5.2. ibp

ibp is a simple application that shows beacons which are part of the International Beacon Project. A number of beacons around the world transmit at predetermined times. The ibp application shows you which beacons are currently transmitting.

5.2.1. Installing ibp

ibp is simply installed like most applications:

sudo yum install ibp

No additional configuration is required, however, ibp expects that the time on the system is correct. Synchronizing your system with one of the many timeservers is recommended.

5.2.2. Starting ibp

ibp may be started from the menu by selecting Applications->Other->ibp or from the command line by typing ibp.

When ibp is started, by default, two windows will open. The first is a simple text screen showing a list of beacons with the currently transmitting beacons highlighted:

International Beacon Project

Figure 19. ibp - text screen

The second window shows a map of the world with a colored dot for each transmitting beacon:

International Beacon Project - map

Figure 20. ibp - map

There are a number of arguments you may specify to affect how ibp behaves when it is started from the command line:

-c, --nocolor - causes the text window to be displayed only in monochrome. The graph window is still in color.
-m, --morse - In single beacon mode, causes the callsign of the transmitting beacon to be displayed at the bottom of the text window in Morse.
-x, --nograph - Don't display the map window.

5.2.3. Running ibp

While ibp is running, the highlighted lines on the text display and the dots on the map will periodically change as different beacons take on the transmitting task.

There are several commands you can enter into the text screen to affect the behavior of ibp:

digits 1 through 5 - causes only one band to be displayed. Since one is normally only monitoring a single band at a time this can lead to faster identification of the beacon of interest. This is also useful for visually challenged operators.
M - toggles between single band and multi band mode. If a single band was displayed, typing M will cause all five bands to be displayed. If five bands were displayed, the previously selected single band will be displayed.
Q - causes ibp to exit.