This program shows a polar-projection map of the northern part of Region 2
(Western hemisphere) with the patterns of all AM radio stations in Canada,
the United States, Mexico and Cuba, on a specified frequency, with the map
centered on a user-specified "home" location.
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Click on "Home" to enter your home location either by selecting a city in a
listbox, or on another listbox of "K" calls, or on a third listbox of "W" calls.
Or you can manually place entries in a pair of textboxes for latitude and
longitude.
Regardless of the entry method, the map is then centered on that location.
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Click on "Licensed" and see only licensed stations. Click on that button
again and see the default listings (all, including Planned, Applications and
Construction Permits). Note that outside the USA all stations are considered
licensed.
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Click on "GetDistance" and you can find the bearing and distance to a city
or to a "K" or "W" station. Or you can enter in an arbitrary latitude and
longitude.
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Click on "GetData" and you can do a search for call letters, cities, states
and more by having the program step through the database for the frequency
you last entered. The data for each station is then shown in a list box,
including the location, hours of operation, latitude and longitude, power
level and number of towers. This is especially useful after you have zoomed
in on a location and clicked on "ShowAll."
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While on that screen, click on a station in the list and see the pattern for
that station, using the mode, location, power and number of towers shown on
that line of information.
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Click "Zoom-in" or "Zoom-out" to change the size of the map of the states
(and country outlines).
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Click "Larger" or "Smaller" to change the stations' pattern sizes
relative to the map of the states.
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One of the selectable options is a compass rose to tell the direction
of a station from the home location.
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Zoom in on an area you are visiting, click on "ShowAll" and see all the
stations' locations, calls and frequencies in that area. (This is the result of
going through all the data files and finding all the stations on all
frequencies and so takes a moment.)
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While you are on that screen, choose a channel and add the station's pattern
plot to the map. Do this for each of the indicated frequencies and you can see
all the stations in that area, their calls, frequencies and patterns.
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The output to the printer is from a separate routine
which closely duplicates the output as seen on the screen, but
of course without pixelation. To send a plot to the default printer
just press the "Print" button.
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At program exit the setup data is saved for an easy restart.
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The program does an enormous amount of computation to replot a new
screen and so for a reasonable reaction time to a request for a change
(new frequency, new home location, etc.) a fast computer is needed. The
reaction time is about one second for such a complete screen replot on
a 2 GHz machine (and so is about ten seconds for a 200 MHz machine, which
is the slowest recommended). If a slower machine is used the program may be
installed and used but a warning message will be displayed at the time of
installation and program operation may prove annoyingly slow.
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The database currently covers all stations in the FCC database for Canada,
U.S.A., Mexico and Cuba as of 31 May 2006, including applications but
excluding STAs.
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