You ARE the centre of the world - or at least your radio is.....

Hi all,

What am I on about now? 

Well, leaving aside delusions of grandeur and superiority complex issues of being the centre of the world.....


When you're on your radio you are pretty much at the centre of the world. Transmissions emanate from you, (or at least your radio and antenna so we'll leave the semantics aside), and received by you. Your radio location is key to what you do.

So how does that help us and again, what am I on about?

Most of us are used to the typical view of the world as seen on your average 'world map' at school. 
You know the one, big flat wall map with the Americas to the left, the UK and Greenwich Meridian in the centre with China etc. on the right.

It's called a Mercator projection map -

Wikipedia - Mercator Projection map

For radio, this map is pretty inaccurate. It looks like America is East of us, China is West of us and distances are skewed or distorted. 


There is a much better representation of the world, namely the Azimuthal equidistant projection map -

Wikipedia - Azimuth Projection map

With this map, compass direction is more accurate and so are the distances especially when this map is centred on your location.


You can make your own Azimuth projection map using your location at the following link -

NS6T.net Custom Azimuth map

Enter your location, (if you're not sure it will take major city locations such as London etc.), and a reasonable distance, let's say 8000km.
(Use longer distances if you want to include South America or Australia in that map).

Now you have a map centred on your location and you'll notice some things....


In the UK the USA is actually North West of us and a "as the crow flies" line passes pretty much over the Arctic. 
The rest of the world looks pretty 'weird' compared to a 'normal' map as well and this helps us with our radio.

All the distances from you are now accurate and compass direction is a lot more useful. 
(If you had a house at the North Pole all four walls would be South pointing!!)

So how does that help?

For typical CB transmissions a normal UK map is such a small portion of the world that it's accurate enough. In fact even taking sporadic-E propogation where we can reach the European continent a typical map of Europe would suffice. 
If using other bands and frequencies where longer DX is possible, (hi to all you Hams), then the Azimuth projection map comes into its own.
(For CB this will hold true when long distance DX becomes possible!)

If you have a beam antenna you now know which way to point it. If you have a horizontal dipole for DX you can string it North East to South West to get the USA in one direction and Europe in the other, (assuming you're in the UK). You also can now see more accurately how far away somewhere actually is.


All good stuff I'm sure you'll agree.


So there you go, when you're on your radio you really ARE the centre of the world


I hope at least some of you might find this posting useful or educational and hence why it is posted in the 'Information and Guides' section of Charlie Tango.

All the best,
Victor


This posting is placed in the spirit of helping. I have limited resources so no matter how much I would like to donate to Charlie Tango or purchase raffle tickets etc. I cannot. I can only give what resources I have. Whether that be some wit, comedy, info, welcomes or help, it's the best I can do to give thanks to the Charlie Tango group, it's members, admins and moderators.

 I'm sure that for many this information is 'old hat' or well known and so maybe useless to them. Just remember that it may not be so for others. 

Best wishes to all.

Great Post Victor

Good info and not well appreciated.

I remember when the Pan-Am came down over Lockerbie, even the news orgs were questioning why it was over Scotland when it was heading to the USA!

Good stuff, so now i know to point myself North East to talk to my buddies in China ️

Lee,

Cheers mate Just trying to put what I can into Charlie Tango.

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Dave,

I agree, I think too many are used to that "Map of The World" Mercator view rather than a good old fashioned Globe view. 
Do they even have globes in todays educational establishments?

Thanks.

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Hi Pat,

Cheers for posting the map images as examples, really useful.
Ha! Yeah, China, if only eh?
(I'm chuffed to bits I broke into Europe on the CB!)

Cheers mate.

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Thanks all for the feedback, appreciate it. Just an old fart trying to be helpful if not, then at least half interesting

They driving around with 9 foot whip's on the back of 4x4s there for playing in Gobi dessert so I'm expecting them to be hitting the skip anytime soon...

Thank you very much for this, I used to have one made up of photocopies pinned to my shack wall but had been unable to find anything similar this time around although It didn't help I had no idea of what it was called either.

Thank you Victor, another excellent contribution to the forum, keep up the great work buddy! 

73's Gary.

Cheers Alan, glad you found it useful.
(If one person had found it useful I'd have been chuffed!)

You probably figured out already that on that site you can make a pdf output as big as a poster. Then with suitable software, (usually free), you can output to an ordinary A4 printer and stick the sheets together. Or failing that, save to a USB stick and pop down the local copy shop who can print poster size.

Hee! Yeah, I get that a lot mate, "Now if only I can remember what that damn thing was called!"  


All the best,
Victor

Hiya Gary,

Cheers mate, really appreciated.

You guys do the hard work keeping it all together so it's nice if I can add a little myself


All the best to you and family,
Victor

I was able to find a site that gave me my location reference or close enough at least, I have the PDF file stored and already have printed a couple out in colour and B&W to see what they look like.(B&W appears more legible)

I only have an A4 printer but will look into taking the PDF into a printers or photo place as it would be far better in A3 or A2 on some heavier weight, glossy paper would be nice for the wall!

The last one I had was a photocopy of something from one of the old amateur magazine's from the 70's or 80's time period, I was looking for these quite recently as I was trying to explain it to a friend but after trying all sorts of descriptions in the search bar I came back empty handed.

Thanks again

Alan

Nice one Alan.

Wouldn't that map look gorgeous on a shack wall!

I might just be tempted to do that myself as I've snaffled the box room, ahem "office", (thanks to my missus), as my shack.

You'll have to let us know how it works out.


All the best,
Victor

I remember back in the 70's you could get the 'radio amateurs great circle dx map of the world' for a fiver, it was huge, came in a tube and printed on a cloth type material.
Probably cost £50 these days.

Hi Dave,

Yeah, I remember them well, as common as a world globe back in the day.
Ha, yeah £50, or much more! Of course there's the "we don't get much call for them, not worth doing" nonsense

Mind you, a pin and string on a Mercator map of your DX to the USA looks much longer than it does on an Azimuthal map


All the best,
Victor

My very old map that a old Amateur mate gave a long time back,if you enlarge close up you can see all the old country division letters I know it's old cos it's got all the Eastern European countries before they got split up theres even a place  called  White Russia

Great post, Victor.

Hi Martin,

I haven't seen a map like that in a while mate
You don't get to see maps with the Pacific line centralised rather than the Atlantic, but perhaps that's common in other parts of the world.

Love old maps! As you say, the countries are different and it's fascinating seeing them again.
The world changes more than we think

Cheers for that share Martin. Love it!

All the best.
Victor

Hi John,

Cheers mate, appreciate it.

Just glad a few people got something from it

73s
Victor