[Xastir] Another off-topic, but not even remotely commercial post: radio direction finding

[Tom Russo]

I'm going to jump on the off-topic bandwagon for a second before going back
into the woodwork.

Some of you know that for a long time now I've been working (for sufficiently
small values of "work") on a library of algorithms to solve the "bearings-only
target localization" problem and a simple GUI application to use it to
enter and plot reports and solutions.  I originally wrote it for one of the 
search and rescue teams I'm on -- they do a lot of DF work hunting for downed
aircraft ELTs.  I think it could also be useful to other hams who participate
in RDF work.

A few years ago I posted here offering to share it with folks who were 
interested and got a few takers, but at that time I kept the code in a CVS 
repository on my local machine and so sharing it meant emailing a tarball.
A couple of weeks ago, while trying to learn a little about git, I decided 
to move the code up to github.  It is now publicly available for you to grab,
try, or ridicule.  Both projects are licensed under the GPL v3.

If you are interested, please go look at the two projects:
  http://tvrusso.github.com/DFLib
  http://tvrusso.github.com/qDF

The first is the library, the second the Qt4 GUI that uses it.

The GUI can be set up to send information about the DF operation to a waiting
Xastir server port, where the reports and target location estimates will be
plotted as objects.  It also creates KML files to view the same information
in Google Earth as well (or instead).  For estimators that are based on
probabilities, the code will produce confidence intervals showing the 50%,
75% and 95% rings that should enclose the transmitter (providing, of course,
that the assumptions of the estimator are valid).

Documentation of qDF is sparse and limited to basic build and usage tips.  As 
folks start using it, I'll try to get the github wikis populated.  For the 
moment I've got the wikis locked down to contributor-only (meaning, only me), 
but if use justifies it, I can open it up.

Building DFLib requires proj.4, and qDF requires proj.4, Qt libraries and 
development headers/applications, as well as DFLib (of course).

I've built qDF and DFLib on FreeBSD (my default system), Ubuntu, Mac OS X (using
homebrew as package manager for dependencies), and even (shudder) Windows using
Visual Studio Express.  I do not provide binaries --- it was enough work to
write the software in the small hours in between other projects, and I can't
support binary distribution.

Github provides an issue tracker for both packages, so feel free to use it to
tell me all the ways the codes are busted.  If you choose to grab the code and
do more than use it (i.e. maybe work on some of the open feature requests), 
I would be glad to check out pull requests and maybe even pull them.

Share and Enjoy.

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236        http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
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