folders.
Within each folder, stations are listed
alphabetically. An icon indicates whether the station is a
repeater link, simplex link, conference server, or user. Busy
stations are shown in blue. Moving the mouse over a
station's name displays additional information about the
station.
Select the "Favorites"
folder.
Favorites
This folder contains stations that you have
placed into it for future reference. This makes it easy to
locate certain "favorite" stations, even when many
stations are logged on. You can create your own sub-folders
in Favorites such as FRUPAC to organize stations into groups.
You can also have each new QSO added to Favorites
automatically; see Preferences.
Adding Stations to Alarms or Favorites
You can add a station to Alarms or
Favorites in several ways:
- Right-click the station's callsign (in any other
folder), and choose Add to Alarms or Add to Favorites. If
the station is already in either of these folders, the
corresponding choice will be dimmed.
- Use the mouse to "drag" a station (or several
stations) from a list on the right-hand side into the
Favorites or Alarms folders on the left-hand side, then
release the mouse button to "drop" it. You can
also drag and drop an entire folder, to add many stations
at once. Dropping a folder to Alarms causes all of its
stations to be added to Alarms, whereas dropping a folder
to Favorites copies the folder(s) themselves to
Favorites.
- Use Copy and Paste. These choices are available either
from the Edit menu, or by right-clicking the mouse.
- Open the Alarms or Favorites folder, right-click
anywhere in the right-hand side, choose New, and type the
callsign of a station. This is a way to add a station that
may not be currently logged on.
- Choose Alarms from the Tools menu to add a station
manually to the Alarms list.
- Your Favorites are stored in a text file
"favorite.txt" in your
"My Documents\Echolink" directory. You may
edit this file directly if you wish by using simple text
editors such as notepad, wordpad, or UltraEdit32. Don't
worry about sorting the information, EchoLink will sort the
contents of the file when it accesses the file.
The default location:
C:\Program Files\K1RFD\EchoLink
Structure of "favorite.txt"
Stations are listed in Favorites by Call
Sign only. Stations listed in Sub Folders are listed by the
sub-folder name / Call Sign. Each station occupies a single
line.
Example of a plain "favorite.txt" file without a
sub-folder.
AJ0C
N1FFO
WB0ATT
Example of a "favorite.txt" file with a
sub-folder.
FRUPAC/
FRUPAC/AD4IH
FRUPAC/AH6HH
FRUPAC/AJ0C
FRUPAC/K3APM
AJ0C
N1FFO
W1GBS
WB0ATT
Note: A station's call sign may appear in more than one
folder (e.g., FRUPAC/AJ0C & AJ0C).
Last Modified:
Monday, 18-Aug-2008 21:24:15 EDT