[I just Made My First Wherigo Cartridge]

Thanks very much for your reply.

2 hours ago, Forest-Ghost said:

Hi Thot,

1. Can a Wherigo start at the same location as an existing cache?

Yes, unless something is placed physically in the field. . .

What do you mean by "something"?

1. If a Wherigo doesn't have a cache associated with it can it be listed on the GC website?

No, but it could be listed on the Wherigo site.

Knowing nothing about building one of these things I chose a type called Tour Guide.  From your reply, I now think these can't be posted on GC.com.  I don't think nearly as many people look at the Wherigo site for them as see them on GC.  I didn't even know the Wherigo site existed until I decided to try to create my own 

1. If it must have an associated cache to have it listed, does it have to be the final or can it be at an earlier stage than the final?

Interesting question. I suppose you could put the final in the middle although I'm not sure everyone will complete the rest of the cartridge once they find the cache. Why would you put the final in the middle stage?

I have a cache with three features.  The cache, the park & feeding the turtles.  I am trying to have them do the cache first because it has turtle food with it.  The cache must be outside the park so after doing the cache and getting a packet of turtle food, I want them to enter this little known and very nice park.  There they can feed the turtles and watch them. 

1. I can't figure out how to dry-run it.  When I try the rangerfox website's emulator it goes to zone 1 but I can't figure out how to get the actions to appear or how to move past zone 1.

There could be a couple problems happening. Make sure to drag the character slowly over the next zone. Sometimes I have to drag it in and out a couple times. The triggering of evens is based upon a proximity trigger around the zones so if the character is dropped right in the middle of the zone this trigger could be missed. It might also help to widen the proximity. I typically do between 7-10 meters (more if in an area with bad reception or if the precise location is not a necessity).

I didn't drag anything.  The instructions said right click on a location to create a zone.  I have 6 zones.  When creating the second zone RangerFox's software created zone 2 and drew a line to it, and so fourth for the rest. 

Also check and make sure you don't have any "stop emulator" actions in your zone. This will stop the emulator from progressing.

I wouldn't know how to do that.  So unless it's a default I don't have it on and wouldn't know where to look for one.

 

 

[I just Made My First Wherigo Cartridge]

I did my first Wherigo yesterday.

Today I used RangerFox's cartridge builder  http://Wherigo.rangerfox.com to create a cartridge.

I did a very a simple one and it was easy to do.  But, knowing nothing about this I have questions.

1. Can a Wherigo start at the same location as an existing cache?
2. If a Wherigo doesn't have a cache associated with it can it be listed on the GC website?
3. If it must have an associated cache to have it listed, does it have to be the final or can it be at an earlier stage than the final?
4. I can't figure out how to dry-run it.  When I try the rangerfox website's emulator it goes to zone 1 but I can't figure out how to get the actions to appear or how to move past zone 1.

Forgive me for these nubey questions but everybody has to start somewhere.

[How do Surveyors use Scaled Benchmarks?]

It's probably worth mentioning that land subsidence in our area makes vertical adjusted marks incorrect. I think before GPSs a few were used to measure the amount of subsidence by bringing measurements from 400-500 miles north. But, the height of vertical marks it pretty meaningless here.

[How do Surveyors use Scaled Benchmarks?]

I should also note that GPS coordinates posted on this site for scaled bench marks have been harvested and updated nearly 70,000 marks in the NGS database which will contribute to improved recovery for others in the future.

I submit recovery reports with coordinates and photos to the NGS using their DSWorld software.

[How do Surveyors use Scaled Benchmarks?]

Thanks.

 

While hunting I see people with transits on tripods over marks with helpers with grade rods. I really don't know what they're doing but it's fairly common to either encounter them at the mark or see the evidence they've been there recently.

 

If the marks with adjusted horizontal coordinates aren't used to survey/locate property boundaries, what are they used for?

[How do Surveyors use Scaled Benchmarks?]

I've been benchmark hunting for a while now but there's something I've never understood. By far and away the majority of marks in my area are scaled. The coordinates/location given by NGS are normally not very close. The worst I've found was about 1500 feet off and 50-200 feet is common. So, they obviously can't be being used to survey property lines/boundaries. How are scaled benchmarks used by surveyors?

[How Accurate are Adjusted Benchmark Coordinates?]

I gave him the information I had and the what I got here (except the post about the CORS stations because I didn't get an email notice of that post). I got him a list of all adjusted benchmarks in this(Harris) county. I haven't heard from him since. So, I don't know what happened with his project.

[US POWER SQUADRON]

CIVIC SERVICES CONTRIBUTED BY USPS

Members . . . can participate in this program by reporting on geodetic survey markers that are used in surveying and map reading.

That seems to mean they're still reporting on benchmarks. Which is it? They still do it or they don't.

[US POWER SQUADRON]

They were a group who tried to assist NGS

You say WERE. Have they quit doing this?

 

Yes.

Thanks

[US POWER SQUADRON]

They were a group who tried to assist NGS

You say WERE. Have they quit doing this?

[US POWER SQUADRON]

I have a couple of things about the US POWER SQUADRON

 

• Did they stop looking for benchmarks in 2005? In our area they had been pretty regular until that year and none since then?
  
