Locator to wab

Looking for a web site to change locator to WAB square.

Terry
G0VWP

nearby.org.uk

Jimmy M3EYP

In reply to G0VWP:

Hi Terry
There may be a better way of doing it but:

Put the locator in here http://f6fvy.free.fr/qthLocator/fullScreen.php

Click the box to get the lat and long.

Put the Lat and Long in here http://www.streetmap.co.uk (53.35219 -2.54883)

Click on convert at the bottom to get the OS ref ie SJ617831 and the WAB is therefore SJ68

I am sure there is an easier method but until then!

Regards

Dave

In reply to M0TUB:

Ah! Much easier Jimmy!

Dave
M0TUB

In reply to G0VWP:

Don’t forget that naive use of conversion tools may give the wrong answer. Typically they convert the coordinates of a point. Both IARU locators and WAB squares refer to areas, and those areas are a different size and shape.

For example, I live in JO02bf, which nearby.co.uk correctly converts to TL46. However I also work in JO02bf, but that location is in TL45.

In reply to M1MAJ:
There are plenty of SOTA summits with fairly large activation zones that straddle two or more reference areas. A good local-to-me example is Botley Hill G/SE-005, which has parts of its activation zone in IO91xg and part in JO01ag. Presumably there are a few that straddle four locators, too…

73, Rick M0LEP

In reply to M1MAJ:

Thanks for all the info I have found my WAB book as I have not done anything on that side for sometime.

I have looed at six figer grid reference ie SD257963 (WALNA SCAR LDO-001)which is a fell in the Lakes and looking at it it works out like if you take the SD29 the 1st number and 4th number of the grid ref and when I checked with the book it worked out.

ok thanks again

Terry

http://www.dorcus.co.uk/carabus/jscalculators.html

Does various conversions.

Stewart G0LGS

In reply to G0VWP:
That’s the best way Terry. There’s probably one or two that are very near to the edge of a 10k grid square though, so be sure the activator is close to the summit on those.

73 Graham G4FUJ

To obtain a WAB square from eg SD251963 you take the 1st & the 4th number as you say. If there is a ten figure reference then you take the 1st & 6th number

73 Graham G4JZF

In reply to G0LGS:

I think that’s the best web site I’ve seen for handling this Stewart. I like the fact there’s info on how and what he’s doing as well. A good find.

Andy
MM0FMF

In reply to MM0FMF:

I was pondering coding this conversion for the Parallax Propellor. It looks rather hard though!

I will stick with lat/long and Loc, far easier.

Incidentally, the price of GPS modules is now below £20 - amazing!

73

Richard
G3CWI

In reply to G3CWI:

I looked at the Propeller after seeing someone else mention it somewhere. I read the FAQs and docs and was left thinking “yep, what the world really, really needs is a non-standard wheel to replace the wheels that work”. I just don’t get it!

I’ve been doing low level embedded stuff for nearly 30 years (and some highlevel stuff too). I done soft real-time (pre-emptive multitasking), I’ve done SMP, I’ve done massively parallel, I’ve done hard real-time, I’ve done tiny PICs, bigger PICS, Z80 to mainframe and everything in between. I just don’t see why you want to create a new processor that’s not an ARM, PPC, MIPS, x86, AMD64 or PIC. And create a new langauge too!

I’m just not in the target demographic for the Propeller which is why it doesn’t make sense to me. Me, if I wanted to do what it does I’d buy (when it comes out) a Raspberry PI, or a PandaBoard, or BeagleBoard or a Gumstix. Something with an ARM core so I can leverage (love that word) all the existing code/OS/tools for free and know that with 7.8billion ARM cores shipped a year, it’s not going to disappear soon! Some of those boards use TI OMAP SoC which have DSP, ARM and GPU cores on board. If I really wanted to do some DSP I’d buy a board based on a Blackfin. Run Linux on it, and I’d have a board I can connect with ethernet or USB, and the souce to the kernel and utilities.

This is not to denigrate the Propeller, I’m sure it does what is says very well. Just for someone who deals with the multi-core, multi-tasking real time systems every day as part of my job I just cannot see why you wouldn’t use the hardware that exists and langauges that are known to work like C, C++, Python etc.

I’ve seen GPS units for £10.99 in small quantites (x20 ISTR). But the distributor was a typical snooty UK company aiming to throw away any business at every chance. Unlike the distros in Germany or USA :wink:

Andy
MM0FMF

In reply to M0TUB:

Hi Dave

One thing is to find SJ68, but there are 3 WAB counters in SJ68:
Halton, Trafford, and Warrington. It can be very hard to determine where the summit is actually located.
I wonder if there is an online map that shows the UA border lines.

Regards … John

I think you’ve had enough information but just a final point. The WAB reference is based on a 10km square from the OS maps and the Locator system on a similar Lat/Lon square. They sometimes overlap each other into 2 or 3 areas, at times quite a lot, making cross reference always difficult.
However if you know the Lat/Lon then convertion to the OS grid ref is easy providing your Lat/Long position is sufficiently accurate enough.

Damian M0BKV

In reply to G6LKB:

Hi David,

I missed that entirely. I am (was) still using G0AKH’s WAB-IT from 1998.
I better go read up on the rules, then.
Very informative, David. Thank you.

73 … John