Release 1.3.0: By John A. Magliacane (11-Apr-09): * Introduced one arc-second high-resolution versions of SPLAT! (splat-hd) and the srtm2sdf utility (srtm2sdf-hd) to permit detailed topographic and RF signal analyzes based on SRTM-1 digital elevation models. * Introduced a new configure script that generates the appropriate MAXPAGES parameter prior to compiling SPLAT! based on user interaction at configuration time. * Added transmitter EIRP, estimated received signal power level (in dBm), estimated received signal power density (in dBW/m^2), and received signal power density to Path Analysis Reports. EIRP can also now be expressed as dBm in place of ERP in Watts in .lrp files. * Added a new mapping mode that plots contours of received signal power levels in dBm using the new -dbm option. New .dcf files control the color scheme of the plotted contours. * The function of the -db option has been expanded to serve as a contour threshold limit for all three mapping modes (path loss, signal strength, and signal power level). * New -ano and -ani (alphanumeric output and input) options have replaced the -plo and -pli (path loss output and input) options, and can contain either path loss data (as before), field strength data (new), or received signal power level data (new). Path loss figures in .ano files ignore the effects of transmit antenna pattern, while field strength and received signal power levels take antenna pattern into account. * Uniform ground clutter height can now be specified using the new -gc switch. * Several bugs in SPLAT!'s UDT file handling were fixed. * Bugs affecting the operation of the -f switch were identified and fixed. * The reported field strength and the corresponding voltage induced across the receive antenna in Path Analysis Reports were found to be 2.14 dB too low. The cause was identified and fixed. * Some modifications were made in coding and scripting in response to changes that have occured in the latest versions of gcc and bash. * The documentation was updated to reflect all the improvements. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 1.2.3: By John A. Magliacane (30-Jul-08): * Fixed a problem that sometimes caused SPLAT! to hang indefinitely when reading some cartographic boundary files on some platforms. * Fixed a problem introduced in v1.2.2 that sometimes caused black horizontal and/or vertical dotted lines to appear in path-loss and signal strength contour plots. * The UDT file switch was described as -udt in the documentation, but recognized as -u in SPLAT!. SPLAT! was modified to reflect the documentation. * The -R option can now increase (as well as limit) the .ppm image size when generating topographic maps. * Dots ('.') are now permitted in the base of filenames passed to SPLAT! * Further improvements in accuracy were made to both SPLAT! and the srtm2sdf utility. Users are encouraged to re-create their .sdf files using the latest version of srtm2sdf for the best performance. * The loading and display of cartographic boundary files now works for any region of the planet. * A -gpsav command-line switch option was added to instruct SPLAT! to preserve the temporary working files it creates when invoking gnuplot. This permits users to view and edit these files, and even re-run gnuplot outside of SPLAT! (Tnx John McMellen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 1.2.2: By John A. Magliacane (10-May-08): * Cleared up some very small inaccuracies (+/- 1 pixel) through better numerical rounding techniques. * Transmitter site location names now appear in .ppm maps even if no city location files are loaded into SPLAT! * Fixed a problem that prevented operation over paths that extended across the Prime Meridian. * Fixed a problem that produced incorrect TX-to-RX distances in the Site Analysis Report when the -metric switch was used. (Tnx Martin, M0ADY) * When generating .ppm map contours, SPLAT! is now slightly more liberal when loading SDF files to help ensure the contour doesn't get cut off if it should approach the boundary of an SDF file. * Added a new utility called "bearing" (under utils) that determines distance and azimuth bearings between two site location (.qth) files. * The man page installation process was improved. * Some very minor documentation updates were made. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 1.2.1: By John A. Magliacane (18-Oct-07): * SPLAT! now imports transmitter effective radiated power information and predicts received field strength signal levels (dBuV/m) and antenna voltage based on the transmitter's antenna pattern, computed path loss, and ERP. ERP information is specified on the ninth line of SPLAT! .lrp files. * The ability to plot signal strength contour maps has been added. The color schemes for plotting signal strength and path loss contour maps can now be customized by editing the contents of .scf and .lcf files for each transmitter site. In addition, both signal strength and path loss contour maps can now be generated for multiple transmitter sites, with the greatest signal strength (or least path loss) illustrated in overlapping regions between sites. * A new -ngs switch assigns all topography to the color white in .ppm contour maps. The white background can be made transparent using simple graphics utilities for merging SPLAT! contour maps with other Mercator projection maps and