| WinCAP Wizard - Enhanced VOACAP Toolset |
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History - More Ancient CAPMan v1 was officially released Sept 1993. CAPMan was primarily developed for amateur radio operators and utilized a custom 32-bit IonCAP engine and antenna package. This 32-bit IonCAP engine was the fastest ever developed - predictions required minutes instead of the common half hour or more. Further, there was previously no “user interface” available for use with IonCAP so “input files” had to be created and edited manually with a text editor. The process was awkward and errors were common. CAPMan began a new era in HF propagation software and was warmly welcomed by many amateur radio operators and communications professionals. Don Lucas scheduled CAPMan for presentation at the Ionospheric Effects Symposium May 1993 in Alexandria, VA. Unfortunately the powers at the VOA had their own agenda and the CAPMan presentation was not allowed. Although CAPMan was primarily developed for amateur radio operators it had many advanced features and no other IonCAP based package was previously available. The VOA had supported development of a user interface for IonCAP and called the package VOACAP - it was a 16-bit DOS based interface. The interface was created to demonstrate the feasibility of such a development. Although quite functional – compared to CAPMan - the interface was rather crude. Additionally the Rockwell Collins Company announced their PropMan at the same IES 1993. PropMan had some nice features but utilized the old IonCAP PC.25 engine. Rockwell Collins supposedly developed PropMan to be given to certain customers as a bonus. Evidently the powers at the VOA felt recognizing CAPMan would distract attention from their own endeavor. Previously – and until perhaps 2003 - the IonCAP engine “source code” had been available – on magnetic tape - from the NTIS for a price of $500. This was of course long before the Internet was generally available and many were using “online services” such as “amateur radio forums” on CompuServe ™. The powers at the VOA made their VOACAP software freely download able in the “amateur radio forums” on CompuServe ™. Some of the CAPMan developers never imagined they would be getting into politics – even is in so subtle and indirect way. We occasionally wonder just how much improvement could have been made to the VOACAP engine – with available funds during the early days – if powers at the VOA had ignored the politics and the perceived competition and simply devoted their resources to engine improvements. How did Jim Tabor get involved with Don Lucas and IonCAP? In 1992 I was working on an application to control and do logging for amateur and short wave radios. I needed some code to do HF predictions but had no knowledge of the subject. I called the ARRL and talked with Jerry Hall, K1TD, whom at the time was their propagation topics writer. He told me of MiniMUF and MiniProp Plus. I wanted something better for longer distances than MiniMUF, and needed something that could be integrated into my work better than MiniProp Plus. I was at a loss about where to look next. Several amateur radio friends participated in nightly discussions on 160 meters, I occasionally joined them. During these gatherings, I was fortunate enough to have talked several times with W0OMI a gentleman named Don Lucas. I didn't know just what he did but thought he had done some work on HF propagation, so I called him and explained my needs. Lucas was very kind and most generous with his time; he said he thought they could help me. Lucas was modest, I still didn't have a clue to the extent he had worked in and influenced the field of HF propagation prediction. I don't recall how long it was before I realized just how involved Lucas had been in the field. Lucas sent me a copy of the public domain version of IonCAP as his 32-bit version wasn't ready yet and a simple input building program. Lucas also included the IonCAP users' guide - which I actually read before loading the software. After working with IonCAP a bit, I became a fan. The programs abilities held me in awe. The ability to accept station parameters and output pages full of interesting and useful data was amazing. It seemed a true shame more people couldn't make use of the IonCAP program and it might even fade away, because it was difficult to learn and use. When IonCAP was ported to the PC the original method of input was maintained; In other words an "image" of the old punch cards was still used for inputting "circuit" parameters. Instead of actual punch cards a text editor was used to write a text file; the 5-column style was maintained. No doubt this was an improvement, but manually writing or building, the "input" parameter file was awkward and errors were common. I needed a way