[NA-User] Tips for working the NA country files on Windows computers

[k8cc at comcast.net]

Dick, K9OM, et al:

Greetings from St.Croix!

I've looked into the problems you were having when working with NA country files and I believe I've found the solution.  Shortly after arriving down here, I downloaded the 1802 version of the COUNTRY.DAT file and experienced the same problem you described.   Windows added a bunch of junk at the beginning and end of the COUNTRY.DAT file, but there was also added junk in the middle portions of the file as well, so even if you removed the junk at the beginning and end there was still junk remaining.  I am convinced this is the cause of your problems.

The root issue is that using Windows Explorer, if you click on the "COUNTRY.DAT" link on k1ea.com, it opens the file within Explorer.  Then if you do a "SAVE AS" (to save COUNTRY.DAT to you computer) Explorer defaults to treating it as an HTML (i.e., web) page.  That is the reason for the junk which is being added.

What works correctly is rather than doing the "SAVE AS" off the file menu, right click on the visable display of COUNTRY.DAT and select the "Save Target As" choice on the dialog box which opens.  This allows you to save the file explicitly as COUNTY.DAT and the junk is not added.

I've tested this here, and country file 1802 converts perfectly in NAU, and loads correctly in NA without issue.

This should fix your problem.

73,

Dave, K8CC/KP2