-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All 2003 News for NTIA/ITS HF Propagation Models (WINDOWS version) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 Jan 2003 1. Similar to a change in Run/Distance, a change has been made to Run/Time so that if shading goes above the graph, the headings are not hidden. 2. Also in the Run/Time and Run/Distance, if more than 3 Tx antennas are used, the text has been reduced so as to stay above the graph. 17 Jan 2003 1. An error was found in REC533 Area Coverage such that values calculated <-999.9 would cause a read error. This has been corrected. 2. I have modified some of the executable so that they can be executed from the ..\bin_win directory. You can directly execute: pointwin.exe areawin.exe areainv.exe areapltw.exe si_win.exe hfantwin.exe newswin.exe When you execute these, they will ask which model you want to use. 27 Jan 2003 1. Re-compiling the software with more error checking caused some of the world area plotting software to flag possible errors, when none really existed. The software has been modified so this should not happen. 29 Jan 2003 1. The ICEPAC Distance function forced METHOD=20. That has been changed to allow METHOD = [20,21,22]. 13 Feb 2003 1. The World plotting program (for area coverage) would fail when plotting results of the COMBINE option. This has been fixed. 2. A new list of cities: ..\GEONATIO\HF-list.geo. This is a list of transmitter sites used by the ITU and the HFCC. 3. I have also added a new directory of antennas. ..\ANTENNAS\HFCC These are the antennas associated with the ITU stations. I got these in Nov 2002, so they may not be up to date. These ARE NOT included in the installation as I did not want to "clutter" most of the users. To obtain these antenna files, go to the web site: http://elbert.its.bldrdoc.gov/hf.html and follow the instructions. As I get newer versions, this ZIP file will be updated. 21 Feb 2003 1. Some newer Windows operating systems had problems finding the antenna files. This has occurred on some Windows-XP and Windows-NT systems, but not all. I discovered how to work around the problem and this affected many of the executable programs. You would have noticed this problem by not being able to change the Tx or Rx antennas. 24 Feb 2003 1. Because of all the questions I get about problems, I have added a feature that will send me information about your computer system so that I might be able to solve your problems more easily. Thus, before sending me an Email that says: "It doesn't run.", please execute the file: c:\itshfbc\bin_win\sysinfo.bat If you did not install the software in the default directory, the "c:\itshfbc" will be different. This will create a file that you should include in your Email to me. The name of the file for a default installation will be: c:\itshfbc\bin_win\sysinfo.txt 08 Apr 2003 1. There have been a few reports recently that the software will not install on some Windows 2000 systems. It appears this is because the system directory c:\WINNT\SYSTEM2 is write protected. This is a problem because the software installs a DLL there. I have moved this DLL to be in the ..\bin_win\ directory. this appears to work and causes no problems. Please let me know if there are problems. 24 July 2003 1. A change was made to the executables VOACAPW.EXE and ICEPACW.EXE to allow for up to 20 ANTENNA cards in the input deck. The GUI interface still allows only 4 Tx and 1 Rx antennas. But a user who runs the propagation programs external to the GUI requested more ANTENNA cards, and it was a simple change to make. Hopefully, it should not impact anything else! 2. A change was made to allow Isotropic antenna gains to be in the range [-90 to 90]. The previous limits were [-40 to 60]. 3. You can now get the command line execute parameters by executing VOACAPW.EXE, ICEPACW.EXE, or REC533W.EXE. This information is also contained in the file: ..\news_win\command.txt 07 Aug 2003 1. Batch processing in the area coverage programs would no longer allow you to add any files because it could not find directories. That has been fixed. 2. REC533 Point-to-Point may have developed an "infinite loop". Hopefully it did not fill up your disk!!! It may have caused the files ..\run\rec533x.out or ..\run\rec533g.out to grow until disk space ended. That has been fixed. 3. Area Coverage grid size limit has been increased from 61x61 to 361x361. Be aware how this will affect the size of the files created and how long it will take to process. 4. On Point-to-Point graphs, you can now turn on plotting the FOT. This is done under the "User Lines" menu option. 27 Aug 2003 1. When making a change to allow 20 antennas in VOACAP, an error crept in that caused area coverage antenna gain patterns to be "messed up". That has been fixed. This would have been in versions 03.0722 to 03.0807. 20 Oct 2003 1. The HFMUFES type 35 Vertical Dipole antenna can have execution problems if you specify height in meters instead of wavelengths. What happens is when the software is calculating the MUF, it can use a frequency below what is physically valid for that antenna. Then the gain code produces an extremely informative error: TIP > X Whatever that means! So now when that happens I print out some information (similarly informative!!!), but then I set the gain=-30, so the code will continue. This would affect HFANTWIN, ICEPAC, VOACAP, & REC533 when using a type 35 antenna. 06 Nov 2003 1. There were some error messages in VOACAPW.exe and ICEPACW.exe that came to the screen during Area Coverage runs in the SILENT mode. They have been eliminated. 09 Dec 2003 1. REC533 Point-to-Point can now be run with using "Distance" and "Time" calculation modes. This allows you to observe how the mode changes by distance and time for a specified frequency.