AZ_PROJ History



v1.04 Nov 96

	1. Orthographic orientation option (South at the top of
the page). Needed for people in the Southern Hemisphere (-:

	2. ARRL grid square labelling style added. The ARRL
style has much smaller labels for the grid squares and puts the
letter square labels in the bottom left of the square. The grid
square labelling style used in v1.00-v1.03 is now called az_proj
style.

	3. Several different options added for shading worked
grid squares (different colors, different cross hatching
methods) so that it's possible to mark grid squares worked by
two (or more) different people. See the sample grid.dat file for
more info. You can also use the same options for marking the
grids at the ends of a qso (see qso.dat for examples). Only one
type of grid data line now used.

	4. Plotting broadcast stations. A list of USA
(and some Mexican and Canadian stations) stations (MW, FM, TV)
in machine readable format has been produced by Colin K4SSO
(aa0yt@mo.net, http://walden.mo.net/~aa0yt). Further lists
are expected (e.g. Australia). A separate file consisting
of only the North American Channel 2 stations (55.25MHz
useful as 6m propagation markers) has been added. A list of
European TV stations (from Geoff Brown and Emil W3EP) has been
converted to machine readable format, for 6m propagation
markers.

	5. DAT file formats are still changing (sorry).
Anything which is a transmitter (TV station, rover, beacon,
repeater) all have the same format. The only thing which changes
is the symbol displayed. Please note the changes detailed in
each .DAT file (at most you will have to add an extra colon or
two to your old files if you want to update them).

	6. GRID.DAT file format of v1.03 (there called grid2) is
now standard (now called grid: format). The old format
from v1.00 has been dropped.

	7. An install.bat file has been added to install AZ_PROJ
and Ghoscript onto a DOS machine with a VGA or SVGA monitor.
Sample batch files for testing both Ghostscript and AZ_PROJ are
included.

	8. Easier method for choosing when to draw grid square
borders and compass (in az_ini.ps). (Also clearer explanation
of what's happening, I hope).

	9. Display of USA by call areas (0..9) rather than
(or as well as) by states.

	10. Labelling feature. The center of the line on which
the label sits, is at the lat/lon (cf annotations where a blob
is at the lat/lon). This feature can be used for labelling
continents, countries... The size of the characters can be
chosen differently for each entry, and the size chosen scales
with the map scale. You can try this feature out, by labelling
the US call areas with the file us_call.dat when the numbers
0..9 will be drawn in each call area. The borders of the call
areas can be drawn by turning on /draw_USA_call_areas in
az_ini.ps.

	11. Can convert output from the contest logging program
CT to AZ_PROJ format.


v1.03 27 Aug 96

	Fixed main bug in v1.0.

	Added features:

	1. qso.dat file. Draws great circle route between
	two QTH's anywhere on earth. For plotting contacts
	during propagation openings (eg Es), to show
	center of Es cloud.

	2. comment fields added to grid2.dat, qso.dat

	3. .wdb files edited so that consecutive paths have
	different path descriptor numbers. Paths now have about
	1000 points or less. THese modifications simplify the code
	which reads the .wdb files.

	4. dxcc country names/callsigns can now be drawn around the
	circumference of the map


	5. Greylines can be drawn for sunset and sunrise at
	your QTH for any date(s).

	6. In the personal .dat files (mountain, rover, grid...)
	a comment field, ignored by az_proj, has been added.

	7. Config files added. You can use a small preconfigured
	file to make a map, in which only a small number of options
	is ever changed. Thus you can have a config file for HF,
	or VHF (or each VHF band, with a different scale).
	For examples, see hf_conf.ps and vhf_conf.ps



v1.01,1.02 Jun 96 - not publically released

	grid2.dat file: enables selecting worked grid squares
	by propagation mode (designed to supercede grid.dat file).

	Greyline routine improved so that the nightime part of the
	earth can be shaded.
Map Server at http://www.xray.duke.edu:1080/ - Apr 96

	Machine kindly provided by my work. A node that doesn't get
	much use, mine :-), is being used.



V1.0 released Jul 95

	Quickly found to have a bug when running in postscript
	mode (sending to printer, or using ghostscript
	feeding one big concatenated file). If a grid.dat
	file was sent to the printer before the .wdb files
	the printer would lock up. Funny that was working
	only a few weeks before ;-). Ran fine if using
	ghostscript with command line parameters



V0.9a, 0.9b (beta)

	released at VHF conferences in Memphis TN, Jul 94, and
	Vernon CT, Aug 94, for non distribution.


	Joe Mack NA3T, mack@ncifcrf.gov, mack@xray.duke.edu

	and

	Michael Katzmann NV3Z, michael@baa01285.slip.digex.net

	Nov 96