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 Previous: No Kids, No Pets Allowed in Space, Texas Youngsters Told During Radio Contacts |  Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
July 8, 2005
This week, we check out a Web site that provides the tools for evaluating how well your signal gets from here to there.
Visit KD2BD's SPLAT! Web page for a 20 MHz-20 GHz RF signal propagation, loss, and terrain analysis tool. |
John Magliacane, KD2BD, e-mailed me with the following, "Mr. David Lane, KG4GIY, suggested that I contact you regarding a piece of Linux-based radio propagation software I authored several years ago. My program, entitled SPLAT!, is an RF signal propagation, loss, and terrain analysis tool for the spectrum between 20 MHz and 20 GHz. It uses terrain data available from the US Geological Survey (USGS) to analyze point-to-point radio paths, as a well as coverage areas of repeaters and broadcast facilities. It can generate coverage maps, charts, and text reports that provide information on the location of obstructions due to terrain, as well as path-loss based on the Longley-Rice propagation model."
John added, "Details are available at" the SPLAT! Web page. Intrigued, I steered my browser over to the Web site to check out John's work. After perusing the page, I was sold.
For starters, the maps are excellent. The program uses USGS's Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data to generate maps and the results are very accurate.
"Generated topographic maps are in the form of 24-bit (True Color) Portable Pixmap (PPM) image files that can be easily viewed and/or converted to other formats using standard Unix applications and utilities. Through gnuplot, SPLAT! generates terrain profile plots in GIF, PNG, Postscript, Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD dxf, LaTeX, and many other formats supported by gnuplot. SPLAT! also generates obstruction and path-loss reports in the form of plain ASCII text." Check out the sample images on the Web page and you will be impressed.
SPLAT! is free and. may be redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the GNU General Public License. By the way, John has also written satellite tracking and communications software for Linux. For more information, go to the KB2BD Software Web page.
Until next week, keep on surfin'.
Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, likes to play with map-related software. To discuss maps, APRS, and other neat things, e-mail Stan.
| Previous: No Kids, No Pets Allowed in Space, Texas Youngsters Told During Radio Contacts | Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
