Where can I get hold of Reliable Altitude readings ?



flyingdutch

New Member
Feb 8, 2004
5,700
0
0
no, i dont wanna buy a GPS (well, actually i do, but that's another toy to pine for...).
Is there somewher eon the web i can get/find Altitiude readings about Melbourne?
and does someone have an accurate reading in the inner-eastern suburbs I can set my HRM to?

cheers
 
flyingdutch said:
no, i dont wanna buy a GPS (well, actually i do, but that's another toy to pine for...).
Is there somewher eon the web i can get/find Altitiude readings about Melbourne?
and does someone have an accurate reading in the inner-eastern suburbs I can set my HRM to?

cheers

I assume that you are using a polar, unfortunately they tend to drift with atmospheric pressure, I find that the best bet is to play until you get a setting that doesn't give you -ve readings if you go near the beach (or beach road). I was initially more careful about regularly resetting to what I figured was my altitude (which I think I got off a paper map - source unknown).
 
PiledHigher said:
I assume that you are using a polar, unfortunately they tend to drift with atmospheric pressure, I find that the best bet is to play until you get a setting that doesn't give you -ve readings if you go near the beach (or beach road). I was initially more careful about regularly resetting to what I figured was my altitude (which I think I got off a paper map - source unknown).

yeah, i have heard that.
i think my hihest reading on yesterday's ride was about 160m. i think it should be closer to 120m tho?
Just wouldnt mind a 'known' reading out my way so I can reset it according to that and then get a resulting reading for home for future resettings/finetunings
 
flyingdutch wrote:
> no, i dont wanna buy a GPS (well, actually i do, but that's another

toy
> to pine for...).
> Is there somewher eon the web i can get/find Altitiude readings about
> Melbourne?
> and does someone have an accurate reading in the inner-eastern

suburbs
> I can set my HRM to?
>
> cheers
>
>
> --
> flyingdutch


I use this site to get a general idea.
http://www.heavens-above.com/
Can't get a reading for everywhere, but it does me for my VDO MC1.0.
 
flyingdutch said:
yeah, i have heard that.
i think my hihest reading on yesterday's ride was about 160m. i think it should be closer to 120m tho?
Just wouldnt mind a 'known' reading out my way so I can reset it according to that and then get a resulting reading for home for future resettings/finetunings

Sea level is zero or there is a sign on the top of mt dandenong (near the tv towers)

I had a max of 188m and still managed to have a -26m later in the ride so I think mine needs a reset!

PiledHigher
 
flyingdutch wrote:
> no, i dont wanna buy a GPS (well, actually i do, but that's another toy
> to pine for...).
> Is there somewher eon the web i can get/find Altitiude readings about
> Melbourne?
> and does someone have an accurate reading in the inner-eastern suburbs
> I can set my HRM to?


I set mine a few times when I first bought it but don't care now. Alt
doesn't mean a whole lot when the thing varies so much with temperature
changes. What is vaguely interesting is relative altitude, i.e. how much
you climbed or the shape of the terrain. For this, a baseline doesn't
matter. If you're insisting on persisting - go for a swim at the beach
and zero it or listen to the other posters. :)

hippy
 
hippy wrote:
> flyingdutch wrote:
>
>> no, i dont wanna buy a GPS (well, actually i do, but that's another toy
>> to pine for...).
>> Is there somewher eon the web i can get/find Altitiude readings about
>> Melbourne?
>> and does someone have an accurate reading in the inner-eastern suburbs
>> I can set my HRM to?

>
>
> I set mine a few times when I first bought it but don't care now. Alt
> doesn't mean a whole lot when the thing varies so much with temperature
> changes. What is vaguely interesting is relative altitude, i.e. how much
> you climbed or the shape of the terrain. For this, a baseline doesn't
> matter. If you're insisting on persisting - go for a swim at the beach
> and zero it or listen to the other posters. :)
>
> hippy


After downloading you can reset the baseline (to the actual altitude at
your home or just an arbitary one), and set the altitude so the starting
altitude matches the finishing altitude (this fixes any drift over the
duration of your ride) in Error Correction, this makes overlaying
graphs/ride profiles more comparable.

jh
 
On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 14:01:29 +1100, flyingdutch
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>no, i dont wanna buy a GPS (well, actually i do, but that's another toy
>to pine for...).
>Is there somewher eon the web i can get/find Altitiude readings about
>Melbourne?
>and does someone have an accurate reading in the inner-eastern suburbs
>I can set my HRM to?


One of the easy ways to do this (sans GPS) is to go to an airport.
All airports have published alititudes (in feet, gak, but the
conversion is trivial). eg Lilydale AP is 250' asl, Moorabbin
MOORABBIN AIRPORT
145.0964°E, 37.9800°S
12m asl

It's a shame that the polar's don't allow you to set the area
QNF, or you could zero them from the BoM website - but
as Stu says, what's interesting is how much you climb, not
the absolute alititude.
 
flyingdutch wrote:

> Is there somewher eon the web i can get/find Altitiude readings about
> Melbourne?


