In article k.net, "KØHB"
writes:

Several years ago ARRL marketed a WIN3.xx software package called "Radio
Designer" which was a 'lite' copy of a commercial RF design program.
Unfortunately the program does not run under 16- and 32-bit Windows
environments, and the OEM is not interested in entering into further
arrangements with ARRL.

Does anyone know of a similar program in a price range (under $500)
attractive to hams?

Zero cost ought to be attractive? :-)

Linear Technology Corporation has a free download version of their

LTspice / SwitcherCAD III at

http://www.linear.com

This is a standard SPICE plus the addition of switching power supply
section (using Linear's PSU ICs of course). The SPICE part runs the
same as everyone else's SPICE which has been optimized for speed
of execution.

Mine runs fine on a Windows 98 platform...as well as the Windows
XP on my wife's H-P machine.

The SPICE core is total freeware and that was Pedersen's request at
Berkeley. Other folks have taken the free core and established their
own Windows menus, pop-downs, and output formatting; that part is
individually copyrighted...like copyrighting fancy wrapping paper for a
present. :-)

"Radio Designer" has a SPICE core.

There are several SPICE "lite" versions available for free as demos, all
with "limited" component count, number of nodes, etc., etc. Those
limitations do not hinder a complex several-transistor plus several
standard IC circuit combination analysis. You can even get freebie
CDs in the mail on request of these demo versions. I have such as
well as the SPICE core source code in both C and FORTRAN.

If you are only interested in frequency-domain circuit analysis and
want an on-screen simulation circuit control (add, delete, insert,
modify values) along with some macromodels within, I can send you
my (formerly) shareware version of LINEA. LINEA is DOS-level,
looks monochrome, is not attractive in looks but the answers are
on-the-money out to double precision. At DOS level operation, it is
relatively immune to Windows versions' differences; LINEA was
originally written on a Spectra 70 mainframe and eventually ported
to a PC running Windows 3.1 at DOS level. LINEA is very small as
program packages go, roughly 150 K...pretty cosmetics take up
many megabytes.

LHA