Newcastle Active Station

[ted]

Not sure if its possible to use the wiki to add 'non visit' remarks about trigpoint logs so
I thought I'd start this with an email.

The logs for the OS Active Station at Newcastle University presently lack a convincing
photo. Recent logs at http://trigpointing.uk/trig/7287 claim that a dome on a mast
with a somewhat similar appearance to an OS Leica is a relocated OS station. I'm not
convinced that this is the case.

Starting with the grid reference from trigpointing.uk of NZ 24639 65012 and feeding this into http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/gps/transformation as (424639,565012,50) yields
the position as Latitude/Longitude of 54.979116 N 1.616582 W
(The height of 50 metres is guesswork but it doesn't affect the calculation).

Then feeding that position into https://maps.google.com/ and zooming in gives the
expected location on the roof of the Bedson Building. Moreover theres a circular white blob
towards the NE edge of the roof which I think might well be the station.

The same location can be reached via
http://www.bigf.ac.uk/files/network_map ... l_pcs.html
selecting station NCAS
This gives us the image:
http://www.bigf.ac.uk/files/stn_antenna ... hwards.JPG
and the data availability map shows its still operating as of mid-2014.

(Incidentally the photo for the Leeds active station at
http://www.bigf.ac.uk/files/stn_antenna ... istant.JPG
was taken by me and has been copied from the Trigpointing page - I'm very happy for them
to use it).

So... evidence that the NCAS Active Station is still in its original location. I haven't visited yet but
obtaining a suitable vantage point could be tricky. Rooftop car parks sometime work or maybe from
higher ground at a distance; I don't know the city well enough to know if these are options.


Regards,
Ted

[Teasel]

I guess it depends on whether you're wanting to get a discussion going, or whether you want to document your findings for others. Entirely up to you. Feel free to create a wiki page for a trig (eg just visit, say, http://trigpointing.uk/wiki/TP7287_Newc ... ve_Station click 'edit this page' and start typing. Depending on how many we get, I might re-jig them later to either add them all into a single category / subsection, rename them for easy linking etc, but for now just do what you feel like and let's get the ball rolling. To put a link back to the trigpoint page in the wiki article, simply type {{trig|7287}}. OS grid references can be entered as eg {{gridref|NZ 24639 65012}}, benchmarks as {{bm|22870}} etc, and I'm working on how to link to log photos from the wiki.

I'm not really sure what to do about non-visit logs (and general distilled wisdom from actual visits). I could perhaps add some sort of embedded wiki area into the trigpoint details page. Basically a free-for-all text box, above the main bulk of the visit logs, which anyone can edit at will? Or, especially if comments are likely to be more detailed, like this one, it might be better to use the main wiki to do the heavy lifting, and simply link to the article from the trigpoint details page? I'm currently working on both a better search facility on the website, and also on being able to include more flexible trigpoint data (such as links to wiki pages) in the trigpoint details header. So either "create/edit wiki article for this trig" or "search wiki for mentions of this trig" buttons may become feasible to add to the main pages at some point.

[ted]

Hi Ian,

> I guess it depends on whether you're wanting to get a discussion going, or whether you want to document your findings for others.

A bit of both I think.

> Feel free to create a wiki page for a trig (eg just visit, say, http://trigpointing.uk/wiki/TP7287_Newc ... ve_Station click 'edit this page' and start typing.

OK, done!

I've seen one of those fake 'active stations' on a rooftop car park next to Leeds railway station. Must go and take a photo; if I get arrested then
that might narrow down the possibilities as to what it really is

> I'm not really sure what to do about non-visit logs ...
> it might be better to use the main wiki to do the heavy lifting, and simply link to the article from the trigpoint details page?

I think thats the approach that I'd favour.


Regards,
Ted

[peregrinus]

Re the AS - I spent a fair bit of time there with decent binocs recently but at night so no joy. Decent view can I think be obtained from far side of public car park. I see what you mean about the the Griefmiester photo.

Re non-visit logs - I try to avoid them as a log means the trig disappears from my unlogged trigs list and hence from my to-do list.

"Basically a free-for-all text box, above the main bulk of the visit logs, which anyone can edit at will?" - I like this idea. Would probably need some adhoc pruning in the spirit of wiki

Ted your wiki page seems blank? I've added a brief note.

[ted]

Hi Rob,

Ted your wiki page seems blank? I've added a brief note.

Not sure how this occurred, by the page I created is:
http://trigpointing.uk/wiki/TP7287_Newc ... ve_Station
whereas the url seems to have been truncated and so when you followed
the link, it took you to http://trigpointing.uk/wiki/TP7287_Newc

Could you update the former, please.


Regards
Ted

[peregrinus]

http://trigpointing.uk/wiki/TP7287_Newc ... ve_Station

Duly updated.

whereas the url seems to have been truncated and so when you followed
the link, it took you to http://trigpointing.uk/wiki/TP7287_Newc

Can this latter page just be deleted? I couldn't see how...

[ted]

A slightly old topic, but just to report that I managed to get a
view of this Active Station yesterday. It hasn't moved
http://trigpointing.uk/trig/7287


Regards
Ted

[peregrinus]

Well done ted and thanks for sharing, Good to have this one finally nailed. Quite well hidden!