Streets and Trips coordinates

[tpolley]

i'm new to geocaching and i'm having trouble finding caches on microsoft streets and trips i think version 2004. when i put in a set of coordinates it puts me in saudi arabia or somewhere on the other side of the globe. the help file wasn't very helpfull. it said something about gps's using different types of coordinates and that they may appear in different places on the map but it doesn't explain how to get around this. any suggestions??

 

thanks in advance,

tom

[+GPSlug]

i'm new to geocaching and i'm having trouble finding caches on microsoft streets and trips i think version 2004. when i put in a set of coordinates it puts me in saudi arabia or somewhere on the other side of the globe. the help file wasn't very helpfull. it said something about gps's using different types of coordinates and that they may appear in different places on the map but it doesn't explain how to get around this. any suggestions??

 

thanks in advance,

tom

What are the coordinates you are trying to enter? Can you provide a screen shot of the entry dialogue?

[+AnneOutdoors]

I received a new geocache location. I utilized my MS Streets & Trips program to pinpoint the location, as it supposedly has Lat&long. I tried this feature, and a cache that the email stated was 2 miles from my home in Lake County showed in South Orlando near the Millenia mall. Is MS Street & Trips so far off the mark, do you have any experience with this happening to others?

As a test I am putting the coordinates to the fire station in Zellwood, Fl: according to MS Streets & Trips: 28.73007 N, 81.60275 W. The address is 3200 Washington Street, Zellwood, Fl. 32798.

What is your findings?

Thanks. I was about to get the GPS that goes with MS Streets & Trips, but not if it is that far off.

Edited August 15, 2006 by annekeller

[+webscouter.]

I think you need to add a - in front of the west number.

[+AnneOutdoors]

I think you need to add a - in front of the west number.

 

I documented just as MS Streets & Trips displayed it. I know that the geocache showed the west coordinate as starting with a Zero, i.e. 081., however MS Streets & trips does not. Still way off the mark. MS Streets & Trips professes to have a GPS system that you can navigate with inside of your car, but not with these coordinates.

[+webscouter.]

I put in the address and then the lat and long. I ended up with two different points about 36 yards apart.

[+webscouter.]

Also you can use the gps you currently have with Streets and Trips

 

If you have a Garmin you will need either Franson GPSGate or Garmins Spanner to drive the program. I use GPSGate on a daily basis with several mapping programs one of which is Streets and Trips.

 

I also put all the caches on S&T using Pushpins.exe.

[+Indotguy]

I use MS Streets and Trips quite often and Webscouter is correct. Streets and Trips will accept coordinate data only in the Degree decimal format. East Longitude is postive and West is negative. If your in the Western Hemisphere and don't use a negative sign before the Longitude, the mark will show up in the Eastern hemisphere every time.

[+AnneOutdoors]

I put in the address and then the lat and long. I ended up with two different points about 36 yards apart.

 

Thanks for attempting to assist. Evidentally tpolley and I are having the same difficulties. When I utilize the coordinates and the MS S&T program, I get a location 50+ miles from my house, not the 2 miles the geocache states that it is. I am glad it works for you. Are you utilizing the 2004 version or 2005?

At work we have MS S&T for navigation and to give incoming helicopters, if needed. Since discovering this feature, I have no idea if the coordinates I may have given the pilots would have been helpful or way off the mark. Don't know why, just know that it is. Thanks.

[+RheS]

Thanks for attempting to assist. Evidentally tpolley and I are having the same difficulties. When I utilize the coordinates and the MS S&T program, I get a location 50+ miles from my house, not the 2 miles the geocache states that it is. I am glad it works for you. Are you utilizing the 2004 version or 2005?

 

I use the 2005 version of S&T all the time for caching, as well as finding my way to customers. It does a very nice job of displaying cache locations... and seems to be very close on, not off even a part of a city block, much less several miles.

 

So it seems to me you must be entering the coordinates in an incorrect format.

 

Streets & Trips only accepts coordinates in decimal degrees format. If you are trying to type the numbers in "degrees minutes" format, which most of us use for geocaching, you'll get the wrong answer.

 

You can find conversion programs, or use any calculator to convert from "degrees minutes" to "decimal degrees" format. Here are the instructions to convert:

You need to do the same conversion for both latitude and longitude.

 

Take the minutes portion, which is a number between 00.000 and 59.999.

Divide that by 60, to get a number between 0.00000 and 0.99999.

Take the fraction obtained, and append it to the whole number of degrees.

That number is decimal degrees.

 

Example: N 42 25.888.

25.888 divided by 60 gives 0.43147.

So the result is 42.43147 degrees.

 

Note also that Streets and Trips expects west longitudes to be proceeded with a minus sign... otherwise it'll think you mean to be in the eastern hemipshere, which puts you Floridians in the Middle East. Southern hemisphere people must do the same with latitude, of course.

 

Of course, if you are converting the data for a mess of caches, gpsbabel (or GSAK, which uses it) will make a file in the correct format very nicely.

 

Hope this help.

 

Dick "RheS" Smith

[+AnneOutdoors]

Thanks for the explanation. At this point the results are way closer than before, but point to an orange grove. So I am not sure of the validity of my results to find a geocache, but I am a lot closer. Thanks for the L&L lesson.

