SimTX Guide/Stations

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A station is the place you transmit and receive from. It belongs to your SimTX account and works on every server. A ground station has:

a name and a callsign;
a location: latitude, longitude and altitude;
one to eight antennas;
up to eight radios.

Many sessions can use one station at the same time: several transmissions and receivers, on the same antenna or on different ones. Satellites are stations too; see SimTX Guide/Satellites.

The Stations tab

The Stations tab shows a globe and a list beside it.

Mine lists your ground stations and satellites, with buttons for New station and Launch satellite.
World lists public stations, ad-hoc listeners and transmitters, and satellites in orbit. Search by callsign, owner or frequency, and filter by All, Ground, Satellites or On air.

Select a station to open its details: its antennas and radios, what is running on it, and the satellites that pass over it. Show on globe moves the globe to it.

Map control	What it does
Refresh	Reloads the station list.
Coverage	Shows the approximate coverage of your Transmit station. Hide coverage removes it.
Orbits	Shows or hides the orbit rings of satellites.
Fit button	Zooms the globe to show all stations.

The legend in the lower left shows the markers: Your station, On air, Listening, Satellite and Your RX, and the simulation time in UTC.

Create a station

In the Stations tab, select Mine and press New station. The station editor opens beside the globe, with the sections Basics, Location, Antennas and Radios.
Under Basics, enter a Name and your Callsign, and choose Public or Unlisted (see below).
Under Location, press Pick on globe. The editor steps aside and a card asks you to place the station. Click the globe where the station stands, or drag the pin, then press Done. Cancel or Esc keeps the old position.
Under Antennas, set up the antenna. A new station starts with a dipole; change its type or add more (see Antennas).
Under Radios, check the radio. A new station starts with one radio based on a generic HF transceiver (see Radios).
Press Create station.

Nothing is saved until you press Create station (or Save when editing). Cancel or Esc asks before discarding your changes. When you create your first station, the in-app guide outlines each of these steps in turn.

You can also type the Latitude and Longitude directly. While you listen ad hoc, Use my receive location copies your receive position.

Altitude and ground height

When you place the station, the app looks up the height of the ground at that spot and fills in Altitude, in metres above sea level. The note under the fields then reads Altitude is the ground height at this spot.

If you type your own altitude, the app keeps it, even when you move the station. Press Use ground height to go back to the looked-up height. If the lookup fails, enter the altitude by hand.

The altitude is the height of the ground. The height of each antenna above the ground is set separately, on the antenna.

Antennas

A ground station has one to eight antennas. Press Add antenna to open the antenna gallery. It groups the built-in types as Wire, Beam and Whip and turnstile. Under Your own model, NEC deck imports a wire model from a file; see NEC File Import.

Select an antenna to open its card:

Field	Meaning
Name	The name shown in the Transmit and Receive tabs.
Type	The antenna type. Changing it resets the length to that type's default.
Length	The main dimension. Its label depends on the type, for example the wire length of a dipole.
Height	Height above the ground, in metres.
Feedline loss	Loss of the cable to the radio, in dB.
Mount	Fixed, Azimuth rotator or Az-El rotator. See below.
Check SWR at	Shows the SWR of this antenna at a frequency you choose.

Import NEC deck… replaces the built-in model with your own; Use built-in goes back. Remove deletes the antenna. A station always keeps at least one antenna. Antenna System explains how to choose and tune an antenna.

Mounts

Mount	What it does	Fields
Fixed	No rotator. A directional antenna always points the same way.	Points toward, in degrees from north, for directional types
Azimuth rotator	Turns around the horizon. The elevation stays fixed.	Parks at azimuth
Az-El rotator	Turns around the horizon and tilts up, for satellites high in the sky.	Parks at azimuth, Elevation

The park heading is where the antenna points when a session starts. On a rotator you can turn the antenna while you transmit or receive, or let it follow a satellite; see SimTX Guide/Rotators and tracking.

Radios

A radio is a saved transmitter and receiver profile. Press Add radio to add one, and choose a model under Based on to fill in typical values.

Field	Meaning
Name	The name shown in the Transmit and Receive tabs.
Power cap	The highest power a transmission on this radio can use, in watts. The buttons below it suggest 5, 10, 100 and 400 W.
Noise figure	The receiver's noise figure, in dB, used when you receive with this radio.
Transmitter imperfections	The fifteen settings that make the transmitter sound like real equipment. See Advanced Transmitter Settings.

The first radio in the list is the station's default. The Transmit and Receive tabs show it as <name> (default).
Your account also has a power limit. A transmission can't exceed the lower of the two.
Final drive, compressor, frequency error and AM index are starting points that each transmission can change. The other imperfections come from the radio.
A station without radios uses a generic HF transceiver and your account's power limit.

Public and unlisted

Visibility	Meaning
Public	Shown on the map, and anyone signed in can receive from it.
Unlisted	Hidden from the map and usable only by you.

The editor starts with Public selected. Choose Unlisted if the location is your home or another place you don't want to show. Only you can transmit through your stations, public or not. You can change the visibility at any time.

Transmit from a station

In the station's details, press Transmit from here. The Transmit tab opens with the station chosen. You can also choose it in the Transmit tab under Station, Transmit from.
Choose the Antenna and the Radio.
Set the frequency, power, mode and source, and press Start TX.

The station sets your callsign and location. The radio caps the power: the Power (W) field shows up to the cap. Edit station opens the station editor. The Station section also shows the SWR around your frequency before you start.

Receive at a station

In the Receive tab, Where you listen offers three choices:

My station: choose one of your stations under Receive at, with its Antenna and Radio. Receive here in a station's details does the same.
Public station: receive at another account's public station. Search for it and select it. The session uses the station's main antenna. Receive here in the details of someone's public station does the same.
Ad-hoc: listen without a station, from any location, with a callsign and antenna of your own. This works without an account.

Press Start RX and connect your SDR program; see How to receive. In a station's details, Tune RX next to a transmission sets the receive frequency to it.

Edit a station

Select the station under Mine and press Edit, or use Edit station in the Transmit or Receive tab. Change what you need and press Save.

You can edit a station while it is on the air:

running sessions switch to the new settings without reconnecting, and the editor says how many will;
removing an antenna or radio that a session uses ends that session, and the editor warns before you save.

Delete a station

Open the station in the editor, or its details, and press Delete… at the bottom. Confirm with Delete station. This removes the station with its antennas and radios, ends any sessions on it, and can't be undone.

Use my previous setup

If you have no stations yet and the app finds an earlier transmit setup, it offers Use my previous setup. This creates a station from that callsign, location, antenna and radio.