At 09:45 PM 1/6/97 -0500, you wrote:
>I hate to bring this up because last time someone asked this question on
>packet, the troops RAVED for weeks. Anyway here goes; anyone know a quick
>and dirty way of locating true North? Can it be as simple as adding an x
>number of degrees one way or the other to a compass north reading?
>What say you?
>Mick...W4YV
Yes.
1) Call the closest airport and ask for the magnetic offset information to
correct your compass heading. Compasses are not very accurate, though.
2) Sight Polaris (the North star). For the most accurate determination
you will need to know the offset from The Nautical Almanac or at least
the time for meridian crossing.
3) Look for your local sunrise and sunset times in the newspaper
and split the difference for local sun noon (meridian crossing) and the
shadows are true north. (See software in the ARRL Handbook --
1997 ed. for the program NSHADOW.BAS to calculate local noon.)
Should be enough info to hold down any future discussions to a minimum.
73 John W0UN
John Brosnahan
La Salle Research Corp.
24115 County Road 40
La Salle, CO 80645 USA
voice 970-284-6602
fax 970-284-0979
email broz@csn.net
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