martin taylor

Thought that this'd be an appropriate place to ask, given that pilots
tend to have a propency for hi-tech gadgets, particularly navigation
stuff.

I scored a cheap GPS the other day. I'm wondering if any of you know
where I can source software or a database, or a website where I can
enter in a location and get the longitude and latitude info.

I have an old copy of Microsoft's World Atlas program. I can get
co-ordinates off it, but it isn't too accurate, as I found out over the
weekend.

budgie

www.maporama.com used to have that feature - don't know if they still do.

I typed in my address and the coords given were across the road and two doors
down. Not brilliant, but good enough for cruise missiles. And in nuclear
weapon-speak, there is no such term as near-miss.

richard gallagher

The US military have a Geonames service that lets you search for place
names via a website. Their coverage of Australia is quite good with
over 66,000 place names listed. The URL for the search is
http://gnswww.nga.mil/geonames/Gazet...rch/Search.jsp

You can also download raw data from
http://earth-info.nima.mil/gns/html/cntry_files.html

--
Richard Gallagher

alan

This is a database I did a couple of years ago.
Use with caution - some data may be obsolete.
http://www.swopnet.com/waypoints/gps/wptsoz.zip

Alan

barny

Check out Charles Sturt Uni's "Guide To Australia" lat/long search page. It
gives results to 4 decimal places, with a built-in converter for
minutes/seconds. Go to http://life.csu.edu.au/geo/findlatlong.html.

You could also try the Geoscience Australia "Place Name Search". This is
mainly a tool for finding map products to purchase, so lat/long accuracy is
only down to 1 min (1.8 km). Go to http://www.ga.gov.au/map/names/.

martin taylor

Thanks folks for those who replied to my post about GPS stuff. Looks
like I'll be able to get a heap of info off them.

I wouldn't mind getting some map software etc. But looking at what they
charge, once I get the software, then source the maps, I'm looking at
paying nearly double of what the GPS unit is worth. And I won't be using
it THAT much.

I wonder if there's any shareware stuff around (not Ozi Explorer which
is restricted) that I can use. And as far as maps go, all I want is one
of Victoria and NSW.

martin taylor

Barny said....

This is an excellent site. So far, all the towns that I've entered in
have returned a result.

I wonder how all that data was collated, and to 4 decimal places too (my
GPS only has 3 dec. places).

Thanks for that. It's appreciated.

Meantime, I've found a website dedicated to Garmin Etrex GPSes which has
links to heaps of mapping programs. Just need to find some places that
have free maps that I can get. So far, all I've found are sites flogging
CDs with maps. Now while not generally being a tightarse, I don't really
wish to pay a coupla hundred bux for something that's only of casual use
to me, when out touring, and soon to be doing some 4WDing.

gb

Lots of good links there, but how about somehting local and
relevant... Geosciences Australia. I picked it up off JB when
he mentioned it in here a few years back. Enter place names
(and, if you like, whether you want the post office, the airport,
or the river) and click the go button. very handy.

http://www.ga.gov.au/map/names/


For a bit of fun, check out Geocaching. A hide-n-seek game
that has a *very* active following here in Australia, and
isn't anywhere near as easy as it sounds.

HTH,

G

stew hunt

This is one we use at work all the time (ATC)

http://www.ga.gov.au/map/names/


Stew.