Software to find topology between two stations?

[WB4CS]

Does anyone know of any software that can show you the topology, elevation, and possible natural obstacles between two points on a map?

I'm currently (still) in the process of looking to buy a house. Here in Northern Alabama there are a lot of mountain ranges that can either help or hurt line of sight communications. My top priority in finding a house is one that is radio friendly. I'd like to be able to put in the address of a particular house and then plot a directional course to a specific location, say for example a repeater, and see the difference in elevation between the two points, as well as the topology to see if a mountain range would potentially block a line of sight signal.

I've looked at Google Earth, but I don't believe this function is included in the free version, but I may need to play around with it some more. Does anyone know of a way to do this with Google Earth, or know a piece of software that could do it?

 

[w2xq]

Wirelessly posted (Moto Droid Bionic: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.1.2; en-us; DROID BIONIC Build/9.8.2O-72_VZW-22) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

I can tell you with certainty that the stsndard Google Earth will do exactly what you are seeking to do. I can't tell you how as I have been in the hospital and rehab since mid-May and I won't be home for a while yet; I don't have my laptop. A search of the RR forums should find a pretty previous thread I participated in, and the how-to steps are there. HTH.

 

[fxdscon]

Yes, Google Earth works great for that.

Use the "Ruler" tool on the top tool bar to draw a line between the two points. That will show the distance between the points.

When you "Save" the line measure, it will show up in "Places".

Right click on it there, and select "Show Elevation Profile".

Run your mouse over the graph that is now at the bottom of the screen.

If you zoom way in on the map after the graph appears, just double-click on a point of interest on the graph, and the map will "fly" to that point.

I'm using it right now for the exact same reason you are!


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[Tweekerbob]

You can try Radio Mobile or SPLAT!

 

[WB4CS]

I'm glad to know Google Earth can do that! Thanks fxdscon for sharing how to.

Also thanks for the other recommendations Tweekerbob, I'll check those out as well.

 

[KZ9G]

HeyWhatsThat Path Profiler

Simple to use and free.