Hello,

A while back I saw a program that could have two grid references entered
together with rough antenna heights and power etc. The program give a side
view of the path and terrain. This was used in the UK and a DOS program.
It also calulated the path loss and put a line between the two sites to show
how the signal would be blocked by hills for example.
Anyone know what it is called or where to obtain it from ?

A while back I saw a program that could have two grid references entered
together with rough antenna heights and power etc. The program give a
side
view of the path and terrain. This was used in the UK and a DOS program.
It also calulated the path loss and put a line between the two sites to
show
how the signal would be blocked by hills for example.
Anyone know what it is called or where to obtain it from ?

==========================================
I am not aware of any single program which will satisfy your stringent
"specification".

From the following website you can obtain several programs something along
the lines you are looking for. But there are no grid references. Ground
conditions, if entered in a program, are described in terms of types of
terrain, or soil resistivity and permittivity.

They are all self-contained DOS programs. Each program can be downloaded in
a few seconds and can be run imediately. Computed results are available on
an easy-to-use 'What-if?' basis.

GRNDWAV3. Groundwave propagation, field strength, Tx to Rx input from ELF
to HF, includes diffraction over the radio horizon, path length up to
several thousand kilometres.

DIFFRAC1, DIFRAC2. Propagation predictions, from Tx to Rx, over
obstructions such as buildings or mountain edges, and over two successive
obstructions.

LINOSITE. Elementary ball-park prediction of line-of-sight propagation for
given antenna characteristics.

There may be other programs of interest, such as design and behaviour of
transmission lines to better than ordinarily required engineering standards
and may be used to check more simple programs. See brief descriptions of
program applications on website download page.
----
=======================
Regards from Reg, G4FGQ
For Free Radio Design Software
go to http://www.g4fgq.com
=======================.

128 wrote:
Hello,

A while back I saw a program that could have two grid references entered
together with rough antenna heights and power etc. The program give a side
view of the path and terrain. This was used in the UK and a DOS program.
It also calulated the path loss and put a line between the two sites to show
how the signal would be blocked by hills for example.
Anyone know what it is called or where to obtain it from ?

It was written by G4JNT, and it contained a real UK terrain database. It
hasn't been supported for ages, but one of the UK microwavers may still
have a copy.

There are much more accurate VHF/UHF propagation programs around now,
with more detailed UK terrain databases and also better-verified
propagation models, but AFAIK they are all proprietary.


--
73 from Ian G3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
Editor, 'The VHF/UHF DX Book'
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek