[amsat-bb] New Software Tool for Verifying If Roving Locations Are Within Your VUCC Circle

[Milen KG2C]

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 at 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
>
>
>
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