Tech Arsenal 1/Tech Arsenal (Arsenal Computer).ISO/tek-20/beam110.exe/READ.ME

Text File | 1993-07-21 | 16KB | 438 lines

BEAM Antenna direction Program

Please help us out by sending us your comments on this program!

Did it work on your computer?
Were any error messages encountered?
Does your computer have an incompatible graphics adapter? Which one?
Did you observe any prefix or location errors?
How can we make it easier to use?
Did you like what you saw?

What additional features would you like to see in the next version?

Please send your comments by email to Peter Jennings:

CompuServe:      72470,3171
Internet:        [e-mail]
Fido Netmail:    1:216/506
Snailmail:       JCI Shareware, Box 336B, Ben Lomond, CA 95005 USA

This program is distributed as shareware.  It may not be sold for more
than the copying cost without the written permission of the author.
If you would like to register your copy, please send any amount you
feel appropriate to JCI Shareware.  All payments received will be donated
to Handi-Hams to provide amateur radio equipment to the handicapped.
VISA and MasterCard donations may be sent via email.  No amount is too
much (or too little). Your generosity will be much appreciated.

______________________________________________________________________

BEAM    A World Map Beam Heading Program          by Peter Jennings

(c) 1993 Jennings Communications, Inc.

BEAM shows a color map of the world on VGA monitors.  If you have
a mouse, you can use it to move the destination cursor to the
target location.  If not, the arrow keys can be used.

Features
========
Mercator projection world map.
Continental US map with states.
Automatic plotting by amateur callsign, latitude/longitude, postal zip code.
Plotting of points from keyboard, mouse selection, or file.
Distance and bearing shown from user's station.
Antenna relocation using mouse.
Grid square display based on Zip code or location.
County lookup based on Zip code.
Address lookup from HamBase with location, County, Grid Square display.
Random location display.
Save screen as a GIF file with title for distribution.

QUICK DEMO
==========

To run BEAM with the station in Las Vegas, just type DEMO and press Enter.

        C:HAM> DEMO    [Enter]

Press Enter at all the prompts to accept the default values.

Plot the demo file using the Alt-F command.

     Call:  Alt-F
     File:  DEMO    [Enter]

Use Alt-H to see what else is available.  Don't forget to come back here
and read the READ.ME file for more information.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

MANUAL
======
To run BEAM, just type BEAM and press Enter.

        C:HAM> BEAM    [Enter]

To skip the antenna location prompt, the antenna location may be entered
on the command line.

        C:HAM> BEAM 37.1N 122.1W    [Enter]

If you wish to default to the US map instead of the World map, add /US
to the command line.

       C:HAM> BEAM 37.1N 122.1W /US

I suggest you create a BAT file to run BEAM with your station location.

        C:HAM> COPY CON MAP.BAT
        C:\HAM\BEAM 37.1N 122.1W /US
        ctl-Z  [Enter]

        C:HAM> MAP

Typing MAP will run BEAM with the antenna located at 37.1°N 122.1°W.
The N and W are optional. Use S and E for south and east. Negative
values may also be used. If you copy MAP.BAT to any directory
included in your PATH statement, you will be able to type MAP
anywhere to run BEAM.  The example assumes that BEAM and its files
are in the directory HAM.  Your directory name may differ.

The program will load the data files containing the prefix allocations
and country locations.  These are a superset of the DXCC countries list.
Some of the larger countries which use prefixes to indicate geographic
location have been broken down to provide more accurate station locations.

For more information on the various data files and accessing HamBase
data files, see the DATA FILES section below.

After loading, a mercator projection of the map of the world will be
displayed.  Random locations will be shown and the beam will turn to
point in the correct direction.  Press any key to continue.

MOUSE

The mouse is only enabled in the Call and Latitude modes.  If you are
in File mode, the mouse will not put junk on the map accidentally. It
is assumed you may want to save or print the resulting map.

Moving the target location with the mouse or the arrow keys will show
the closest prefix in the database on the map.  The name of that location
will be displayed.  The beam heading and distance to the cursor will also
be displayed along with the latitude and longitude.

Pressing the left mouse button will relocate the beam to the current
cursor location.

Pressing the right mouse button will place a "map tack" at the cursor
location.

Note that the closest prefix is not necessarily the same as the country
you are pointing at.  The colors on the map are not taken into
consideration when finding the closest location in the database.

If you do not have a mouse, the up/down/right/left arrows can be used
to move the cursor around the screen, but you cannot place the beam at
a new location, or place manual map tacks. If there are requests for
keyboard entry of these features, we will add them to a later version.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ALT COMMANDS

Alt-H

Display a Help screen for quick reference to the Alt keys. Press
the [space] bar for a second screen.  Enter the desired Alt command
for immediate execution.

