Announcing a New Release ---- SmartSmith version 1.7.2
SmartSmith is a free Smith Chart Plotting program.

Since the last publicized release (ver 1.6.2), there have been many
improvements, as follows:

Main Window -
The main window has been re-organized to separate the transmission
line data and to move the current admittance and impedance displays
out of the Smith Chart area.

Control over Design Elements -
The Short Circuit Stub control now has a more rational Up/Down
control. It starts at 90 degrees length and goes to zero length. The
counter reading and the separate electrical degrees display now agree
with one another. All 3 transmission line controls now display
fractions of a wavelength in addition to the electrical degrees.

The Help File has been updated to cover all of the new features.

Previous Installation Problems Resolved -
Releases are packaged so that there should no longer be a problem
installing on any 32 bit versions of Windows - i.e., Win 98 or later.
See the list of download sites at the end of this file.

Awareness of Regional Options -
The program is now aware of the Regional Settings as set in the
Control Panel. Thus, European users will now see a comma as the
decimal separator instead of the period and will use the comma as the
decimal separator for data entry.

Transmission Line Database made user friendly -
The user can create or edit the Transmission Line Database as an ASCII
text file using any text editor, such as Notepad. Two pre-defined
Master Transmission Line Databases are supplied with the program - one
for Western Europe and one for USA. The appropriate database is to be
selected by the user at first use and saved. Afterwards, that database
will automatically be used unless the user chooses use a different
one. It is possible to create and save many different transmission
line databases.

An Auto-Erase feature has be added -
This feature allows the user to erase plotted points by backing up
over them. This feature is useful when the user overshoots the desired
value.

User Configuration Features Added -
In addition to the configuration of the transmission line
characteristics and the open and short circuit stub impedances, the
user can also configu

- the Font used for displays.
- the Auto-Erase flag (turns Auto-Erase on or off)
- the width of the points in Auto-Erase mode

Saving the Configuration -
The configuration is now saved in an INI file whenever the user
chooses to save the configuration. The INI file initializes the
program with the user saved configuration at each start up. The
configuration items that are saved include the following:

- Font
- Auto-Erase flag and the width of the plot points in Auto-Erase mode
- Transmission Line Database Filename
- Line velocity factor, characteristic impedance and Frequency
- Stub termination resistance, capacitance and inductance

New Tools -
The Tool set now includes a tool for adding another Transmission Line
Type to the Transmission Line Database. The tool accepts two points on
the attenuation versus frequency curve and converts that to
coefficients, "a" and "k" used in the transmission line database. The
user also enters a velocity factor, characteristic impedance, Ro, and
a description. The tool appends a new record to the user specified
database or starts a new database.

Plotting Package -
The plotting package, NetworkProcessor, which is designed specifically
to support SmartSmith, has been upgraded (as of 2/9/2005) to include
SWR plotting (in addition to both magnitude and phase angle of
Voltage, Current and Impedance).

Packaging -
The download packages are as follows:
SmartSmith and the Plotting Package, NetworkProcessor, are now
packaged together as a single installation kit.
Network Processor (the plotting package), is also available as a
separate package from the f20 site and the qsl site.

Download Site:
http://zaffora.f2o.org/W9DMK/W9dmk.html
High Speed Download Site:
http://64.217.230.66
Limited Site:
http://www.qsl.net/w9dmk (this site has NetworkProcessor
plotting package and other free software offerings but does not have
SmartSmith)


Bob, W9DMK, Dahlgren, VA
Replace "nobody" with my callsign for e-mail
http://www.qsl.net/w9dmk
http://zaffora/f2o.org/W9DMK/W9dmk.html