SANParks.org Forums

Thats not "stuff lying around"

Thats my SO doing the weeding in the garden

By the way your pool is dirty, give it a clean !!!!

Google watching you

Can someone tell me where I'm going wrong. I used the waypoint info here on Google Earth and Berg en Dal ended up in the Atlantic. So I entered S and E and it is now around 1KM NE of the entrance gate. Does anyone else find a difference between Google Earth and their own GPS readings?

Hey I don't need practice...I need the real thing!!! So do you by the looks of things!!
Great tip...thanks Mashona...I wonder what 14th has in store for me in May. Just one little sighting of anything will be a 100% improvement on my last drive around 14th

For somebody that had the most amazing Leopard interaction and photography on your last trip would not worry too much about the 14th

But of course 14 Lions in a pride would add a little to the report, but if you had have seen them we would still be reading your last episodes.......and all feeling sick as parrots

And yes............have severe post Kalahari trauma......so will settle on taking the *&^% out of you

Yes, everyone does. It depends on the accuracy of both GPS's, the original and the one you own.

14 Lions in a pride

That's okay with me ...maybe I should organise a meet at my house again....just so we can drool over everybody's pics and videos.....would that help the trauma a bit???

The tracks and POI's that I record usually are off by 50m or so. I think it's a projection problem of the satellite images rather than a GPS problem.

You can find most POI's here for Kruger and KTP.

Are we really worried about 50m off? Thats amazingly close I think.

So long as you are not using it to direct a Cruise missile Mine seems to be a bit more that 50m. I think the closer to the Equator, the more accurate. When we were in Portugal a couple of weeks back it seemed closer.

From what I understand, and I might be wrong, but it sounds plausible, is this:

There are two sets of GPS satellites orbiting the planet. One Russian, and one owned by the US Military. All Western GPS units use the US based system.

The US system is incredibly accurate. It has to be since they use the system to guide missiles to their targets and for other warfare related activities. This was its intended purpose.

However, they also apparently introduce a margin of deliberate error for non-military applications. I always understood this to be something like five meters, but I've also heard that in times of "instability" they can increase the margin of error so that civilian GPS units are less accurate. I noticed during the height of the war in Iraq that my GPS reported an accuracy of only 100m. Other times it has been as good as 5m. Of course there are other natural forces that could affect this I would imagine (such as weather, trees, tall buildings etc).

Well that's my input. As I said I don't know how accurate that information is, but it certainly sounds plausible to me.

Cheers
Craig

A new satellite was launched today which is going to make highresolution images for Google earth. See this pressrelease.

So let's hope the parks will be among the first to receive updates... But! It'll take a few months....

looks very cool, much more detailed.

I don't know if this will be of interest to anyone. Its a .kmz file which you can open in Google Earth. It contains pointers to all of the main and bushveld camps, most of the dams that you can see, the birdhides, many other features (eg view points, private camps), many waterholes, and some road junctions.

Much of the Kruger is now in high resolution - eg look at Lower Sabie. A lot is still moderate viewing - quite good enough for what I have been doing. However there is still a significant area, especially around the central parts, where trying to find a feature is all but impossible! Its in areas like this where I have picked out a few road junctions.

http://www.thelimes.co.uk/swans/my%20places.kmz

This link should (!) upload the file to your computer which you can then open in Google Earth.

Hope someone finds it of use.

Richard

ps ignore the name in the url! It was a convenient directory on my website to quickly put the file.

The wonder and promise of new technology followed by all too familiar crushing disappointment. My computer wants to know what's a .kmz file? I have no clue how to "open in google earth".
Any simple solution welcomed!

Worked straight off for me and KNP is now full of yellow pushpins. If you right click a pin and go to Properties, it shows the map ref. Thanks for the tip.