On Thu, 26 Feb 2004, Buck Calabro wrote:
>
> The idea of a time limit to re-use a grid to limit circling is a
> horrible idea. I spent hours and hours poring over topo maps
> specifically to find roads that criss-cross grid lines so that I could
> readily work stations from both grids quickly. It takes like 15 minutes
> or so to drive, set up etc. 'over the line' but since I specifically
> picked a road on a ridge, it's a perfect opportunity to call CQ on an FM
> frequency and work people while I'm moving.
>
[snip]
>
> 73 from the heart,
> --KC2HIZ/r, Buck
Hopefully this discussion doesn't discourage too many people from trying
Roving.
But in case some people get the desire to try it, here's a neat tool that
has been very valuable to me in finding locations. Maybe many of you know
about it; if not, give it a try.
The program is called Radio Mobile. It's a free program written by VE2DBE
and is at:
http://www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html
The program does take a while to really get the feel of and the worst part
of it is downloading the SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) files.
The link to the above files is in the above page under "How To ...".
Each 1 arcsec file covers one-half a grid square and each file is between
4 and 12 Mb zipped; it unzips to approximately a 49 Mb file. These are
best downloaded over a DSL line or something faster.
Once you get the files you need and you learn to use the program, it
becomes easy to spot the high areas that you might want to use as
portable or Rover QTH's and gives you the path predictions between two
locations so you can tell if you're likely to work that other location
with your station (LOS; it doesn't consider tropo openings which are
icing on the cake).
Good luck and have fun!
73, Zack W9SZ
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