The heart of VOACAP - VOACAPW
VOACAPW.EXE is the program module in the VOACAP program package that is responsible for VOACAP propagation calculations. The graphical VOACAP user interface program is mainly responsible for collecting the user input and putting it into a format that can be fed into the VOACAPW.EXE program. Further, the graphical VOACAP suite of programs take care of presenting the output that comes as the result of VOACAPW calculations.
VOACAPW.EXE can be found in the C:\itshfbc\bin_win\ directory (provided the user has accepted the default VOACAP installation options). This program can be invoked in a variety of ways, depending on the type of calculations we wish to run.
Syntax overview
Below is the summary of the syntax that comes with the program.
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | The propagation modules VOACAPW.EXE, ICEPACW.EXE, or REC533W.EXE cannot be | | executed individually unless you have created the proper formated data input | | file. You can execute: | | POINTWIN.EXE (point-to-point interface) | | AREAWIN.EXE (area coverage interface) | | SI_WIN.EXE (signal-to-interference interface) | | AREAINV.EXE (inverse area coverage interface) | | HFANTWIN.EXE (antenna interface) | | individually from this directory. | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | If you create your own input files in the proper formats, you can use the | | examples below as to how to execute the various propagation modules. | | The examples below are given for VOACAP. To make it run for ICEPAC or | | REC533, just substitute the desired model for VOACAP | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Execute with: | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory inputfile outputfile (P-P circuit) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory inputfile outputfile (P-P graph) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory VOACAPD.DAT VOACAPD.OUT (P-P distance) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory VOACAPT.DAT VOACAPT.OUT (P-P time) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory BATCH (P-P batch) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory BATCH deckname.dat (P-P NEW batch) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory BATCH deckname.dat nam.out (P-P NEW batch) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory AREA CALC VOAAREAW.CIR (AREA batch) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory AREA method pathname (AREA single) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory INV CALC VOAAREAW.CIR (AREA INVERSE batch) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory INV method pathname (AREA INVERSE single) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory CIRAF pathname (CIRAF single) | | where: | | [S] = SILENT, then no messages are written to output window | | [S] means either put in SILENT or nothing. | | directory = full pathname to the install directory (e.g. c:\ITSHFBC) | | method = (CALC/SCREEN/PRINT) | | pathname = pathname below directory\AREADATA\ of input data file | | (e.g. DEFAULT\DEFAULT.VOA) | | deckname.dat = a proper formated input "card" deck. | | | | The input and output files ifor point-to-point runs will be in the | | ..\RUN directory. | | | | You will probably need to also include the full pathname to the EXE file. | | Thus, using the default installation directory, the P-P circuit would be: | | | | c:\itshfbc\bin_win\voacapw.exe c:\itshfbc voacapx.dat voacapx.out | | | | Note: Not all options will work for REC533 (e.g. distance, time, & INVERSE) | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | The only options you probably want to use are: | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory inputfile outputfile (P-P circuit) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory AREA method pathname (AREA single) | | VOACAPW.EXE [S] directory BATCH deckname.dat nam.out (P-P NEW batch) | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | To execute the world map plotting program from a command prompt: | | | | worldwin.exe run_directory data_directory filename noplot | | where: | | run_directory = RUN directory (e.g. C:\ITSHFBC\RUN) | | data_directory= data sub-directory (e.g. AREADATA) | | filename - file in ..\AREADATA\ directory of the | | form subdir\????????.mGn (Grid file) | | where:subdir=sub-directory under ..\AREADATA | | m = V = VOACAP | | m = I = ICEPAC | | m = R = REC533 | | m = C = COVMAP | | n = group number of plot [1-9] | | = 'voaareax.da?' means read for filename | | = 'areapltx.dat' means read for filename | | noplot = ' ' = do worldwin plot with wait | | = 'n' = do worldwin plot with no wait | | = 'b' = do worldwin plot with no wait,force B/W | | = 'x' = do not do worldwin | | = 'p' = do worldwin to Printer only | | = 's' = do worldwin to Screen only | | = 'm' = map only, no contours | | Will create ????????.mxn (contour file) | | where: x = index [1-9] of parameters contoured | | | | Thus, it can be exeuted with: | | c:\itshfbc\bin_win\worldwin c:\itshfbc\run areadata default\default.ig1 | | | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Point-to-point calculations
Let us start exploring VOACAPW.EXE by using it for point-to-point circuit calculations. As we can see in the summary above, the user input data file used for calculations is VOACAPX.DAT and the results will be written into VOACAPX.OUT. VOACAPX.DAT and VOACAPX.OUT are both located in the C:\itshfbc\run directory.
