[TowerTalk] Where to get HFTA Software

[Jim Lux]

On 3/3/12 6:48 PM, dotravel at aol.com wrote:
>
> Jim, if you did build a simplifiied way to enter the exact location of the antenna to import into HFTA you would be a hero to the masses because Microdem is a true PITA!
>
> Note that unless the site is on flat ground just entering the QTH location would not be enough. For the data to be of value,  the location of the tower needs to be within feet if not inches prior to importing into HFTA.
>
> Regards, John NA6L
>
Well.. I have a set of pre-SRTM CDs with DEMS on 3arcsecond increments 
(about 90 meters) in 1x1 degree squares.  SRTM is about 3 times better 
than that if you get the DTED2 files.

It's pretty easy to plug in a lat/lon and then interpolate into all the 
squares to generate the profiles.  I've actually got a C-language 
command line program that does that (and one in VB4.5 as well.. yes, 
I've had that data around for a while.. )

The hard part (for me) is integrating it with some sort of webserver. 
There's a bunch of ways of doing it.  And one could probably dynamically 
retrieve the SRTM data using cURL or similar.

It seems like it would be something that Google Earth can do, but I 
haven't fooled with GE enough to know.

RadioMobile might be another tool (it can definitely grab the SRTM data 
automatically), but like everything else, it has a fairly big "first 
step" on the learning curve.