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JSWilson64

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Posts posted by JSWilson64

  1. Good review - I've always wondered about those things...

     

    Peanut gallery chiming in here (albeit an Eagle Scout, Boy Scout leader, and mediocre outdoorsperson for about 35 years now). The OP and some follow-up(s) mentioned going caching, hiking, etc., into the hinterlands, alone.

     

    Rule number 1 for going into the wild: Don't go alone. Just don't. If you find yourself alone (buddy eaten by death's head moths in his sleep, that sort of thing), that's one thing. Purposefully going into the wilderness alone is an invitation for trouble. Unless you consider yourself expendable...

     

    Example: remember that guy several years ago who got pinned by a boulder and had to hack his paw off with a Swiss Army knife? He had no buddy to send for help.

     

    Sure, your Spot, PLB, or EPIRB is great for calling for help. If you're conscious and cognizant. Unconscious from falling rocks? Concussed and loopy? Can't, or can't think to, push the button.

     

    You may think, Hey, it's a fairly well-traveled trail, GZ is only a couple of miles up there, and the cache is only 50-100 feet off the beaten path. Yup, and you might never be seen over there in the bushes where you think the cache is located until someone wonders what those buzzards found.

     

    Overreacting? Maybe. But if heading into the woods alone is something I'd advise my 13-year-old against, and get mighty ticked off about if I found out his Scout troop allowed him to, why would I do it myself?

  2. I saw that one a couple of days ago via Make: magazine (www.makezine.com) - pretty neat idea, although as someone posted, the guy's obviously not a woodworker!

     

    It does get the mind thinking in new ways - I just wish I had the skills and the time to try it myself.

  3. From http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/navinfo/Gps/Nan...?NanuId=2009058

    2009058--------------------------

    NOTICE ADVISORY TO NAVSTAR USERS (NANU) 2009058

    SUBJ: SVN52 (PRN31) FORECAST OUTAGE RESCHEDULED

    1. NANU TYPE: FCSTRESCD

    NANU NUMBER: 2009058

    NANU DTG: 311817Z AUG 2009

    REFERENCE NANU: 2009057

    REF NANU DTG: 272027Z AUG 2009

    SVN: 52

    PRN: 31

    START JDAY: 254

    START TIME ZULU: 0030

    START CALENDAR DATE: 11 SEP 2009

    STOP JDAY: 254

    STOP TIME ZULU: 1500

    STOP CALENDAR DATE: 11 SEP 2009

     

    2. CONDITION: GPS SATELLITE SVN52 (PRN31) WILL BE UNUSABLE ON JDAY 254

    (11 SEP 2009) BEGINNING 0030 ZULU UNTIL JDAY 254 (11 SEP 2009)

    ENDING 1500 ZULU. PLEASE REFERENCE NANU NUMBER 2009057

    DTG 272027Z AUG 2009 FOR THE ORIGINAL OUTAGE TIME.

     

    3. POC: CIVILIAN - NAVCEN AT 703-313-5900, HTTPS://WWW.NAVCEN.USCG.GOV

    MILITARY - GPS OPERATIONS CENTER at HTTP://GPS.AFSPC.AF.MIL/GPSOC, DSN 560-2541,

    COMM 719-567-2541, gps_support@schriever.af.mil, HTTPS://gps.afspc.af.mil

    MILITARY ALTERNATE - JOINT SPACE OPERATIONS CENTER, DSN 276-9994,

    COMM 805-606-9994, JSPOCCOMBATOPS@VANDENBERG.AF.MIL

     

    Jeez, I guess the sky really is falling. :lol:

  4. I am working on a GPS problem involving Longitude and Latitude. I have 3 waypoints making a triangle and I need to find the center and the cooresponding coordinates to that center.

     

    A= N 44.18.642

    w 76.33.807

     

    B= N 44.18.362

    w 76.34.163

     

    C= N 44.18.313

    w 76.33.383

     

    I know you draw a circle that touches on each point, but how can I derive a set of GPS ccordinates to find the location?

