Earth Curvature is an important calculation!

Many people in rural areas want to buy an antenna that will reach farther than their stock antenna because other hotspot hex's are a good distance away. This might be a good decision or a bad one and it depends on the situation and yes....Earth Curvature.

The people over at Omnicalculator.com have this great image to the left and a great calculator tool that help you determine what might work best for you.

First, you have to understand that the earth curvature is about 8" per mile. So think about that like this. If you set your eyes at 8"off the ground, you will only see 1 mile out. 16' off the ground = 2 miles...ect. The antenna signal works the same. You can calculate your distance pretty easily. Use the calculator on their page to calculate the distance and height of a nearby hotspots If those far away hotspots are below the horizon after you do the calculation, then there is a good chance you will miss the beacons from them. This is one reason people put antenna's up high. They can get over that horizon by an extreme amount of miles.

Many outdoor antennas are mounted on a roof at about 20' high. Distance to the horizon(in a perfectly clear flat setting) is only 5.48 miles. If you calculate another hotspot that is 10 miles away but at 20' hight, then you will reach it because it's above the 13.6' that is below the horizon.

Hope this tip help!

HAS- Team