• I'm curious about some of their finds. Given it's been nine years since these finds and things change, but I'm aware of changes made before 2005 that would have destroyed marks or made them inaccessible, yet they find them. There are several examples but a couple of situations that come to mind are highways that were widened. The description would put the marks along these roads under the extended pavement yet they're reported found. Is this some kind of error or what does mean? In one case a mark was reported in good condition and they stated it was a foot deep under a restaurant's shell covered parking lot. If they had dug around to find it the owner would've been very unhappy -- I certainly wasn't going to, especially since its location was scaled.
  

[Benchmark Challenge Cache]

There are three benchmark challenge caches in Galveston

 

• 
   
  
• http://coord.info/GC3C529
  
• http://coord.info/GC3C28X
  
• http://coord.info/GC3C91Z
  

 

They're pretty easy except the types challenge for me. I quit doing intersection stations some time ago and that's where the variety of types are.

[How Accurate are Adjusted Benchmark Coordinates?]

Is the student just needing a distance, or is lat-lon also critical?

I believe he's only interested in lat-lon

 

The most accurate distances, maybe down to a millimeter, are for calibration baselines,

That's the kind of lat-lon accuracy he's looking for. How would I find this mark in Texas?

 

<musing>I can't see how the scribe mark on the disk can be located with millimeter accuracy.</musing>

[How Accurate are Adjusted Benchmark Coordinates?]

Do you mean 'Triangulation Station'? Very unlikely that a true 'Bench Mark' will have a Lat/Long that accurate.

Are you saying Triangulation Stations have this kind of accuracy, but ordinary adjusted benchmarks don't?

[How Accurate are Adjusted Benchmark Coordinates?]

A graduate student contacted me to help him locate a couple of benchmarks he can use for a study he is doing. He needs locations that are accurate to less than a centimeter and more accurate if possible. I've read that adjusted marks are accurate to less then one centimeter. Are all adjusted marks this accurate? Many in our area were done sixty to 75 years ago. I don't understand how they could have gotten this accuracy back then and surely some errors were made.

[Where Does This Come From and How Do I Change It?]

Link for reference:

 

Changes: Avatar, Title, Signature

 

Just going to take a wild guess, but you might need to log out of the Forum and then back in. Hopefully that will synchronize the data.

That was it. Thank you.

[Where Does This Come From and How Do I Change It?]

If you look below my avatar you will see that it says Garmin 60CSx. Well that hasn't been true for a long time. I've changed it in my profile, but apparently that's not where it comes from. Where and how do I change it?

[What Should I Assume About Marks With No Recovery Reports?]

The reason many don't get reported is that it cost the construction company / surveyor time and expense to fill out the need forms and file with the NGS. They save money by not filing a recovery.

Teams called "US POWER SQUADRON" (called USPSQD in the summary), not individual surveyors, have been recovering the marks in our area for quite a while. They did this regularly in 2005 and earlier. They found most of the marks surrounding this one in 2003, 2004 and/or 2005. For some reason they stopped doing it in 2005. Here's an example.

[What Should I Assume About Marks With No Recovery Reports?]

If you check the current Datasheets, you may find that some Geocac'rs are logging their recoveries there and not on the Geocaching site. Google Earth is a good source for current recoveries using the Datasheets.

The link provided is to the current datasheet

 

I'm one of the geocachers who submit recovery reports and pictures to the NGS which become part of the datasheets.

[What Should I Assume About Marks With No Recovery Reports?]

 

Here are some possible reasons for no recovery reports that I can think of:

 

• 
   
  
• No one has looked for it
   
  

 

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

Benchmarks near it have been found several times by official teams, and they report failures to find as well as finds. One would think they would have tried for this never recovered one.

[What Should I Assume About Marks With No Recovery Reports?]

Occasionally I run across benchmarks like this one which was placed in the 1960's and has never had a recovery report of any kind. No "Destroyed," no "Not Found," nothing.

[HH2 Coordinates]

I upload all my properly formatted benchmark photo's and BM recoveries to the NGS site using the DSWORLD program.

 

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/web/surveys/photo_submissions/

 

So do I. I also have some utilities that I wrote to assist with this. The overview is here

[AVATAR TESTING and INSTRUCTIONS]

A test. It says my username or password are incorrect and won't let me log in but indications are I'm already logged in.

[Benchmark Pocket Query]

Posted in 2003

I've read many places and been told that Jeremy has already said that this is in the works

 

If it's been in the works for 11 years and still isn't done, it seems unlikely it ever will be.

 

However if you go to my discussion of benchmark hunting here the paragraph titled How I Hunt Benchmarks explains how you can download benchmarks from the NGS database and put them into GSAK. Then, if you want the GSAK entries to contain the GC.com logs plus links to the GC.com benchmark database you can run the GSAK gpx file through my Get GC Benchmark Logs utility. It adds the GC logs and links and some other information. After this the entries are much like Pocket Query data from GC except it's current instead of the 14 year old data on GC.

 

This link takes you to a list of my benchmarking utilities.

[Submiting Your Benchmark Finds and DNFs to the NGS]

Intersting.

However, you do NOT *HAVE* to use DSWorld to update records.

All I know is I was told it was the only way when I tried to make a submission the old way.

 

And, please note - many professionals use this service to look up stations. Keep recoveries short, concise, and professional. No "LOL there was a cat on the benchmark.". And do NOT update a station if the last recovery was less than a year ago - unless there is a major change in the condition or 'to get to'.

You're right about both of those. I'll try to find a place to add those cautions.