ProplabPro3 Questions

[DanElyea]

Back on the 22nd and 23rd of June, I sent several queries directly to the admin email address.  It’s about a month later now, and still no response, so I’ll try this forum.  Could be key personnel on summer vacation...

Restated questions are posted below.  Thanks to anyone who can assist me.

Best regards,

Dan Elyea

I bought PropLab3 about a year-and-half ago.  Results have been mixed, but I can’t complain until I get the latest Maintenance Builds (which I haven’t done).  Finally it got so unstable as to be almost useless.

I need Builds 1008, 1011, 1016, and 1017.  How do I access these Builds?

I want to install the program in a faster computer (which I have already purchased).  What do I have to do to accomplish this (pay for a second license, or buy a second program, or…)?  Some of the really valuable PropLab3 options take many hours to run.

Many thanks for your assistance

[auroradude]

Hi Dan,
   I can't help you myself, but I can attest to the fact that it has been really quiet at the forum for quite some time. I'm sure things will pick up with the increased solar activity. A while back the forum had crashed and there was debate as to weather it was even worth having any more. Luckily, it was resurected and lives on but I don't think it gats the regular attention as a matter of priorities for the administrators.
    That said, If Beth Katz is listening in, she seems to have a direct line to Cary and might be able to raise him for you. Beth, are you out there? In the mean time, I'll see if I can send Beth a direct email to get her attention. Of course, with things so slow right now maybe everyone is on vacation. Now would be the time.
   Hope this helps and good luck,
 Dennis Anderson
   

[DanElyea]

The latest development is that when I bring up Proplab-Pro, the little window with the cloud formations comes up with the "Please Wait" message.  It won't move beyond that point.  When I try to close the hung program, error message appears as follows:
szAppName: Proplab.exe
szAppVer: 3.0.0.1003
szModName: hungapp
szModVer: 0.0.0.0
offset: 00000000

Suggestions?

Thanks,

Dan

[BethKatz17582]

I was on vacation in Colorado (saw awesome skies at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park) and didn't have all the contact info with me. But I'm now home and seeing what I can do.

[DanElyea]

Bless you, Beth.

Ever so much appreciated.

Dan

[BethKatz17582]

I sent Cary email at what should be a good address. I did not get a reply. I didn't call his home in Canada (I'm in the US, and that would cost me money.). If he hasn't responded by next weekend, I'll do that. But for now I'm off to Boy Scout camp for a week.

[DanElyea]

Thanks for the update and your persistence, Beth.

All the best,

Dan

[DanElyea]

Just reporting in that I still have received no response to my queries (except for much-appreciated inputs from Beth and Dennis).

[DanElyea]

Today, Admin sent me some useful info to get my PropLab running again.  Happy Day!  The first time I brought it up this afternoon, it locked up before I even tried a run, but when I started it again, it ran.  I tried 3 or 4 short runs, and it seemed to do well.  Looking forward to a major run of the 3-D ray tracing.  That was problematic in the earlier version I had, because it wouldn't complete a long run without potting out.  On the road again!  Thanks to all who were supportive.  Here's hoping this is the bomb.  I really do like this program when I can get a good run out of it.  Hope to post an update when I have some more mileage on the updated program.

Dan

[BethKatz17582]

Yeah! May it keep working.

[DanElyea]

I'm glad to report that I've been using my ProplabPro a lot in recent days, and it's so good to have it back on the road again.

With appreciation,

Dan

[Zoghi]

hi
I am using the proplab3. i wanna get some oblique ionograms for my ray tracing. i know that i should first do raytracing for frequency sweeoing and elevation sweeping with the constant azimuth. i did it but when i 'loaded the file' no ionogram made. please help me.

[admin]

Check the "Sweep ALL of the above simultaneously" checkbox. Specify the elevation angles and frequencies to sweep. The Starting Azimuth should be automatically set to the bearing required to reach the receiver. Copy that value into the "Ending Angle" box and leave the stepping rate at 1 degree (so that it doesn't repeat the ray-tracing for more than the single bearing to the receiver).

Uncheck the "Use given path to determine distance, azimuth, hops, etc." box so that you can specify a "Path Length to use." It is very important that you specify a path length that is up to 4,000 km farther than the distance to the receiver, so that rays are allowed to hit the ground beyond the receiver for some distance.

Check the "Save Ground Results" box so that the information is written to your hard-disk. When you check this box, you will be prompted to specify a filename. You can accept the default if you would like, but don't forget what it is - you will need it to produce the oblique sounding chart.

Click on the Start button to start the ray-tracing. The screen will fill with a mess of red lines.

When the tracing is complete, click on the Analysis tab and "Load File". Specify the file you saved the data to. Results should be immediately displayed. Change the "Reception Radius" to larger or smaller values as needed. This allows rays that hit the ground within the specified radius to be included in the chart.

If you only perform a 2D ray-tracing, the "Extraordinary ray" checkbox will not function, since you can only trace extraordinary rays using the 3D ray-tracing function.

To get a higher-resolution chart, specify smaller stepping rates during the ray-tracing.

[admin]

hi
I am using the proplab3. i wanna get some oblique ionograms for my ray tracing. i know that i should first do raytracing for frequency sweeoing and elevation sweeping with the constant azimuth. i did it but when i 'loaded the file' no ionogram made. please help me.

One last point. If your azimuth is not bang-on to your receiver, or if you are using the topigraphical database feature to handle tilts in the ground-plane reflections, then the rays that hit the ground won't really be hitting anywhere near to your receiver. If no rays hit the ground within the "Reception Radius" of the receiver, no data will be plotted.

[Zoghi]

And another question: I wanna export the electron density used for raytracing as data such as matrix. How could this be happened?