BUGS FOR:
Note: Some 'BUGS' listed here under any issue are not true 'bugs' but are anomalies related to implementations of the MS-DOS and WINDOWS operating systems which apply to ALL subsequent and most previous issues of SAM. When feature changes are made which affect these anomalies, that information will be listed here as a 'FIX' for those conditions.
- 001
- Display of a valid callsign which has two or more previous holders shows a previous holder rather than the current holder.
When you enter a valid callsign, one with a current holder of that callsign, which has two or more previous holders tabulated in the FCC Databases and thus known to SAM, the first of these previous holders, alphabetically, will be displayed with his/her new callsign rather than the current valid holder of that callsign.
FIX: A new version of SAMCD.EXE, Rev.4.1.7, is now being shipped...
- If you have a subscription to SAM, your next issue, February 2007 or later, will include the newly revised version of SAMCD.EXE.
You may use this version of SAMCD to run any earlier SAM directly from the CD. A fresh CDINST is required for this action.
- We are preparing to have this new SAMCD.EXE available for download. When this is ready the instructions for downloading will be posted here!
2007-03-03
- 001
- With system clock set to 2007 or later, SAMCD.EXE displays birthdays incorrectly, adding 99 years.
At the time of Y2K, the algorithym for translating the two character year and day-of-the-year representations used in the previous FCC database in SAMCD.EXE differed from that used in SAM.EXE and did not experience difficulty. Thus, when making all the changes necessary for moving from the old database structure to the new ULS database, only the algorithym used in SAM.EXE was modified to correct for Y2K problems. That used in SAMCD.EXE had a hard coded offset to set the displayable age range at 7 to 106 years. This resulted in the two character year factor changing from 99 to 00 as the system clock moved from 2006 to 2007. This caused the century decision test to now be made between the encoded year and a very small number rather than between the encoded year and a large number. At this point the algorithym broke down adding a century and subtracting a year from each birthday to be displayed.
FIX: A new version of SAMCD.EXE, Rev.4.1.7, is now being shipped...
- If you have a Quarterly subscription to SAM, your next issue, Spring 2007, will include the newly revised version of SAMCD.EXE.
- If you have a Semi-Annual subscription to SAM which does not ship until late June and would like a copy of the new SAMCD.EXE now, please call us at 251-276-0212 or e-mail to <info@visradio.com> and we will send you the latest SAM with the new SAMCD.EXE.
- If you have a SAM issued after October, 2000, and would like a copy of the new SAMCD.EXE, we will be happy to send you the latest SAM with the revised SAMCD.EXE for the special price of $5 including postage.
2007-01-31
- 001
- Printing from SAM is delayed about 30 to 60 seconds.
When printing directly from SAM, such as to labels singularly, the actual printing may take from 30 to 60 seconds before it begins and the output may be truncated if an additional print command, such as 'F3', is issued before the delayed printing occurs. Windows XP apparently fails to include a print command character at the end of a DOS print function. This delays the print function until the printer time-out occurs a second time. This time-out is preset to 15 seconds, but system activity may delay the actual printing as spooled jobs are run at low priority.
Our thanks to Jerry Rochelle, K5QM, for this fix.
FIX: Set Windows printer timeout to a minimum value...
- Click Start | Run
- Enter 'Regedit' in the Open: edit box
- Click OK
- Click the '+' for the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder
- Click the '+' for the SYSTEM folder
- Click the '+' for the CurrentControlSet folder
- Click the '+' for the Control folder
- Click the WOW folder
- In the right-hand window, double click the LPT_timeout item
- Change the Value date: entry from '15' to '3'
- Click OK
- Click File
- Click Exit
- Reboot your computer for the new value to take effect
2006-03-01
- 001
- Reissued Vanity callsigns may not point to latest holder
A Vanity Callsign which has previously been issued and later canceled for any reason is not properly linked to a new holder who has not had any other previous action through the ULS system, such as a renewal, etc., prior to the issuance of this Vanity Callsign. The result is that the earlier holder of the Vanity Callsign will be displayed when the Vanity Callsign is entered into SAM with a linking to the new callsign of the earlier holder.
e.g. AG2B was earlier issued to Walter W Maxwell. He later received a new Vanity Callsign, W2WM, and released AG2B. AG2B was then issued to Carl Haas. As Carl had no previous history records in the new ULS database, his first record was the cancellation of the AG2B Vanity Callsign followed by the issuance of that callsign to him in place of his former callsign, WA2STH. This resulted in the cancellation, in SAM processing, of the later assignment leaving AG2B connected to W2WM as a previous call.
The process of evaluating the history records of such reissuances has been fixed as of the July (Summer) 2005 issue.
2005-07-31
- 001
- Counties cannot be displayed in WSAM32
The County access code is not recognized by the program.
We are working this problem but there is no current fix.
2002-01-28
- 002
- HD Install problems on Windows XP / XP-Pro
SAM Version 4.12 HDINST results in minimum install, No Canada or Option Files are loaded.
Windows XP does not properly handle DOS Batch Command "CHOICE" resulting in a minimum install which omits loading of the Canada database and the Option files.
Work around. Manually copy the omited files from [CD]:\SAMHD directory to C:\SAM.
These are:
1. SAMDBVE.DAT
2. SAMDBB.DAT
3. SAMDBI.DAT
4. SAMDBP.DAT
5. SAMDBPR.DAT
6. SAMDBX.DAT
7. SAMDBZ.DAT
A new version of HDINST is included beginning with the Winter 2003-2004 issue.
2001-03-18
- 001
- WSAM32 cannot find FORMATCODES.TXT
An incompatibility exists between the coding of WSAM32 and the recording standards of ISO-9660.
Work-around - you may use WSAM32 but cannot display the Format Code list.
