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[TowerTalk] Re: [CQ-Contest] Magnetic Declination (fwd)

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Subject: [TowerTalk] Re: [CQ-Contest] Magnetic Declination (fwd)
From: k6se@juno.com (Earl W Cunningham)
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 1997 01:05:10 EDT
Frank is quite right about using solar noon to find true north (or
south).  I used to use this trick for aligning satellite dishes in the
old days.  It was easier and more accurate than using a magnetic compass,
so I even wrote a simple program to calculate solar noon.  The program
basically did exactly what Frank suggests -- find sunrise and sunset
times, then find the exact halfway point between the two.  It's quite an
accurate method.

Of course, in 8P at this time of year, a 100-foot tower's shadow will be
only about 20 feet long at solar noon -- due south, as Frank points out.

73 es DX,
de Earl, K6SE

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