I have an idea that may or may not be practical, but I'm wondering whether other Paddlewisenheimers would be interested in some sort of organized way of exchanging waypoints for seakayaking. For example, I've got a fair collection of waypoints in Clayoquot Sound, Desolation Sound and the Broken Islands for things like launching sites, camps and points of interest. I'm not sure what the best way would be to manage and access all this (I'm just the "idea" guy, after all). One option is to have a list member (such as me) volunteer to be the "Waypoint Keeper" and when someone's getting ready to explore an area, he or she sends a request to the Keeper to see if anyone has submitted waypoints for the area of interest. If there's a "modest" interest for this, the whole collection might fit within the typical 500 waypoint limit used for many GPSs and the keeper could just email the whole database to an interested Paddlewiser. If there's more than a modest interest (more than 500 waypoints), perhaps they could be organized by geographical region (such as British Columbia) or even a narrower region (such as Clayoquot Sound). In this case, it may work best to have different waypoint keepers for certain regions, however we would want to define this. As most GPS users know, there are a variety of formats for communicating GPS data, so there'd probably have to be some consensus on what format to use. I use the generically named "GPS Utility" program ( http://www.gpsu.co.uk) to store my GPS data on my computer (since the basic version is free, works well with my eTrex, and allows 3-point map calibration), but I know there are several other systems such as Ossie Explorer (sp?) available. I believe most of these seem to communicate fairly well with each other. What do you think? Evan Dallas Woodinville, Washington *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Evan Dallas wrote: > >As most GPS users know, there are a variety of formats for communicating >GPS data, so there'd probably have to be some consensus on what format to >use. I use the generically named "GPS Utility" program ( >http://www.gpsu.co.uk) to store my GPS data on my computer (since the basic >version is free, works well with my eTrex, and allows 3-point map >calibration), but I know there are several other systems such as Ossie >Explorer (sp?) available. I believe most of these seem to communicate >fairly well with each other. > >What do you think? > >Evan Dallas >Woodinville, Washington > I also do Geocaching, thanks to someone on this list. The Geocaching site uses EasyGPS. http://www.geocaching.com/waypoints/download.asp I figure that since they work with GPS units all the time they would know a good software. I know it is easy to use. Mike > -- Paddling along through fog so thick that only one's thoughts are visible, your reverie is abruptly shattered by the ancient cry of a great blue heron as she lifts uncertainly from the brilliant blue of a mussel-shell beach witnessed only by the brooding, wet spruce....your passage home seems as much back through time as it does through space. Mark H Hunt *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
I for one would love it. I love fiddling around with charts and waypoints when I am not paddling. It seems like the .wpt format is fairly standard - at least with the software I've been messing around with. I'd love to to have a nice waypoint, and if possible scanned chart, exchange. Obviously, I lot of people like to keep their waypoints somewhat secret for fear of their favorite camping spot getting out to us riff-raff, but there are waypoints that would be great to distribute like put-ins and take-outs, worthwhile sites, reefs, beaches etc. One fun little resource is: http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/topo/search.cfm National Geographic purchased Topo! who make a series of topographic CD-ROMs. I own the BWCA and Apostle Island CD's and have been pleased with them. Anyway, you can download some interesting waypoints from this service they call the "Map Exchange" but I believe (I'm not sure about this but could check into it) the data is in a proprietary format. Some examples just from my region are the Superior Watertrail, Apostle Island Beaver Dams, BWCA camp sites and portage routes, Apostle Islands Campsites, Superior Forest XC Ski Trails. The data seems to all come from open sources, so if it is in a proprietary format on their site, I believe we could convert them to a more commonly used format if we started an exchange. I have also played around a bit with GPS and mapping software such as GPS Utility, OziExplorer, Fugawi and GPSys (for Mac). I am not sure which one I like best or which one calibrates scanned maps most efficiently. I'd love to hear some opinions. Almost all of the aforementioned programs function in a limited demo or sharware mode, so no need to purchase to try them out. LINKS: http://www.gpsy.com/index.html (Mac software) http://www.gpsu.co.uk/ (Software) http://www.oziexplorer.com/ (Software) http://www.fugawi.com/ (Software) http://www.gpspositioner.nl/ (Software) http://www.topografix.com/data.asp (Huge US waypoint data sets, no idea how to use them) http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/topo/search.cfm (Waypoint, chart and software) http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter/index.html (GPS info page, very exstensive) -Patrick At Friday, 24 May 2002, "Evan Dallas" <Evan_Dallas_at_notes.ntrs.com> wrote: >I have an idea that may or may not be practical, but I'm wondering whether >other Paddlewisenheimers would be interested in some sort of organized way >of exchanging waypoints for seakayaking. [SNIP] *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Sounds a great idea, but could be a lot of work for someone. Perhaps a half-way house would be for paddlewisers who use GPS to "register" themselves somehow, maybe with an indication of the areas they paddle. Then if someone else was planning to go there, they could make contact back-channel and exchange waypoints in a mutually convenient format. For the record, I do sometimes take a GPS (Garmin eTrex Venture)with me on my Scottish West Coast trips, and even occasionally remember to switch it on! Oziexplorer I find works very well with Ordance Survey maps (TIFF format)which I have at work; we also use Arcview at work (a full-on GIS software package), but I find that way too complicated for my needs! The only significant limitation with Oziexplorer is that it can't "join up" maps, although it can tell you which map comes next; but in practice I haven't found that a big issue. OS maps are very good, but some care is needed if you are using the UK grid system, as conversion between that and Lat/Lon can lead to (minor) errors. Lat / Lon remains a good low-tech way of passing on waypoints for manual entry. Nick *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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