On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:39:51 -0500, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

We did that too. As a large geographic area that is almost completely
rural in nature, it was very important as some driveways can be a 1/4
mile long.

The drive is only a hundred feet, but there are trees and a massive
hedge. My place needs at the street numbers, the next door neighbor
doesn't.

Casady

Don White wrote:
"Calif Bill" wrote in message
...
"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:35:50 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:59:03 -0500, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:27:49 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 08:57:23 -0800 (PST), Frogwatch
wrote:

Took my daughter kayaking yesterday with my wife and I in the canoe
and Katie in her kayak. Went in the salt marshes on the Gulf coast
here (N. FL). We got out into an area maybe 1/4 mile wide when fog
started coming in and I decided to hug shore justb in case. Sure
enough, very quickly you could barely see 50'. We easily got back by
following the shore but if we had been out in the middle, it would
have been a problem. I did not have my compass that I normally carry
in my sailing bag. From now on, compass goes with me on all trips.
I keep an old boy scout style compass with me wherever I am on the
water. In the boat it is handy for tracking storms. Shoot a real
bearing on the edge of the cloud you are concerned about and check it
again a few minutes later. That will tell you which way it is moving,
relative to your course.
In a "bail out" situation, a compass will help me navigate through the
mangroves so I can walk home.
In a bail out situation, a portable GPS is going to be a hell of a lot
more informative than a compass.

Although I do carry a compass, I also carry a small portable GPS -
Magellan Triton 200.

http://www.magellangps.com/products/....asp?segID=425
Never had a dead battery in my compass ;-)
True enough, but you don't need to keep the GPS up and running the
whole time either.

A good set of batteries and a set of spares can last you a couple of
weeks if you use the GPS properly in an emergency situation.

But your point is well taken - a compass doesn't require a lot of
skill.

Although, just to make a point, a lot of people don't understand the
difference between True and Magnetic North and that can lead to
diaster in and of itself.
--

Happy Holidays and Merry Whatever It Is
That ****es Liberals Off.
We were kayaking at Point Arena late September. Fog came in and was hard
to see the shore. Couple of friends doing some filming on MLPA's come
across a guy on a sort of pontoon kayak, paddling out to sea. He thought
he was paddling towards the bluffs. Just a fog bluff. No radio, no GPS,
no compass. Next stop Hawaii of lucky, or Asia if not.

I carry a handheld GPS, a compass and a VHF when I boat. Fog is very
common around here from June through July and sometimes September.



In a 25hp rowboat? When is the last time you were out of sight from
shore, dummy?

On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:34:07 GMT, (Richard
Casady) wrote:

On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:01:19 -0500, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:04:26 GMT, (Richard
Casady) wrote:

On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:40:21 -0500, Dave Brown
wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with working the GPS from the centre of
a moving vehicle? Does it need to be near glass to receive signals?

Metal blocks all radio.

As a strict statement, that is true, however radio signals can bend
around objects (demonstrated by radar's ability to see behind
objects). As such a car presents the opportunity to receive signals
inside by virtue of the physics of radio wave propogation and the
ability to move along the surface of metal.

The only way to completely restrict the reception of radio signals is
to build a grounded solid metal box of some sort or use a grounded
fine wire mesh in which the gaps are less than 1/100th of the base
line wavelength.

That is true enough, but you generally need to have a view of the sky
unblocked by solid metal. The closer to the glass, the more signal you
get. No problem in an open boat, or inside a fiberglass pilot house.
Now tell how me the cell phone worked inside a steel ship a thousand
miles from land. Magic, obviously. Nothing on the bill from either the
ship or the phoneco, so it must have been magic.

Repeaters. Scientific Atlanta builds them into the TV cable systems
onboard cruise ships. Same for two way radio systems in hospitals,
industrial plants and maintenance for large office buildings. Being
digital it's pretty simple to do - spread spectrum receivers and
digital routers out to the transmitter. I would assume that the cost
is built into the price of your cruise ticket.

Or if you prefer, FM.

