New Software Tool for Verifying If Roving Locations Are Within Your VUCC Circle
I have written a software tool in Python for determining if a set of local rover locations (specified in decimal degrees latitude and longitude) are all within 200km of each other. I used this for myself to determine which of my local roving locations were within my 200km VUCC circle. The script uses the Haversine method for determining the distance between two locations on the earths surface, assuming the earth has a constant radius. References are given in the readme.txt file provided below in the DropBox folder. It's a good planning tool too; if I'm going to go roving to a new local spot then I'd prefer to rove to a location within my VUCC circle so my contacts count toward my VUCC award totals. This is a Python script that is run from the command line, so I'm sorry but there is no user interface. If you're not sure what the command line is and you've never heard of the Python programming language this software tool is probably not for you. You can download the files here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xkvbaj41060h4vy/AAC0n_D3uDAjEgWwcwxxxjnba?dl=0
The DropBox folder contains the Python script, along with ad0dx_vucc_circle.txt, the file with my roving locations to give you an example of how to use the script. A readme.txt file is provided to give some more background and also a results file with the results from using the script on my roving locations file. You could examine the results file to determine if you think this Python script might be useful to you. Another great application is to put all your local WalMart's in the file to confirm if those WMPLOTA locations count toward your VUCC totals. Currently only latitude and longitude in decimal degrees are supported for locations. I haven't actually found the center of my own VUCC cirle at this point, but the tool has let me confirm and investigate all the locations I use for roving. It turns out for me that the DM68 69 78 79 four corner grid is in my circle as well as the location I operate from on the DM 88 89 grid line. My qth is in DM78 and is close to 39N latitude so DM79 is just a few miles north of me. The tool has shown me that I can also include DM77 in my VUCC circle, so that gives me a lot of options for roaming and counting grids towards my VUCC award. If you have any questions or comments please contact me off list at ad0dx at yahoo dot com. Thanks and 73's, Ron, ad0dx
That Great Ron! I also used the Haversine method to track my WMPLOTA rove as well, and while it would take a 100.79km circle, no station locations are more than 188.6km apart, so I am able to use all locations within the same VUCC 'circle'!
Here is a copy of Google Sheet, it shows a grid of the distances between all locations, and thee goal would me to keep them below 200km. There are 2 sections, one foe my home circle, and another for my rove. It gave teh same output as your script.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jUwB7sgjcHG0WEi7L9XxPYssxepS6FWLDIWq...
--Andrew/KE8FZT
On Sat, Jul 14, 2018 at 8:45 PM, Ron Bondy via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
I have written a software tool in Python for determining if a set of local rover locations (specified in decimal degrees latitude and longitude) are all within 200km of each other. I used this for myself to determine which of my local roving locations were within my 200km VUCC circle. The script uses the Haversine method for determining the distance between two locations on the earths surface, assuming the earth has a constant radius. References are given in the readme.txt file provided below in the DropBox folder. It's a good planning tool too; if I'm going to go roving to a new local spot then I'd prefer to rove to a location within my VUCC circle so my contacts count toward my VUCC award totals. This is a Python script that is run from the command line, so I'm sorry but there is no user interface. If you're not sure what the command line is and you've never heard of the Python programming language this software tool is probably not for you. You can download the files here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xkvbaj41060h4vy/AAC0n_D3uDAjEgWwcwxxxjnba?dl=0
The DropBox folder contains the Python script, along with ad0dx_vucc_circle.txt, the file with my roving locations to give you an example of how to use the script. A readme.txt file is provided to give some more background and also a results file with the results from using the script on my roving locations file. You could examine the results file to determine if you think this Python script might be useful to you. Another great application is to put all your local WalMart's in the file to confirm if those WMPLOTA locations count toward your VUCC totals. Currently only latitude and longitude in decimal degrees are supported for locations. I haven't actually found the center of my own VUCC cirle at this point, but the tool has let me confirm and investigate all the locations I use for roving. It turns out for me that the DM68 69 78 79 four corner grid is in my circle as well as the location I operate from on the DM 88 89 grid line. My qth is in DM78 and is close to 39N latitude so DM79 is just a few miles north of me. The tool has shown me that I can also include DM77 in my VUCC circle, so that gives me a lot of options for roaming and counting grids towards my VUCC award. If you have any questions or comments please contact me off list at ad0dx at yahoo dot com. Thanks and 73's, Ron, ad0dx
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Hi Ron,
That's a nice tool but it is a pity that it requires people to have Python installed, as this is beyond what most people do with their computers. I decided to make it more accessible by writing something similar in Python that runs in Windows, has a decent-enough GUI. It requires only that the files be extracted using a self-extracting archive and then running the kg2c_vucc.exe application. I've compiled it using 64bit Windows 10, so it won't work for 32bit Windows operating systems. If there's any interest I can see about compiling it for 32bit Windows. It can be downloaded from https://goo.gl/dc7948 Btw I used your haversine(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) function so distance calculations will be the same.
Best wishes, Milen KG2C
On Sat, Jul 14, 2018 at 8:45 PM, Ron Bondy via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
I have written a software tool in Python for determining if a set of local rover locations (specified in decimal degrees latitude and longitude) are all within 200km of each other. I used this for myself to determine which of my local roving locations were within my 200km VUCC circle. The script uses the Haversine method for determining the distance between two locations on the earths surface, assuming the earth has a constant radius. References are given in the readme.txt file provided below in the DropBox folder. It's a good planning tool too; if I'm going to go roving to a new local spot then I'd prefer to rove to a location within my VUCC circle so my contacts count toward my VUCC award totals. This is a Python script that is run from the command line, so I'm sorry but there is no user interface. If you're not sure what the command line is and you've never heard of the Python programming language this software tool is probably not for you. You can download the files here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xkvbaj41060h4vy/AAC0n_D3uDAjEgWwcwxxxjnba?dl=0
The DropBox folder contains the Python script, along with ad0dx_vucc_circle.txt, the file with my roving locations to give you an example of how to use the script. A readme.txt file is provided to give some more background and also a results file with the results from using the script on my roving locations file. You could examine the results file to determine if you think this Python script might be useful to you. Another great application is to put all your local WalMart's in the file to confirm if those WMPLOTA locations count toward your VUCC totals. Currently only latitude and longitude in decimal degrees are supported for locations. I haven't actually found the center of my own VUCC cirle at this point, but the tool has let me confirm and investigate all the locations I use for roving. It turns out for me that the DM68 69 78 79 four corner grid is in my circle as well as the location I operate from on the DM 88 89 grid line. My qth is in DM78 and is close to 39N latitude so DM79 is just a few miles north of me. The tool has shown me that I can also include DM77 in my VUCC circle, so that gives me a lot of options for roaming and counting grids towards my VUCC award. If you have any questions or comments please contact me off list at ad0dx at yahoo dot com. Thanks and 73's, Ron, ad0dx
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (3)
-
Andrew Northam -
Milen KG2C -
Ron Bondy