[TowerTalk] Documenting cabling -- summary

[Pete Smith]

Most people who responded to my query recommended Visio 2000 (Microsoft)
for drawing all types of schematics, although several said they didn't know
what it cost, because it was available at work.  I checked, and only Visio
Technical edition has the necessary electrical engineering symbols, and it
retails for $339.  I'm hunting on eBay for an earlier version, and have
found some in the low $20 range... we'll see.

One person recommended SmartDraw (www.smart.draw.com), which is
downloadable for $49.95, or for 30 days free for evaluation.  A very
extensive set of IEEE electrical symbols is available for another $49.95,
and quite a few are included in the base product.  I'm finding, though,
that many of the symbols found in QST schematics, for example, are not
available ready made.  I'm going to try SmartDraw and see how daunting the
learning curve truly is.

One person each recommended Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher and
Microsoft Excel, while one added MasterClip clip art as a good source for
vector clip art.  Samples of work done in these all looked good.

A couple suggested pencil and paper.  I agree there's no substitute for a
3-ring notebook that you can carry out to the tower, but my problem is that
when I draw a schematic from scratch the resulting drawing tends to be
pretty ugly.  I lack the patience to redraw such schematics, so I need a
way to revise till they look halfway decent before committing them to paper
for the notebook.

Thanks to everyone.

73, Pete Smith N4ZR

Contesting is ... Extreme Radio

The World Contest Station Database 
is back up and running at
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