As in F*ckin' Magic. :)

I saw the coolest thing the other day in the new town ambulance. They
can take a cardiogram and transmit it direct to the ER via secure
encrypted radio link giving real time data for evaluation. The
attending can order drug intervention at that time to the Paramedic.
Everything is recorded on mini-disc - blood O2, saturation, BP -
really neat stuff. My understanding is that even defib can be
controlled from the hospital if there isn't a Paramedic onboard. Kewl.

Bay State's Hospital Pedi unit has a new ambulance that is completely
state of the art for patient transfer - monitors everything enroute in
real time back to the hospital with an attending on immediate call if
something goes south - like a neo-natal transfer. Far cry from the
old days when it was a wing and a prayer and all analog
communications.

Neat stuff.

On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:58:15 -0500, D K
wrote:

In a 25hp rowboat? When is the last time you were out of sight from
shore, dummy?

Ahem - it's not a rowboat.

--

"Every normal man must be tempted at times
to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag,
and begin to slit throats."

H. L. Mencken

On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:18:34 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:01:19 -0500, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

The only way to completely restrict the reception of radio signals is
to build a grounded solid metal box of some sort or use a grounded
fine wire mesh in which the gaps are less than 1/100th of the base
line wavelength.

Tin-foil hats don't work?

http://www.stopabductions.com/

Oh wait, that's "different" waves.

http://www.lessemf.com/personal.html

I thought Maxwell Smart had this stuff figured out with the cone of
silence.

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/radiofreque...theffects.html

--

"Far better it is to dare mighty things,
to win glorious triumphs even though
checkered by failure, than to rank with
those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor
suffer much because they live in the gray
twilight that knows neither victory nor
defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:14:15 -0500, wrote:

I was always curious why cell phones etc work so well in airplanes,
even at altitude.
My wife was surfing on her Blackberry all the way to Pennsylvania.

Same deal.

--

"An idealist is one who, on noticing that
a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes
that it will also make better soup."

H.L. Mencken

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:40:21 -0500, Dave Brown
wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with working the GPS from the centre of
a moving vehicle? Does it need to be near glass to receive signals?

As a general rule, yes.

You can receive signals away from windows depending on where the
constellation is at any one given time, but that can be a hit or miss
situation. If it's located near the floor, probably not. If it was
sitting on your lap though, it will work, but not with the same
accuracy - it all depends on the location of the constellation at the
time, where the GPS is located, etc.

There are situations where even situated near glass it will struggle
with finding satellites - something about how the glass is coated or
the composition of the substrate film used to make safety glass. Some
RFI devices (like Easy Pass transponders) don't work on certian cars
for that reason.

I can receive GPS signal in the middle of my house - then again, I'm
located fairly high and it's a one story ranch.

Problem is the very low power of the signals. I can receive the signals in
the one story part of the house, but not the front 2 story part. Son in law
works on the GPS sats and they are looking at new system in 10 years or so.
But that is good as good job security for SIL. As to shielding rooms, other
son in law is a contractor building MRI rooms. A contruction segment that
is still going strong. Special leaded windows as well as very expensive
screening in the wall.

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message news
On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:47:13 -0500, wrote:

On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:12:16 -0500, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:


I've heard that before and I find it an interesting comment. We have
some fairly dense woods around my house - 100 plus acres of woods in
fact mostly swamp oak, pine, hemlock, birch and sugar/swamp/rock
maple. Most trees are in the 40/45 foot category and in the summer
there is a dense canopy.

Back when I was still an active hunter, I used my GPS all the time
over in the Natchaug Forest and up along the Mass border where there
are more pine trees in the swamps than you can shake a stick at.

Never had a problem getting three satellites to obtain a fix.

Maybe it is just the shape/composition of the mountains, the latitude
or something but neither GPS worked worth a damn in Alaska, Idaho or
the Dakotas.
They were OK in Arizona and New Mexico. I have no problems in my boat
either but I am never lost enough to need one poking around in the
mangroves.

I can't say anything other than it's worked for me. Much to my
embarrassement, I was talking to a friend who is a big time deer
hunter and he was telling me, unsolicited I might add, that his GPS
gave him fits this weekend during bow season for deer. He was hunting
my property so it wasn't a location thing.

