If you really want to find ship wrecks with a GPS read this

[White Feather]

Hey Signumops, It's all great info and greatly appreciated. Newbies aren't into such detailed and overwhelming info at first light. We do, however, appreciate the heads up for all the great info so don't feel ashamed for giving info. Them that understand it are most grateful. Them that don't will have it to read later when they start hitting the wrong place. I for one had never thought of the Datum angle but have had my eyes opened to what I thought was misinformation when it was most likely a common mistake. It's really something to consider. Thanks Again.
See Ya at the 3rd Annual Cookout,
White Feather

 

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[aquanut]

Black Duck, Signumops and the rest of you guys. Sincere thanks for opening my eyes to this. I had no idea. I'm still having a hard time remembering how to enter and name waypoints! But at least now I may have the answer to why I can't locate a particular wreck!
Aquanut

 

[Bum Luck]

When Mel Fisher was looking for the Atocha, and really even after that, his main problem was how to search without leaving any gaps, or conversely, not overlapping searches. Also, he needed to do this in real time so that he could search efficiently, and record the results.

He tried a variety of methods, like any smart THer, and they changed as technology changed. Believe it or not, just a few years ago, there wasn't any off-the-shelf computer program that did that. Now as he searches, he knows where he is and where he was days before and can navigate accurately.

I actually had a job offer from him to do just that sometime in the late 80's, but couldn't move to Key West because of a new daughter. It would have been a fun job working for a great organization. - Stay single

One of my fun demos for customers is to have them go out in a field with my GPS and bury a quarter a few inches under ground and press the 'magic' button. I will then navigate to the quarter, and without even looking down, I will dig up the quarter - it's that accurate.

 

[signumops]

Hey Bum Luck and Black Duck:
Over the years I have developed Windows software of my own for my own use in treasure mapping. I have used a drafting module/dynamic link library built by a friend of mine in Russia, Oleg Kolbaskin. I write everything in visual basic and I am now rewriting my programs for the latest version. I also have incorporated a module that automatically translates from NAD to WGS to SPCS or any other datum in real time, so when you move your cursor, you get the position readout appropriate for the map you are working with, and can, therefore, always use your GPS to get to the spot you see on your computer's screen. Also, I built one version to use with my mag so that I could get my GPS stream and mag signal into my map in real time.

Now, there is no real magic to this, and there are many programs available to read, log, and simultaneously display your GPS data, but, I added the ability to register other bitmap/graphic base maps like aerial photos and old scanned paper maps into the system and build and store a 'world file' for them so that you could make use of the graphic files in other mapping software, particularly Tatuk and ESRI as well as in my own programs. Now, I know most of the TNet users here don't know, or care, for that matter, what I may be talking about here, but, for those interested in this thread who really need to map their projects, I would like to know what they would find particularly useful in such a program. I am currently rebuilding it in the latest version of visual basic (vb.net) for use on Windows 7, Vista Pro, and XP Pro (service pack 2 or later). I already have a version in visual basic 6 which works very well, but, in the next several years it will become obsolete.

If you have any suggestions, I would like to hear em. I know, for instance, that it would be great to automatically export a KML version of your map for use on Google Earth. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[aquanut]

Signumops, All my computers are Macs. Do you know if this stuff is compatible with a Mac or do I need to use virtual PC when I attempt the learning curve?
Aquanut

 

[signumops]

Hey Aquanut:
I've never seen my stuff running on a Mac, so I can't really say. However, it is 32 bit and would probably work under emulation as a virtual Windows session (I guess).

 

[aquanut]

Well Terry, maybe we'll get together this winter and see what happens. I'd be curious about at least one set of numbers.
Aquanut

 

[Black Duck]

Signumops
Really very good information thank you for the posting
And everyone else for there input

 

[Au_Dreamers]

When Mel Fisher was looking for the Atocha, and really even after that, his main problem was how to search without leaving any gaps, or conversely, not overlapping searches. Also, he needed to do this in real time so that he could search efficiently, and record the results.

He tried a variety of methods, like any smart THer, and they changed as technology changed. Believe it or not, just a few years ago, there wasn't any off-the-shelf computer program that did that. Now as he searches, he knows where he is and where he was days before and can navigate accurately.

I actually had a job offer from him to do just that sometime in the late 80's, but couldn't move to Key West because of a new daughter. It would have been a fun job working for a great organization. - Stay single

One of my fun demos for customers is to have them go out in a field with my GPS and bury a quarter a few inches under ground and press the 'magic' button. I will then navigate to the quarter, and without even looking down, I will dig up the quarter - it's that accurate.

That's why we were the first 1715 operation to use an onboard GPSMAP.
When they switched from sextant readings most went for an inexpensive unit or handheld. I don't blame em sometimes you have to operate on a tight budget.
Since money was on our side at the time and with thoughts of what could be done with that technology and the data, we went and paid for one. It was just then that they were working on converting the old coords. The technology was new and just getting put together. I remember more than a few times trying to figure out why the numbers were off and then realized it was decimals degrees not decimal minutes, lol but it was great to just plug in coords and see em appear "around you" while on the site. It's awesome to see how far it's come since just 12 years ago.
Now I know some of the old salts know those wrecks like the back of their hands but for us “greener” guys it levels the playing field!