[Jeremy]

Unfortunately, all the group campsites are booked for that weekend. (Group site #1, the smallest with very little parking, is available on Friday night.)

Wildcat has some awesome group sites (at least for us… tons of space, a shelter, plenty of parking on the grass, etc.)… I was pushing for this location for the next Geo-Campout, but the picnic committee stole my idea. 🙂

There are quite a few spots still available in the family camp that weekend. But I’d book now if you plan to camp… with only 30 campsites total, it doesn’t take long for it to fill up. And it looks like they allow 2 vehicles per site, so if you are tent camping you can probably double up with someone else to save money.

[Jeremy]

I just wanted to toss out some of the current ideas on keeping the members informed via email… if you have opinions or comments on these ideas or alternatives to these proposals, please post them.

1. One thing being discussed is a WGA email newsletter. This would be a periodic thing, kind of like the weekly geocaching.com email update but much less frequently (quarterly, bi-monthly?). It would collect up information from and report on multiple WGA “happenings” in a single email. It may even be semi-fancy with a HTML format and longer, more informative articles.

2. Another option is an email notification feature for important news articles posted on the WGA home page. As soon as the article was posted, folks would get an email with a short summary of the article and a link to the full text online. An obvious benefit to this approach over the newsletter is that you’d get instant notification… but you’d get more total email messages (could get annoying for some folks), and they’d be more basic (i.e. not as polished or contain as much information).

Not sure if #1 or #2 or both would be the best way to go when it comes to getting the word out via email. Personally, I would be in favor of sending the periodic newsletter to all members and friends by default (opt-out) and doing the news article notification feature but only send notifications to people that specifically request them (opt-in).

With all email notifications, we also have to worry about messages from the WGA server getting lost in people’s spam filters. This is already happening to some of the forum notifications (where you watch a topic), and the more email we send and the more people we send it to, the more likely that the stuff we send will get flagged as spam.

[Jeremy]

@BigStick wrote:

What would Jeremy do?

I’d quit reading the national forums Marc. Just looking at that crap is enough to corrupt your mind… then again, maybe in your case it doesn’t really matter any more. 🙂

[Jeremy]

Target carries the ubiquitous “Bel” style black oval with hinged top magnetic key holders in their automotive area.

A caution: On one of the last ones I purchased there (for the campout), the magnet came loose. I don’t know if someone damaged it, but you may want to reinforce it with some extra glue…

[Jeremy]

@I M W/U wrote:

@Frizz wrote:

A plastered Paris should not have been driving!!! Let her do the time.

“plastered Paris” made me think of HS art class at Nathan Hale. We could do a “bust” of her… 😳

Speaking of Paris as a sculpture, have you seen this?

Paris Hilton Autopsy (Kids, Don’t Click On This Link)

I’m sure she didn’t want to get caught driving drunk or without a license. However, the rest of the events have probably been concocted/spun for maximum publicity and to increase her fame… and the fact that we are even discussing her here is prima facie proof that it is working. The AP had the right idea with their earlier boycott on reporting Paris Hilton “news”…

[Jeremy]

@GeoPink wrote:

Jeremy, I will hopefully be meeting up with these folks, tonight. I may need your help as a phone-a-friend. Keep your cell phone handy!

I take it from the lack of calls and emails tonight that either things went really well (like you followed my instructions/suggestions and everything downloaded fine… just like I said it would :)) or went really bad (like you didn’t meet up with these folks due to the weather, or you got there and couldn’t do anything because they lost power).

[Jeremy]

@GeoPink wrote:

I’m speculating, but I’d hope the H2O series would be much more simple. Then again, who knows…

The gc.com thread was mostly about the GO series because these are the low end units that lack a memory card. So the only way to download waypoints with these units is to use the cable… hence the interest.

The H2O manual states that the communications port on this unit is also a serial port (not USB) and uses the NMEA protocol (like the GO).

One serial communications port, NMEA 0183 version 2.0 compatible. Allows exchange of position data with another device, such as an autopilot or personal computer. Optional combination serial/power cable available.

I think the simple way is still to use the memory card. Lowrance sells packages that include the GPS, MMC card, and MMC card reader so it would seem that they want you to go down that path.

[Jeremy]

@benny7210 wrote:

Hey, Jeremy
Can you put that is plain English…Please

It means that you can download waypoints to the iFinder via the cable, but it is a pain in the a**.

To the original poster, you first need to find out what COM port your cable is hooked up to.

http://www.machinetoolhelp.com/Computerprocedures/COM-Port-setup.html

You then have to change the settings for this serial port on your PC to match the GPS serial settings… which I assume are still at the defaults. (Note this step may be unnecessary if GPSBabel reconfigures the serial port before it tries sending… I am unsure if it does.)

Default settings are:

Bits per second = 4800
Data bits = 8
Parity = None
Stop bits = 1
Flow control = None

Finally, in GSAK, to send the waypoints to the unit do the following:

– File menu, Export, Custom Export
– In the “Statement to run” box, enter the following EXACTLY:

"C:Program FilesGSAKGPSBabel.exe" -N -i gpx -f "C:Program FilesGSAKtempbabel.gpx" -o nmea,snlen=20,pause=0.1,baud=4800 -F com1

(GSAK will remember this string, so you should only have to enter it once.)