[+RheS]

Thanks for the explanation. At this point the results are way closer than before, but point to an orange grove. So I am not sure of the validity of my results to find a geocache, but I am a lot closer. Thanks for the L&L lesson.

 

No problem. What geocache are you looking at? Perhaps we can all look, too.

 

Also, have you tried the map links from the cache page... those links pass the coordinates directly to the mapping web site, and so there won't be any conversion errors (unless somebody screws up the web software at gc.com, which is unlikely, since it's working nicely now).

 

The Microsoft Maps page ought to look a lot like Streets & Trips. And the Google Map is particularly nice, since you can select to use satellite photos instead (or in addition to) just a road map... which might clear up the issue with the orange grove.

 

The online map links are after the "nearby caches..." links, before the logs.

 

Best,

 

Dick "RheS" Smith

[verdejt]

If you go to tools then options under Streets and Trips you can select which units to use.

[+RheS]

If you go to tools then options under Streets and Trips you can select which units to use.

 

There's not a choice (at least not in the 2005 version) for "degrees minutes", the format which is the norm for geocaching. Maybe they've fixed it in the 2006 version? In 2005, you have a choice between "decimal degrees" and "degrees minutes seconds".

 

It's not particularly annoying when you're loading whole .GPX files, because gpsbabel converts to the expected format very nicely and the result can be easily imported... but if you want to type in a single point, you must convert by hand. Since the format for DMS entry is a little tricky, I do the conversion to decimal degrees (as I described above), and enter it easily.

 

I normally import the ~11000 unfound caches within 200 miles of my house as red dots. Then, whenever I need to go someplace to work, I've got the nearby caches already on the maps I'd print anyway to find my customer.

[+Alfresco2006]

i'm new to geocaching and i'm having trouble finding caches on microsoft streets and trips i think version 2004. when i put in a set of coordinates it puts me in saudi arabia or somewhere on the other side of the globe. the help file wasn't very helpfull. it said something about gps's using different types of coordinates and that they may appear in different places on the map but it doesn't explain how to get around this. any suggestions??

 

thanks in advance,

tom

 

Sounds to me like you have the software set to a different map datum format than that displayed by the gps. I made this same mistake a while back and it can put you way out.

 

I would make sure the map datum is set to WGS 84 in both the software and the gps if indeed that datum can be selected in Streets and Trips.

[IowaJedi]

ay Know i use streets & trips 2006 and i have the same trouble. There is a cashe here in burlington iowa at a small park i know very well. i took my laptop up there and it was way off. Not just a block but 45 or so miles. I know i am at the correct location but the Laptop GPS dont. I will look and see if i can change that setting when i get back to work on monday, thanks for the info...

[+Indotguy]

I put in the address and then the lat and long. I ended up with two different points about 36 yards apart.

 

Thanks for attempting to assist. Evidentally tpolley and I are having the same difficulties. When I utilize the coordinates and the MS S&T program, I get a location 50+ miles from my house, not the 2 miles the geocache states that it is. I am glad it works for you. Are you utilizing the 2004 version or 2005?

At work we have MS S&T for navigation and to give incoming helicopters, if needed. Since discovering this feature, I have no idea if the coordinates I may have given the pilots would have been helpful or way off the mark. Don't know why, just know that it is. Thanks.

 

I use both 2002 and 2005 MS S & Ts. If you are entering the coordinates into MS S & Ts manually, most likely you are somehow making an error in the entering process (unless of course there is a problem with you GPS datum ect.) I agree that you should experiment with using GSAK to export the waypoints to S & Ts.

[+Indotguy]

I put in the address and then the lat and long. I ended up with two different points about 36 yards apart.

 

Thanks for attempting to assist. Evidentally tpolley and I are having the same difficulties. When I utilize the coordinates and the MS S&T program, I get a location 50+ miles from my house, not the 2 miles the geocache states that it is. I am glad it works for you. Are you utilizing the 2004 version or 2005?

At work we have MS S&T for navigation and to give incoming helicopters, if needed. Since discovering this feature, I have no idea if the coordinates I may have given the pilots would have been helpful or way off the mark. Don't know why, just know that it is. Thanks.

 

I use both 2002 and 2005 MS S & Ts. If you are entering the coordinates into MS S & Ts manually, most likely you are somehow making an error in the entering process (unless of course there is a problem with you GPS datum ect.) I agree that you should experiment with using GSAK to export the waypoints to S & Ts.

 

You are entering the coordinates into Streets and Trips using the "Edit - Find - Lat/Long" menu option I presume?

[+AnneOutdoors]

You are entering the coordinates into Streets and Trips using the "Edit - Find - Lat/Long" menu option I presume?

 

You are correct. I looked up six sites after also going to the map on the cache, and got really close after calculating also using the helpful information above. Haven't had chance to check out if I can locate or not.

Thanks

[+The Jester]

Your GPSr will also do the co-ord format change for you. Enter the co-ords by your favorite method, then change the display to the format you want and there you go!

 

BTW, S&T 2006 accepts only decimal degrees or DMS, but you can choose whether to use the +/- or NWSE for co-ords.