[TowerTalk] Magnetic North Info & Map

[Bernstein, Dave]

DXView, which is free via www.qsl.net/dxlab, will tell you when the sun's
longitude exactly matches yours -- at which point you can run outside and
pound a stake in the shadow of your tower. Accuracy of course depends on the
accuracty of your PC's clock, but there are plenty of free programs that
will let you sync with NBS.

    73,

        Dave, AA6YQ

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris BONDE [mailto:ve7hcb at rac.ca]
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 20:45 PM
To: SavageBR at aol.com
Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Magnetic North Info & Map


At 09:58 AM 2003-02-11 -0500, you wrote:
>Another tip for those of us in the northern hemisphere. Find the time for
>your local sunrise and sunset. Divide that time period by two to determine
>your local noon. At that moment, the shadow of your tower points to true
>North.
>
>Bruce  AA4Z

That might work if you donot have mountains like I do.  Or if you mean the 
official as set by the weather stations

For a fun excersize one year I tried taking the observed sunrise and 
sunset.  I also took markings where the sun rose and set on the mountains 
on the solstices and equinox.  Real fun.  The one thing that I would like 
to do is to observe the sunrise and sunset at the equator, the tropics and 
the northern circles at various times of the ear.  I have been told that 
dusk in the summer in the northern or southern parts is much longer, as at 
the equator the passage from light to dark ( & vice versa) is rapid.  Here 
in the mountains it tends to be longer as the sun sets behind the mountain 
during certain parts of the year at different times hence shines on the 
opposite mountain.  In one part of the town south side of the valley, the 
sun has just come out for the winter, it set in Nov and is now coming out 
for about half an hour.  No north from that.

To find north by oneself
I found that the best is to put up a stick vertical to the ground,  then 
one at the same angle to the ground as you are from the equator 
parallels,  then mark the length of the shadow cast by both at various 
times of the day.  Then join all the end of the lengths in a line to form 
an ellipse.  The shortest distance from the stick in then North.

Chris opr VE7HCB


_______________________________________________

See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any
questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.

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