[CQ-Contest] Contest Station Descriptions 7.0 Available

[k7zo at micron.net]

              Contest Station Descriptions 7.0
                      Now Available!
                      24 December 1997

I am pleased to announce that Version 7.0 of my Contest Station 
Descriptions files are now available. Since the release of 
Version 6.0 last August, the data in the files has continued to 
expand. I now have references for 727 US/Canada and 379 DX 
contest stations, an increase of almost 200. Additionally, 225 
other records have been updated or checked. 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, contesting software used, and 
first names. With 10M starting to bounce back you may want to 
check and see what your competition has ready to go up in the 
air.

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 past 
releases. There have been a couple reported problems with people 
using the FTP capabilities in Netscape Navigator, but in general 
it works well. I use WS_FTP, a shareware program, to upload the 
files. If you don't have FTP access or don't have a friend that 
has FTP access send me an e-mail and we will see what we can do. 
It is possible to send the files over e-mail.)

* File names and formats:  
  CONTXL4.ZIP   Excel 4.0 Format      132KB (379KB unzipped)
  CONTXL5.ZIP   Excel 5.0 Format      137KB (375KB unzipped)
  CONTWD2.ZIP   Word 2.0A Format      120KB (565KB unzipped)
  CONTXL7.ZIP   Excel 97 Format       128KB (395KB unzipped)
  CONTWD7.ZIP   Word 97 Format        145KB (1,272KB unzipped)
  CONTWP51.ZIP  WordPerfect 5.1 Format 92KB (684KB 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 70 pages long and are not 
the most convenient way to review the information. 

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. 

Finally, I have decided to take a one year sabbatical from this 
effort. I recently reviewed my "Want to do" list against my "What 
takes up my time" list and came to the conclusion I would rather 
use the time spent maintaining these files for other things. And, 
you would be surprised how many hours I spend on this. So, I am 
going to take a year off. If someone else out there would like to 
pick up the effort drop me an e-mail message. 

I hope everyone has a great holiday season.
============================================================
Scott Tuthill/K7ZO     Boise, Idaho USA       k7zo at micron.net





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