Paul,
Don't feel bad because you are not alone!
BAMA appears to be extremely unfriendly to any browser other than Netscape
and any operating system other than Unix.
Most of the data indexed on the BAMA site is only a pointer or a vectored
reference to another site that actually holds the desired information, but
doesn't show the HYPERLINK address of that information, so you end up using a
vectored TELNET session that most browsers cannot handle correctly.
AOL has some workarounds that have you change some parametric in the
Microsoft browser. I made those changes and downloaded the DJVU software,
(took
three attempts to get it to load correctly), and now I can get BAMA to work
about
30% of the time, but that's still an extremely high failure rate for an
institutional service provider!
Worse yet, it tries to download everything from BAMA in the DJVU format,
even if I can directly 'select' a .PDF or a .BIT or a .JPG file.
I have also had problems where I can download a single document, like the
service manual for the Hallicrafters SX-28A receiver I'm rebuilding, then I
can't download another document till I reboot my computer and log into the site
again.
What hurts is the fact that I really believe the site is the greatest thing
since sliced bread, and it used to work quite well, but somehow fell into some
state of disrepair or they simply lost control of it when the database got
too big.
I would like to see the ARRL or some other organization pick up the funding
for it, (BAMA), and make sure it was properly maintained and universally
compatible with all browsers because it is such an important and widely used
resource by their members.
I currently do not belong to the ARRL, but I would join if they would 'fund'
the reconstruction, (or the resurrection), of BAMA.
Regards,
Dennis W. Ostrowski
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