If you want to save your time by not installing voacap on your computer, you still can use the online tool for coverage analysis (voacap.com). You can even automate this using a small shell script to build a PDF file with your HF propagation simulation.

Please note: The following script is provided for educational purpose only.

Prerequisites

• ImageMagick

• wget

Script

#!/bin/sh tt=$(date -u +”%Y %m %H”) year=$(echo $tt | awk ‘{print$1}’) month=$(echo $tt | awk ‘{print$2}’) time=$(echo $tt | awk ‘{print$3}’) txlat=12.123 txlon=2.816 txname=myname txmode=24 #24=cw 38=ssb 49=am rxantenna=d10m.ant #txantenna=isotrope.ant _get_txband () {  tmp=out.html  filename=$txname-$year-$month-$time-${txband}MHz-${txpower}kW.png  echo $filename  echo $filename>&2  test -e $filename && return  wget -k -O $tmp “http://www.voacap.com/area.php?year=$year&month=$month&time=$time&TDX=9999&txname=$txname&txlat=$txlat&txlon=$txlon&txantenna=$txantenna&txpower=$txpower&txmode=$txmode&es=noes&band=$txband&path=Short&rxantenna=$rxantenna” 2>/dev/null  img_url=$(cat $tmp | grep img |sed ‘s/.src=”//;s/”.//g’)  wget -O $filename $img_url 2>/dev/null  rm $tmp }

Some example loops for data extraction

_loop_outdoor () {  txpower=0.005 #kW  for time in 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22; do   txantenna=v14.ant   for txband in 7.030 10.116 14.060; do #MHz    files=$files” “$(_get_txband)   done  done } _loop_shack () {  for txpower in 0.005 0.010 0.050; do #kW   txantenna=d10m.ant   for txband in 3.560 7.030 10.116 14.060 18.086 21.060 24.906 28.060; do #MHz    files=$files” “$(_get_txband)   done  done } _loop_outdoor pdfname=”$txname-“$(echo $tt |sed ‘s/ /-/g’)”.pdf” echo convert $(echo $files) $pdfname