[TowerTalk] The Ultimate Atlas

[Dave D'Epagnier]

This is a bit off subject, but I think you'll want to know about this.

Ever work that rare DX station and wish that you had more to say to the
person on the other end who has already gone out of his/her way to speak
english to you, but doesn't have much to say either (besides the normal
working conditions and wx info)? Well, I thought a good way to break the
ice would be to know something about their specific QTH (besides what
country it's in), and maybe a phrase or two in their language.
So, I went downtown to the biggest bookstore I could find to find the
biggest atlas I could find so the country maps would be big enough so
that I might find their little village on it. While purusing the $150
elite Rand McNally version I noticed that for instance the country of
Malawi was shown at a scale of about 1" = 100 miles with maybe only
10-20 of the largest cities shown. I was about to purchase this when I
found out about the Microsoft Encarta Virtual Globe software. I bought
this bundled with the encyclopedia and some other goodies for $70. I
believe the globe program on it's own is about $40.
I got home, fired up the program, and holy smokes this program is
AWESOME! It shows that same map of Malawi at about 1" = 3 miles. I can
find hundreds of towns and villages in Malawi now. I can zoom in and out
in seconds and go any where on the globe nearly instantly. The program
also includes useful information about the country (demographics,
climate, geology, customs, music, etc.) that can be accessed with a few
keystrokes. The program's stuffed full of other handy info about the
countries including photos and a 3D flyby feature that allows you to fly
over any country or continent you chose, and get an idea of the terrain.
The only catch is that you need a fairly fast CD rom drive to run this
thing, but hey they're cheap now.
I would highly recommend this program because of its remarkable map
detail and ease of use.
Now if I could only learn a little Malawian tribal lingo...

--Dave
K0Qe

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