[TowerTalk] Springtime down on the antenna farm

[jimlux]

Ron Bowman wrote:
> Hello All!
> 
> I have relocated to central Virginia (Richmond), and am in the process
> of closing on a home in the country. With 2.5 acres and lots of tall
> trees I will be busy planting antennae in the spring. My question: Is
> there any software out there that will allow me to input the locations
> of said trees to determine bearings of the wires and consequently
> radiation directions. I was thinking about using the GPS for position
> and elevation. I guess I could use a grid pad but it seems like a lot
> of work. I would like to be able to look at potential arrays or
> individual antennae for different bands or directions. Of course there
> will be a tower/yagi planted in the future but I do so enjoy nurturing
> wire antennae. I look forward to many interesting replies.
> 

SO you want to take the coordinates of the trees, and given the two 
ends, figure out the bearing?

THere's a bunch of online calculators that will give you a bearing 
between two lat/lon, although one has to be careful for small distances, 
because of numerical precision issues.

You can also set your GPS up for UTM grid coordinates, which are in 
meters.  You can then calculate direction by ArcTan