[PVRCNC] RBN Analysis

[KAZeringue]

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N 3 N D   F U N   F A X    E X E C U T I V E   S U M M A R Y:
blah, blah-blah-blah. B-LAH.
E N D   N 3 N D   E X E C U T I V E   S U M M A R Y
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The link to the RBN graph tool I have been piddling with and mentioned 
at the Thursday NC/East chapter meeting is:
http://pvrcnc.org/php/pvrc_rbnspots.php

Fun Fax(verbose Version):
1) This tool will graph the spots from the skimmer RBN for up to five 
PVRC stations, very similar to the tool on the RBN website.  Be sure to 
select the contest, year, and band.  Leave skimmer blank to default to 
the skimmer with the greatest number of spots for the selected options. 
  I anticipate other graphing options, but its fairly slow work and I'm 
not a very good web programmer.

2) Only RBN spots for contest weekends are available.  All data was 
extracted for PVRC members as of the member list  I had available from 
N4AF prior to 2011 SS.  This may not/does not include "club" call signs. 
  I am willing to add call signs on request, including any non-members 
whose spots may be of general interest.(e.g., K4BAI is in the data 
extracts)  Due to the volume of data, it really needs to be limited.

2.a) Below each graph is a table of the RBN skimmers with the number of 
spots each has for any of the stations specified. Again, the default is 
to graph the skimmer with the most spots

2.3333)

c.iii) due to the limitations of the graphing tool(Google chart tools), 
the spots are normalized to the start of the contest.  For example, NAQP 
starts at 1800Z.  So spots in the first hour become 0.xx for graphing, 
1900 becomes 1.xx.

I am not happy with that, but that was a limitation of the open source 
graphing tools that I found which are available for $0.00.

5.0) It works with IE8, IE9, Firefox, SeaMonkey, Safari, and Google 
Chrome browsers.  It does NOT work with the Opera browser.

Vi)  The google chrome browser is in my opinion the best choice for 
printing because it is more flexible about providing options for 
landscape printing.  The others all render the graph equally well.

SEVEN) It is still a work in progress.  Rough edges and kludgy 
interface.  Several known problems/shortcomings.  Bug reports direct to 
W4KAZ.  Data accuracy is guaranteed to be at least 50% as accurate as 
elEscribanoInexacto's chapter meeting minutes used to be.

H) Suggestions are welcome.  Implementation of suggestions will be 
dependent upon the ease of programming them and my perception of how 
wide an audience might appreciate the change.  Ask me - I may at least 
add it to the long list of things I want to tinker upon.

9.666) All data was extracted from the raw data download files available 
from the reverse beacon network.  Thanks to the folks over there for 
making it available!

x)  Probably missed something.  But you're probably as bored reading 
this by now as N3ND would be, had he read past the executive summary. 
blah, blah, blah.   ;)

73 de w4kaz