Alt-C

This is the default mode.  The "Call:" prompt will be displayed.
Enter any callsign.  The prefix will be decoded into a location
which will be shown on the map.  The exact antenna bearing, distance,
and latitude and longitude will be shown on the screen.

Zip codes may also be entered at the "Call:" prompt.  Any 5 digit
number is considered to be a zip code.

Long path is not shown in this version.  For long path, always add
180°.  The long path distance is 24,876 miles minus the short path
distance.  If you would like to see the long path direction and
distance added to the display, please let me know.


Alt-Z

The ZIP command allows zip codes to be entered.  There is no difference
between Alt-C and Alt-Z except that the prompt is changed. In both
cases, zip codes and callsigns may be entered.

Zip codes must be exactly 5 digits long.


Alt-L

To enter an exact target location, press Alt-L. The "Latitude:"
prompt will be shown.  Enter the latitude in decimal form. Many
atlases will show latitude in degrees, minutes, and seconds. There
are 60 minutes in 1 degree, and 60 seconds in 1 minute.  To convert
minutes to decimal, divide the minutes by 60 and the seconds by
3600.  For example: 36°09'36" would be 36.0 + 9/60 + 36/3600 = 36.16°
For locations south of the equator, add S to the value or use a
negative number.  N is optional for northern latitudes.

         37.0        These are all valid latitudes.
         38N
         45 S
         -12.7

At the "Longitude:" prompt, enter the longitude in degrees West. For
longitudes EAST, enter a negative value, or append E to the value.

           122
           122W       These are all valid longitudes.
           -75
           75 E

Alt-B

Alt-B (BEAM) will hide the beam if it is visible or show the beam
if it is hidden.  The color of the word "Beam" on the prompt line
will change according to whether the beam is shown or hidden.

Pressing the left mouse button will move the beam to a new location
and show it if it is hidden.


Alt-T

TACK COLOR.  This command lets you specify the color of the map tacks
that are placed with the right mouse button.  Use the PgUp and PgDn
keys to select the desired color, or type the color you wish to use.

If you type an invalid color, RED will be used.


Alt-R

This command will show random prefixes on the map.

+ will increase the display speed.
- will decrease the display speed.

Press any other key to stop the random display and enter a new command.


Alt-F

The File command is used to stick "map tacks" in locations on
the map.  The file can be a ham radio log file of callsigns, a
list of latitudes and longitudes with a legend, or a list of
zip codes.

File:
Enter the file name of the file you wish to plot on the map.  If the
file is not in the current directory, enter the complete path name.

Keep Legend [Y/N]?
Normally, the legend (prefix for ham files) is displayed as the point
is plotted and then removed.  This prevents clutter when there are
large numbers of data points.  If you only have a few points, you
can keep the legends on the map.

Map Tack Color: RED
The default map tacks are red.  If you want to use a different color
map tack, you can type the new color at this prompt.  It is easier to
use the PgUp and PgDn commands to make sure that you select a valid
color.  If you select an invalid color name, RED will be used.

By changing colors, you can plot several files to the map for comparison.
If a tack is already placed in a point, a second tack will not be placed.
Maybe later I will create 2 colored tacks for this occurence.

While files are being plotted, the beam is hidden.  It will reappear
if you change to Callsign or Latitude mode and move the mouse.

The plotting speed can be adjusted with the + and - keys.

+ will increase the display speed.
- will decrease the display speed.

If the speed is increased past a certain point, the sound will be disabled.

Callsign File Format:
Each line of the input file must begin with a callsign.  The call
must be terminated with a space, comma, or tab character. It doesn't
matter what else is on each line. Maximum line length is 256 characters.

K1EA's CT program can export an ascii file of your entire contest log.
These files are in the form *.ASC and can be read by the BEAM program
directly.  It is interesting to watch the plotting of the stations you
worked in chronological order as the propagation shifts.

Location File Format:
Each line must contain a latitude ( positive = North ), a longitude
( positive = West ), and a legend of up to 32 characters.  The fields
may be separated by spaces, commas, or tabs.  Leading spaces are
ignored.

Callsigns and latitude/longitude records can be mixed in the same file.

The DEMO file is included as an example of a location file.

Zip Code File Format:
Each line must begin with a 5 digit zip code.  To be recognized as a
zip code, there must be no spaces or other characters before the numbers,
and there must be exactly 5 digits followed by a space, comma, tab, or
end of line.


Alt-G

This command is used to save the map as a GIF file.  After loading
a log or other file with Alt-F, it is possible to create a snapshot
for later viewing with CSHOW, VPIC, etc., or to use the resultant GIF
for printing or importing to a page layout program.