To run the calculations in silent mode, enter the following command in the C:\itshfbc\bin_win directory:
voacapw silent C:\itshfbc voacapx.dat voacapx.out
To run the calculations in normal mode (when the calculations appear in the output window), use the following command:
voacapw C:\itshfbc voacapx.dat voacapx.out
Setting up VOACAPX.DAT input files
As we are running VOACAPW.EXE from the command prompt, we will need to make sure that the input file is in the format accepted by the program. Take a look at the following the example VOACAPX.DAT file generated by the graphical VOACAP program after you choose the Circuit command from the Run menu for the circuit of Pori (Finland) to Johannesburg (South Africa).
COMMENT Any VOACAP default cards may be placed in the file: VOACAP.DEF LINEMAX 55 number of lines-per-page COEFFS CCIR TIME 1 24 1 1 MONTH 2002 7.00 SUNSPOT 96. LABEL PORI JOHANNESBURG CIRCUIT 61.48N 21.78E 26.25S 28.00E S 0 SYSTEM 1. 155. 3.00 90. 67.0 3.00 0.10 FPROB 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.00 ANTENNA 1 1 2 30 0.000[hfcc\HFBC_218.P15 ]175.0 350.0000 ANTENNA 2 2 2 30 0.000[default\SWWHIP.VOA ] 0.0 0.0000 FREQUENCY 6.07 7.20 9.7011.8513.7015.3517.7321.6525.89 0.00 0.00 METHOD 30 0 EXECUTE QUIT
Advantages of manual tuning of VOACAPX.DAT
1. You can run predictions for the entire year, ie. 12 months. If you are using the graphical VOACAP interface program, you can enter only 10 month/SSN value pairs. These two lines practically go hand in hand:
MONTH 2002 7.00 SUNSPOT 96.
The definition lines for the entire year could be as follows (the year 2002 with the predicted smoothed sunspot numbers):
MONTH 2002 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.0010.0011.0012.00 SUNSPOT 110. 109. 106. 103. 101. 98. 96. 93. 90. 87. 85. 81.
2. You can define a total of up to 20 antennas: ten transmit and ten receive antennas. If you were using the graphical VOACAP program, you could define a total of five antennas, four transmit antennas and one receive antenna. In our example above, we had one transmit antenna and one receive antenna:
ANTENNA 1 1 2 30 0.000[hfcc\HFBC_218.P15 ]175.0 350.0000 ANTENNA 2 2 2 30 0.000[default\SWWHIP.VOA ] 0.0 0.0000
Let us assume we have an amateur radio station with a good selection of antennas at our disposal. Our definition of antennas for VOACAPW.EXE could be as follows:
ANTENNA 1 1 2 11 12.000[default\CCIR.000 ] 0.0 0.5000
ANTENNA 1 2 11 15 0.000[omat\3elhw.ANT ]175.0 0.1000
ANTENNA 1 3 15 22 0.000[omat\3elone.ANT ]175.0 1.0000
ANTENNA 1 4 22 24 0.000[omat\3eloq.ANT ]175.0 1.0000
ANTENNA 1 5 24 27 0.000[omat\3elo3q.ANT ]175.0 1.5000
ANTENNA 1 6 27 30 0.000[omat\3eltwo.ANT ]175.0 0.1000
ANTENNA 2 7 2 11 6.000[default\CCIR.000 ] 0.0 6.0000
ANTENNA 2 8 11 15 0.000[omat\3elhw.ANT ]357.0
ANTENNA 2 9 15 22 0.000[omat\3elone.ANT ]357.0
ANTENNA 2 10 22 30 0.000[omat\3eloq.ANT ]357.0
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
The explanations of the columns are as follows:
(1) The type of the antenna: 1 = transmit, 2 = receive.
(2) The order number of the antenna from 1 to 20. If you define more than
20 antennas, VOACAPW.EXE will crash.
(3) The minimum frequency for the antenna (in MHz).
(4) The maximum frequency for the antenna (in MHz).
(5) The design frequency. However, for isotropic antennas, it is the gain
(as in the case of the CCIR.000 antenna). The design frequency of zero
in our example means that the design frequency = operating frequency.
(6) The path to the antenna definition file under the C:\itshfbc\antennas
directory.
(7) The main beam of the antenna.
(8) For transmit antennas: the power (in kW). NOTE! You can define a
different power level for each of the transmit antennas!
For receive antennas: the gain (in dBi, applicable only to
isotropic antennas).
3. You can run several Methods in one go. Otherwise, you would run only one Method per one file. In our example circuit, we defined Method 30 (Short/Long Path Smoothing):
METHOD 30 0
(1) (2)
Explanation:
(1) The Method we wish to use for our circuit. (2) The start page number in the result (output) file.
If we wanted to run both Method 30 (Short/Long Path Smoothing) and Method 9 (HPF-MUF-FOT Graph) for our circuit, we would write the following lines:
METHOD 30 0 EXECUTE METHOD 9 0 EXECUTE
Now VOACAPW.EXE first executes Method 30 for the input data entered above, and then Method 9 for the same input data. If you take a look at the result file (VOACAPX.OUT), you will see that the graphs for our newly-specified 12 months follows the Method 30 output data.
If we implement all our modifications so far, the input file looks like this:
COMMENT Any VOACAP default cards may be placed in the file: VOACAP.DEF LINEMAX 55 number of lines-per-page COEFFS CCIR TIME 1 24 1 1 MONTH 2002 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.0010.0011.0012.00 SUNSPOT 110. 109. 106. 103. 101. 98. 96. 93. 90. 87. 85. 81. LABEL PORI JOHANNESBURG CIRCUIT 61.48N 21.78E 26.25S 28.00E S 0 SYSTEM 1. 155. 3.00 90. 67.0 3.00 0.10 FPROB 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.00 ANTENNA 1 1 2 11 12.000[default\CCIR.000 ] 0.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 2 11 15 0.000[omat\3elhw.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 3 15 22 0.000[omat\3elone.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 4 22 24 0.000[omat\3eloq.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 5 24 27 0.000[omat\3elo3q.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 6 27 30 0.000[omat\3eltwo.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 2 7 2 11 6.000[default\CCIR.000 ] 0.0 6.0000 ANTENNA 2 8 11 15 0.000[omat\3elhw.ANT ]357.0 ANTENNA 2 9 15 22 0.000[omat\3elone.ANT ]357.0 ANTENNA 2 10 22 30 0.000[omat\3eloq.ANT ]357.0 FREQUENCY 6.07 7.20 9.7011.8513.7015.3517.7321.6525.89 0.00 0.00 METHOD 30 0 EXECUTE METHOD 9 0 EXECUTE QUIT
Please note that running this file produces a 300-page result file!
