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the_bell_dingers

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Posts posted by the_bell_dingers

    New Feature!

    in Website

    Posted

    message from trainlove

     

    Caches are at a minimum some kind of container with a log book. That's why Virtual Caches are disappearing, that category stopped allowing new additions in or around Dec 2005. Waymarking was invented some time later to serve that niche. Earth Caches went away too but as they are educational they came back last year. Web Cam caches are also disappearing slowly. Benchmarks have no owner other than some government, state, city or private organization.

     

    You can make a map of all the benchmarks you want. It will take some work on your part though.

    Go to www.ngs.noaa.org then click on Datasheets and then click on either Datasheets or Archived Datasheets. You can get a file of all the benchmarks in a county of a state all at once or a zip file of a whole archived state at once. The 2 formats are slightly different. They are both text files. You can import them into Excel, do Text To Column processing, and convert DDMMSS to DD MM.mmm coordinate format.

     

    Magellan MapSend Topo allows you to import files that are text CSV formatted. For Garmin MapSource Topo you probably have to use something like GPSBabel to convert that to a GPX file that you can import. Or you could write a program to do all this for you. I have such a program that I wrote on a dead laptop of mine, been sitting for 3 years waiting to try to recover all from that hard drive.

     

    When it comes to benchmarks, there is a difference between Scaled and Adjusted, read the FAQ on the benchmark link of www.geocaching.com

    And not all benchmarks are disks.

    And some listed benchmarks are a station and there are actually several reference mark disks all around it within a few hundred feet.

    All the disks listed on www.ngs.noaa.gov (not necessarily the archived ones) are on www.geocaching.com but not all disks you might find in the field are on either site. There is a www.Waymarking.com category called USA Benchmarks that one can add to. I have about a dozen listed in there. There are other Waymarking categories like Water Monitoring Stations, which usually have a disk. Check the site http://www.weather.gov/oh/hads/states/NH_dcps.htm with your own state abbreviation for those near you.

    P.S. The coordinates for benchmarks are mostly in NAD27 not WGS84 format, so they can be something like a few hundred feet off, and are Degrees Minutes and whole Seconds without a fractional part so that's also about +/-100 feet of error.

     

    Yes most benchmarks are on private property. I'm planning on recovering all the benchmarks (40 or more) on the grounds of the Haystack Hill, Millstone Hill, NEROC (New England Regional Operations Center). A large radio telescope site belonging to the government and MIT about 15 miles from me.

     

    Groundspeak will never have maps for benchmarks (I'm just guessing). Do you know how many benchmarks there are? Thousands of times more than there are geocaches. That would just be a great big drain on the many hamster powered servers at Groundspeak.

    petition to bring back trainlove

    in Website

    Posted

    this is a message from trainlove for my benchmark topic

     

    Caches are at a minimum some kind of container with a log book. That's why Virtual Caches are disappearing, that category stopped allowing new additions in or around Dec 2005. Waymarking was invented some time later to serve that niche. Earth Caches went away too but as they are educational they came back last year. Web Cam caches are also disappearing slowly. Benchmarks have no owner other than some government, state, city or private organization.

     

    You can make a map of all the benchmarks you want. It will take some work on your part though.

    Go to www.ngs.noaa.org then click on Datasheets and then click on either Datasheets or Archived Datasheets. You can get a file of all the benchmarks in a county of a state all at once or a zip file of a whole archived state at once. The 2 formats are slightly different. They are both text files. You can import them into Excel, do Text To Column processing, and convert DDMMSS to DD MM.mmm coordinate format.

     

    Magellan MapSend Topo allows you to import files that are text CSV formatted. For Garmin MapSource Topo you probably have to use something like GPSBabel to convert that to a GPX file that you can import. Or you could write a program to do all this for you. I have such a program that I wrote on a dead laptop of mine, been sitting for 3 years waiting to try to recover all from that hard drive.

     

    When it comes to benchmarks, there is a difference between Scaled and Adjusted, read the FAQ on the benchmark link of www.geocaching.com

    And not all benchmarks are disks.

    And some listed benchmarks are a station and there are actually several reference mark disks all around it within a few hundred feet.

    All the disks listed on www.ngs.noaa.gov (not necessarily the archived ones) are on www.geocaching.com but not all disks you might find in the field are on either site. There is a www.Waymarking.com category called USA Benchmarks that one can add to. I have about a dozen listed in there. There are other Waymarking categories like Water Monitoring Stations, which usually have a disk. Check the site http://www.weather.gov/oh/hads/states/NH_dcps.htm with your own state abbreviation for those near you.

    P.S. The coordinates for benchmarks are mostly in NAD27 not WGS84 format, so they can be something like a few hundred feet off, and are Degrees Minutes and whole Seconds without a fractional part so that's also about +/-100 feet of error.

     

    Yes most benchmarks are on private property. I'm planning on recovering all the benchmarks (40 or more) on the grounds of the Haystack Hill, Millstone Hill, NEROC (New England Regional Operations Center). A large radio telescope site belonging to the government and MIT about 15 miles from me.

     

    Groundspeak will never have maps for benchmarks (I'm just guessing). Do you know how many benchmarks there are? Thousands of times more than there are geocaches. That would just be a great big drain on the many hamster powered servers at Groundspeak.

     

     

    this was very helpful info. many topics could be answered, and EVERYONE could see it, not just one person if he comes back. also, that would mean my questions would be answered faster so there would be less Belldinger topics!

     

    P.S. I know you are all going to say "we don't care about your PM's" well, its the only way he can answer questions, so... bring him back?

    New Feature!

    in Website

    Posted

    I think benchmarks should be included in our little box in the corner on geocaching.com

     

    example: user name

    pic

    caches found #

    benchmarks found #

    caches hidden #

     

     

    anyone agree?

    Change accountname

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted

    I e-mailed this question once before and a friend, who just changed his name, his reply was:

     

    "Please ensure the username is available before making the request via this page: http://www.geocaching.com/email/ . If the username already exists and has ever been validated, or the username has been used in any way, then the username is not available.

     

    The request for a username change needs to be made from the email address in your account profile. Provide the current username as well as the requested new username. Please make sure you specify the exact spelling, spacing and capitalization for your new username.

     

    When the username is changed, all other account information will remain the same. So your logs, caches and trackables will be under the new username. You will need to manually edit the "placed by" for any caches you own, however."

     

    hope this helps!

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