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Post by Diane Merkel on Feb 3, 2009 14:31:35 GMT -5
I've noticed some recent questions about markers, distances, etc., on the battlefield. I am betting that those who will be visiting LBH this year are willing to play "History Detective" and find the answers to the questions, so let's compile a list for them.
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lizs
Full Member
Discovering the West
Posts: 161
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Post by lizs on Feb 3, 2009 22:06:40 GMT -5
Take those GPSes along and know how to use them. :-)
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Post by biggordie on Feb 4, 2009 0:59:58 GMT -5
I got a new hand-held unit a couple of days ago, and batteries for it today. Now the fun starts.
Gordie
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Post by bc on Feb 4, 2009 3:54:28 GMT -5
Take those GPSes along and know how to use them. :-) Oh no. We just buy them toys. Its your job to read the instructions and explain how it works. bc |
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Post by AZ Ranger on Feb 4, 2009 8:07:16 GMT -5
I use the Garmin 60 series with built in maps. Download the tracks on my home computer map. We use GIS to put together various layers of mapped out data.
What I am interested in is rates of speeds over distance. GPS gives average speed and maximum speed. What I am wondering is a way to detect speed between individual points on a recorded track.
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Post by BrokenSword on Feb 4, 2009 8:33:30 GMT -5
Well, that's one way AZ. I used an easier method. Pop some pink smoke, then get someone on the radio who could see it, and asked them just exactly where they saw it. Folding maps back up was a pain.
BS
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Post by AZ Ranger on Feb 4, 2009 9:19:53 GMT -5
I wonder what my horse will do if I pop smoke. I have a smoke grenade somewhere and its still in its olive drab cannister.
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Post by bc on Feb 4, 2009 9:56:13 GMT -5
Steve, I was wondering if you can mark waypoints as you go and it store the speed between them as you go. Otherwise, you would have to write down the time and speed at each waypoint.
I'm not sure how exact gps would be when dealing with rough terrain. It is satelite based point to point. Travel down and up a coulee may not be accurately reflected from side to side of a coulee. GPS would be more of a as the crow flies distance. Maybe you can check that out.
bc
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Post by AZ Ranger on Feb 4, 2009 11:43:01 GMT -5
bc If I can the time between track points and put it over a TOPO map then it could come close. Just since I have paid attention to my GPS I have around a 3 mph average for John with 8 mph as max speed. We never got above a trot and do more walking than trotting.
If the cavalry spent 10 hours hours traveling 30 miles in a day then 3 mph would be that average even if greater speeds we attained. If 5 miles per hour was an average speed than it should only take 6 hours which I would find hard to believe their days were that short.
AZ Ranger
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Post by biggordie on Feb 4, 2009 12:23:06 GMT -5
My new unit is a Garmin EtrexLegend personal navigator. So far I have learned how to turn it on, and that it should be outside to receive the satellite signals. Should have figured that out for myself; instead I sat looking at a map of South China for ten minutes waiting for it to change. I felt like the guys in the Coors Light commercial waiting for the mountains outside to change color.
According to the manual, which my granddaughter reads to me - me Barbie girl ballerina ponies garble garble garble......... Actually it says "Storage for 500 Waypoints with name and graphic symbol; An Automatic Track Log with storage capability for 2, 048 points, or 10 saved tracks with 250 popints each; Route building capability, with strorage for 20 Routes with 50 Waypoints each; A Trip Computer for displaying a variety of navigation data such as speed, ETA, ETE,heading, odometer, etc.; A Find Feature for locating Waypoints, Cities, Interstate Exits, Points of Interest, Street Adresses and Intersections; 8 mb of detailed map data storage, allowing transfer from GARMIN Mapsource Cd-ROMs; Wide Area Augmentation System (WASS) capability.
I'm wondering if it will tell me where the hell I am, which is what I wanted it for.
Gordie
electronically challenged
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Post by AZ Ranger on Feb 7, 2009 8:52:52 GMT -5
I found out my GPS does record speed between points in a track and displays them in a table when viewed in MapSource. The majority speeds are 3-4 miles per hour. When you stop and take one step it will show down to .1 miles per hour.
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Post by Treasuredude on Feb 7, 2009 9:47:56 GMT -5
My new unit is a Garmin EtrexLegend personal navigator. Gordie-- I have the same GPS unit. I love it. I also use it in the car but as it doesn't talk and the screen is small (it is a handheld after all) it's use is a bit limited there. So far I have marked the 7th Cavalry trooper graves in South Dakota with GPS. You can get the file on my website... pie.midco.net/treasuredude/Graves.html or, here is the PDF file by itself... pie.midco.net/treasuredude/Gravesites.pdfI didn't have the GPS on my last trip to Montana. I have screwed around with Google Earth and used that to get coordinates to program into the Garmin. Too much fun. |
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Post by markland on Feb 7, 2009 9:53:50 GMT -5
My new unit is a Garmin EtrexLegend personal navigator. Gordie-- I have the same GPS unit. I love it. I also use it in the car but as it doesn't talk and the screen is small (it is a handheld after all) it's use is a bit limited there. So far I have marked the 7th Cavalry trooper graves in South Dakota with GPS. You can get the file on my website... pie.midco.net/treasuredude/Graves.html or, here is the PDF file by itself... pie.midco.net/treasuredude/Gravesites.pdfI didn't have the GPS on my last trip to Montana. I have screwed around with Google Earth and used that to get coordinates to program into the Garmin. Too much fun. You guys make me wonder. I purchased the DeLorme PN-40 as a Christmas gift for myself as well as the map library subscription. So far, with the limited use I have had with it, it seems OK. Of course, I have used and abused the map library downloading USGS topo maps for areas surrounding LBH, several AZ, NM & KS forts and the Smoky Hill Trail. Steve, speaking of AZ forts, you mentioned somewhere how mountainous it was near Ft. Grant. I had seen it from the highway and surrounding dirt roads but the topo map shows that the country immediately north was practically vertical. Later, Billy |
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Post by AZ Ranger on Feb 7, 2009 10:29:38 GMT -5
Steve, speaking of AZ forts, you mentioned somewhere how mountainous it was near Ft. Grant. I had seen it from the highway and surrounding dirt roads but the topo map shows that the country immediately north was practically vertical.
Later,
Billy Billy, The Graham Mountains are just north of Fort Grant. In 1977 I trapped black bear as a summer student with Wildlife Manager Tom Waddell. Fort Grant was a prison at the time and we would drive through it to get to our base camp. We trapped using horses and pack horses. We used chicken and melon as attractants. We built a structure of limbs and vegetation. We made a trail for the bear to follow. A bear steps in the same place each time on the trails. We used an Aldrich snare to catch a leg. We would tranquilize the bear, pull a small tooth to age the bear, and put a lip tattoo on the bear inside the mouth. Steve www.azcorrections.gov/adc/prisons/ftgt-his.asp
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Post by biggordie on Feb 7, 2009 13:05:00 GMT -5
Dude:
Good info, and nice links, as per usual.
I intend to use the unit to try to pinpoint spots where I have been, and which I have sort-of identified on Google Earth by corodinates - the problem being that I can't get "close enough" on GE to do real pinpointing, and I want to get the actual coordinates as exact and correct as possible.
I hate telling someone to look at blah blah, and not having it be the exact spot [or as near as possible]. I should be able to use this Garmin fairly well by July 2010.
Gordie
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