As a former naval navigator, I have been following this discussion with interest. I agree with Jim that it makes most sense to use true north. The magnetic pole shifts each year, and the amount of shift is indicated on nautical charts as the "Variation". Each bearing taken with a magnetic compass must be corrected for the Variation, and while the year-to-year change is small, it means that every time you realign your antenna, you have to recalculate the correction. While DX4W may permit an offset, it makes no sense to me to use magnetic north a) because it shifts, and b) because any program that I have found that calculates bearings and distance always is based on the geographic north pole. Nautical charts are always related to true north.
It makes more sense to me to set up your antenna once to true north using an available magnetic compass, and then to establish a point or "datum" on the ground as the true north alignment point for future realignments due to beam changes, maintenance, storm damage, etc. That is what I do and it has worked very successfully. For what it is worth. 73, Jim, VE3IQ On 18 Oct 2009 at 10:03, ON4AOI wrote: > Hi Jim, > If you have your rotator controlled by dx4win its easy to setup. > Under rotator you have the tab Parameters where you can setup for each band > An offset and also a correction for the selected band. > > Guy ON4AOI > > > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- > > Van: [email protected] [mailto:dx4win- > > [email protected]] Namens Jim Reisert AD1C > > Verzonden: zaterdag 17 oktober 2009 19:27 > > Aan: DX4WIN Reflector > > Onderwerp: Re: [Dx4win] Headings > > > > DX4WIN beam headings are referenced to the geographic North Pole - 90 > > degrees North Latitude. There is no way for DX4WIN to know the heading > > to magnetic north from your particular QTH. I am not aware of ANY > > program that can do this. > > > > What DX4WIN should have, and I can't find it at the moment, is a way to > > program an offset into the rotator control. Then if your antennas were > > aligned to magnetic North, DX4WIN could compensate for this. Maybe Guy > > ON4AOI knows if such a feature exists. > > > > 73 - Jim AD1C > > > > -- > > Jim Reisert AD1C, <[email protected]>, http://www.ad1c.us > > ______________________________________________________________ > > Dx4win mailing list > > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dx4win > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > > ______________________________________________________________ > Dx4win mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dx4win > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > > Jim Dean, VE3IQ 1134 Plante Drive Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1V 9E8 Tel: (613) 733-5585 Fax: (613) 733-7613 E-mail: [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ Dx4win mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dx4win Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
