2006-01-24

Google Earth And Ham Radio

Purpose

This page describes how you use Google Earth in combination with your ham radio station.

Unfortunately, the latitude and longitude coordinates shown in Google Earth are not 100% correct. Thus you have to take them with a grain of salt.

Show ON4KST chat users

This section describes how you can see the registered ON4KST Chat user on Google Earth.

  1. Open Google Earth.
  2. Add | Network Link.
  3. Set Name to "ON4KST Users"
  4. Set Location to http://rudius.net/oz2m/files/on4kst_chat.kmz.

When done you will see a list of all the users in the Places box in Google Earth.

Locator to Google Earth

You can download my Loc2GE utility software to convert a locator to latitude and longitude that can be pasted directly into Google Earth's search box.

Keyhole on your homepage

You can add a Google Earth keyhole "pushpin" URL on your homepage. When done the other stations will be able to click it on your homepage and Google Earth will open automatically still allowing the user to zoom in and out etc.

  1. Open Google Earth.
  2. Zoom to your QTH.
  3. In the Menu choose Add | Placemark.
  4. Fill in the dialog box, set Name to your Call, Locator, Name, e.g. OZ2M, JO65FR, Bo.
  5. Right click the Placemark and choose Save As.
  6. Name the .kmz file to a relevant name.
  7. In the Menu choose Help | Google Earth Community.
  8. Register yourself at the Google Earth Community.
  9. Make a Post in the Earth | Earth Browsing group, name the Post "Amateur Radio Station YourCall" and attach your .kmz file.
  10. Find your Post and get the URL "under" the "Open this Placemark." Copy this URL.
  11. Place the URL on your homepage.

The above method is rather complex but due to the way Internet Explorer interprets .kml and .kmz files this is the way unless you know how to enable MIME on your web server.

Bo, OZ2M, www.rudius.net/oz2m