Bug#1063747: ITP: voacapl -- HF circuit prediction engine
Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
Owner: David da Silva Polverari <polverari@debian.org>
X-Debbugs-Cc: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
* Package name : voacapl
Version : 0.7.6
Upstream Contact: James Watson <jimwatson@mac.com>
* URL : https://github.com/jawatson/voacapl
* License : special (public domain), CC0-1.0 and GPL-3+ parts
Programming Lang: Fortran
Description : HF circuit prediction engine
voacapl is an implementation of VOACAP, the NTIA/ITS professional HF (high
frequency) propagation prediction program, originally developed for Voice of
America (VOA). It reads input files in the standard VOACAP format and writes
point-to-point or area prediction data to an output file (or files).
.
voacapl helps amateur radio operators ("hams") predict point-to-point path
loss and coverage of a given transceiver if given as inputs the transmitting
and receiving antennas, solar weather, and time/date.
.
The suggested pythonprop package provides a graphical interface for voacapl,
accepting inputs as fields and plotting the results as graphics.
VOACAP (Voice of America Coverage Analysis Program) is a modified
version of IONCAP (Ionospheric Communication Analysis and Prediction
Program), developed for use by Voice Of America (VOA).
Originally, IONCAP was developed by the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA), being a model that has been under
development by the U.S. Government since 1942. The strength of the model
is that it uses world maps of ionospheric parameters to construct the
ionospheric path and uses path-specific statistics to evaluate the
system performance factors.
IONCAP was selected by the VOA in 1985 because it provided the system
performance analysis capability they needed for design specifications
and it had a proven track record.
VOACAP's enhanced model is used worldwide to predict HF point-to-point
or area data. It is often used on Microsoft Windows, distributed inside
the HFWIN32 suite [1], where it is called VOACAPW.
There is a shortage of HF prediction packages on Debian. In the past, I
had to resort to using Windows machines to make HF predictions. Thus, I
intend to package voacapl, along with its companion GUI, pythonprop,
which depends on it.
Initially, I plan to package it by myself, and I will propose including
it in the Debian Hamradio Team. I don't need a sponsor. I have already
packaged them both, and just need to make some minor adjustments.
[1] http://www.greg-hand.com/hfwin32.html
--
⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀ David da Silva Polverari <polverari@debian.org>
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⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ Debian: The universal operating system
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