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Guys, please can I request that whenever you post information on preserved vehicles that you include the GPS co-ordinates if you have them.

I'm prompted to mention this now because of Joe_D's post:

- Joe_D

Kurt,

I noticed you posted the GPS co-ordinates, I started logging them too with all the recent confimations I got in KY and TN. I just didn't post them. I think it works much better than just an address

but it is self-evidently a great approach. I've been working with this idea for a while, since learning about geocaching with tanks, and I collected GPS co-ordinates for most of the tanks in Normandy while I was there.

Of course, if you don't have a satnav it's not an issue, but if you have got one it's not much extra trouble to record the GPS. And anyone who's tried to visit a preserved tank knows how hard it can be to track down the location based on someone else's directions. It can also be used for 'disambiguation', i.e. where two people are talking about two different tanks near each other and there's some confusion over identities (e.g. Churchill or Sherman tanks on the Normandy beaches).

Myself, I've invested in a Navman satnav that produces Navpix (it has a camera that takes a picture with an embedded GPS location) - I suspect it's pretty unusual but I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has one.

Otherwise creating Point of Interest files (POI) might be the easiest way of sharing GPS locations. I made one while in Normandy and, with the satnav setup right, as you move around it highlights the location of the nearest tanks (with optional alarm, etc). I see it as no less than a rovolution in tracking down or revisiting preserved tanks (and I wish I had it when I started 25 years ago!).

For the ones I most recently listed I didn't use my GPS receiver. I knew the map locations and used one of the tools in MS Streets & Trips mapping program to find the coordinates. I've checked the tool and found it to be in very good agreement with my ca. 2000 receiver, say within 100 ft. Even with errors in the placement of streets in the program you should be able to get within direct sight of the tank by using this method.

Another non-receiver method is to use Virtual Earth. For example, if I go to Share and Copy to Clipboard the link to a centered image I get:

http: //maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=39.944428~-83.257071&style=a&lvl=19&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=4958106&encType=1

Embedded in there is 39.944428 and 83.25707 which are the latitude and longitude. Knowing that this is in the USA, it is N and W respectively. I'm sure Google Earth has the same or better tools.

KL

I've just become acqainted with Googlearth and it's quite precise. It has a special "Military" area on the forum, though you are well advised to make sure your placemarks have not been previously posted. I've noted a few for just tanks in unusual places and made a few of my own (most not shared, but I did post the 5th Cav Rgt. in Brasil, for example, where I'd posted pics from on the old board).

The Military Google Earth Community forum, which can be fun to spool through is here:

bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/po...thMilitary

You can view the "view in Google maps" view without having downloaded the program.

Good points, guys - so someone can work out the GPS co-ordinates even without a satnav if they know the location well enough. And of course from the GPS co-ordinates you can find a real world location in whatever mapping system you want (Google Earth, Virtual Earth, conventional maps, etc.).

Sounds like we should aim for GPS co-ordinates whenever practical.