[CQ-Contest] Contest Stations Ver. 6.0 Available!

[Scott Tuthill]

              Contest Station Descriptions 6.0
                      Now Available!
                      8 August 1997

I am pleased to announce the Version 6.0 of my Contest Station 
Descriptions files are now available. Since the release of 
Version 5.0 last February, the data in the files has continued to 
expand. I now have references for 619 US/Canada and 295 DX 
contest stations, an increase of 175. Additionally, almost 200 
other records have been updated or checked since the Version 5.0 
release.  All in all, the files are developing into a great 
reference work for the inquisitive contester. You will find band 
by band descriptions of antennas, rigs and amps, e-mail 
addresses, and contesting software used. New to this version is 
the addition of the contester's name to the database. For any of 
you rolling your own TRMASTER.DTA files, this might come in 
handy.

As with the last releases, the files are available for FTP 
downloading.  If you have FTP capabilities I highly recommend you 
obtain your copies of the files this way. The particulars are:

* FTP Server: netnow.micron.net
* Username: k7zofile
* Password: k7zofile

(You should find yourself in the directory /users/k/k7/k7zofile. 
I know this looks funny, but what I am doing is using an e-mail 
address as a FTP file drop. This is something that my ISP, Micron 
Internet Services, has figured out as a way to offer their 
subscribers simple FTP capabilities. It worked well with Release 
5.0.) 

* File names and types:  
  CONTXL4.ZIP   Excel 4.0 Format      110KB (322KB unzipped)
  CONTXL5.ZIP   Excel 5.0 Format      115KB (317KB unzipped)
  CONTWD2.ZIP   Word 2.0A Format      100KB (475KB unzipped)
  CONTXL7.ZIP   Excel 97 Format       108KB (338KB unzipped)
  CONTWD7.ZIP   Word 97 Format        125KB (1,096KB unzipped)
  CONTWP51.ZIP  WordPerfect 5.1 Format 77KB (570KB unzipped)

  The native file format I use to collect the information is
  Excel 5.0 in Windows 3.1. The first three files above were
  created with Windows 3.1 versions of the apps. The next two
  Office 97 versions were created by reading the Excel 5.0 file
  into Office 97 apps running on a NT 4.0 Client, and then saving 
  them off in their standard file formats. They should also
  work on a Windows 95 client with Office 97 as well. If not let 
  me know. I have no idea why the Word 97 file is so large. I was 
  surprised myself when I saved it off. The WP5.1
  version was created with a SAVE AS option in Word 2.0A on
  Windows 3.1. I have not been able to check it, as I do not have 
  WordPerfect 5.1 (DOS). So, it might work. It might not.
 
The spreadsheet formats are much more usable than the word 
processing formats. Spreadsheets let you easily move around the 
records from cell to cell. Because of the way the text falls in 
the tables, the word documents are now 60 pages long and are not 
the most convenient way to review the information. 

I am also working with Bill/W4AN to make the files available on 
his excellent Contesting web site. Bill and his team did a great 
job with version 3.0. Not only did he host the FTP access but 
they also converted the file to HTML to make it viewable from 
your favorite web browser and provided an Abode Acrobat version. 
Hopefully this version will be available in these formats as well 
sometime in the future. So stay tuned to www.contesting.com. 
(Currently, the version 3.0 files available on contesting.com are
a year old, be careful if you download those versions.)

If you don't have FTP access or don't have a friend that has FTP 
access, and can't wait until they appear at www.contesting.com, 
send me an e-mail and we will see what we can do.

I hope you enjoy looking through these files. In case you are 
wondering where I get this information, I get it from your 
postings to 3830 at contesting.com. Someday I would love to convert 
this to a full CGI driven web site so you can make your own 
updates. My ISP, now offers a package to their subscribers that 
would let me do it. But, I don't have the time or money to make 
it happen right now. So, for now, my goal is to aim for 2 or 3 
releases a year in this file based format. 

As always, if you can add or correct anything or just have a 
suggestion, please send me a message. 
============================================================
Scott Tuthill/K7ZO     Boise, ID            k7zo at micron.net





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