graphics files of equivalent size and resolution. * Path loss and signal strength contour regions can now be exported to Google Earth as a semi-transparent ground overlay using the -kml switch. * The default contour map filename now defaults to the basename of the transmitter site .qth file (or first transmitter site within a network) with a .ppm extension (rather than "map.ppm"). * The Fresnel zone clearance percentage, which was fixed at 60% in the past, is now user-definable using the new -fz command-line option. * Information previously contained in SPLAT! Obstruction Reports has now been merged with Longley-Rice path loss information into a single Path Analysis report (with a .txt extension). (Longley-Rice output (.lro) files are no longer generated.) * Graph plotting (the -l option) no longer needs to be forced to perform a Longley-Rice path analysis in point-to-point mode. If a .lrp file is available and contains the information needed, Longley-Rice path loss information will be automatically included in SPLAT!'s Path Analysis Report when performing a point-to-point analysis. * In addition to information previously contained, SPLAT! Path Loss Output (-plo) files now contain additional information including path loss considering the effects of the transmitting antenna's radiation pattern (if pattern data is available), and field strength values (dBuV/m) based on pattern data and ERP data (if available). An asterisk at the end of each line indicates the path to the point referenced in the file is obstructed by terrain. * The srtm2sdf utility now handles 3-arc second SRTM in .BIL (Band Interleaved by Line) format, as well as the usual .HGT format. * SPLAT!'s associated itm.cpp file was updated to include the latest public domain ITM code released on June 26, 2007. * References in source code and documentation to "slots" and "MAXSLOTS" have been changed to "pages" and "MAXPAGES", respectively. * Two bugs affecting the plotting of Fresnel zones were identified and fixed. * A bug that produced some erroneous elevation angles in SPLAT! Path Loss Output (-plo option) files was identified and fixed. * Text documentation in Spanish was added (thanks to Charles Escobar). * The build scripts were modified to permit successful compilation with bzip2-1.0.4 libraries. (Thanks to Janek, SQ5MJL) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 1.2.0: By John A. Magliacane, (22-Dec-2006): * All graph plotting has been enhanced to include distances, azimuths, and in some cases, elevation angles, in numeric form. Height plots (-h option) now include a contour of the Earth's curvature. A new -H option was added that behaves the same as -h, except its display of heights is normalized to the heights of the endpoints along the plotted path. Graphs now default to PNG rather than GIF format to reflect gnuplot's current trend away from .gif output. (.gif is still available if your version of gnuplot supports it.) Postscript output is now generated in enhanced color. * SPLAT! can now determine and plot Fresnel Zone clearances. A new -f command-line option permits the Fresnel Zone frequency (in MHz) to be specified, otherwise it can be determined from .lrp files when path-loss calculations are performed. Antenna height requirements for 60% clearance (0.6 F1) and 100% clearance (F1) of the First Fresnel Zone now appear in Obstruction Reports. These zones are also displayed graphically in height plots (-h or -H options). * Support for antenna radiation patterns has been added. SPLAT! now reads normalized azimuth and elevation antenna field pattern data from separate .az and .el files when Longley-Rice studies are performed. One degree azimuth and one tenth degree elevation pattern resolution is supported along with azimuthal pattern rotation and mechanical vertical beam tilt. * A bug in the interpretation of the -n and -N command-line options was fixed. * Negative geographical coordinates in DMS format are now (hopefully) interpreted and displayed better than before. * SPLAT! data handling can be changed from imperial units (feet/miles) to metric (meters/kilometers) units using the new -metric switch. * SPLAT! can now generate topographic maps without plotting line-of-sight or path loss coverage. These maps are centered approximately on the given tx_site, extend out to a radius provided by the -R switch, and can be populated with county boundaries and city names, just like SPLAT!'s traditional line-of-sight and path loss maps. * Support for user-defined terrain files (ground clutter) has been added. * SPLAT! can now generate .geo Geo-reference Information Files when .ppm topography and coverage maps are created, permitting the integration of SPLAT! generated maps with X Amateur Station Tracking and Information Reporting (www.xastir.org) software. * SPLAT! can now generate .kml Keyhole Markup Language files that when imported into "Google Map", dramatically illustrate the RF path between transmitter and receiver locations when performing point-to-point analyses. * Support for exporting Longley-Rice path loss contour studies to external data files has been included. SPLAT! path loss files can be used for performing coverage or interference studies outside of SPLAT!. They can also be modified externally (with antenna pattern data, for example) through scripts or small utilities, and imported back into SPLAT! to generate coverage maps based on the revised data without having to re-run any time intensive Longley-Rice path loss calculations. * The documentation was updated to reflect the new features and functionality of the software. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 1.1.1: By John A. Magliacane, (01-Apr-2006): * An srtm2sdf utility was added to permit SPLAT Data Files to be derived from the latest 3-arc second SRTM (STS-99 Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) digital elevation model data. The quality of this data is *significantly* higher than that of older USGS Digital Elevation Models previously used by SPLAT!. Despite the higher quality, some voids in SRTM data sets still exist. When voids are detected, the srtm2sdf utility replaces them with equivalent elevation data found in existing SDF files (presumably generated from older USGS elevation models). If older SDF files are not available, voids are handled through pixel averaging or direct replacement. * Coding changes were made that in concert with the new srtm2sdf utility should allow SPLAT! to function over all regions of the planet for which SRTM-3 elevation data is available. * SPLAT's SDF search path priority has been changed. SPLAT! now searches for needed SDF files in the current working directory first. If the needed file isn't found, SPLAT! then searches in the path specified by the -d command-line option, or in the $HOME/.splat_path file. * The color scheme used by SPLAT! in the generation of Longley-Rice path loss maps was noticeably improved. * A new command-line option (-db) was added to allow constraints to be placed on the maximum attenuation contours plotted on path loss maps. * A possible array overflow condition in the ReadPath() function was identified and fixed. * Some very slight coding modifications were made to permit warning-free compilation under GCC 4.x.x. * The usgs2sdf utility was modified John Gabrysch (jgabby@gmail.com) to properly handle the latest USGS DEM file format, and to properly scale Alaska tiles. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 1.1.0: By John A. Magliacane, (29-Jan-2004): * Extensively modified by J. D. McDonald in January 2004 to include the Longley-Rice propagation model using C++ code from NTIA/ITS. In addition to analyzing line-of-sight propagation paths, SPLAT! now generates multi-color maps illustrating predicted signal strength (path loss), path loss graphs, path loss reports, and terrain height graphs. The default earth radius, as well as the default line-of-sight and path loss analysis range used by SPLAT! may also be modified using new command-line options. * splat.c was renamed to splat.cpp to reflect changes necessary to merge with Longley-Rice C++ code. A C++ compiler (gcc/g++) is now required to compile SPLAT!. * The documentation was updated to reflect the new features of the program. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 1.0.3: By John A. Magliacane (10-Jun-2002): * Coverage areas are now processed four times faster than before. (TNX KC6YSO) * Determination of antenna height above average terrain (HAAT) based on FCC Part 73.313(d) (Prediction of coverage) has been added. * Site analysis report generation has been added when coverage mode is invoked. These reports include ground height above mean sea level, antenna height above mean sea level, antenna height above average terrain, and average terrain calculated at azimuths of 0, 45, 90, 135, 180, 225, 270, and 315 degrees. * Added site location information in degree, minute, second format, as well as antenna height above average terrain to the content of obstruction reports. * Elevations below sea-level are now safely handled. * Greyscale of topographic maps generated by SPLAT! is now referenced between the highest and lowest elevations in the survey, instead of between the highest elevation and sea-level. This change in reference permits regions below sea level to be discernible in the map, and allows subtle terrain variations to be clearly evident over regions having relatively flat terrain. * The documentation was updated. * Several other minor coding changes/bug fixes were made. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 1.0.2: By John A. Magliacane (14-May-2002): * SPLAT! now buffers data while reading bzip2 compressed SPLAT Data Files (SDFs). A 100 MHz Pentium now loads compressed SDF files 208% faster than before, and takes only 2 seconds longer than an uncompressed file. * Configuration, compilation, and installation scripts now invoke bash instead of sh. The -ffast-math compiler option was removed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 1.0.1: By John A. Magliacane (22-Apr-2002): * The maximum number of transmitter/repeater sites handled per analysis has been increased from two to four. * Improved the configuration, compilation, and installation scripts. Now ./configure compiles and installs the program, man page, and all associated utilities in one command. * Some minor coding changes were made, including the addition of an #include in each of the utilities to silence a compilation warning issued by gcc version 3.x.x about the use of the exit() function. * The README and documentation files were updated. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 1.0.0: by John A. Magliacane (08-Apr-2002): * First public release of SPLAT!