solohiker

quote:Originally posted by Warm Fuzzies - Fuzzy:I've been wanting to mention this and haven't found a good place to do so: Even if Selective Availability is turned back on - and it's quite likely that it will not be, given that it was temporarily turned _off_ for the last Gulf War - anyone who has a WAAS-capable receiver will not be affected. WAAS almost completely eliminates the sort of signal distortions that Selective Availability introduces. http://216.202.195.127/warm.gif SA was not turned off during the last (1991) War. SA was not turned off until May 1, 2000. The internet was not around during the last war either.

I logged four non-finds this weekend. All four were placed by the same person.

Terrain Navigator by Map Tech is what I use.

I am glad you could make use of the info. I got my info from an informed soul on the sci.geo.satellite-nav newsgroup. Can't remember who exactly. After years of use, drops on rocks, drops into water and general knocking about it was nice to know that my old GPS was still giving reasonably accurate readings.

Turkey Season in Arkansas is from April 5th through the 18th. Season dates are dependent geographic zones. Consult the Game and Fish website for details. http://www.agfc.com

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I can determine the latitude and longitude location of the server sending the IP address. I can also get the name, address and phone number of the person who registered the IP number. Locating every computer connected to that server is something I am still working on.

The State Park visitor centers sell wooden hiking sticks from $6.00 to $13.00. They are various lengths and usually have a cheap leather wrist strap. Light weight and sturdy with a natural wood laquer finish. They also sell metal bands with the various State Park logos that can be tacked onto the sticks. I consider these to be a bargain so paying more for a custom stick would be expected. I am not in the market for a custom hiking stick so I can't even estimate what a fair price would be. I did pay less than $40.00 for a set of fiberglass telescoping walking sticks. I use them when backpacking with a 35 or 40 pound pack.

My county only had two Both were at the local Airport between taxiways.

quote:Originally posted by BassoonPilot: quote:Originally posted by solohiker:If I were an approver I would only allow caches, placed in the woods that required at least a mile hike. That's funny, because it appears that fewer than 50% of the 53 caches you've found over the past two years fit that description. But whatever ... That mile would be the one-way distance, I hope ... Why don't you check the caches I have placed? I have visited all the caches within a sixty mile radius of my house with a few exceptions that are surrounded by private land. I can't dictate where other people place their caches, but I wish I could. I am sorry you did not have something more interesting to do than review all 53 of my finds.

If I were an approver I would only allow caches, placed in the woods that required at least a mile hike. Call me the cache Nazi.

I have searched for a cache that was in a pay for parking situation. I parked outside and walked. The cache was missing, (duh, it is a tourist trap) but it was a cool spot and I was glad I found the spot and didn't have to pay for the experience. They actually had a parking lot outside the toll booth. I guess they were only charging for the 900 meter drive. I support the decision of the non-approver.

Let me add that this benchmark is near a taxiway on a public Airport. Very flat with no obstructions. The State Highway department had a tripod over the bench mark with an electronic transponder on top. I took my reading one meter west of the tripod. This is a small town airport and I guess I looked official enough when I asked to survey the geodesic disk. The highway department people had been in there everyday for a week. There are only 2 GPS adjusted benchmarks in the County and they are both at this airport. To find YOUR nearest GPS adjusted bench mark go to the website, search by County and select 'GPS sites only' in the Data Type Desired box. http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/datasheet.html

quote:Originally posted by Criminal: SoloHiker, there's a lot of info on that page. Could you narrow it down a bit for those of us with short attention spans? Thanks! The web page is a search engine for bench marks. If you select search by PID and enter 'FG1961' you should be able to locate and download the data sheet that I used. The coordinates are listed in UTM format as: UTM 15 - 3,901,885.135 491,605.895 Map Datum NAD 83 I sent an email to the info address and asked about tolerance of horizontal data. The reply stated that the accuracy of GPS adjusted bench marks was 1 to 3 centimeters. I am new to this too, but I think my data and assertions are accurate. [This message was edited by solohiker on March 12, 2003 at 04:30 PM.]

Who cares?

Go to the setup menu of your GPS. Change your navigation settings on your GPS format to hddmmss.sss enter the coordinates. Go back and change your navigation settings to hddd mm.mmm. I go back and forth between different formats and datums all the time. The GPS does the conversions automatically.

My old Garmin 12 handles any conversion, between map formats and map datum. I assume the magellan 310 will also, inspite of the fact that it is made by a French company.

quote:Originally posted by Alan2: What effect the vector method has I this I don't know. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Alan The vector graphics are what make this possible. Raster graphics which is what the USGS uses for its maps and data is simply too large to be practical.

quote:Originally posted by Criminal:Uh.....what kind of benchmark was it? Most of the coordinates were determined by some guy looking at a topo map and figuring out the lat/long. You are correct, most are. Some are recorded by military grade GPS's. The benchmark was FG1961. YOu can look up the data sheet at the link below. The coordinates are posted to centimeter accuracy. The link also allows a search of benchmarks adjusted by GPS. http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/datasheet.html [This message was edited by solohiker on March 12, 2003 at 04:54 AM.]

I verified the horizontal position. FG1961 http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/datasheet.html [This message was edited by solohiker on March 12, 2003 at 04:35 AM.]

The gps map data is comparable to the 1:24,000 scale paper charts provided by the United States Geological Survey — the most detailed topographic data available. http://www.garmin.com/pressroom/cartography/031103.html

I log my non-finds. If I remember correctly all, but one have been reported missing by the cache owner or never found after my attempt.

Of course there is nothing to be concerned with. I am ecstatic with these results.

My caches get approved within the hour. No complaints from me.

I unofficially verified the accuracy of my GPS today. I have an old Garmin 12 that I have owned for years. I received some comments about coordinates being off on a recent cache that I had placed. I tried bench marking for the first time and found I was way off on the posted coordinants. I was loosing faith in my old Garmin 12. I did some more research on bench marking and found that there is a significant margin of error for some bench marks. One helpful person suggested I do a search on 'GPS' verified bench marks. I found a local bench mark that was GPS verified with a commercial GPS to an accuracy less than one centimeter. I went out at lunch today and plotted the bench mark. My old Garmin was 4 meters off Has anyone else found a way to verify the accruacy of their GPS?