4. Defining more than 11 FREQUENCIES for calculations.
Below we run 18 frequencies:
COMMENT Any VOACAP default cards may be placed in the file: VOACAP.DEF LINEMAX 55 number of lines-per-page COEFFS CCIR TIME 1 24 1 1 MONTH 2002 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.0010.0011.0012.00 SUNSPOT 110. 109. 106. 103. 101. 98. 96. 93. 90. 87. 85. 81. LABEL PORI JOHANNESBURG CIRCUIT 61.48N 21.78E 26.25S 28.00E S 0 SYSTEM 1. 155. 3.00 90. 67.0 3.00 0.10 FPROB 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.00 ANTENNA 1 1 2 11 12.000[default\CCIR.000 ] 0.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 2 11 15 0.000[omat\3elhw.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 3 15 22 0.000[omat\3elone.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 4 22 24 0.000[omat\3eloq.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 5 24 27 0.000[omat\3elo3q.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 6 27 30 0.000[omat\3eltwo.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 2 7 2 11 6.000[default\CCIR.000 ] 0.0 6.0000 ANTENNA 2 8 11 15 0.000[omat\3elhw.ANT ]357.0 ANTENNA 2 9 15 22 0.000[omat\3elone.ANT ]357.0 ANTENNA 2 10 22 30 0.000[omat\3eloq.ANT ]357.0 FREQUENCY 6.07 7.20 9.7011.8513.7015.3517.7321.6525.89 0.00 0.00 METHOD 30 0 EXECUTE FREQUENCY 2.00 3.70 7.0510.0714.1818.1021.2324.9528.30 0.00 0.00 EXECUTE QUIT
This run produces 576 pages or 23,650 output lines!
5. Defining an alternative set of SYSTEM parameters for the given circuit
COMMENT Any VOACAP default cards may be placed in the file: VOACAP.DEF LINEMAX 55 number of lines-per-page COEFFS CCIR TIME 1 24 1 1 MONTH 2002 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.0010.0011.0012.00 SUNSPOT 110. 109. 106. 103. 101. 98. 96. 93. 90. 87. 85. 81. LABEL PORI JOHANNESBURG CIRCUIT 61.48N 21.78E 26.25S 28.00E S 0 SYSTEM 1. 155. 3.00 90. 67.0 3.00 0.10 FPROB 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.00 ANTENNA 1 1 2 11 12.000[default\CCIR.000 ] 0.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 2 11 15 0.000[omat\3elhw.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 3 15 22 0.000[omat\3elone.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 4 22 24 0.000[omat\3eloq.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 5 24 27 0.000[omat\3elo3q.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 1 6 27 30 0.000[omat\3eltwo.ANT ]175.0 0.1000 ANTENNA 2 7 2 11 6.000[default\CCIR.000 ] 0.0 6.0000 ANTENNA 2 8 11 15 0.000[omat\3elhw.ANT ]357.0 ANTENNA 2 9 15 22 0.000[omat\3elone.ANT ]357.0 ANTENNA 2 10 22 30 0.000[omat\3eloq.ANT ]357.0 FREQUENCY 6.07 7.20 9.7011.8513.7015.3517.7321.6525.89 0.00 0.00 METHOD 30 0 EXECUTE SYSTEM 1. 155. 0.10 90. 27.0 3.00 0.10 EXECUTE QUIT
6. Running a set of different CIRCUITS while keeping other parameters fixed
COMMENT Any VOACAP default cards may be placed in the file: VOACAP.DEF LINEMAX 55 number of lines-per-page COEFFS CCIR TIME 1 24 1 1 MONTH 2002 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.0010.0011.0012.00 SUNSPOT 110. 109. 106. 103. 101. 98. 96. 93. 90. 87. 85. 81. LABEL PORI JOHANNESBURG CIRCUIT 61.48N 21.78E 26.25S 28.00E S 0 SYSTEM 1. 155. 3.00 90. 67.0 3.00 0.10 FPROB 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.00 ANTENNA 1 1 2 30 0.000[default\CONST17.VOA ] 0.0 350.0000 ANTENNA 2 2 2 30 0.000[default\SWWHIP.VOA ] 0.0 0.0000 FREQUENCY 6.07 7.20 9.7011.8513.7015.3517.7321.6525.89 0.00 0.00 METHOD 30 0 EXECUTE LABEL PORI WELLINGTON CIRCUIT 61.48N 21.78E 41.28S 174.78E S 0 EXECUTE LABEL PORI NEW YORK CIRCUIT 61.48N 21.78E 40.43N 74.00W S 0 EXECUTE QUIT
Please note that while running different circuits in one go, you must use a fixed antenna configuration for all the circuits! In our example we have chosen an omnidirectional 17-dBi antenna for testing purposes.