Datasheet Downloads

[CoyoteTrust]

I don't have a PDA, and I don't always have a printed datasheet with me for mark hunting. I have many marks loaded into the GPS but sometimes I just decide to blindly seek them if I'm near one.

 

If I DO have a printed datasheet, it is usually from gc. com. Sometimes I'll copy/paste the pertinent info from the webpage into Word or Excel -- which takes some time on multiple datasheets. But I was wondering if there is any preferred or specific program that folks here use to download datasheets from the NGS web. (To reiterate, I'm not asking about a way to download into a PDA or GPX/LOC format.

 

Yep, I know about datasheet retrieval via NGS whether for single or multiple marks; I've also checked out the "DSWIN" program, and I've used a 'user-contributed' program from NGS as well. I'm not too keen about these although they are probably great tools for some people.

 

I guess my goal is to find a way to retrieve the datasheet info (coords, PID, designation, type, and mark description) without all of the computations and other remarks.

 

Thanks to many of you here who make me realize just how much of an amateur I am at BM recovery. I've read your posts and they've have helped me learn a lot more about mark recovery -- even though some of the dialogue sounds like a foreign language to me. I should probably get better at it since I do submit recovery reports to the NGS.

 

And special thanks to Bill93 and Rogue who have emailed me in the past with some general info about NGS marks.

Edited July 25, 2006 by CoyoteTrust

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

CoyoteTrust, What you might find to your liking is done with GSAK and the county downloads (see #8 in Me First).

 

Download the county archive that you are interested in and extract it, then run it through BMGPX. Load that file into GSAK and sort by your criteria. When you have the benchmarks sorted go to the upper left corner and click on "File", then select "Print". This will allow you to print out the "Grid" with the PID#, designation, Who placed it, When, Lat & Long. Miles from your home or from where you choose, etc. It will depend on what columns you have chosen to show in the GSAK grid. You may have to try a couple of times to get the printer to put all the info on the page. Choose "Landscape" for paper orientation on your printer. This will print out the grid from GSAK as it is shown on your monitor. You can probably get 25 to 30 benchmarks per page.

 

Hopes this helps,

 

John

 

Edit for a sample picture.

 

Edited July 25, 2006 by 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)

[+Black Dog Trackers]

CoyoteTrust -

 

I must admit I cannot determine what your goal actually is.

without all of the computations and other remarks.

This seems to have something to do with it, but I'm not sure.

 

I use a unix sed script that I wrote to get rid of a lot of lines from NGS datasheets that are extraneous to a benchmark hunting effort. It results in about half the number of lines. It was described here along with equivalent efforts using perl, TextHarvest, and QBasic. Could this be related to your goal?

 

Hunting benchmarks without bringing the to-reach description is often a waste of time, but if it's a nice day and you want to spend time outdoors......

[+PFF]

Hi, CoyoteTrust:

 

My preparation requires several steps, but it pays big dividends in having the critical information in easy-to-read form. An added benefit is that the datasheet looks "clean" and quasi-official, if you have to explain your presence to a landowner or law officer. :-)

 

1. Enter the PID's in the DATASHEET section of the NGS website.

 

2. Copy the complete datasheet for one marker at a time.

 

3. Paste it into WORD. I have a template with 10-up forms labelled 'NGS DATA SHEET" at the top. My page settings (PAGE SETUP) are .6 for top, bottom, left and right margins.

 

4. When finished with the copy/pasting, go back and delete the info you do not need. For instance, you can start directly below the coordinates and delete all the way to the SPACIAL DATABASE line. However, I leave the "box score" on triangulation stations, as an aid to finding the reference marks.

 

I do a couple of other things which are very helpful, once you are out in the field. If the location is SCALED, I make this word BOLD to remind me that the coordinates may be inaccurate.

 

If there are multiple disks at a single location, I BOLD the names of the stations throughout the text so I can find them quickly.

 

If the datasheet spills over onto a second page by one to five lines, I find it beneficial to shrink it back to one page by "squeezing" the text. Here's my technique:

 

*Delete the two lines about the stability of the mark.

*For "recovered as described" notes, change to font to "8", and/or condense them to a single entry.

*Take out the blank line between the date of a recovery and the associated text.

 

Again, this sounds like a lot to do, but it gets to be "routine" quickly. The important thing is that the time spent in preparation really pays off when you're searching. You're less likely to overlook a critical part of the description, and there are fewer sheets of paper to carry. Also, the search goes faster, which can be important if the temperature is 100 degrees.

 

-Paul-

[foxtrot_xray]

[Edit: Deleting duplicate post.. Apologies!]

Edited July 25, 2006 by foxtrot_xray

[foxtrot_xray]

I was actually working on a PHP script that I would pull up, enter a PID, and it'd parse out the return, giving me only the 'wanted' information. Luckily, anyone with simple AWK / Substr know-how can easily look for what they want in a datasheet, and send the rest into the bitbucket.

 

Me.

[+Klemmer]

Have you looked at the State Spreadsheets that BuckBrooke did? They don't have the complete 'to-reach' directions, but I find them useful at times. I just sorted out the counties I wanted, and saved only those. I also wrote an Excel macro that you can add to link from the spreadsheet directly to the GC or NGS BM pages. Not sure if it helps. PM or email me your real email address if you want the spreadsheet with macros.

[CoyoteTrust]

Thanks for the replies; I'll be checking out some of the stuff. PFF I appreciate the product you sent. Thing is I'm basically doing the same thing you are but without the nice, official looking results . Thanks, all.