-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All 1994 News for NTIA/ITS HF Propagation Models -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04 Jan 1994 1. A new control card has been added to VOACAP & ICEPAC. The LINEMAX card will set the maximum number of lines allowed per page of output. The default is 55. Format is:LINEMAX nnnnn This can be included by adding to the ..\DATABASE\VOACAP.DEF or ..\DATABASE\ICEPAC.DEF default data files. 2. To update the ..\GEO data base files: EAST & WEST GERMANY have been changed to GERMANY. EAST & WEST BERLIN have been changed to BERLIN. 3. Some area coverage inputs have been changed at VOA user request: a) Xmax,Ymax now specified instead of deltaX,deltaY. b) ngrid now specified (before default was 31x31). c) VOACAP & ICEPAC method now specified (20,21,or 22). d) Receiver has been placed after transmitter. e) CIRAF test points have been replaced with the ability to superimpose a user specified CITIES files (RECEIVE.???). This CITIES data file is created with VOACAP, ICEPAC, or REC533 as a receiver file. The default is RECEIVE.CTY. f) A special program to convert AREADATA files from the previous format to the new format is included. When you run HFINSTAL, the final step executes BIN\CONVRT1.EXE which will scan all files in the AREADATA directory and convert 'a)' above and add 'b)' and 'c)' records. 4. HFANT type 12 (NTIA curtain antenna) has been modified. Maximum bays is 14 (16 was in error). Maximum stacks is 8 ( 9 was in error). Excitation modes ++++ & ++-- can now be specified to include stacks 7 & 8. 5. SCROLL (the program that displays circuit output in yellow), has a new option that allows you to save the file being viewed on a new file name. Press the 's' key, then enter the file name when requested. Only ,<0-9>,[\:.] characters are allowed. skips save. allows you to correct spelling errors. 12 Jan 1994 1. For those whose printer is NOT on LPT1, it is now easy to change the .BAT files to redirect graphics output. The printer port is specified in only 2 .BAT files. If your LaserJet printer (or HP color PaintJet) is not on LPT1, edit the 2 .BAT files below and specify the correct port. ..\BIN\HPJETDMP.BAT - Black/White output ..\BIN\HPXLDMP.BAT - Color output (area coverage only) 2. ICEPAC circuit graphs now display LUF as well as MUF. 21 Jan 1994 1. All text output sent to the printer uses the batch file ..\BIN\PRINTME.BAT. The DOS PRINT command was removed because it loads a TSR into memory. If the PRINT TSR is not loaded BEFORE you begin execution, it gets loaded higher in memory. Once it is loaded, it is not removed and causes the propagation programs to fail when they are executed because not enough (contiguous) memory is available. If printed output is not to your liking, modify ..\BIN\PRINTME.BAT to suit your configuration. 2. All programs now have a HELP option. This should minimize the necessity of a large user guide, and will facilitate the ability to keep the HELP files up to date whenever changes are made. As users ask questions, the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of the HELP will be updated to respond to those questions. Since there are many HELP that need to be created, all files may not exist on your version. Thus, if you try to view a HELP file and receive the message: In scroll.exe, could not OPEN file=..\HELP\xxxxx\xxxxxx This will because that file has not yet been created. 31 Jan 1994 1. A RUNTIME error occurred for 8-high curtain antennas (type12). I do not know what caused this problem, but when I re-compiled and re-loaded ANTCALC, it worked. Let me know it occurs again. 2. The on-line HELP is 90% complete. Let me know of any questions or ambiguities. 3. It has been requested to change the antennas to user defined names and not the CCIR.??? numeric naming that is there now. That will be done when HFANT is changed to include IONCAP antennas. That is a significant change and must be approached with caution. In the meantime, DO NOT delete CCIR.000, as that is a very specific antenna (Isotrope with user defined gain). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Feb 1994 1. The HELP files have been completed. At least the initial writing of them is done. They constitute about 7000 lines of information! As more input from users is received, some of the HELP information will be changed and new information will be added to meet the questions of the user community. 2. NEWS has now been sorted from NEWEST (at top) to oldest (at bottom), to make it easier to view the most recent NEWS files. Also, all NEWS files dated before 1994 have been combined into the file: 94_XX_XX.TXT, to further reduce the clutter of NEWS files. 