Nope, try a topo map from NatMap or whatever they are now called.
 
flyingdutch wrote:
> no, i dont wanna buy a GPS (well, actually i do, but that's another toy
> to pine for...).
> Is there somewher eon the web i can get/find Altitiude readings about
> Melbourne?
> and does someone have an accurate reading in the inner-eastern suburbs
> I can set my HRM to?
>
> cheers
>
>


Is there an ocean nearby you can use?
(Sea level?)

Marty
 
flyingdutch said:
yeah, i have heard that.
i think my hihest reading on yesterday's ride was about 160m. i think it should be closer to 120m tho?
Just wouldnt mind a 'known' reading out my way so I can reset it according to that and then get a resulting reading for home for future resettings/finetunings
According to whoever put the warrandyte climb in at cycle2max.com, the starting altitude was 40m, with the finishing altitude 210m
 
On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 at 04:14 GMT, PiledHigher (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> Sea level is zero or there is a sign on the top of mt dandenong (near
> the tv towers)
>
> I had a max of 188m and still managed to have a -26m later in the ride
> so I think mine needs a reset!


Think of it as a reminder that you have to remove the salt from the
chain, and give it a good wash.

Maybe buy a snorkel too. A 26m high one.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
Ah, so many of life's little problems can be solved by head
vaporisation. -- Zixia in ARK
 
JH wrote:
> After downloading you can reset the baseline (to the actual altitude at
> your home or just an arbitary one), and set the altitude so the starting
> altitude matches the finishing altitude (this fixes any drift over the
> duration of your ride) in Error Correction, this makes overlaying
> graphs/ride profiles more comparable.


Oh, I see. If it's lucky I will remove the tram-induced HR glitches and
rarely the speed glitches but I'm not messing with altitude.. couldn't
be bothered. Oz doesn't have any real climbs anyway, right? :)

hippy
"altitudist"
 
flyingdutch said:
no, i dont wanna buy a GPS (well, actually i do, but that's another toy to pine for...).
Is there somewher eon the web i can get/find Altitiude readings about Melbourne?
and does someone have an accurate reading in the inner-eastern suburbs I can set my HRM to?

cheers

Bureau Meterology have a list of their weather stations with elevations.
All you have to do is find them.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/ca_vic_names.shtml
Pete
 
Poiter said:
Bureau Meterology have a list of their weather stations with elevations.
All you have to do is find them.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/ca_vic_names.shtml
Pete

tanx!
anywhere know where the Kew weather station is?

F"desperately avoiding the beach"Dutch
 
The latest upgrade to the Polar software had a third option for temperature correcting the altitude, as well as the ability to set the baseline and the ability to set the start and end of the ride to the same point (not so useful for commuting, but good for a three hour ride that starts at 7am before the sun comes up and ends on a hot day).

With those threee functions, you should be able to correct your readings, figure out what altitude you live at and figure out how much climbing you have done. The absolute values are really not that important.

For teh record, I don;t do that whole climbing thing. But on the rare occassions I do I want documented evidence..
 
flyingdutch wrote:

> no, i dont wanna buy a GPS (well, actually i do, but that's another toy
> to pine for...).
> Is there somewher eon the web i can get/find Altitiude readings about
> Melbourne?
> and does someone have an accurate reading in the inner-eastern suburbs
> I can set my HRM to?
>
> cheers
>
>

Greetings,
Try the Esmap directory, which has 20 metre contour spacings
for the suburban area and work it out for yourself. I live at 160
metres ASL here, and don't I know it when I come back up from the
valley.
Regards,
Ray.
 
Ray Peace said:
flGreetings,
Try the Esmap directory, which has 20 metre contour spacings
for the suburban area and work it out for yourself. I live at 160
metres ASL here, and don't I know it when I come back up from the
valley.
Regards,
Ray.

how/where do i get hold of that/them?
 
hi

086060 KEW Commenced: 1869 Last
record: 1973
Latitude:-37.8167 S Longitude: 145.0333 E Elevation: 59.7 m
State: VIC

my GPS sw shows that location to be st roughly 32 Kinkora rd

its a very old site so being amongst houses etc is possible

will check this out later

also it might be in the park nearby
also try nearby streets etc

--

D
----------------------------------------------------------
Dallas

When in doubt, jiggle the cable.
----------------------------------------------------------
"flyingdutch" <[email protected]> wrote in
message news:[email protected]...
>
> Poiter Wrote:
>> Bureau Meterology have a list of their weather stations with
>> elevations.
>> All you have to do is find them.
>> http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/ca_vic_names.shtml
>> Pete

>
> tanx!
> anywhere know where the Kew weather station is?
>
> F"desperately avoiding the beach"Dutch
>
>
> --
> flyingdutch
>