I started this project to help me work DX on ten meters. I
tried various maps from several different sources, but they were
not accurate, not easy to use, and just not helpful. So I
remembered seeing some trigonometric calculations that woudl
given two points on Earth, would find the great circle beam
heading and distance. While these calculations might not be good
enough to guide missles, they should be accurate enough to aim
an amateur's beam. At this time there will be two archived files
that need to be downloaded. This archive and the file containing
the location.dat file. The location.dat file will contain over
2,000 entries which may be printed or searched. If you choose to
print the file, have plenty of paper. At 66 lines per page over
30 pages will be required!
Before this program will do anything valuable for you, it is
necessary that you give it some station information. There are
some other ShareWare programs available that do the same thing
mine does, but before you can use them, you MUST register the
software so the author can configure the program for you. Not so
with this program, choose 9 from the menu and answer the ques
tions. The program now knows where, and who you are and will do
all the work for you.
To find a city, enter the name or at least the first letter
(or few letters) and let the computer match your information to
that in the location.dat file. If you have the latitude and lon
gitude for a location not in the table, you may add it with this
program. If you want to edit the location.dat file, any editor
that works with ASCII text files may be used. Any latitudes that
are south of the Equator should be entered as a negative lati
tude. Any longitudes that are east should be entered as a nega
tive number. Latitudes and longitudes have been rounded off to
the nearest degree with no minutes. If you want to get more
precise, you may divied the number of minutes by 60 to convert to
hundredths and add that to the degrees. For example, 29 degrees
and 30 minutes would be entered as 29.5 degrees.
Good News, good news! (Quote from Dukes of Hazard)
This is just the beginning. I am hoping to create a complete
station operating and managing program. Like all software it
takes time (and effort), this took one evening for the calcula
tions and program, although the location.dat file is going to
take several weekends (I don't type very fast). I am planning to
add a logging routine, maybe a WAS, DXCC, 10-10, whatever track
ing section, a QSL card manager, ham formulas calculator, and
whatever else I can think of, or have suggested (if I can figure
out how).
LAYOUT 000
r B < ? A · \---#----+----+----------------+--------------------+---------@-/---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---- B < ? A · ---------\----+----------------+--------------------+------@-/------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---- B
