[Towertalk] Terrain Analysis

[Chris BONDE]

I started trying todo this for my area by using a spreadsheet and its 
graphing possiblilites.  I drowned in it.

Now what you people are saying it is much easier.  Are there topo maps of 
Canada availbale so that I can investigate this challenge??
Chris opr VE7HCB


At 04:47 PM 2002-05-16 -0500, Ford Peterson wrote:

>Dink wrote:
>
>
> > What I learned last week has taken me to a new
> > area in my Amateur career. Terrain Analysis.
> > Fascinating stuff.
> >
>
>SNIP...
>
> >
> > Am I working too hard at this? (I guess I could change the
> > data to bigger steps and see if the graphs change.) My terrain
> > has a lot of variation and I figured I couldn't be too
> > detailed but does YT/YTAD really make use of that kind
> > of detail? Does a range of intervals like I have selected
> > mess up the calculations - should I stay fairly consistant
> > instead?
> >
>
>Great minds think alike!  I've been investigating the very same topic for
>the past week.
>
>I found this software by VE2DBE...
>
>http://www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html
>
>That is used to compute the HAAT and VHF/UHF coverage of mobile stations.
>The nifty thing is, it uses the USGS topomap data available on the internet.
>
>The data file contains the height above sea level in meters.  The cool thing
>is that the USGS uses a radar mapping scheme that took a plot of every grid
>everywhere.  The grid is 10 meters on a side.  Yes, every 10 meters.  You
>can program the topographical profile granularity down to 1 meter resolution
>if you like.  A map of your QTH, centered on your tower (GPS coodinates) and
>you can figure your topomap for the terrain analysis.
>
>I sent an email to the author a few days ago to see if the process could be
>automated for various points on the compass, no response.
>
>The maps are real nifty.  If you set the granularity to be small, you get a
>map with color contours that change each time the altitude changes.
>
>No, I don't have it all figured out yet, but the maps are cool.
>
>If you figure a better way to grab the data, let me know.  I'm interested
>too.
>
>Ford-N0FP
>ford@cmgate.com
>
>
>
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