3. Some reorganizing in the .BAT files has occurred, which has reduced the size of memory required to execute the programs. You now only need 500000 bytes available to largest program for the software to work. The only thing the user will notice is the Flash-Up Runtime copyright will be displayed a bit more often. This does not seem to slow down the processing any, and it saved about 80000 bytes of memory, which is critical to users on networks. 4. The HFINSTAL.BAT file was modified. The PKZIP self-extracting files are no longer named *.EXE. What generally happens is when someone sees a .EXE file, they execute it!!! In this case, it self-explodes, but does not create a directory structure. Thus, it clutters up your disk with a lot of files that are in the wrong locations. I have therefore renamed all the PKZIP files to *.EX_. Then HFINSTAL.BAT will rename them to the proper .EXE file, execute them properly (-d -o -n), and rename them back to .EX_ when done. I hope this solves some confusion users have had. Unfortunately, this software is being used by a variety of computer types. Some know a lot about PKZIP and the DOS operating system, and some know very little. I am trying to come upon a scheme of installation that will work for everyone. If you have suggestions or comments, please feel free to let me know. 16 Feb 1994 1. A restriction on the number of RASTER files that can be viewed has been raised. It was 50, now the limit is 2000. Since each raster file is 158402 bytes in size, this will allow 316 MBytes of raster files to be viewed. 2. A restriction on the number of files in ..\AREADATA that may be created has been removed. The limit was 500, and the limit now should be only limited by your disk capacity. The 500 limit was only when you selected PLOT_OLD. You would have only seen the first 500 grid files in your ..\AREADATA directory. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04 May 1994 1. Occasionally, ICEPAC & ICEAREA may have aborted with a LOG error. What happened, was if when a mode is VERY low, the program does not include it in the power sum. Thus, if all modes were below this threshold, none would be combined and a value was left equal to 0. This was then put into the LOG function, and LOG(0) is not defined. This has been corrected. 2. Sometimes in the area coverage program, the MIN/MAX values displayed were not correct. This has been corrected. 3. For Area Coverage maps, the antenna gain is now calculated for each group (of 9 max). This is because each group could be for a different frequency, and the antenna gain may be dependent on frequency. Previously, only the frequency of the first group was correct. This will slow down execution, but will produce a more correct answer. 10 May 1994 1. ICEPAC Point-to-Point METHOD 28 (MUF-FOT-LUF) has been changed. When calculating LUF, ICEPAC identifies LUFs which do not meet the required reliability with a negative of the frequency with the highest reliability. These are now plotted in RED on the METHOD 28 plots. A legend also informs the user when any LUF < 0. This was never previously documented and a negative LUF confused some users. Hopefully this will clear up this confusion. 2. Similarly, on all the Point-to-Point contour plots for ICEPAC, whenever LUF is negative (i.e. required reliability not met), the LUF curve is plotted as dashed and a message will also be displayed why it is dashed. 3. ICEPAC and VOACAP METHOD 11 & 28 plots now contain the VERSION number of the propagation program being used. 27 May 1994 1. All models have undergone some minor changes and the version numbers has now been changed to 94.0526. VOACAP - Version 94.0526 ICEPAC - Version ITS.02 REC533 - ITS VER-2.00 27.May.94 2. In all models (Point-to-Point & Area Coverage), the ability to specify the PATH direction (Short or Long) has been added. Previously, only REC533 & ICEPAC Point-to-Point models had this ability. This required some minor modifications to the propagation prediction modules. On Point-to-Point output, the phrase "" will appear in the header as: AZIMUTHS N. MI. KM whenever the LONG path is forced. Previously, when METHOD 21 (Forced long path) was selected, VOACAP & ICEPAC (incorrectly) chose the long path (through the antipode). Now, these two features are independent, as they should have been. 3. The above changes required a correction to ANTCALC for the Point-to-Point mode to force the antenna calculation to be done in the opposite direction if LONG path is selected. ************** 4. Software distribution has formally been authorized for both ICEPAC & REC533. They may be obtained (together or separate) at a cost of $500. This charge covers the cost of distribution and (resonable) telephone support to get the models running. It also allows access to new versions for up to 1 year after purchase. Software distribution for VOACAP will be controlled by VOA. Contact Lorraine DeBlasio at (202)619-2862 for details. