Norfolk to Lord Howe Islands Great Circle Distance

On March 31st 1931, Sir Francis Chichester left the Northern Tip of New Zealand on an East to West flight across the Tasman sea. He stopped to refuel at Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island. Let’s determine the great circle distance and bearings that his Gypsy Moth float plane Madam Elijah ZK-AKK had to fly between these two points using the Spherical Haversine law.

The great circle distance using the Spherical Haversine law is:

GCD = 895.3Km (483.4Nmiles), Bearing of Lord Howe Island = 249.9deg. This agrees with the Google Earth plot.

July 30, 2018August 3, 2018

Balcony ATSC HD Television

For some time I have wanted to see how many television channels I could receive from the CN Tower in Toronto. I can clearly see the TV antenna at the top of the tower from my apartment balcony, although it is boxed in on both sides by buildings. The 7.6Km Google Earth path is shown below.

I used a simple Yagi antenna and mounted it on a wooden dowel combination to easily allow it be rotated and temporarily but securely attached to the apartment balcony railing.

I placed my TV in scan mode to see what it would pickup. I was amazed to find that I detected 24 channels listed in the spread sheet below:

I also scanned from 400MHz to 800MHz with my spectrum analyzer to see what I would detect:

A close up on the strongest signal at 536.3MHz shows the following spectrum with carrier level at -60dBm and spectrum at -73dBm:

July 25, 2018July 25, 2018

RTL-SDR for Weather Radio

A simple RTL-SDR receiver can be used to receive marine weather forecasts. The unit is small and inexpensive (approx. $25). It can be controlled by using the software program SDR# or other similar programs. The picture above shows my unit plugged into the usb port on the left side of my laptop, the display shows Weather Radio Canada station XMJ-225 on 162.4MHz. The picture below show a simple whip antenna on my apartment balcony.

July 24, 2018August 1, 2018

Intercept at Trillium Park Lat = 43.6296degN Long = 79.4095degW

“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;” from Sea Fever by John Masefield

Currently I am calibrating my 3 sextants from several known locations in Toronto. One requires a water horizon and the other 2 have bubble horizons. Trillium Park is gorgeous, it’s like looking out over the Pacific ocean! I am also reading Ian Strathcarron’s biography of Sir Francis Chichester “Never Fear”. I love Chichester’s cure for mental & physical scurvy: Scotch Whiskey + Lemon!!