You will be prompted for a title which will be placed at the bottom of the
saved GIF file.

As the GIF is created, the line number being converted is displayed.
About 400 lines are saved in the GIF.  Please be patient.  As the GIF
is created, the line number being worked on is displayed.

There are many commercial and shareware GIF viewers available. Some of
these programs can be used to print the GIF.


Alt-U

The USA command is used to load a clean copy of the US map.


Alt-W

The WORLD command is used to load a clean copy of the world map.


Alt-S

The SOUND command will toggle the sounds associated with placing
map tacks and painting the maps.  When the sounds are turned on,
a happy beep is heard.  When the sounds are turned off, a dull buzz
is signalled.


Alt-M

MOUSE DELAY.  It was discovered that one of our laptops was unable
to keep up with updating the closest country while moving the mouse,
resulting in a jerky mouse response.  If you find that your mouse
is misbehaving when the World Map is displayed, try increasing the
mouse delay.  The default value is 0.  Enter any positive number
for an increased delay time before updating the screen.  50 was
a good value for our laptop.  PLEASE send me an email message if
you find this necessary and let me know what value was best for
your computer!  This is the kind of feedback that can only come
from users of different speed machines with different display and
mouse drivers.

Alt-X

This command will exit the BEAM program and return you to DOS.
Pressing any key during the commercial will exit immediately.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

DATA FILES

The 3 files PREFIX.A, PREFIX.B, and READ.ME must be located in the
same directory as the BEAM.EXE program file.

To decode a callsign into a location, the program looks first in
PREFIX.B to find the prefix in column 0.  This gives the program
a "standard" location prefix to use to look up the latitude and
longitude in PREFIX.A.

The PREFIX.A file contains unique prefixes and locations sorted in
alphabetical order.  To add a new location, put a unique prefix in
the correct sequence into this file.  The latitude, longitude, and
location name are in fixed column format.

All of the locations in the PREFIX.A file are plotted on the world
map as blue dots.

The PREFIX.B file is used to decode prefixes to the unique prefix
list of PREFIX.A.  New prefix allocations or unique calls can be
placed in this file with the appropriate "standard" prefix as
found in the PREFIX.A file.  My thanks to K2MM for his assistance
in producing the PREFIX.B file.

The files ZLL.DAT and HBCOUNTY.A are HamBase files.  If you purchase
HamBase in the future, you will probably receive new copies of these
files which have been updated. The files provided with this program
are the current versions of the ZLL.DAT and HBCOUNTY.A file. They may be
installed in the same directory as BEAM.EXE, or they may be in
the directory used for HamBase.  If they are in the HamBase directory,
the environmental variable HAMPATH must be set to indicate the
path so that the BEAM program can find the files.

     SET HAMPATH=c:\HAMBASE

It is normal to insert this line into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that
HamBase and BEAM will be able to find the necessary files.

HB92.MAP is the map file for your HamBase data. In versions 2.xx of
HamBase, this file is created with the GENMAP program.  With version
3.xx HamBase, it is necessary to generate this file with the
GENERATE DATA MAP command.  See page 25 of the HamBase manual.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

BEAM will work with all versions of the HamBase data provided the
HB92.MAP file has been created properly for the appropriate version.

BEAM only accesses the basic HAMBASE data files.  It does not look
in UPDATE or HBTEXT or HBNEW files for updates created by the user
or not integrated into the data with the UPDATE program (version 3.xx
only).

The latest HamBase data is available from j∙Com, 793 Canning Pkwy,
Victor, NY 14564.  Phone [phone], Fax [phone] for the
latest catalog.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes

A question mark is appended to the Grid Square designator when the
location is on the edge of the square.  In this case, it is equally
likely that the real location is in the adjacent square due to
inaccuracies in zip code to lat/long data.


The DEMO file is an example of a data file that can be plotted using
all of the various data forms in one file. A tiny amount of HamBase
data has been included in HB92.MAP and HAMBASE.A so you can see how
BEAM works with HamBase.  The only calls included in the HAMBASE file
are the ones that appear in the DEMO file.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The latest version of BEAM will be available on the Mountain Retreat
BBS: [phone] in the HomeBase files area.  It may be FREQ'd from
1:216/506 with the magic name BEAM.

The latest version will also be available on CompuServe in HamNet Lib 6.
______________________________________________________________________

73
Peter Jennings

CIS:          72470,3171
Internet:     [e-mail]
Fido Netmail: 1:216/506
Snailmail:    JCI Shareware, Box 336B, Ben Lomond, CA 95005 USA