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KD2UJ Net Control 5.5

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What is it? NetControl is a program for people acting as the net control station on an amateur radio rag-chew net, specifically the Rooster Net (3990kHz, 0600 Eastern). You could use it for nets other than the Roosters, of course, as long as you don't mind your members' numbers being called Rooster Numbers and the date they joined your net as their Crow-in Date.

NetControl 5.5 is a complete rewrite done in C# using Visual Studio 2013 on Windows 8.1. It will install, and should run, on earlier versions of Windows starting with Windows XP SP3. Nothing is guaranteed. However, I will make a best effort to help you with these earlier versions of Windows.

You can install this alongside NetControl 5.0. There is no conflict between the two versions. You must have Administrator privileges to do the install.

Some of the changes include:

• The database has a new name. It is NetControl.accdb. You can find it in C:\Users\youruser\Documents\KD2UJ NetControl. On earlier versions of Windows the path is slightly different, but the final sub-directory is the same.


• If you want to convert your NetControl 5.0 database for use with 5.5, send it to me and I will convert it for you. My thinking is that there will be few enough of these that writing a conversion program would be more effort than manually converting each one on a request basis.


• The menus have been simplified and condensed. For instance, to import Roster.csv, choose File ==> Import Rooster Roster.


• When your cursor is anywhere on the main screen, pressing Home or Escape (5.5.5) will take it to the Suffix box.


• When you click on Web in Details view, it will be possible to populate the name and address fields from the Web callbook. (5.5.3)


• Clicking on Help, "Check for updates" will check for a new version of NetControl and download/install it if you wish. (5.5.1)


• If you feel that the list of the 10 newest Roosters is not up to date, click anywhere within the list to refresh it.


• A couple of Microsoft components are required: the Access 2007 database engine and .NET 4.0 Framework. If they aren't already on your machine, the installer will download and install them.


• Two new programs are included: NCCompact will perform an Access Compact & Repair operation on the database; NCEdit allows you to edit the contents of the database. NetControl itself should NOT be running when you're using either of these programs.


• A help file is included. To be honest, I haven't looked at it in years. Getting it updated is on my list.


• A number of annoying bugs were squashed during the rewrite. If you find any others, or have any suggestions for improvements or additions, please let me know.

Installation

Installation should go something like this:

1. Download the KD2UJ NetControl-Setup.exe file.
2. Double-click it and follow the prompts to install the programs.
3. If you're a Rooster, logon to the Online Rooster Roster and download Roster.csv. Skip to Step 5.
OR
4. If you're not a Rooster, here is the layout of the CSV file for importing to Net Control: Roster Layout.csv
5. Import the roster with File ==> Import Rooster Roster...