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 Aug 1994 1. After much effort, HFANT has been re-written. IONCAP antennas have been added to the HFANT program. Also, 2 additional data file type gain files have been added. TYPE13 is suited to area coverage, being a 360 degree by 90 degree pattern for one frequency. TYPE14 is suited to Point-to-Point calculations being a 90 degree by 30 frequency pattern. This is similar to the old TYPE18 IONCAP external binary antenna pattern, except the data format is now ASCII for easier compatibility. The major change has been that the user now specifies the antenna file name (directory\filename.sfx). Previously, the program assigned a 3 digit number to each antenna. Unfortunately, this change requires a conversion program to modify your existing data files in the following directories: ..\USERDB\CIRCUITS.??? ..\SAVED\*.* ..\AREADATA\*.* This conversion program will be automatically run when you perform the new HFINSTAL.BAT. Also, old unnecessary files from the ..\BIN directory will be deleted. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Sep 1994 1. The Long Path/Short Path smoothing algorithm in VOACAP has been activated. Testing needs to be performed to determine if the algorithm is functioning correctly. This method is activated by selecting METHOD = 30, in either the Point-to-Point model or the Area coverage model. 8 Sep 1994 2. Save & Retrieve for the Point-to-Point models (ICEPAC, VOACAP, & REC533) has been changed so that data is no longer stored in the directory ..\SAVED. Storage is now in sub-directories under ..\SAVED. The one supplied with the software is ..\SAVED\DEFAULT\. You may create your own so as top more organize your files. When you install the software with HFINSTAL.BAT, all files currently residing in the ..\SAVED directory are copied to ..\SAVED\DEFAULT\. 3. Similarly, for the Area Coverage programs (ICEAREA, VOAAREA, & RECAREA), storage of saved data files is now in directories under ..\AREADATA. The directory ..\AREADATA\DEFAULT\ is supplied with the software. When you install the software with HFINSTAL.BAT, all files currently residing in the ..\AREADATA directory are copied to ..\AREADATA\DEFAULT\. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Nov 1994 1. There were problems when the area coverage projection was centered near 180 degrees longitude. That has been fixed. 2. Color plots dumped to a PaintJet (not PaintJet XL) did not work. Compatibility between PaintJet & PaintJet XL has been fixed. 3 Nov 1994 1. A coefficient error (system loss term) was found to be in error. The table was 115.2 and should be 11.52. This affected the months (MAR, APR, MAY, SEP, OCT, NOV) for high latitude paths, 2nd local time block (i.e 3,4,5), distances greater than 2500km, for the value difference between median and upper decile value. (To find out what that last sentence just said, talk to George Lane at VOA) This will cause several of the coefficient files for ICEPAC & REC533, and the coefficient file for VOACAP to be changed. 14 Nov 1994 1. SNR90 (the lower decile Signal-to-Noise Ratio) is now replaced with SNRxx which is the Signal-to-Noise ratio at the required reliability. Thus, SNR90 can be created by setting the Required Reliability to 90. Required Reliability equal to 50 will produce SNRxx = SNR (this is because SNR is the median Signal-to-Noise ratio). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 Dec 1994 1. ICEPAC has been modified to allow for DAILY variation in the F2 coefficients. This will allow output for Jan 01 to be very similar to Dec 31. This is accomplished with the new MONTH.DAY input. If DAY = 0, nothing will be different. The normal monthly coefficients will be used. If DAY is not 0, then a special set of coefficients previously developed for the Air Force will be used. The day of the year is calculated, and a set of coefficients are calculated that will create a smooth set of F2 coefficients. Do not expect DAY=15 to produce the same result as DAY=0. The result will be close, but since the daily coefficients are created by a Fourier fit to the monthly coefficients, exact results will not be obtained. When the DAILY F2 set has been activated, the output header will indicate the DAY and the phrase "(Daily)". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ End of 1994 ------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------