the source for the Benchmark data?

[+goonybird]

I know the benchmark data here on the grounspeak sites is based on data from the US Government (US Geological Survey?), but for the life of me I cant find that source data again.

 

COuld one of you point me in the right direction?

 

I'm actually pondering generating gpx/loc/whatever files with a little more info than the gpx files here do, well at least at geocaching.com - htose seem to have nothing in them but the bernchmark name and lat/log. Would be real nice to have info attached about wether its a disc, landmark, whatever at least. Last time i went looking for one I realized i had no clue what i was looking for (unlike say, the POI files i';ve made myself, where i can put in comments about locations as well as addresses)

[Z15]

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/datasheet.prl

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Hi gooneybird -

 

Here is the main NGS datasheet page.

Click on "DATASHEETS", then choose how you want to access them on the next page (NGS DATASHEET RETRIEVAL PAGE).

[+goonybird]

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/datasheet.prl

 

Black Dog - Z15

 

Thanks for the help guys

I really appreciate it

[Wintertime]

I'm actually pondering generating gpx/loc/whatever files with a little more info than the gpx files here do, well at least at geocaching.com - htose seem to have nothing in them but the bernchmark name and lat/log.

One of our benchmark hunters made a nice little program called BMGPX that lets you convert an NGS datasheet (.dat) file to a GPX file. Many of us do batch conversions of an entire county's worth of NGS datasheets at once. You can find the program here:

 

http://parkrrrr.com/geocaching.html

 

Patty

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

In the pinned thread 'Me First' at the top of this forum is 8) County Downloads link for a step by step way to do what you seem to want.

 

Hope this helps. Happy hunting after you get your info into your GPSr.

 

Shirley - half of the 2oldfarts.

[+goonybird]

I'm actually pondering generating gpx/loc/whatever files with a little more info than the gpx files here do, well at least at geocaching.com - htose seem to have nothing in them but the bernchmark name and lat/log.

One of our benchmark hunters made a nice little program called BMGPX that lets you convert an NGS datasheet (.dat) file to a GPX file. Many of us do batch conversions of an entire county's worth of NGS datasheets at once. You can find the program here:

 

http://parkrrrr.com/geocaching.html

 

Patty

 

 

Very cool Patty - thank you.....Gonna check it out.

 

I;m enough of a geek that i might still write soemthing of my own, who knows :-)

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

I'm actually pondering generating gpx/loc/whatever files with a little more info than the gpx files here do, well at least at geocaching.com - htose seem to have nothing in them but the bernchmark name and lat/log.

One of our benchmark hunters made a nice little program called BMGPX that lets you convert an NGS datasheet (.dat) file to a GPX file. Many of us do batch conversions of an entire county's worth of NGS datasheets at once. You can find the program here:

 

http://parkrrrr.com/geocaching.html

 

Patty

There is also an "improved version" NGS>>GPS which does nice things like calculating positions of reference marks from the box score and making them "child" way points. Written by foxtrot_xray, also a member here. See This forum thread

 

I use it with GSAK which you should also look into. GSAK site

[+Black Dog Trackers]

There is also NGSREAD which is a different 'improved version' that makes waypoints by calculating positions of reference marks from the box score with an additional feature of not doing that for reference marks and other box score items that already have adjusted coordinates. It was written so that clicking on an icon in Google Earth will pop up a complete (for hunting) datasheet. It also has an option to produce html datasheets for exporting to a handheld computer. It also has a bunch of filtering and label coding that might address your interest: "Would be real nice to have info attached about wether its a disc, landmark, whatever at least."

 

Perhaps after looking at all these programs, you might get ideas of what you'd like to do in your own version.

 

A couple of other programs vaguely similar in scope are: monkeykat's Benchmark Viewer and MRAS's DSWORLD.

Edited April 24, 2009 by Black Dog Trackers

[Wintertime]

There is also NGSREAD

Or, for those with better (i.e. UNIX-based) operating systems, your DAT2KML awk script is available on that same page.

 

Patty

[+goonybird]

There is also NGSREAD

Or, for those with better (i.e. UNIX-based) operating systems, your DAT2KML awk script is available on that same page.

 

Patty

 

I've got a freebsd, openbsd, and slackware box

 

so the awk is no problem :-)

again

big thanks guys