Replace com1 with the COM port your cable is hooked up to. And the download might be slow because of the .1 second pause between each waypoint. Some people in the geocaching.com forums reported success without a pause, so you might try removing the “pause 0.1” part in the line above.

Also, by downloading the waypoints via the cable you will not (and cannot) get custom waypoint symbols or waypoint descriptions. You will get the waypoint code (GCXXXX) and the coordinates and that is it. If you want more, you’ve got to go with creating the USR file and using a memory card to transfer the waypoints to the unit.

If this doesn’t work, shoot me a PM or email. I have a vested interest in figuring out how to do this because several Lowrance users walked away disappointed from the GPS download table at the campout. The WGA should be getting an iFinder cable for the Pineapple device any day now… and it would nice to know how to transfer waypoints using it before the next event.

[Jeremy]

Found this little nugget in the geocaching.com forums:

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=112236&hl=

Looks like the iFinders will take waypoint data sent over the cable via standard NMEA sentences. NMEA is a serial only protocol, which leads me to believe the USB version of this cable just incorporates a USB to serial adapter.

Hyperterminal or GPSBabel can be used to send these NMEA sentences.

I still think that the memory card / memory card reader combo would be easier, although the location of the SD memory card slot on these units makes removing and inserting the card more difficult than it needs to be.

[Jeremy]

The Lowrance units have to be handled specially in GSAK, not through the normal “GPS->Send Waypoints” mechanism. You first need to create a Lowrance USR file in GSAK by doing the following:

– Click on the File menu
– Go to Export
– Click on Lowrance USR…
– Set the export options, enter a filename, and click Generate

The next step is to copy the USR file created to a memory card… which is easily done if you have a USB card reader for your PC like this. Once it is on the memory card, put the card in the GPS and there are some options for transferring data in a USR file into the unit’s internal memory.

Note that I’ve only ever moved waypoints to iFinders with memory cards. I’m not sure if you can somehow transfer the USR file to the unit directly via the cable using some Lowrance software? (We are still waiting for our backordered Lowrance cable for the Pineapple device so I’m clueless on how this would work…)

Bottom line… you may need to scrap the cable idea and instead buy a SD card (if you don’t have one already) and USB card reader. If you can return the cable, you may find that buying a reader ($10) and small SD card (<$10) is cheaper anyway… this reader/card package would definitely work if the iFinder can handle a 2GB card.

[Jeremy]

Sorry to hear about your illness Ralph.

@zuma wrote:

Interestingly, a search of the web, confirmed by my MD, is that if ya get a tick bite, you can take a single double dose of doxycycline immmediately before symptoms develop as prophylaxis against developing Lymes from that tick bite. He even gave me a few extra for the next bite.

I have also heard information to this effect. My question for the medical folks is, does it have to be doxycycline or will any antibiotic work? I did have a deer tick on me following the campout and took some old amoxicillin that I had around immediately. So far (knock on wood), no symptoms. (But I could also have some immunity due to past exposure to Lyme’s.)

@Pateryalsa wrote:

Speaking of them, what IS the best way to remove one? I have heard all kinds of things, wondering what actually works (you know, in case it DOES happen)

Get yourself one of these tick remover devices aka “a tick spoon”. If you are careful you can use the same removal technique with a pair of tweezers, but these things are much easier to use. This part of the jumbo thread stealers topic has a discussion of these devices and Lyme’s.

[Jeremy]

Here is a web page with links to regional mapping and land information for southeast Wisconsin.

http://www.sewrpc.org/regionallandinfo/regionalmapping/

Unfortunately if you are looking to put something in Milwaukee county, there is not one online mapping tool for the whole county. Some communities (Milwaukee, Greenfield) have some good applications for checking property owners, boundaries, assessments, etc. while others (Oak Creek) don’t provide this information online.

[Jeremy]

A quick check of the WGA member database shows no one named Keith in the Green Bay area except ks9wi.

Here is a pic from the contestants page:

Article:

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070521/GPG07/705210466/1907

Did this guy win (meaning he’ll be back Monday), or did he pull a Cliff Clavin and lose in an embarrassing fashion?

[Jeremy]

And a cautionary note before I get some problem reports. Please try uploading only a couple pictures at a time, especially if they are large.

While the interface will let you try to upload 20 images at once, the server will likely time out the upload (current timeout is 120 seconds) before they are received, especially if you are on a slow connection.

[Jeremy]

I’ve got a couple ideas where these transmissions could be coming from, from least plausible to most plausible.

– al-Qaeda operatives reporting back to Osama’s cave or spider hole in Afghanistan.

– As a former resident of the area, I know Central Wisconsin is a widely considered hotbed of weird radio anomalies. It has been dubbed the Plainfield Hexagon (roughly from Rosholt to Stevens Point to Wisconsin Rapids to Friendship to Wautoma to Waupaca). This is supposed to be due to large magnetic rocks moved here from Canada by the last glaciers. For example, in 1992 a young boy from Almond heard what turned out to be police radio transmission from Belgium on his boombox.

– Picking up transmissions from a high-powered Mexican border blaster radio station

– I heard some weird noises while hiding caches in the southwest corner of the park, where it borders a farm. They sounded more like bells or chimes, but it could have been music. A lot of farmers play music for their cows to increase milk production, so I wonder if this farmer is using one of those cheap baby monitors to send music out into his fields for the cows to listen to?

[Author]

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