Quartzsite Gathering 2008

[DHenry]

John & Dawn, I would be happy to add you to our list for the gathering. We will see you there.

[JH Sechelt]

Hi Doug,

On Streets and trips, The long & Lat you gave show us going South east of Quartzsite a little ways. On Mapsourse it shows North on 95 and East on Plomosa Rd, I'm guessing Mapsourse is correct, please let me know if its wrong.
Thanks John

[DHenry]

John, you are correct, Plomosa Road is just north of Quartzsite. You do turn East off 95 onto Plomosa Road. Mapquest show it as Plomosa Rd. Parker, AZ. When you turn onto Plomosa Rd. watch the mile markers. We will be by the first mile marker. To be sure to find us you can email me and I will provide you with my cell phone number. Also when on Plomosa Road look for the Montana Owners Club banner pointing to the road to take to find the gathering. See you there.

[simonsrf]

Wow, we have a great bunch of people who are going to be showing up!!

In the next few days, we will be putting the final touches to the name tags. Some of you have some missing information; we will PM some of you for the missing information. Please watch your private messages.


Only 31 more days until the Quartzsite "Circling of the Montanas"!!

[JH Sechelt]

Thanks Doug,

We should have no problem finding it now ( that is once we find Quartzsite . just kidding.

Robbie,

Doug has put us down on the list as John & Dawn Sechelt...... It's actually John & Dawn Hopkins, (Sechelt is the town we live in).
Not a big deal except no one knows how to pronounce Sechelt.
Sea-chelt. It's a Indian name meaning Land between two waters.
There - Geography lesson for today .

J&D

[DHenry]

Sorry John & Dawn, I made an assumption and you know what that means .

[sreigle]

John, HamRad tells me this map is correct as to MOC location. I had to verify it for the same reason you did. This one is mapsource. he also tells me there is no plomosa road going west from 95 as the map would have you believe.

[Carl n Susan]

I was fascinated with John's discovery that S&T shows the location South of Q. It took me a bit to figure out S&T's use of longitude/latitude and then get Doug's coordinates of N = 33.45.403 and W = 114.11.800 to work (it seems you have to enter 33.45403 and -114.11800). Sure enough, the 2005 S&T says South of Q. Wrong!

I found this disclaimer in the Help file.

Note Streets & Trips maps are based on the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS 84) datum. Some maps and GPS systems are based on other datum. Latitude and longitude coordinates obtained from a map or GPS system based on other datum appear in a different location on a Streets & Trips map.

So it seems Doug's GPS uses a different datum (what ever that might be) than S&T. Sure doesn't make it easy for everyone and their different toys to find the same location.

Am I doing this wrong or what? I sure hope I am, but I don't see it.

Would expressing the location in Degrees/minute/seconds achieve a consistent result?

[HamRad]

I have almost identical coordinates for Q as Doug has posted. It is NORTH of Q. And has been pointed out it is the road that will take you to Bouse. It is a nice little drive and there is a county CG on the west side of town. I think there is water and electric hookups. There is a dump station.

The Old Bouse Road shown on the map is a rough dirt road. Probably only good for 4 wheel drive vehicles.

See you in Q in a few more days.

Dennis

[JH Sechelt]

Thanks Steve,

That's about where I would have headed for, but nice to see it on paper, as the saying goes...
hope to see you at Quartzsite.

J&D

[Dont]

Hi Doug It don't look like we will make it this year Lola has to work in the office hear at the park,I will probley try to drive up for the day.Mary Xmax to you all.

[c5racer]

This might be correct.

[DHenry]

Pete, your map is right on, thanks.

[sreigle]

quote:Originally posted by Carl n Susan

I was fascinated with John's discovery that S&T shows the location South of Q. It took me a bit to figure out S&T's use of longitude/latitude and then get Doug's coordinates of N = 33.45.403 and W = 114.11.800 to work (it seems you have to enter 33.45403 and -114.11800). Sure enough, the 2005 S&T says South of Q. Wrong!

I found this disclaimer in the Help file.