And, strangely, I've had problems with the RC400 even on open water
with the receiver losing lock although that was fixed with a firmware
update.

I've had this opinion, based on nothing other than observation and a
very megar understanding of GPS satellite communications (which is
nothing like other satellite communications) that folks in the
northern latitudes don't get as strong a signal as folks further
south. Just this past week, I got instant locks on my car's GPS - a
full spectrum of 12 satellites even time I turned it on and that was
in South Carolina. Up here, it takes a good 30 seconds for it to get
a 5 satelite lock to start working and the constellation is generally
clustered around the satellite that traverses the North Pole at the
time which limits the amount of sky available. Compared to the
constellation aquired in SC which was a fairly broad spectrum of sky.

Dunno.

--

"Every normal man must be tempted at times
to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag,
and begin to slit throats."

H. L. Mencken

I can get lost in the Sacramento Delta without the gps. And during low
waters some of the higher levies will cause lock loss. But most of the time
good reception everywhere. Both the Garmin 162 and 76cx.

"D K" wrote in message
...
Don White wrote:
"Calif Bill" wrote in message
...
"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:35:50 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:59:03 -0500, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:27:49 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 08:57:23 -0800 (PST), Frogwatch
wrote:

Took my daughter kayaking yesterday with my wife and I in the canoe
and Katie in her kayak. Went in the salt marshes on the Gulf coast
here (N. FL). We got out into an area maybe 1/4 mile wide when fog
started coming in and I decided to hug shore justb in case. Sure
enough, very quickly you could barely see 50'. We easily got back
by
following the shore but if we had been out in the middle, it would
have been a problem. I did not have my compass that I normally
carry
in my sailing bag. From now on, compass goes with me on all trips.
I keep an old boy scout style compass with me wherever I am on the
water. In the boat it is handy for tracking storms. Shoot a real
bearing on the edge of the cloud you are concerned about and check
it
again a few minutes later. That will tell you which way it is
moving,
relative to your course.
In a "bail out" situation, a compass will help me navigate through
the
mangroves so I can walk home.
In a bail out situation, a portable GPS is going to be a hell of a
lot
more informative than a compass.

Although I do carry a compass, I also carry a small portable GPS -
Magellan Triton 200.

http://www.magellangps.com/products/....asp?segID=425
Never had a dead battery in my compass ;-)
True enough, but you don't need to keep the GPS up and running the
whole time either.

A good set of batteries and a set of spares can last you a couple of
weeks if you use the GPS properly in an emergency situation.

But your point is well taken - a compass doesn't require a lot of
skill.

Although, just to make a point, a lot of people don't understand the
difference between True and Magnetic North and that can lead to
diaster in and of itself.
--

Happy Holidays and Merry Whatever It Is
That ****es Liberals Off.
We were kayaking at Point Arena late September. Fog came in and was
hard to see the shore. Couple of friends doing some filming on MLPA's
come across a guy on a sort of pontoon kayak, paddling out to sea. He
thought he was paddling towards the bluffs. Just a fog bluff. No
radio, no GPS, no compass. Next stop Hawaii of lucky, or Asia if not.

I carry a handheld GPS, a compass and a VHF when I boat. Fog is very
common around here from June through July and sometimes September.

In a 25hp rowboat? When is the last time you were out of sight from
shore, dummy?

In my 15 hp tin boat I was out of sight of the shore at 1/4 mile. fog was
nasty.

On Mon, 5 Jan 2009 23:32:40 -0800, "CalifBill"
wrote:

In my 15 hp tin boat I was out of sight of the shore at 1/4 mile. fog was
nasty.

Hey - what do you get when you smoke a cigar in the fog?

SMOG!!!!

BBBBAAWWWAAAHHHHHAAAAAAA!!!!!

Erm....

On second thought...

Never mind.

--

"Far better it is to dare mighty things,
to win glorious triumphs even though
checkered by failure, than to rank with
those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor
suffer much because they live in the gray
twilight that knows neither victory nor
defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt