[VHFcontesting] SPLAT!

[k4gun at comcast.net]

Greeat stuff man.  I'll be spending a lot of time on this one!  Thanks.

Steve

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: James Duffey <JamesDuffey at comcast.net> 

> The ARRL internet surfer, WA1LOU, has just posted on the ARRL page an 
> interesting summary of a web page called SPLAT!: 
> 
> < http://cs.ecok.edu/~bw/SPLAT/ > 
> 
> SPLAT! calculates path loss for frequencies from 20 MHz to 20 GHz. You 
> input your location, antenna height, and frequency. It will calculate 
> a coverage pattern for you using the Longley-Rice Irregular terrain 
> model. It will calculate the path loss between two stations and 
> display the path loss as a function of distance between two stations. 
> 
> You need to input your lat and lon and it adds it to a database of 
> other stations. You can calculate the path loss between any two 
> stations that are on the list. 
> 
> This is a web hosted version of the LINUX program SPLAT!, with which I 
> was not familiar. 
> 
> I entered a couple of my favorite rover sites and the results seem to 
> qualitatively agree with what I have experienced. The path loss 
> calculation lets you see what you need to do to work those stations 
> that never seem to come back to you. It also lets you evaluate 
> potential rover sites against working the usual contest suspects. 
> 
> Using this you can calculate the effects of antenna height and sloping 
> ground. 
> 
> The are a couple of things one needs to look out for, I noticed that 
> it calculates the path loss assuming vertical polarization and it 
> defaults to the temperate climate model. Assuming vertical 
> polarization probably is a few dB down on horizontal polarization for 
> troposcatter and in some locals a better climate model should be used. 
> The desert option would be nice here in NM. The Linux version allows 
> one to change these things, but you also need to download a whole lot 
> of terrain data that the web page author has already done. 
> 
> Try it out, it is a great tool for planning roves. - Duffey 
> -- 
> KK6MC 
> James Duffey 
> Cedar Crest NM 
> 
> 
>