[NLRS] Mapping Programs

[tosca005 at umn.edu]

On Jun 20 2007, Scanner.Kleindl at VerizonWireless.com wrote:

> Has any one used a Computer mapping program with GPS antenna that has 
> capability to show your Grid Square. Yes I do have a Hand held GPS unit, 
> but I use a computer in the truck for Emails and other things and it 
> would be great to put on it a street map that showed elevation and grid 
> squares will driving around. TNX Dave NØKP

I'm not aware of an all-on-one ready-to-go solution. The Delorme software 
(3D Topo Quads and Topo USA, for example) do allow you to draw on them, so 
what I have done in the past is used those tools to draw the boundaries of 
the 4-digit grid squares onto the base map. For best results, I don't draw 
the lines freehand, I get into line-draw mode and input the actual 
coordinates of the grid corners and tell it to draw the lines. It is quite 
tedious, but once it's done, the lines stay in place as you scroll and 
zoom, and whether you are in 2D view mode or 3D view mode, and as you drive 
around with a GPS connected. This will NOT help with the 6-digit sub-grids. 
For that, I have my Garmin GPS configured to show me the 6-digit Maidenhead 
grids by default. I also have software on my Palm PDA to either convert 
between lat/lon and MGS, or display the location on the Palm when it is 
connected to a GPS.

Just before the June Contest this year, there was a message on the 
reflector about a Google Maps application that displayed grids and 
sub-grids on demand. It might be an option for you since you can probably 
find a way to be Internet enabled while on the road using telephone 
service, but for us mere mortals without a connection to the phone company, 
that's not so easy. It is a really neat program, and if nothing else, you 
could probably use it to print out some maps ahead of time...