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 Previous: The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler |  Next: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Dayton Hamvention 2006, Happenings Around the Country and More |
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
June 23, 2006
This week, we visit Google Earth again and discover more Amateur Radio applications for the virtual globe program.
Last week I wrote, "And if you have a neat Google Earth Amateur Radio application, let me know and I will get the word out about it here."
You responded, and as promised, I am getting the word out here.
Don Agro, VE3VRW, wrote that MacLoggerDX v4.2.6b7 supports Google Earth. After performing any call sign look-up, a menu selection or single keystroke (Shift+Cmd+E) displays an aerial view of the call sign's location in Google Earth.
John Trice, AI4KN, and Stan Young, WG4RAY, said that Ham Radio Deluxe from Simon Brown, HB9DRV, supports Google Earth. Select two or more contacts in your Ham Radio Deluxe log, press the Google Earth button, and track the signal path between your home and your contact's location.
 Read this week's installment of Surfin' to find out how the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society and Google Earth are related. |
Long time Surfin' reader, Whitey Doherty, W1VV, wrote, "For the last three years, Don, N1DT, and I have been members of the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society and have activated 45 lights and lightships in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. We use Google Earth to find spots to operate from near the lights that you would never find from any map or chart. With Google Earth, you can see details right down to a fence or dirt road, small spaces on the side of road just big enough for our truck."
Justin Kates, KB3JUV, mentioned that EchoLink, one of the most popular ham radio VOIP ("voice over IP," for short, or "voice over Internet Protocol," for long) programs, displays the location of EchoLink nodes in Google Earth.
By the way, I mentioned in last week's Surfin' how I found a monolith in place of the Gateway Arch when I Google Earthed St Louis. Well, Steve Katz, N8WL, and Jay Sissom, KA9OKT, both informed me that if I disabled (unchecked) the "3D Buildings" layers option in Google Earth, the monolith would disappear and the arch would appear in its place. I did and it did.
Another "by the way," this one from Mule Christopher, K0MUL, is that Google Earth is now available for the Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. Originally only a Windows program, a Mac OS version was added back in January, and the Linux version was just added a few days ago.
Finally, here is a caveat emptor, but since Google Earth is free, I guess it is more of a "don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Depending on where you look with Google Earth, the quality of the zoomed image varies. If I view my cousin's apartment in Los Angeles, I can tell if somebody is in her apartment's swimming pool. On the other hand, if I view the WA1LOU homestead in downtown Wolcott, I can sort of tell that there is something there that looks like a blurry brown blob surrounded by a sea of blurry green lumps. I hate to say it, but I don't think you can get a worse Google Earth zoomed image than the one of my house, but I still like the program a lot.
Until next time, keep on surfin'.
Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, is drawing his antenna
tower with Google Sketch so he can view his QTH with Google Earth. To discuss
Google Earth, Google Sketch and other cool stuff, e-mail Stan or add comments to his blog.
| Previous: The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler | Next: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Dayton Hamvention 2006, Happenings Around the Country and More |
