wildlifewriter

Those ARE eastings and northings There is a program available from this site called GridInQuest, which will do that thing with more accuracy that you could need. The program is free but site registration is required. Note that GridInQuest is neither friendly nor easy to use, but it does exactly what it says on the tin. Hth

It was supposed to be a joke, Officer. I forget to include the smiley things at the end, that's all.... proc include_smileys grep "laugh"|smileys.select >> future_posts 2&1 endproc

(Discussion moved from Kidnapped TBs as OT) I don't know. Perhaps the following mail template should be sent out during the approval process... -------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Cacher, In respect of your cache in Ireland, submitted for approval on <date>, please complete the following questionnaire, and act according to the results thereof... 1) Did you place the cache during a holiday/ business trip/ works outing/ turbulent love affair/ term of imprisonment/ in Ireland? Y/N 2) Was your GPS unit set to WGS84 when you placed the cache? Y/N 3) Are you sure? (Because IG65 would set it about 200ft away from its coordinates.) Y/N 4) Have you since changed your e-mail address, so that no-one can contact you? (Answer not required) 5) Does your cache contain any weapons which have been "placed beyond use" as part of the Decommissioning Process? Y/N 6) Does your cache description page contain references to any of the following: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Bill Clinton, the IRA, Leprechauns. Y/N If the answer to any of the above questions is "YES", please return to Ireland and remove the cache as soon as possible. Regards, <name>

Right off topic now, this is. My fault. Time for a new thread, methinks...

Since posting the last, I have also discovered that this same person or persons is responsible for the duff holiday cache GCJWQY in Ireland. Clearly clueless in more ways than one.

No link to any web copy (that I know of). It was published on paper - an outmoded concept, I know, but that's us old people for you.

A new satellite, designed specifically for operations in Glasgow South, is scheduled for launch on ArianeV during the early part of next year. Designated CU-UR1,2 it will broadcast the same SBAS data stream as other vehicles, but without consonants...

Unfortunately not. We haven't been on speaking terms since the appearance of a magazine piece which I wrote last year. Admittedly, the article's strapline... "Macdonalds: why I'd rather eat worms." ... might have been more tactfully chosen.

Quite right, of course, though in my own defence I suppose that non-techies might find this topic of little interest, anyway. Azimuth: the bearing (in Deg True) on which the satellite lies, from a given location. Elevation: Angle (in Deg) above an unobstructed horizon. These vehicles are in equatorial (more or less) geostationary orbits, so their bearings do not change - unlike the 'ordinary' GEO constellation. More useless information: the base co-ords used in my calculation were those of: Tower of London; Edinburgh Castle; Belfast Castle; and somewhere in central Manchester that isn't a castle. Viewers in Wales have their own programmes at this time.

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The following table might help, when finding the direction to 'point' your handheld GPSr, when acquiring these satellites for the first time. The Az/El is approximate for these locations: Edinburgh, Belfast, Manchester, London. (Some of the vehicles have inclined orbits - especially Artemis, so don't beat me up about the exact figures.) Formatting a list is difficult in this forum interface: the columns contain (l to r) Station, PRN no, 'Garmin number', vehicle, current use, Azimuth/Elevation: Edinburgh, Belfast, Manchester, London AOR-E.....120.....33.....Inmarsat3F2.....EGNOS.....195/25-192/27-196/28-199/29 AOR-W....122.....35.....Inmarsat3F4.....WAAS ART........124.....37.....ESA Artemis.....EGNOS.....148/22-146/22-147/24-149/26 IOR-W.....126.....39.....Inmarsat3F5.....EGNOS.....152/21-148/21-147/22-147/25 IOR.........131.....44.....Inmarsat3F1.....ESTB test..109/4-106/2-109/5-110/7 POR........135.....47.....Inmarsat3F3.....WAAS You can see why we, in the north-west, haven't seen much of the IOR signal since testing began...

Abso-cachein-lutely. That's what forums are for. (Aren't they?) So... anybody have a contact for this lot ?

<after looking at various logs>... it seems as if this cacher does not like to drop off a TB unless he/she/they/it are able to move that TB for a considerable distance. This (of course) is an error, but they/it/she/he may not realise it. There are no postings from that userid in these forums, so 'naming and shaming' might not do any good.

