I'm looking for an online or downloadable program which gives range and
relative bearing between two points (point A to point B). Would appreciate
any leads to one of these.

RB wrote:
I'm looking for an online or downloadable program which gives range and
relative bearing between two points (point A to point B). Would appreciate
any leads to one of these.

To use with what system?

It's hard to imagine that if your computerized nav system doesn't
currently allow you to determine the distance between any two points on
the screen and their relative bearings you will be able to find
something after market is going to make that feasible.

(The use of the word "range" is more typically applied when measuring
distance from the observer, but might still be Ok when describing the
distance between two remote points).

Or are you thinking of general geographic points? (Example: West
Gumshoe Village is
35nm south of Henry's Ford, on a rhumb line of 171 t?) There are a
number of online sources for distances between towns and cities, etc---
(just google in 'distance from New York to Chicago')-- but I don't know
where you'd go for relative bearings.

}}} It's hard to imagine that if your computerized nav system doesn't
currently allow you to determine the distance between any two points on
the screen and their relative bearings you will be able to find
something after market is going to make that feasible. {{{

I'm an old retired geezer and am stuck with loran. It serves my purposes
very well, and it would cost me money I can't spare to go to more
sophisticated eqpt. I have scads of fishing spots out in the Gulf. But,
they're currently unorganized.

I want to be able to sit at my desk at the house and get a distance and
bearing from a point in the pass to the fishing spots. Once I get those, I
can put 'em in a database and can array them on any criteria. Yes, some
loran sets easily do the calculations and give you range between two
points, and bearing from one point to another. Mine doesn't, though, and
I'm not sure now which ones do this. I know I've had lorans in years past
that did. With my set, you have to be at point A to get the calculation of
range and bearing to point B. I can only get range and bearing if I'm
actually at point A, and I want to be able to do my constructions from the
house. It's an interesting problem.

RB wrote:
}}} It's hard to imagine that if your computerized nav system doesn't
currently allow you to determine the distance between any two points on
the screen and their relative bearings you will be able to find
something after market is going to make that feasible. {{{

I'm an old retired geezer and am stuck with loran. It serves my purposes
very well, and it would cost me money I can't spare to go to more
sophisticated eqpt. I have scads of fishing spots out in the Gulf. But,
they're currently unorganized.

I want to be able to sit at my desk at the house and get a distance and
bearing from a point in the pass to the fishing spots. Once I get those, I
can put 'em in a database and can array them on any criteria. Yes, some
loran sets easily do the calculations and give you range between two
points, and bearing from one point to another. Mine doesn't, though, and
I'm not sure now which ones do this. I know I've had lorans in years past
that did. With my set, you have to be at point A to get the calculation of
range and bearing to point B. I can only get range and bearing if I'm
actually at point A, and I want to be able to do my constructions from the
house. It's an interesting problem.

At the risk of sounding like a smart ass, have you considered using a
paper chart, parallel rules, and dividers? If these calculations are
being made at home, anyway, there
should be plenty of time and space available for traditional chart
work. If you need the distance to be ridiculously accurate, (down to
within a few yards), that can be more difficult with traditional
methods but you should be to determine the bearing between any two
points on the chart with more than serviceable accuracy.

Here's one:

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/2265/msail.htm

Enter starting lat/lon, ending lat/lon, calculates range and bearing.

Yeah. The chart method would be my last choice.

The good news is that I just found a great, free program that does exactly
what I want. It also converts lat/lon to TDs, and vice versa. It's at:

http://www.rdc.uscg.gov/Misc/POSAID2...5/Default.aspx

I've tried a few already, and it works fine. Yes, you have to crank each
event through manually and step through it, but it does the job. I may be
able to write a little program to automate the rote tasks involved.

Good one. Thanks.