GREAT CIRCLE

[flintstone mop]

Hi all,
How Where can I get a great circle map to calculate long path and short path beam headings??
Thanks
Fred

[Jim, W5JO]

Fred:

I don't know if this will be of assistance to you or not, but you can look at it.

73  Jim
W5JO


http://openmap.bbn.com/

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Go here:
http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxview/

He has a whole suite of freeware programs. This is great stuff. Lots of great reviews. Even I use it.
http://www.dxlabsuite.com/

[Ian VK3KRI]

I've used http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml to generate whole worl and small area maps.

[flintstone mop]

Thanks Guys,
But my days of playing with the computer and shareware, creating folders and warnings that "this application might break windows XP isn't for me.
I thought the ARRL had a big circle map that one could calculate long path and short path beam headings.
Me and my wife use this computer pretty heavily and don't need any headaches.
Any "old fashioned way" to see long path?
THanks
Old fashioned FRED 'MOP radio

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Parts of this article can give you some info on how to calculate great circle distances, short and long paths, between two distances.
http://www.arrl.org/files/contests/ln9404.pdf

I'm not sure why you would want to go through this each time you need to calculate this information unless you love doing Sine, Cosine, etc. type calculations. (UGH) The computer programs take out all the pain. These's also a few DOS programs floating around that also do long/short path distance calculations. I saw them somewhere when I did a Google search on "great circle distances".

[flintstone mop]

Thanks Pete,
There's a  Peter Oldfield that has a program DX-AID that I have sent an email inquiring about his software. (poldfield@compuserve.com)I got this info from the DXers antenna book by ON4UN. I don't know how old this book is, maybe 4yrs old, so this Peter Oldfield may not be doing DX-AID anymore.
There was a section in there about long and short path.
I also read that the long path can sometimes be 180 degrees opposite the short path, but then I read on that this long path is a seasonal thing too.
Very interesting happenings in the aether.
73..........Fred

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Thanks Pete,
There's a  Peter Oldfield that has a program DX-AID that I have sent an email inquiring about his software. (poldfield@compuserve.com)I got this info from the DXers antenna book by ON4UN. I don't know how old this book is, maybe 4yrs old, so this Peter Oldfield may not be doing DX-AID anymore.
There was a section in there about long and short path.
I also read that the long path can sometimes be 180 degrees opposite the short path, but then I read on that this long path is a seasonal thing too.
Very interesting happenings in the aether.
73..........Fred

This is from a review on eham.net:
Unfortunately, created at the time of MiniProp Plus and CAPMAN, DXAID runs in DOS protected mode and uses the EGA Hicolor resolution with all constraints of this environment. For example, a runtime error 207 ejects you from the system if you don't validate the current conditions before to run the forecast ("Forecast" menu, Set Current conditions). But it is as much a programmation error not handled by the system as an user error who wants to go faster than the system in "cutting corners" of the validation process, Hi !

DXAID is available in two DOS versions, one supported by Windows 9x, the other by Windows 2000/XP/ME. It can be purchased by emailing the author in Canada (as of Sept 2004).

Can't find any info about it after 2004.

I also read that the long path can sometimes be 180 degrees opposite the short path, but then I read on that this long path is a seasonal thing too.

Determining the long path and short path distance and beam heading  between two locations requires a number of parameters to be considered to do it accurately.

[flintstone mop]

Thanks again Pete,
I'll check further into the DX-AID. And I'll call ARRL if they have any info.

Fred