Congratulations from away OVER HERE!!! Additional Hints (Encrypt) It's behind that pillar on the left.

Where in my reply did I say you suggested it?

I think it's a mistake to generalise about this subject. Many caches are in rural areas, and often in AONB. Surrounding roads can be narrow and even single-track in places. In such places, it's far better to be aware of a nearby parking place than to abandon our vehicles at the point where the needle went sideways. And it might not end there: the cache placer might - and indeed SHOULD - be aware of any environmental sensitivities at the location. I have visited a number of cache sites where aimless rambling about on the approach would be postively harmful, by causing disturbance to fauna and flora. In such cases, giving directions is not merely helpful - it's socially responsible.

Well done, Forester. Now, class - who can tell me what Avogadro's Number is? ... No not you Avogadro give the others a go... Yes, Stallone? ... uh,huh?.. good... no - that's Planck's Constant you're thinking of. Anyone else? Blair? Well, I think we DO have to worry about the day-to-day details, Blair. This is a Physics class, after all - what is it NOW, Bush Jr? Hurry up then - you should have gone before you came in. Now then: come on IIIB - Avogadro's Number, anyone...?

Only two days ago, I found in a cache box, a cigarette lighter which - by a spooky coincidence - was almost identical to my own Ronson. Needless to say, I removed it for safety reasons. And the moral of this story is: ALWAYS remove lighters from caches... ...in case it's the one which just dropped out of your shirt pocket, and fell into the box.

Plus or minus SIX WEEKS?!! Is this one of those Scots spread bets?.... "Aye, Jimmy - I'll just put ma 50p on yon beastie tae finish frae first doon til fifteenth. 50p mark ye, and no' a penny more..." (etc)

Good on yer, Michael! Puzzle caches apart, his maths skill will certainly come in handy for... * Working out where the cache really is, when the owner has taken the co-ords with his GPSr set to the wrong datum. * In Buckinghamshire, deciding which order to do them all in. * Budgeting for a new iQue3600, when you can't afford one, really. * In later life, keeping track of whose round it is.

Choose your ticket for the great EGNOS availability sweepstake! The system will be operational on... 1/4/04 - as originally scheduled, but nobody noticed. 1/5/04 - but all your GPS receivers are incompatible. 1/10/04 - as recently advertised (very quietly.) 1/12/04 - just a few technical problems to sort out. 1/2/05 - really working hard on getting this right. 1/3/05 - but that's only 11 months behind schedule. 1/9/05 - but that's only 11 months behind the other schedule. 1/11/05 - real soon, now. 1/4/06 - April fool! 1/10/06 - the GALILEO system will be worth waiting for. 1/1/XX - Hell freezes over...

You don't need to go to all that trouble. As you are sinking, just give your last known position over the VHF, and they'll send the nearest one.

I get the impression, that isn't going to happen any time soon.

Here in N.I. several caches, rated 1/1, have been placed by a person who cannot correctly... ... operate a GPS receiver, ... or a compass, ... nor understand the effect of different map datum settings. Finding his/her/their latest effort took me three visits to the site, and two hours applied maths at home, before I found it. And I'm still the only person who has!

I've been planning for a cache here in Northern Ireland. The possible location is in a car park and viewing area which serves a National Nature Reserve. Being a good little cacher, I set off to seek permission from the responsible authority. That would be the NI Environment and Heritage Service, right? Apparently not... 1)The E&H pointed out that the car park is not actually within the boundary of the NNR, and produced a map which shows this. They suggested I contact the council. 2)Down County Council said that, in this particular case, the car park in question gave onto an A-class road, and is therefore dealt with by the Roads Service Agency. 3)The RSA said that they aren't responsible for this car park, because it's part of a National Nature Reserve. When I told them it wasn't, they suggested I get in touch with the farmer who owns the land adjacent to the road. 4)The landowner (actually, his wife) said, no; the car park didn't belong to them – it was bought by the Government years ago, when the road was widened. 5)The land registry shows that this is true, but (of course) does not indicate who is now responsible for managing it. At which point... ...I give up.