to allow a user to easily interact with IonCAP; CAPMan was the result, although we are getting ahead of ourselves. I've never really gotten back to my original project. There were still many inconsistencies in the IonCAP output; many of these were only "cosmetic". The particular version used by CAPMan was unique in numerous ways, and was actually called IonCAP+. Don Lucas, an original member of the development team, together with Scott Pinson ported the old FORTRAN code to a state-of-the art compiler. IonCAP+ features a unique set of antennas, based on the work of George Haydon, along with other enhancements; this was the fastest version available for several years. CAPMan was a DOS application, written in Object Pascal, and used IonCAP to do prediction and analysis calculations. CAPMan ran quite well under win3.1/95/98. With CAPMan, a user typically builds "circuit records", which are reusable and modifiable. Circuit records are then used to create an ASCII text file of circuit parameters. CAPMan then does a “shell execute” to IonCAP. IonCAP reads in the ASCII text file and writes an ASCII output file. CAPMan parses this output file and saves this information in a more convenient format. CAPMan provides the capability to do up to 12 predictions at one time, by using any combination of circuit records; the resulting files can grow quite large. With circuit records, the user can mix about any combination of circuit parameters desired, then execute the group and view the resulting output as text as well as in graphics form. CAPMan graphs provide the ability to switch between any of the 12 predictions and compare results. We were the only ones to offer these features – and many others. Don Lucas and Scott Pinson did all the FORTRAN “coding” work on IonCAP+. Kangaroo Tabor Software provided feedback and suggestions. Lucas and Pinson provided feedback, suggestions and technical assistance during the development of the CAPMan interface. At Kangaroo Tabor Software Larry Cruise, AA5TA, provided feedback and suggestion on both IonCAP+ and CAPMan; his contribution was substantial. Bob German, at George Jacobs Associates, also provided early feedback and suggestions, along with Jerry Hall, K1TD, and Dean Straw, N6BV from the ARRL. The Competition - If you can locate the September & October 1996 issues of QST, you will find a good comparative review of major competitors and a couple other contenders – of the time. Unfortunately – when the review article was written - our WinCAP Wizard product wasn't yet available. Rockwell-Collins sells a product named "PropMan". This software provided some nice graphs. They use the old 16-bit public domain version of IonCAP. I have never understood why, it seems they would have had all resources necessary to make the needed fixes. They also don't give you total access to all of IonCAP and I don't think they supported the ELNEC antenna modeling output. They do add some real-time features I believe. The PropMan package used to sell for around $800, I believe. They entered the ham market around April 1995 selling for $50. The Voice of America made some changes to IonCAP - including the addition specialized coverage analysis capabilities that were faster and more efficient - and changed the name to VOACAP for official release in 1996. The windows package does some beautiful contour maps. It's harder to use, but honestly worth having especially since it's free. Apparently there has been no new funding for this project in years. Greg Hand maintains the VOACAP package on his own time. Many of us work and have experienced this "labor of love". Greg Hand may be the last person currently knowledgeable enough with the VOACAP engine to make corrections and add enhancements - he deserves special thanks and commendation. Another major competitor of the period was named HFx; Pacific Sierra Research developed it. It wasn’t IonCAP based, but was a windows app. They made a big entrance into the amateur radio market with quarter-page color ads in several amateur radio related publications. I was often told “it's mostly just for pretty pictures”. Apparently HFx is no longer available. PropLab seems impressive - as does their web site. Another major competitor is named ASAPS, for Advanced Stand Alone Prediction System. It's a work of the Australian government. Two versions are available dos and win. ACE-HF – our newest “direct” competitor has been well received. ACE-HF version 1 was actually released near May of 2002 within a short time of our WinCAP Wizard v3 release. We learned some sort of lesson from that experience but warmly welcomed them through exchanges with Dick Buchner. A quick Internet search using www.google.com will reveal that there are now numerous other HF propagation prediction software products available. Also see these sections |