Note Streets & Trips maps are based on the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS 84) datum. Some maps and GPS systems are based on other datum. Latitude and longitude coordinates obtained from a map or GPS system based on other datum appear in a different location on a Streets & Trips map.

So it seems Doug's GPS uses a different datum (what ever that might be) than S&T. Sure doesn't make it easy for everyone and their different toys to find the same location.

Am I doing this wrong or what? I sure hope I am, but I don't see it.

Would expressing the location in Degrees/minute/seconds achieve a consistent result?

I don't think I have the knowledge to answer your question but wanted to say there is a formula (and some websites) for converting Doug's coordinates (degrees, minutes, seconds) to the decimal configuration. The formula is degrees + minutes/60 + seconds/3600. For example, 33.45.403 would equal 33.861944 (33 + 45/60 + 403/3600). Even that may not help in light of the different datum mentioned above.

[firetrucker]

Doug's coordinates are in a degrees and decimal minutes format. If they are converted to decimal degrees, they equate to N33.757 W114.197 (or -114.757). This puts it in the right location in S&T and the same location in Topo 5 (and, consequently, SA).

Bob

[Carl n Susan]

quote:Originally posted by firetrucker

Doug's coordinates are in a degrees and decimal minutes format. If they are converted to decimal degrees, they equate to N33.757 W114.197 (or -114.757). This puts it in the right location in S&T and the same location in Topo 5 (and, consequently, SA).

Bob

Thanks Steve and Bob. It is clear I didn't understand the numbers.

Ah ha! decimal minutes vs. decimal degrees. So what is the difference and how do you convert from one to another? Curious minds (also slow and suffering from CRS) want to know. I didn't know what the values were that Doug posted
N = 33.45.403
W = 114.11.800
Consequently I ignored the last decimal point and S&T was happy (wrong location, but happy).

[firetrucker]

Carl, software programmers sometimes get sloppy (no aspersions on anybody on the MOC), especially when the symbol for degrees is not on the keyboard. Steve's formula for decimal degrees is correct, as long as you know for sure that the numbers you are given are degrees, minutes, and seconds, no matter how they are separated (periods, commas, colons, etc.) The clue with Doug's coordinates is there are three places after the last period. That told me 45.403 and 11.800 were expressed as decimal minutes, not minutes.seconds (only 60 seconds in a minute, after all).

Most programs take all three common formats: decimal degrees (everything converted to degrees); decimal minutes (degrees and everything else converted to minutes); and degrees, minutes, seconds. Usually, each number is separated by a space, but, somewhere, the program should show you what it expects.

Doug's coordinates are N33deg 45.403min and W114deg 11.800min. That would be N33deg 45min 24sec by W114deg 11min 48sec. Plug that into Steve's equation and it should come out really close to what I used (I haven't checked it but I'm pretty confident).

Bob

[Carl n Susan]

quote:Originally posted by firetrucker



...software programmers sometimes get sloppy (no aspersions on anybody on the MOC)...



....Doug's coordinates are N33deg 45.403min and W114deg 11.800min. That would be N33deg 45min 24sec by W114deg 11min 48sec. Plug that into Steve's equation and it should come out really close to what I used

Having been a software programmer for a long time, I resemble that remark (no offense taken).

I think I got it! I take it if the seconds are expressed as three digits then one implies it is decimal minutes and the equivalent degrees/minutes/seconds is:
N33deg 45.403min is equal to
33 deg 45 min and (.403 x 60) seconds = 33 deg 45 min and 24 sec

And your 33/45/24 looks like the MOC camp site in Q using S&T.

Thanks for the explanation!!!

[firetrucker]

Carl, Looks like you got it! I won't take any credit, though. My explanations always sounds so clear when I write them, but I wonder if I really understood the questions correctly. For sure if people come up with the wrong answer, I know I missed something someplace.

I guess this means you won't have to stop and ask directions, and won't get lost on the way, so we'll see you in Quartzsite.

Bob

[Parrothead]

And I thought I knew what I was doing, now I'm not sure. If we visit, I think I will just call someone! LOL
Happy trails.........................