Ham radio tutorial software

This program's the result of my recent attempts to upgrade my technical expertise, to the point where I could upgrade my amateur radio license (if you'd like to find out more about amateur radio, start at the ARRL web site.)

The question pools for the various (technician, general, extra class) license grades are available on the web as ASCII-text files, containing hundreds of multiple-choice questions. But printing them out and reading them (in my opinion) is not a very good way of reviewing the questions, because (a) the correct answers are part of the text file, and (b) all of the questions are in a pre-established order.

So, I decided to write a program to:

I think this program does the trick.

I originally envisioned this program as a GUI-based program, but then just decided to make it quick and dirty. So, it has to run in an MS-DOS "window" (under Windows 9X). You'll have to download the program, and the applicable VEC question pool, to a common directory. Then, at the MS-DOS window "prompt", you enter the name of the program, followed by the name of the test pool file, and hit the "enter" key. For example, when I'm ready to do a bit of reviewing of the extra class license pool (text file "el4-2000.txt"), I type

    lictutor el4-2000.txt

Once the program is running, everything should be pretty simple to figure out.

Download program executable (.zip file) here.

For the curious among you, source code (C++) is available here.

And, don't forget to download the applicable ASCII-test file of questions (and probably a .pdf file too, for the graphics) from the net at http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/pools.htm. Keep in mind that the graphics (.pdf) file is not loaded or accessed by the program, but you'll probably need to print it out to study the applicable questions.

Finally, a request: if you find this program at all useful, please send me an email to let me know.

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