A fix is in the Summer issue.
2001-06-04
- 001
- System hangs on DOS 5.0
SAM Version 4.02 through 4.12 are known to hang in a loop under MS-DOS 5.0
No fix is yet available.
2001-03-18
- 002
- System hangs on DOS 5.0
SAM Version 4.02 through 4.11 are known to hang in a loop under MS-DOS 5.0
No fix is yet available.
2001-03-18
- 001
- Erroneous Dates on Vanity Calls.
A number of erroneous dates, Birthday and First Licensed, have been propagated through to new holders of call signs received in the Vanity Call system from the data of the previous holders of those call signs.
We are preparing a program to verify or remove or correct all Birthdate and First Licensed dates and stop the propagation of these in the system. We should have no additional ones in this October issue and expect to have the corrections made by January 2001.
2000-09-23
- 005
- System hangs on DOS 5.0
SAM Version 4.02 through 4.11 are known to hang in a loop under MS-DOS 5.0
No fix is yet available.
2001-03-18
- 004
- No print to USB printers.
At this time we do not know of any available driver or setup command which will allow SAM (or any other DOS program) to print to USP connected printers.
If you know of such or find one, do let us know and we will post the information here.
- 003
- Print problems in Windows 95/98.
Direct Print [F3] function may or may not result in printing. Partial or no print or printer hangs may occur. No problem seen under Windows 3.xx or DOS 3.2 through 6.22 systems.
Apparent 32 bit problem resulting from the changes required for Y2K compatibility and the use of a newer, 32 bit compiler.
FIX: Set Windows to NOT spool printing for MS-DOS jobs...
- Click Start / Settings / Printers
- Select your Default printer, indicated by a check mark
- Select File / Properties
- Under the Details tab, Click on Port Settings...
- In the Configure LPT Port window, deselect Spool MS-DOS print jobs
- Click OK on the Configure LPT Port window
- Click Apply and OK on the Details tab to set the new configuration.
2000-09-14
- 002
- HDINST Fails in HP Presario.
Some difference in the CD Drive Name assignment mechanism in HP Presario computers causes HDINST to fail with the Not Available message.
Use 'Drag & Drop' to copy all files from M:\SAMHD to your current SAM directory on the C: drive.
2000-09-12
- 001
- Erroneous Dates on Vanity Calls.
A number of erroneous dates, Birthday and First Licensed, have been propagated through to new holders of call signs received in the Vanity Call system from the data of the previous holders of those call signs.
We are preparing a program to verify or remove or correct all Birthdate and First Licensed dates and stop the propagation of these in the system. We should have no additional ones in the forthcoming October issue and have the corrections made by January 2001.
2000-08-22
- 006
- No COUNTY option in CD Export Mode.
A file needed for this option which had been manually carried over by RT in the build of the CD Image was omitted in our use of the automated procedure supplied.
COUNTY Exports can be accomplished by using the SAMHD Files on the CD as follows.
Call SAM by the command: R:\SAM\SAMHD\SAM
Where [R:] is your CD Drive Name.
Then follow your usual procedures to generate the export.
2000-07-10
- 005
- Many references to RT Systems, Inc. remain in Help, etc.
All references to RT Systems, Inc. found in the documentation and on screens of SAM Amateur Radio Callsign Database should instead reference Van Iderstine & Sons, LLC. These will be corrected ASAP. Our current compiler will not compile these programs so the fix expected in July has been delayed.
Please contact VIS for all sales and technical support for SAM.
2000-07-01
- 004
- First Licensed Date for most new issue calls (after 01-01-2000) shows as "Before March 81".
Y2K found us again. We had discovered and fixed this problem for updated licenses, both new calls and simple renewals, but new issues slipped by us.
This has been fixed for the July 2000 issue.
A downloadable fix for the April issue is being prepared and will be listed here when available.
2000-06-20
- 003
- Wrong Names for Club, Military, RACES stations.
Most Names for Non-Individual stations are displayed in error.
The FCC allows up to 200 characters in the Entity Name field of their database. SAM provides for only 24 characters in the Last Name field in its database structure; therefore, SAM uses a manually generated Short Name conversion list to display Club, etc. names which are longer than 24 characters.
It appears that some misalignment of the indexes involved in recovery of the Short Name for Clubs, etc. during the build of the current 2000-05-05 SAM database files occurred resulting in most Clubs, etc. being linked to the wrong Short Name. Club, etc. names of less than 25 characters in the FCC database are displayed properly.
We are working on this problem but do not yet have a solution or work-around.
2000-06-20
- 002
- HDINST fails.
HDINST gives the following error report:
ERROR: One or more SAM files could not be copied to C:\SAM.
Possibly the disk is full or the directory you requested is invalid.
HDINST terminated...
An error occurs in HDINST when it checks for the presence of the specified destination directory.
The following command line(s) may be used to work around this problem.
From the CD drive prompt (E:\> in this example) you will copy all files from the SAMHD directory on the CD to the RunTime directory on your hard drive (C:\SAM in this example).
E:\>XCOPY SAMHD /S /Y C:\SAM
2000-06-21-R2
- 001
- Apparent misalignment in SAMCD database.
A wrong callsign and its corresponding data are displayed without an error message when doing a Callsign Lookup in SAMCD. The wrong callsign is the same whenever the corresponding call is requested.
When SAMCD has been installed on a system using CDINST and a different version SAM CD is placed in the CD drive, lookup of callsigns is misdirected by the earlier installed indexes. SAMCD fails to detect the incorrect version CD dataset.
Reinstall SAMCD using the new CD. From START - RUN, execute CDINST by entering your CD drive name (E:\> in this example) and the program name CDINST.
Open: E:\CDINST
This action will load the correct indexes onto the hard drive.
2000-06-17
End of BUGS file.