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Current Feature Articles   Nov 20 The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler   Nov 20 Adventure in the Arctic: VO2A Expedition to Labrador   Nov 20 Surfin': More Radio Piracy on the High Seas   Nov 16 Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Fall Magic   Nov 13 Surfin': The Real Pirate Radio   Nov 06 Surfin': Homebrewing Today   Nov 05 DX the Hard Way   Nov 02 ARRL In Action: What Have We Been Up to Lately?   Nov 01 It Seems to Us: It Doesn't Just Happen   Oct 30 Surfin': Mapping Up ARRL Products: VHF/UHF/Microwave (More) VHF/UHF Handbook--Second Edition -- THE guide to theory and practice in the VHF and UHF bands ARRL's VHF/UHF Antenna Classics -- Practical designs and construction details from the pages of QST. The ARRL UHF/Microwave Projects CD -- Practical projects, design and construction ideas for UHF and Microwave Experimenters Microwave Projects -- Complete designs and ideas for the microwave experimenter: signal sources, transverters, power amplifiers, test equipment and more. International Microwave Handbook -- Now Shipping! -- Reference information and designs for the microwave experimenter. Published by RSGB and ARRL.

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This week, a brand new application for Google Earth finds us flying through the ionosphere.

NASA’s Explore the Ionosphere (from the safety of your own home) Web page announced a new online tool that uses Google Earth to visualize the ionosphere.

This just in: NASA-funded researchers released to the general public a new "4D" live model of the Earth's ionosphere. Called Earth Space 4-D, this new online tool visualizes the ionosphere using Google Earth and an Internet connection.

"This is an exciting development," says solar physicist Lika Guhathakurta of NASA headquarters in Washington, DC. "The ionosphere is important to pilots, ham radio operators, earth scientists and even soldiers. Using this new 4D tool, they can monitor and study the ionosphere as if they're actually inside it."

NASA's Explore the Ionosphere (from the safety of your own home) Web page announced the news about the tool and includes a video demo highlighting its features as well as a link to instructions on how to launch it.

In order to use Earth Space 4-D, you first must install Google Earth on your computer (both Earth Space 4-D and Google Earth are free). Second, you follow the simple instructions listed on the Communication Alert and Prediction System (CAPS) Web page.

This tool is so new (only one day old as I write this) that I have only explored the tip of this impressive iceberg, but from what I have seen, it is an important addition to the Amateur Radio toolbox (its Maximum Useable Frequency [MUF] features alone should be interesting to most hams).

I highly recommend Earth Space 4-D. The price is right, so try it out.

Until next time, keep on surfin'!

Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, is fond of applications for Google Earth, especially radio-related ones. To communicate with Stan, send him e-mail or add comments to his blog. By the way, every installment of Surfin' is indexed here, so go look it up.

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Next: ARRL Card Checking at Dayton Hamvention