[aprssig] findu.com Location off by 100 miles.

[VE7GDH]

Bob WB4APR wrote...

> Hooking up a GPS just to walk around the park is just not worth it
> in APRS when all you may need to say is "Im in the park"...
> I rarely carry a GPS with my D7, yet I have a pocket card with the
> 1 mile ambiguity positions of sevaral places I am frequently found
> and manually enter them in my D7 when I am visiting there. SUre
> is a lot less hassle than fussing with a GPS all the time. Yet
> people can see where i am.

I don't have a D7, but I do have a D7 manual in front of me. Just how do you 
go about entering an ambiguous position? I've looked in the many 
configuration on pages 17-19 and on "entering lat/long data" (manually) on 
page 68. Is it just a matter of entering less digits in the decimal of a 
minute? I also looked at the TNC commands list in the appendix pages 99-I 
just couldn't find "ambiguity" anywhere in the manual.

Just looked at the APRS spec and found...
"Position Ambiguity A reduction in the accuracy of APRS position information 
(implemented by replacing low-order lat/long digits with spaces). Used when 
the exact position is not known."

I couldn't find "ambiguity" in the D7 manual. Is that how a D7 / D700 user 
indicates ambiguity by entering spaces for the trailing digits?

FWIW, I just tried entering spaces for the decimal of a degree in UI-View 
and it just replaced them with zeroes, moving me further south and east. Not 
a biggy to me coz I always know where I am whether I have a GPS or not! 
(map, compass etc.) If I was ever entering a position manually, it would be 
as exact as if I had used a GPS. Of course if I was somewhere with no 
landmarks, I would resort to using a GPS. Never did get that celestial 
navigation down. Besides, the position of the stars will have changed in a 
few thousand years.

73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
--
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"