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Calculating distance when DXing

T

Tincap

I live in a small hamlet, south of Ottawa, Ontario, so I can't accurately use 'Ottawa ON to Tulsa OK' (for example) as a distance calculation while DXing. I'd like to use something which gives me an accurate distance. FMSCAN.org has a neat feature which gives the transmitter location, but what can I use to measure my distance from the desired transmitter location?

What online tools do you folks use for accurate distance calculations?

Thanks!

~BG
 
Here's what I do.

1 - Use Google Maps' satellite view to pinpoint my location. (In my browser it will show the coordinates in decimal form where the pointer is in real time, although I probably have a feature on Google Maps / Labs enabled and I don't remember which one it is at the moment.)
2 - Use this FCC coordinate converter to calculate my location in °,'," coordinates.
3 - Go to the FCC database (AM, FM, TV) and look up the station I heard.
4 - Go to this FCC distance calculator to calculate the distance and heading to/from the station relative to my location.

Alternatively, I could use the ruler feature in Google Earth, once I put markers in at the start and end coordinates, to find the distance. If I set it to a finer measurement, like centimeters for example, it's much more precise than the FCC site, then I just do a Google search to convert it to miles, kilometers, or whatever unit is desired. The syntax would be "##### cm in km (or mi)" and you can spell them out too. If it doesn't work properly I actually do recommend spelling them out.


If anyone has a better way to do it, I would be open to suggestions.
 
Here's a website that I use to calculate air distances between cities. It seems to be pretty accurate and great for dxing because it's calculations are 'as the crow flies' as opposed to being via highway like Google Maps (unless you do all that conversion). You may also be surprised at the tiny little hamlets that are in this website's database.
 
This is the website I use: http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm

I like it better than the one BRNout posted because you can click anywhere on the map, it's not based on a database, so it's way more accurate. Since it's based on Google Maps, you can zoom in close enough to click directly on your house, and directly on the transmitters. I don't do that because I don't care that much about accuracy, but for those that do, there you go. :)
 
The daftlogic site (with its fast Google maps) also shows the type of ground between xmtr and receiver. For instance, there has been a lot of talk about the straight salt water path between NY and the east coast of Fla, when in reality the station would have to be at the east tip of Long Island to achieve the total salt water path to Miami.

But I digress... ;)
 
trusty said:
The daftlogic site (with its fast Google maps) also shows the type of ground between xmtr and receiver. For instance, there has been a lot of talk about the straight salt water path between NY and the east coast of Fla, when in reality the station would have to be at the east tip of Long Island to achieve the total salt water path to Miami.

But I digress... ;)
Click to expand...

I have to say, that the Draftlogic site does seem to be a good one, for a variety of reasons. :)

~BG
 
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