Jim / others:
> Are these the geographical centers or population centers?
> I would think population centers would make more sense,
> but I imagine it's hard to gather the data for each call
> area. Though I suppose one could pull all the ZIP codes
> out of the USA callbook and do it that way.
OK ... more details are in order!
In Canada, the following locations are based
on the geographical centre of the call area:
VE1, VE9, VO1, VO2, VY2, CY0, CY9
In these districts, the major pop centre as noted:
VE8, VY0, VY1
>From Qu?bec to British Columbia, the locations chosen
were more akin to the population centres versus the
geographical centres, as the majority of population
lies within 100 km to 300 km of the US / Canadian
border. Also tried to pick locations that would be
good for close-in (i.e., North America) as well as DX
bearings.
VE2 = 230 km N of Montr?al and 230 km NW of Qu?bec
Maybe this should be moved down along the
river between Montr?al and Qu?bec?
VE3 = Sault Ste. Marie, which is about 500 km
NW of Toronto. Maybe this should be moved down
to the Windsor - London - Toronto corridor?
VE4 = 130 km NW of Winnipeg
VE5 = 190 km NNW of Regina and 80 km E of Saskatoon
VE6 = half way between Edmonton and Calgary
VE7 = about 125 km north of Vancouver
The US is much more difficult. I looked at loading info
based on zip codes from a call database I have on CD-ROM.
Its pretty easy to see the license QTH distributions ...
they really just follow the population distributions.
In Microsoft MapPoint I plotted circles that covered
the US call districts and attempted to size the circle
to include the greatest number of people, then plotting
the centre point. Of course, call areas like W2 and W7
are almost impossible to fairly choose a point.
Here's some comments on the detail that I didn't provide
before:
W1 = 250 km circle that covers all of MA, RI & CT ...
most of NH and VT (to Burlington) and ME (to Augusta).
W2 = 250 km circle that covers all of NJ and Long Island,
and out past Syracuse and into the Adirondacks.
Excludes Rochester & Buffalo ... a point that includes
those cities would include most of PA!
W3 = 225 km circle that covers 2/3 of PA (not Pittsburgh)
with DE & MD
W4 = 600 km geo centre that covers 2/3 of TN, KY and VA,
FL down to Tampa and all the rest of the states
except for the most south-west part of AL (Mobile)
W5 = how could it not be in Texas? <grin>
800 km circle centered about 150 km west of Forth Worth.
Covers Albuquerque NM to Jackson MS as well as
Kansas City KS & MO
W6 = oh, somewhere in the middle ...
W7 = What do you do when its about 2,100 km as the crow flies
from Nogales AZ to Seattle WA? I found a nice place
in eastern Nevada ...
W8 = From atop the rollercoaster in Sandusky OH a 475 km
circle covers all of WV, OH and the lower part of MI
(sorry UP'ers!) Some may argue to move this point
further to the south, maybe Columbus?
W9 = A 500 km circle centered on Rockford gives you
just about everyone in IN, IL and WI
W0 = This may be the easiest one to find the centre of ...
700 km circle on the county line gives most everyone.
If you want to see a map that has these locations plotted:
http://www.gcq.net/yccc/NorthAmerica.jpg (~300 kB)
A spreadsheet with the data (lat, lon, prefix) is at:
http://www.gcq.net/yccc/NorthAmerica.xls (14 kB)
And a Microsoft MapPoint file with the points plotted:
http://www.gcq.net/yccc/NorthAmerica.ptm (~400 kB)
73,
Bob W1QA
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