I had the bright idea to develop a database with three layouts/forms. The quest was to have one main form that you could fill in all the necessary information for both the NTS Radiogram and NIMS ICS-213, then switch between the other two forms, one being the Radiogram and the other the ICS-213, and either be populated by the correct information. You would be able to export off the main form into a CSV or TAB file, then transmit that smaller file digitally. The other side would have the same program and be able to read and print the file in either Radiogram or ICS-213 format, which ever served the purpose best.

I'm fairly comfortable with the Filemaker Pro database software and this would have been an easy couple of hours job using it. The problem would be getting other hams to fork out $300 or so for Filemaker to be compatible, no matter how neat my program was. I had no luck finding a freeware copy of an older Filemaker version out in Warez-land. So I spent most of a snowy day in March trying to code my brainstorm using MS Access, figuring most people with Windoze PCs have some version of the Office Suite with that in it already. I'm not familiar with Access in the slightest, but I muddled through enough online tutorials to build the initial form. I never could figure out the export to be able to send just the information and not the whole database and finally gave up for the night. If someone is interested and more savvy with MS Access, I'll be glad to split all the profits from the idea as long as we offer it at no cost to the Amateur Radio community.

A while back I'd downloaded a free program called Q-Forms that was pretty slick. Although it doesn't meld the Radiogram and ICS-213 together, it does let you fill out either and save that file as an XML document. Compared to a scanned PDF of the ICS-213 at 125KB or so, the 1KB XML file looks like the ticket to get messages properly formatted for digital transmission. Q-Forms has buttons that automatically add the date and time (selectable between zulu or 12/24 local) in both Radiogram and ICS-213 screens. In the Radiogram screen there are buttons that will enter incremental Message Numbers, and a really neat feature is another button click will magically give you the word count in the "Check" field. Message precedence and handling (HX) are selected using drop-down boxes.

When it's necessary to print, despite what the help file says I can't find any way to do it other than opening the file in Windows Internet Explorer. There is no "File-->Print" menu selection in Q-Forms and when you hit "Ctrl-P" it just sits there. When you use the Q-Forms menus to "View Message In Browser" you have no browser option other than IE. I tried opening the files from the File Menu using my favorite Firefox browser, and the forms are readable albeit some portions are slightly skewed because of the coding. So stick with IE.

Aside from the printing bug-a-boo, I give Q-Forms "two thumbs up". I've got it installed on both the IC-910 and IC-746Pro computers that run NBEMS. Now the trick will be to get others to take the plunge. Since it's free, I hope it's an easy push off the diving board.