DStar Repeaters and QGIS

I recently purchased a Kenwood TH-D74A and downloaded the Repeater List by region from dstarinfo.com.   The data comes as a tab separated file (TSV) and has columns for Lat DD, Lat MM.mm, and N/S as well as Lon DD, Lon MM.mm, and E/W.

To import into QGIS, the file needs latitude/longitude in Decimal Degrees so we need to convert formats.

According to Directions Magazine:

Degrees Minutes Seconds to Degrees Minutes.m
Degrees = Degrees
Minutes.m = Minutes + (Seconds / 60)

Degrees Minutes.m to Decimal Degrees
.d = M.m / 60
Decimal Degrees = Degrees + .d

It's also worth noting that N and E are both positive numbers while S and W are both negative numbers.

Open Excel

On my repeater list, the columns were as follows:

• U2 is Lat DD
• S2 is Lat MM.mm
• T2 is N/S
• Y2 is Lon DDD
• Y2 is Lon MM.mm
• X2 is E/W

Add a new column for Lat

Use this formula: =IF(U2="N",(S2+(T2/60))*1,(S2+(T2/60))*-1)

Add a new column for Lng

Use this formula:  =IF(Y2="E",(W2+(X2/60))*1,(W2+(X2/60))*-1)

Copy and Paste into remaining cells.

Save as CSV

In QGIS, click the import delimited file button

Use the new columns created by the Excel formulas

Click Ok and you should see your repeater list as points on the map.

On further inspection, it appears the coordinates may have a lack of precision that puts the points not quite where they should be.   More research is needed.