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Ham Radio CD-ROM (Emerald Software) (1995).ISO
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dxcc56
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readme.doc
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1987-12-29
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4KB
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79 lines
DXCC with its accompanying DAT file is a program orientated
toward the Ham Radio Operator. Its prime function is to give a
Bearing from one location to another so that one knows the proper
direction to aim a directive antenna.
The DAT file is written in ASCII (plain text) and can be modified
with any Text Editor or Word Processor which can save in the
ASCII format. Simply follow the conventions of either spaces or
commas as shown in the present file. While discussing the DAT
file it should be noted that a limit of 350 countries and/or
prefixes are allowed. It is no longer necessary to maintain a
specific case. The program now accepts both Upper and Lower
Case for entries.
Upon Initial start-up, be sure and begin with the Menu Item which
calls for Initialization. This set up provides for input for
your location as well as printer codes and may be changed as
desired.
The first item on the Main Menu will take you to a secondary Menu
from which you may search by Specific Prefix (it must match
EXACTLY the listing in the Data file). When found, the
Prefix/Country Name, Coordinates and Bearing will be indicated.
If you are not sure of the "listed" prefix,then try using the
Menu Item for "Partial" prefix. This too is discriminatory, if
you think the prefix begins with UA then you may enter U or UA.
If you were looking for England, whose prefix is "G" entering a G
should find items such as GJ (Jersey Isles), GC (Channel Isles)
but NOT G for England, it would have appeared under a Specific
Search. If all fails then try a Partial Country Name, in the
case of England, use, for example, ENGL and let the program
search. Upon finding the listing with one of these two searches
you may want to enter the EXACT listing under Search by Specific
Prefix and find the Bearing.
Returning to the Main Menu you will see two items which DO
require a Printer. They are Print Country List and Print Dat
File. I've found that a list of Countries with Bearings given
FROM a foreign Ham's location is always received with a nice
Thank you note. Of course you only need to run this list from
your location once, or perhaps after a spill of coffee. The Data
list is simply a formatted listing of the Data file.
Bearings between two locations is probably the most useful part
of the program. You may find Bearing and Distance between any
two selected locations (First Option is from your initialized
locale). All that is needed for this are the coordinates in
Degrees and Minutes. One caveat, if you want Sunrise and Sunset
for this target, be sure and answer "No" when asked if hard copy
is desired (you may always print the screen).
Run Sunrise / Sunset listing is really a rather boring process,
it was put into the program simply to make additional use of the
Sunrise/Sunset math procedures. You may enjoy viewing it once,
its much easier to pick up this information by running Bearings
between two locations. If you want your figures, then run from
any imaginary locale with imaginary figures TO your actual
Latitude and Longitude. This will provide local figures. There
are a few spots which, during the year, have no Sunrise or
Sunset. These will become self evident.
The math is quite accurate, certainly good enough for the
purpose; But, the computer can not divide by zero. If you enter
two figures which would fall into this range, you should get an
error message prompting you to change one of the numerals
slightly. This detail has been circumvented within the Printing
program by the addition of a tiny mathematical factor...In other
words, a number such as .0001 is added or subtracted in order to
keep the printout running. It was quite frustrating to have the
printer quit after four pages due to a "divide by zero" error.
The change shouldn't affect the bearing appreciably.
Please remember to begin by choosing Initialization, using
Degrees and Minutes. If your searches consistantly turn up
blank, then be sure to switch to Upper Case.
I hope the program runs satisfactorily for you and enjoy....
NF4A