Originally posted by Electrojake

NOTE: On January third, at 10 minutes to seven in the morning, your cell phone was at the end of Bella Rosa Drive in Vista, California. And Nick, what’s that big round thing out there. Looks like a giant water tank or something.
It aint easy to see from here in Jersey.

Holy crapoli! That is the coolest thing! I live on bella rosa and RIGHT behind my house is a large municipal water tank with a bunch of splatter marks on the side where we use the tank as a bullseye for Big Shot practice with the oranges that fall off our orange trees!

Now that you all know where I live, c'mon over and we can pick some oranges then hunt coyotes in the neighbors abandoned lemon grove.

love
nick

in the voice of "DALE" from king of the hill:
thats the government out to get yooooouuu...


Hey great! Progress. Things are moving along.

Nick. I prefer to use UTM coordinates, that is a metric grid system. Works great, especially when you know that you can walk 1600m in 20 min on flat ground. I can estimate my position from just the amount of time I've walked. Plus UTM coords work much better with my software.

If anybody is sending corrdinates my way make sure that they are in NAD83, and in UTM format. I recomend the use of GPSTrackmaker...
Here is the link to that softaware package:
Gps Trackmaker download area

I will continue to make progress I promise! OH YEAH! Public areas only should be listed unless you are the owner of the property.

Climb Safe!
Icabod

What the heck is NAD83 and UTM?

If my (quasi-makeshift) GPS unit only gives me lat/lon, can this be converted to the number system you're talking about?

I might have to get a real GPS unit if I want to get UTM numbers.

So once you have that, how do you find where the tree is based on the numbers? I assume you have to have some of the mapping software that Icabod mentioned. This could be quite an expensive venture!

Are there places online where you can find where the trees are once you have the numbers/coordinates?

love
nick

I got my first real reading today! I did it at a red light and it only took like 30 seconds. Here's what I got...

Last Fix
9:00pm GMT 2/8
N 33* 12.969
W117* 23.289
Est Accur: 20 Ft.

So how do I figure out where I was? I know Electrojake did it, so I am assuming I should be able to do it too!

love
nick, who is lost and found at the same time

Nick,
The problem you’ll find is that your cell phone GPS will tell you where you are… but not where you are going.

For now, your cell phone will at least give you a chance to tinker with latitude & longitude. You can still “mark” your location whenever you find a tree or place that you might want to return to in the future.

As I demonstrated, if you give me an accurate coordinate I can almost “look” at the tree you are climbing.

There is one other problem Nick…
You just might catch The GPS Bug! If that happens your gonna be a busy fellow. There’s lots more you can do with this GPS stuff, way beyond my casual level of ability. It gets kinda’ deep!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
HEY Icabod!

Thanks for posting that TrackMaker link. It brought me over to: [url] www.gpsinformation.net[/url]
I do believe you helped me find the mother load for GPS FAQ’s and information.
Thanks again,
Electrojake

You should use Trackmaker too, its great!

Nick, yeah we can make the conversions.

But I highly recomend getting the cheapest unit you can find. I too am a purist, but getting lost a few times made me change my ways. Go get the etrex, youll enjoy the $99.00 price tag that I've seen them at lately. Besides the $109.00 I payed for mine two (maybe three) years ago, I've spent no more on it. There you go, now I got to go I'm late......

Nick,
You were standing near the corner of Vandergrift Blvd & Wire Mountain Rd.

O.K., enough smoke and mirrors....
Click on the link below and you’ll see that the man behind the curtain is not the Wizard of Oz after all.

http://terraserver-usa.com/addressimage.aspx?t=1&s=10&Lon=-117.38805704&Lat=33.21623788&Alon=-117.38805704&Alat=33.21623788&w=1&opt=0&addr=Wire+Mountain+Rd%2c+Camp+Pendleton+Marine+Corps+Base%2c+CA+92055&qs=wire+mountain+road%7coceanside%7cca%7c

Gee, I kinda enjoyed coming off as some sort of GPS guru. But the truth is, your phone gives me the latitude & longitude and the magic of the internet does all the rest.

And Nick...
Next time the satellite passes overhead, wave so we can get your picture!

I just found something that might interest one or two people here. I was talking today with a guy from trimbleoutdoors.com. They make GPS stuff. My explanation cannot be much more specific because I don't know that much more.

Anyway, they work closely with Nextel and I have a nextel phone that functions as a simple, real GPS receiver. It only gives lat/lon coordinates and I want UTM. He're is an email he replied to me with after we got off the phone...

Nick,

Thanks for your interest in Trimble Outdoors!

I am creating a folder for people interested in UTM coordinate conversion and will be filtering my incoming email on that subject into that folder. As I said when we spoke, it could be a couple of months before we are ready to start beta testing that feature. Keep in touch and we'll get the software out to you and some other interested people at that time.

In the meantime, please let me know if there is anything else we can do for you.

-Trimble Outdoors Technical Support

This guy was a bit interested in the tree climbing aspect of it and understood that some people just prefer UTM. If you have a 3-digit nextel phone, it might have GPS on it already and maybe you can get the free beta software when it's ready!

love
nick

I'll be testing the site tonight, unless something goes very wrong the ability to add sites will be up this week, in lat/lon format!

Don't worry about the conversions, I'll take care of those.

Ability to search the dbase will be added soon too, though it will be of little use without help from everybody!

Climb Safe!
Icabod

I got info from my first tree! Let me know when I can send it over!

love
nick

I got it working! We are ready for data. The web page should be up all the time unless the baby gets a wild hair and unplugs the power supply, like he did this afternoon!

Simply click the "Climb Sites" button on my webpage (link is on this post somewhere) and submit your data. I hope to have the search page up soon.

Climb Safe!
Icabod

P.S. Some might not see the button...
TreeclimbNC

What kind of sick game is this? :)You cryptically wrote "the link is on this post somewhere."

I can't find it. waaaaaaaaahhhh!

love
nick

Thanks to Nick!

I have to do some more programming, to get it right. I'm switching to UTM, as lat/lon is not working so well...

So guys please be patient.

Thanks,
Icabod

OK.

For everybody keeping up, and waiting tooth and nail, things are working now. Subbmisions may be made in UTM format, NAD83 datum please.

Thanks,
Icabod
Treeclibing North Carolina

what the flip in NAD83?

I'll have to google define:NAD83

love
nick