ICTworks by Inveneo

It's the classic dilemma: Google Earth has the fantastic interface you need to keep track of your GPS data, and high resolution imagery that lets you find the exact spot on the planet you're looking for. Radio Mobile puts powerful tools of radio line of sight calculation at your fingertips, but its interface isn't nearly as polished as Google Earth's. Where do you put your data first?

Do both! Radio Mobile units can be imported and exported seamlessly as KML files. In Radio Mobile, look under "File -> Units Properties" and click the Export or Import buttons on the right side of the window to get started. (screenshot)

Saving Google Earth places to KML

Importing a KML file to Google Earth is as simple as choosing "File -> Open". Exporting from Google Earth is almost as easy...just right click on the waypoint or folder full of waypoints and choose "Save Place As..."

When exporting, make sure you save your points as KML files (rather than the default compressed KMZ) otherwise Radio Mobile won't know what to do with them.

Thanks to import/export, you can use Google Earth as a tool to download your waypoints directly from your GPS, organize them into folders, and then export them to Radio Mobile. This saves time and helps you avoid typing mistakes that could cause you real problems later.

After you've modeled your wireless network, take the time to export any new radio sites you've created back to Google Earth and into your GPS. This will make it easy to find your project sites and turn them from points on a map into antennas on the ground.

Want more on Radio Mobile? Subscribe to ICTworks via RSS, Email, Twitter, or Facebook

.

As we mentioned in our recent post about testing WiFi antennas across the San Francisco Bay, we at Inveneo rely heavily on Google Earth to better understand the complex wireless network projects we implement in rural and developing regions.

Google Earth is fantastic tool for understanding any project involving geospatial data on a macro as well as a micro level.  Google Earth can also help you better communicate the where component of your project to your coworkers, your partners, and your funders.

If you're working in a remote rural region and have tried to put Google Earth to work on your project, though, chances are you've run into it's one key limitation:  it relies heavily on the Internet.

I recently discovered a free tool I'm excited to try out that looks like it will play a big part in my workflow as I analyze wireless networks for Inveneo.  Google Earth Voyager allows you to automatically fill your Google Earth cache with data for a project region you define. 

You can run Voyager to fill your cache when you have a fast connection to the Internet, and have all the data you need available offline when you're operating on your laptop out in the field.

Google Earth Voyager was developed by an Egyptian software engineer named Tamer Louis.  You'll find the direct link to the program zip file here.  The file is currently called gev6.zip, though it looks like the filename changes with each new version Tamer rolls out.

The guys over at Google Earth Blog are also thinking about this problem, and have provided a great writeup on optimizing your cache settings for offline use.  They also link to an interesting forum discussion on saving multiple versions of your GE cache for different regions.  You'll need to quit GE to swap the caches, basically tricking the program into thinking there's only one cache.

We'd love to hear about any other techniques you have found useful for dealing with Google Earth in offline locations out in the field.