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All     2003    News for NTIA/ITS HF Propagation Models (WINDOWS version)
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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.
