Download mIRC from www.mirc.com and execute it to get it installed on your computer.

Configuration: With mIRC running, now we will configure it. Be patient, this will take you about 5 minutes.

Click on the second icon from the left, the one with the little hammer in it (this is the OPTIONS button)

Click on the "+" (plus) next to "Connect" and that will expand that menu to reveal several other options.

Click on "Connect" and fill in the info boxes there. Use your CALLSIGN and name for your "Nickname". For instance: W5UGD-John or W5UGD-Pamela, and for the alternate nickname, use a variation of it, like W5UGD_John, W5UGD-John2. Check "Invisible mode" and uncheck "New Server Window" if checked.

Click on "Servers" and then click "ADD" and enter this information: For description, enter "MARAC Chat" for IRC Server enter "irc.superhosts.net" and click "ADD".

Click on "Options" and put check marks on everything EXCEPT "Popup connect dialog on startup".

Still on the "Options" menu, select "Perform" and then select "Enable perform on connect" and move down into the "Perform commands" input window and enter the following line:
/join #marac and then click "OK"

Optional: On the "Options" menu select "Retry.." and Enable connect retry and select "OK".

Click on "Identd" and put a check mark next to "enable identd" for "User ID" enter your callsign.

Time to try it out... Go back under "Connect" and then "Servers" and select "Connect to server". At this point, you should be connected to IRC (it may take up to 30 seconds to initialize everything). And you should find yourself in the #MARAC chat channel!

Once online, you should type !marachelp in the #MARAC chat channel to get a list of commands too!

Basic help with commands available to you on the #MARAC channel are found here:
MARAC Channel help - Thanks to AD1C

Where do you go from here? You can customize mIRC to suit your needs.....

Adding a Highlight option: If you wish to be alerted to certain words that are said, such as your callsign or name, so you don't miss anything, you need to do this.

Click on TOOLS (at the top), go down to "Address Book", and then "Highlight"...

Put a check next to "Enable Highlighting".

Click on "ADD" and enter your callsign as the word to highlight.

Select COLOR and change it to something bright.

Click on "OKAY" and have someone type your nick, it should change the color of that line on IRC.

NOTE: The line will only be highlighted if someone else types your highlight word/phrase.

Repeat this process and add a highlight phrase of "spot:" so you will be alerted when someone posts a county run.

Select a sound file to play if you wish for one to play.... (not needed if you use the cht.mrc script)

That’s pretty much it!

EXTREME MODIFICATIONS BELOW:

Once mIRC is installed and running, you can install the County Hunter Tools (CHT) script into your mIRC and make it do some pretty cool things, such as alert you to counties that are running which you need via an audio alert, even txt msg your phone!

For first time installers of the script, from within mIRC, with it connected to the #MARAC channel, select the 5th icon over, the "Scripts Editor".

Select the "Remote" button, then click on "File" and select "New".

This will open a blank input box.

Now, visit this link with Internet Explorer: http://www.w5ugd.org/cht/cht.mrc - when prompted, select OPEN. If prompted, select WORDPAD.

Move your mouse into the Wordpad window and hold CONTROL and press the A key, this will highlight all, then CONTROL and C to COPY. Next, move into the blank scripts editor window that you opened and click in the text input box, to the right of the "1" and hold CONTROL and then V to paste what you copied from Wordpad.

Select "File" then "Save as", and for file name, enter "cht.mrc" (without the quotes) and then select "Save" and then hit the red X to close the Scripts Editor window... DONE!

Once the script is installed and running, you should type /config and fill in the needed information. Ask on the #MARAC channel for assistance.

You should never have to do this again unless you reinstall mIRC on a new computer... You can update the script when new updates are released by typing /update while in the #MARAC chat channel.

If you require assistance, please ask in #MARAC or email amicon@amicon.net

73,

John M. Hoyt / W5UGD