Hambone v.1.001 -- November 2003

Hambone is a freeware application provided as a convenience for radio
amateurs.  It is produced by the Space Environment Center of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  The U.S.
government does not provide any guarantee or accept any liability
concerning this free software.

Hambone is written in IDL(R) (Interactive Data Language) developed by
Research Systems, Inc.  To run Hambone on your PC, you will need to
download and install the IDL Virtual Machine(TM) from the RSI web
site: http://www.rsinc.com/download.  The IDL Virtual Machine(TM) is
a free download.  It requires 200Mb of disk space. Currently, it is
available for Windows NT, 2000 and XP.  Check the Research Systems,
Inc. web site for updates.

The Activity Level is an index of auroral activity, i.e. a number
from 1 to 10, also known as the Hemispheric Power Index. The index is
derived from a statistical study of the data collected by the NOAA
POES satellites during passes over the Earth's polar regions. The
activity level is monitored in near real-time at NOAA's Space
Environment Center. For further information about the POES satellite
and the Activity Level, go to the following URL:
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap.

Installation
------------
To install Hambone, create a directory on your hard drive where you
wish Hambone to reside.  Unzip the contents of the Hambone zip file
in that directory.  Double click on the Hambone.sav file to run
Hambone.  (IDL Virtual Machine(TM), mentioned above, must already be
installed on your PC.)