Scott's Tools
If you've heard about the "Scott's Tools" spreadsheet calculators workbook and have been looking for it, look no further - you have found it.
The software package linked below is an Excel spreadsheet that has a large number of worksheets in it, each of which calculates a different function. For example, the first calculator tab is an Ohm's Law calculator that will enable you to calculate power, voltage, current, or resistance/impedance when knowing any of the other two. Another calculator will enable you to measure the loss in a piece of coax cable, simply by measuring forward and reflected power (or VSWR) with the antenna connected and then not connected. It will then calculate the actual VSWR of the antenna, the losses in the cable and even the losses due to mismatch. Another calculator will enable you to determine whether or not an antenna, tower and mast combination you propose to use is sufficiently beefy to survive your local wind conditions - no more guesswork needed, and no more expensive mistakes. Yet another will enable you to calculate the length and position of a piece of coaxial transformer section needed to properly match a mismatched antenna.
There is no installation necessary to use this program, and it does not make any registry entries, either initially or when used. Simply download the file to the directory where you wish it to reside, and then click on it when you wish to run it. It should start Excel and run itself. To create a desktop icon for it, just open the directory where it is located, and with a right-click, drag the icon to the desktop. From the pop-up menu, choose "create shortcut here."
I do not know if this package will run on spreadsheet programs other than Excel. It should run just fine in any spreadsheet (such as Open Office) that runs Excel-compatible worksheets - there are no advanced-function macros anywhere in it. All are simple, basic spreadsheet cell functions that are no more complicated than simple mathematics operators. If you try running this program on anything other than Excel, please let me know how it works out for you so I can pass on the results.
This software is copyrighted and write-protected, and is distributed under the Gnu Public License for anyone to use pretty much as they wish. It may be copied and distributed freely, provided it is not modified, sold or used for profit. It is offered strictly "as-is" - use it at your own risk. You are specifically warned NOT to use it in place of the appropriate professional engineering calculations (such as tower engineering).
If you have any comments, complaints or suggestions regarding Scott's Tools, please feel free to use the email link at the left to write to me. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
© 2008, Scott Bidstrup, all rights reserved. Todos derechos reservados.