Satellite Dish & UK TV Aerial Alignment Calculators

New versions released a few days ago:

http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/AudioVisualTV/SatelliteTV/SatelliteCalculator.html
http://www.macfh.co.uk/Test/UKTerrestrialTVTest.html

Although a time-consuming major revamp of both calculators, it's
mainly better old functionality rather than anything startingly new.
Because both are now getting quite a few hits (by my standards at any
rate), I'm anxious to release this now that I'm reasonably confident
of the reliability, rather than waiting for major increases in
functionality.

The major changes are ...

Both Calculators:

Completely rewritten Google mapping to use Google API directly, rather
than through Open Layers.  This was caused by a completely reversal of
the situation of about 6-9 months ago:  then Google maps, even (as I
rather sarcastically pointed out to them at the time) their own "Hello
World!" style beginner examples, didn't print markers properly in any
of the most common browsers, so forcing me to use Open Layers; now
Google maps print quite well (perhaps the sarcasm had the desired
effect?) and Open Layers is proving desperately unreliable with regard
to Google maps and, ironically enough, printing!

Uses current, latest Open Layers v2.8 for the OS map.

Fixed problem with colours in <Select> elements in the forms in Opera
and IE8.

There are some consequences, mostly good:

You can just drag and drop a marker to a new location, and the
calculator automatically updates itself from the new marker position -
no need now for <Alt-Double-Click> or <Ctrl-Double-Click>.

Depending on location, increased zoom level on the Google satellite
imagery, and this has brought in its wake an increase in accuracy to 6
decimal places of the Lat/Long parameters, including those read from
the URL so that the URL can recreate the marker position exactly.

Better behaviour in IE6&7  -  there now should be none of this
business of the map changing location when you choose a different
Google layer, and DHTML now works properly in IE6 without the map
loading into the wrong part of the page.  Unfortunately, you still
have to use legacy mode in IE8 though.

If you want both types of map, I suggest that you create the Google
map first and let that load, position it, etc, then repeat for the OS
map.  Sometimes, when you set both going at once, one map out-competes
the other for bandwidth, and kills it.  The Google map will also die
if you drag and zoom it around continuously without letting it ever
complete the map view it's currently working on.

Satellite Calculator:

Corrected a flaw in the elevation calculation for a rotor where the
tilt calculated was a forward tilt (slightly greater than latitude)
but the elevation calculated was for a normal tilt (equal to
latitude).

If anyone reading this, despite all the odds to the contrary, does
happen to live within a couple of hundred metres of the equator,
because of the simplest way to draw Google geodesics, you may now have
too short a marker to align your satellite dish!

TV Aerial Calculator:

Ofcom have finally replied to my requests for information.  There will
be no directional information published for pre-DSO broadcasting:

"Patterns for the pre-switchover network have not been published. The
original network information is paper-based, is becoming increasingly
outdated and is of little value to most people. As these old papers
also contain some confidential information we have not made them
publicly available. Instead, coverage information for both the pre-
and post-switchover networks is available via the postcode checker
that is carried on Digital UK's website (www.digitaluk.co.uk). This
checker takes into account not only pattern information, but also the
effect of terrain height and varying propagation and interference from
distant transmitters to predict the likelihood of reception at a
particular location. If you click on the trade view option, more
detailed information is given."

Er, is that the same postcode checker that gives Rowridge as an
alternative transmitter for my postcode:
http://tinyurl.com/mp4nu6
... standing in for ...
http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/postcodechecker/main/trade/rg6+4aw/NA/0
... see (noting that the two path profiles are mirror images of each
other) ...
http://tinyurl.com/kvvqoa
... standing in for ...
http://www.macfh.co.uk/Test/UKTerrestrialTVTest.html?iRxWhereHow=C&iRxPost=RG6+4AW&
;iRxHeight&iTxWhereHow=C&iTxSel=SZ447865
... and ...
http://tinyurl.com/m5fc4k
... standing in for ...
http://www.megalithia.com/elect/terrain.php?Make=1&ngr=SU737694&bht&ngr1=SZ44
7865&daod&0&dname=Rowridge&dht=0&go=go

There will be directional information for post-DSO broadcasting, but
only after some months, so too late help anyone cope with the actual
changeover!

None of which helps me any ...

In general, then, I'm not much further forward as far as required
information is concerned.  However, although it's not in this version
because, for the reasons explained, I was anxious just to get it out,
I am still working on a 'find best local TXs' routine.

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