GPS Assistance Required

I have recently acquired a Garmin 'etrex' GPS navigation system.

Could any 'GPS experts' do me a favour and tell me the exact elavation, longtitude and latitude readings for:

a) The centre of the Avon Dam
b) The island on Meldon Reservoir
c) The TV mast on North Hessary Tor


so I can check I'm doing it properly.

Thank you.

I'm sure Dizzy will be along shortly to help you out!

Boo Boxers wrote:I'm sure Dizzy will be along shortly to help you out!

Errm..................well.......................sorry, but I've never used a GPS device! I'm the old school with a sighting compass. Heck, I feel as though I've let the side down now.
(Edited by me)
Well, you got me interested (as usual!). I've spent the past hour researching on the internet and came across a fantastic interactive map of Dartmoor, well all over the world as well. You can select a tool, click on the point you need info on the map, zoom in (keep zooming in, bit slow though but worth the wait) and then be presented with a grid reference AND.............GPS bearing!!!! What about this for a search result then!

Check this site out ....
http://www.magic.gov.uk/website/magic/v ... ale=500000

Just check North Hessary TV Mast.........
Full grid ref: 257818, 74201
100mm grid ref: SX 578 742
Latitude, Longitude 50.55, -4.01

Not sure about the elevation bit though
Paul

No, apologies - thats completely my fault!

I though you used a gps - must have been someone else!

Boo Boxers wrote:No, apologies - thats completely my fault!

I though you used a gps - must have been someone else!

See above Boo Boxers, I think I've got the answers at hand!

Paul

All along I knew you would have the answer!

A word of warning, make sure your GPS Unit is set to the correct 'map datum' setting, ie not WGS84, as this will affect the grid refs you are using. You will need to consult you manual on the correct setting, there should be a list to scroll through on the set up page.

I only found this out from Geocahing as they set it to WGS 84 and degrees, minutes seconds or one of the other three which im not going to list

Where as Letterboxers use ORD SRVY GB and 12345,12345

The default datum for garmin is WGS 84
World Geodetic System

Just happen to have my instruction book to hand, did not write this off the top of my head, not that clever!!!!

Thanks guys, problem sorted Number 70 to the rescue. Map Datum changed and BINGO. I also did a test to see if it could navigate me back to my car from 3 miles away..........................result, 3 yards from the vehicle it informed me that I had reached my destination. Top Toy.

That is the only real reason I use my GPS to get me back to my car - hopefully never to use it to find my way back to a casualty - though I would use it for that

the only problem i've found is that it will take you the most direct route.
which doesn't always mean its the quickest. if you get the map out ther can often be a bridle way or track winding its way beside you.
________
Weed

I use a Garmin Etrex and I thinks it great, so much quicker especially if you are walking a long distance into the moor. I use it in OS and WGS84 depending whether I am letterboxing or geocaching, I often have to change from one format to another on a walk it only takes a few seconds. The only thing it doesn’t convert it exactly, it’s only the last figure that would be wrong, and that’s only a pace or so.
Brinnie

I keep mine in OS mode, this geocaching nonsense doesn't interest me in the slightest.

I would always put letterboxing before geocaching. I have been letterboxing for 15 years now. I visit the Dartmoor caches when I am letterboxing in the areas where there are caches. I find caching very useful when the weather is too bad to walk on Dartmoor. A while ago I had arranged with a friend to have a days letterboxing on Dartmoor unfortunately the weather was too bad to attempt to go onto the moor, so we headed for Cotehele in East Cornwall, the weather was so different down there and we had a good walk in a new area and found several caches, much better than canceling our walk.
Brinnie

http://www.dartmoorgps.co.uk/

Try this site. Brrinnie

thanks added it to the links...
________
VAAAPP

Hey ho...

Just blew the dust off my dads old GPS unit. HAve set it up but it reckons i'm in SJ 3289 4524! NOT SX ANYTHING, is this just where it hasn't tracked me yet or do i have to tell it to use a different map?


The Dartmoor JEdi

which gps is it

You have to change it to SX

depends how long it has been sat around and in the off mode... this does not do the electronics inside much good at all, and these things degrade with time... something worth thinking about when you buy these items.

Rather like the mobile phone - it ends up being abused chucked into a box and forgotten for a while
then one day you decide to go on an archeological dig through your possessions and you find it again along with that old cache of money and some useless plastic box you had

It is the magellan gps 300, i can't find anywhere that lets me change it from sj to sx thoough and its website is S*i*!

Nik-KOTM, was that a Geocache of money under the bed?

yeah.... a cache of farthings and ha'pennies.... half a crown and sixpence
and three "new" pennies dated 1978

Ok I wont make my fortune on that lot

Ki Adi Mundi

Sounds as if your GPS has been switched off for a while, with SJ coming up instead of SX it looks like it may have been used last in North west England, you may have to reset the system back to the factory settings again, unless there are waypoints in there you don't want to lose.

Having been on the web site having a nosey at the instruction manual on there I think they suggest like the Garmin if you have moved more than 300 miles from where you had it switched onlast it will need re-initialising(Think that techno blurb for let the poor bugger work out where it is). and on this line I would suggest that you may want to take it outside in your back garden/local park to give it some fresh air (only joking)as it may not be picking up the Satelites whizzing overhead if you are sat watching Corry in your front room with 9 inch cavity walls all around!!

I am assuming that you found this instruction manual on the manufacturers web site but have added the address just in case.

If you did, Did you read the trouble shooting bit at the end, although this had on it only two or three queries but the, Did the GPS not find its position after 10 minutes? may be the one you need to read

http://www.magellangps.com/assets/manua ... 0manual%22

I had 10 minutes to spare at lunch so I had a poke around on t net, hope I got the right model also

Hope that helps

Cool, thanks will have a look at the site again - may just mallet it, xmas is coming, after all . . .