The more I use Google Earth, the more uses I find for it relating to DXing. Case in point- I’ve been looking at the vacant land behind our house with the anticipation of laying out a pair of BOGs (beverage on ground antennas) for DXing medium wave stations. Google Earth’s satellite view allows me to visualize the antenna layout (to work around obstacles, etc.) and provides a tool to measure length and heading. With this information, I can figure out exactly how long of an antenna I can layout and the beam direction. Knowing the antenna’s heading, I can then extend a theoretical path from my QTH along this heading to see where the end results are, and tweak as needed for the intended target stations.
I’ve also been using Google Earth to create a DX map of AM broadcast stations received here as a better way for me to visualize what I’ve been logging (in addition to spreadsheet logging). From Google Earth, this data can easily be exported as a KMZ file and brought into Google Maps to share with the public. Here is how my DX map is looking (still populating fields, but you get the idea), QTH is West Michigan, blue placemarks are night catches, yellow are afternoon catches, and red are LW beacons logged:
[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&msid=100894040696417747308.00047781ac638e344696f&ll=48.458352,-32.695312&spn=107.741578,225&z=2&output=embed&w=480&h=480]
Clicking on the colored placemarks will popup more information about the logging including station call letters, frequency, time of logging, etc.
