Specifications > Interrogation > File Specification

Minimon

Email Comments

 

The Minimon file format was in use between 2000 and February 2023. It is an ASCII text file format with five sections. The File Type, Start Message Records and End of File Records contain information about the file type, site at which the data was collected, and the time period of data collection. The Interrogation Data Records and Other Record Types contain PIT tag detection records and diagnostic output from the transceivers and antennas, as well as annotations and other messages. The position of values in each line is significant and is used to identify the type of value. Timestamps are expected to be recorded in Pacific Standard Time.

 

Legacy software MiniMon and PIFF 1 were used to create files of this type.

 

 

Minimon files consist of five record categories:

File Type

Start Message Records

Interrogation Data Records

Other Record Types

End of File Record.

 

File Type Record

This record is generated by the software on the first line in the file, is a required record, and has the following format:

 

 "FILE TYPE" starting in column 5; a colon (:) in column 36; and "INTERROGATION" starting in column 38.

 

Start Message Records

Like the File Type record, Start Message Records begin in column 5, followed by a colon (:) in column 36 and the correctly formatted value beginning in column 38.

FIELD NAME

FORMAT

MANDATORY

FILE TITLE

SSSYYJJJ.Aaa

Mandatory

File Titles contain a maximum of 12 alpha-numeric characters. The format consists of a three-character site code (SSS), two-digit year (YY), and three-digit day-of- year (JJJ).  The file extension (Aaa) is at least one and no more than three alphanumeric characters.  This record is generated by the software on the second line of the ASCII file. This is a required record.

FILE CREATED

DD MONTH YYYY AT HH:MM

Mandatory

Date and time (e.g./ 24 APRIL 2009 AT 16:45). This record is generated by the software on the third line of the ASCII file. The format is in little endian form, which is common to the vast majority of the world‘s countries.  The format is space separated, beginning with the two digit day of the month, followed by the full month name followed by a four digit year, two digit hour based upon twenty-four hour clock time and two digit minutes of the hour.  The date and time, in Pacific Standard Time, denotes when passive interrogation monitoring began for this file. This is a required record.

PROGRAM VERSION

PROGRAM v#

Optional

Enter the name of the program responsible for creating the file along with a version number

 

 

Interrogation Data Records

Individual records, if present, consist of the following required components.  Optional

 

FIELD NAME

FORMAT

COLUMN #

DATA TOKEN

"|" (a "vertical bar" or "pipe" symbol, ASCII 124dec./ØH7C)

1

PORT ID

2-char Hexadecimal

3-4

DATE

MM/DD/YY

6-13

TIME

hh:mm:ss (PST)

15-22

PITCODE

14-char (3.10) hexadecimal

24-37

TRANSCEIVER ID

"XX" or FS1001M transceiver ID

39-40

ANTENNA ID

2-char hexadecimal

42-43

 

 

Other Record Types

Status and Warning Messages, Optional

Records prefaced with a tilde ("~") in the first column contain information regarding site and transceiver operations.

 

Annotations, Optional

Records prefaced with an exclamation point ("!") contain manually-appended annotated notes and documentation.

 

Buffered Records,Optional

Records prefaced with an asterisk ("*") have been downloaded from a transceiver buffer and contain date and time stamps assigned by the transceiver‘s clock.

 

Blank Lines, Optional

 

End of File Record

 

FILE CLOSED          DD MONTH YYYY AT HH:MM          Mandatory

Date and time (e.g., 24 APRIL 2009 AT 16:45). The format is identical to the FILE CREATED record, beginning with the two digit day of the month, followed by the full month name followed by a four digit year, two digit hour based upon twenty-four hour clock time and two digit minutes of the hour.  The date and time, in Pacific Standard Time, denotes when passive interrogation monitoring concluded.  This is a required record generated by Minimon on the last line of the ASCII file.


Version: 1.08

Published: 11/12/2024