RF Coverage Maps of the ACT Region

On this page are a few plots of coverage of some of the VK1 repeaters.
See below for links to the software and data.

The plots show predicted receive signal strength down to -110dbm for a basic antenna at a height of 2m. Look across the bottom of the images for the key.

Voice Repeater Plots

VHF

• Mt Ginini 146.950 coverage (3.8MB jpeg)
• Isaacs Ridge 146.725 coverage (2.2MB jpeg)
• Bulls Head 147.175 coverage (2.2MB jpeg)

UHF

• Mt Ginini 438.050 coverage (2.5MB jpeg)
• Isaacs Ridge 439.950 coverage (1.4MB jpeg)

Here is an animated gif of the coverage from Mt Ginini alternating between VHF (146.950) and UHF (438.050). (900KB gif)
It highlights the differences in coverage of the two repeaters on the same site.

Voice Repeater Plots as .kml files (Google Earth overlays)

These stripped down plots contain the signal strength data only and are missing place names and topographical features. They are designed to be overlaid, via the KML file onto the maps in Google Earth. If you tilt the display, you can see the coverage painted on the sides of the hills!

• Mt Ginini 2m coverage (2.9MB zip archive)
• Isaacs Ridge 2m coverage (2.2MB zip archive)
• Key to the colours shown in the Google Earth Plots (2.3KB png)

APRS Coverage

These plots are for the Canberra local and Mt Ginini APRS digipeaters.

• Mt Ginini APRS coverage (3.5MB jpeg)
• Canberra local APRS coverage (2.2MB jpeg)
• Combined Mt Ginini and Canberra local APRS coverage (2.7MB jpeg)

SPLAT! software and data

These plots were generated using SPLAT! by John A. Magliacane, KD2BD.

The SRTM data can be found on the US Geological Survey website in 1 degree by 1 degree "squares". These are the 3 arcsecond (90 meter) resolution DEMS. There currently doesn't seem to be any source of 1 arcsecond (30 meter) resolution DEMS for Australia.
Google Earth/Maps use the same cylindrical projection and datum (WGS84) as the SRTM data so you can drop a pin in Google Earth/Maps and use that lat/long in the Splat configuration files.

There is also a zipped csv file of Australian suburbs and their lat/long. (120KB zip, accuracy not guaranteed!). This is used to generate the place names on the plot.