     

    I think you can simply convert to decimal degrees and average the Latitudes together, and the Longitudes together. I get 44.30731667 N and 76.56307222 W

  5. Hello again all and thanx for your previous help.I have now got my new Oregan 200.I have downloaded and pasted free maps from alkytoasteruk onto sd card.The problem I have is basicly it dont work.Is there a special way of doing it.And also once the card is inserted should it be picked up automaticly or do I have to change settings someware.I have gone into settings and then maps but even with card in it still only shows the base map enable disable option.HELP PLEASE :unsure:

     

    Someone correct me if I'm wrong (I have a 60CSx, not Oregon), but you'll only be able to use Garmin compatible maps on the Oregon. You have to use Mapsource to upload maps to your Oregon - can't just copy them.

  6. I currently have a Gamin 2730 and love everything about it except there is no Removable Storage so I am very limited to the amount of Maps, Music etc that I can store on the unit... Does Garmin make something that is under $300 with this capability? I know when I bought my 2730 it was like $185 because they are discontinued.... I don't mind buying something that is disscontinued because I know Garmin still supports them... But do you know of a GPS that does what I am asking?

    Sorry, what are you asking? How about listing what you want, and what you want to do with it (i.e., caching, caching + driving nav, etc.)

  7. The Lockheed satellite is the first to include a new civilian frequency -- dubbed L5 -- designed for, among other things, use by future nationwide air-traffic control systems. But that signal, part of test package, apparently is interfering with other signals from the satellite and reducing their accuracy, according to industry and Air Force officials. The degraded signals are accurate only to about 20 feet, versus about two feet for typical GPS signals, industry officials said.

     

    Since when is the "typical" GPS signal accurate to "about two feet" ???

  8. Ok. I'm looking at placing my first cache. I scouted out my location. Checked it twice today to get an average of the coordinates. I even used 2 different GPS receivers. Both of them were reasonably close to each other so after averaging out my results I decided to check them inn google earth. To my astonishment, when I type them in I am beamed to a location nearly 3 miles away from my GZ. Is this common? I don't want to think it is my hardware as I went caching this afternoon and it performed as necessary. I'm just not wanting to start a wild goose chase.

     

    Mikey

    It's likely due to a differences in datum - is your GPSr set to WGS-84?

  9. ...

    In my unit I have a regular 8GB Sandisk Micro SDHC (class 2).

     

    I've read that the Ultra (Class 4) actually fries the unit, so I wouldn't venture there, even less with the Extreme (Class 6). But if you experiment with it and it works, please report!

     

    My feeling anyhow is that the card speed is pretty much irrelevant, except for file transfer, which is tolerable even on my 8gb card, when I plug it straight into the laptop.

     

    For operation, my feeling is that the biggest speed bottleneck is not the card but the bloody chip. How come when you zoom in and out it takes so long to display the map properly? My experience with Garmin is that they are the stingiest company on the planet and will give you the bare minimum component to make a unit work. I remember years ago when I upgraded from the yellow Etrex to the Etrex Legend, and the unit had something like 8MB of storage in it, when you could buy a 256MB USB key for peanuts! Scrooges. Same with the tile limit; or not letting you switch IMG files on the 60CSX without plugging in. But you know the rant.

     

    For higher speed cards it's Russian roulette, I wouldn't want to be the one calling Garmin on the warranty because the unit has fried after inserting a card they warned you against

     

    Thanks, Andy. I've found a couple of Class 2 cards on Amazon - NewEgg doesn't have anything that ancient... :unsure:

     

    As for your speed issue - I think that's more a function of the maps you use. If you're using City Navigator NT, the compression makes calculations take longer, at least subjectively. I've never put a stopwatch to it, but when I was using Metro Guide (modded for routing with metrowizzz), it seemed like recalculation and zooming was a lot quicker than with City Nav NT.

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