gcb for Debian
--------------
Gcb is a misleading name, it has nothing to do with great circles, as 
you will find out shortly.

The short radio path between 2 radio stations is a curve along the globe 
drawn using the earth's center as a midpoint. Short paths are not only 
the shortest route, propagation via this path will most commonly take 
place in daylight.

The long path is simply the radio path with both stations having their 
antenna turned 180 degrees. Propagation is almost always via the dark 
side of the earth.

Please note that gcb is not very accurate. Gcb assumes that the earth
is a perfect circle. In reality, earth is ellipsoid or pear-shaped. This
means that there will be small calculation errors. However, for antenna
directions and simple distance calculations as used by hamradio operators,
you should be okay.

Joop Stakenborg <pa3aba@debian.org>, Tue, 30 Sep 2003 15:50:55 +0100
