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To help you plan your WarDrive grab the Trimble Planning Software and install it (22 Meg file). Then get the current ephemeris file. If you are lost use the HELP file.

Planning is a powerful stand-alone software tool supporting any form of analysis of visibility for GPS, GLONASS, IGSO and geostationary satellites.
Only a few years ago, when satellite constellation was very poor (due to a limited number of satellites visible in orbit) such a planning tool was indispensable in order to make a field campaign a success. The availability of satellite signals was restricted to only a couple of hours a day. In order to use these time spans efficiently careful planning was necessary.

Now, that the space segments of GPS or GLONASS are complete, Planning is still of great importance to monitor a survey campaign. It answers questions like these:

· When are the PDOPs for a station better than x and when are more than y satellites visible?

· I want to survey x stations simultaneously. When do I have the best conditions for all of them?

· I want to survey during a given time span. How many satellites will be visible?

· My survey location is partially obstructed by buildings or trees. Can I nevertheless expect considerably good results?

· Recently, I’m manually creating a visibility report for each day of the year. Can I automate this task?

Planning answers complex combinations of those questions, but is most comfortable to use! A lot of features are available by just a mouse-click.



Planning Help ©2002 Trimble Navigation Ltd. All rights reserved.

Here is some advice I give to wardrivers who are feeling the rising gas prices and want to find smarter ways to wardrive.

Wardriving Tips ‘n’ Tricks v1.0
http://www.chroniclesofawardriver.org/wardriving_tipsntricks.html

The following information is for responsible use only.

Get more APs logged per your wardrive outings with these great tips and tricks I’ve refined over my wardriving experience.

* Follow the rules and laws of the road. The longer you do this the longer you will be able to wardrive which is a benefit to wardrivers and those wishing to try wardriving out. If you are unable to drive or navigate or even be a passenger in a wardriving adventure you can also take alternative transit such as buses, bikes, scooters. The more portable your wardriving unit is the more options you have. Driving slower actually allows you to capture more APs than driving as fast as the law allows. Stop at the yellow lights if it is safe, you will be rewarded with an extra AP or two. Do not drive excessively slow as this will bring attention to you.

* Use mapping software to refine your wardriving routes. This could mean using something like Microsoft MapPoint in conjunction from WiGLE’s Browsable Map o’ the World to learn where heavily driven areas have occurred so that you do not submit duplicate data. Duplicate data means you do not get credit as the original discoverer thus your rank may not increase as you are not benefiting anyone. Plan ahead and do not get lost as this brings unwanted attention to you. If you cannot drive or navigate in the dark try and do your wardrives at dusk. Do not enter track housing areas if you do not know the way especially if it is dark outside, chances are you may get lost or hit something. Try and find nice smooth long routes as this will help your gas mileage as well as make the drive pleasant. Drives may be unpleasant if you are constantly dodging and turning corners.

* Use the day of the week and time of day wisely. It is logical that Residents are home on weekends and holidays which may mean more net time than when they are at work. Unforunately residents also are usually working on a house project during the weekend and could be considered a road obstacle and may be out enough to notice you as a stranger to their neighborhood. The last thing you want to do is explain to anyone what you are doing (though always be prepared). Paranoid users may actually turn off their APs when they are not being used meaning you may not log them because you missed the right window. Businesses peak times are 9am - 5pm, Monday - Friday other times they may be offline or not in use.

* Do not eat or drink heavily meals or excessively during or before your wardrive adventures. Doing so will cause many break sessions that limit your time and distance because you have to find a lavatory nearby to conduct business.Take a shower and wear deodorant (odorless antiperspirant is best) when a driver or passenger in a car full of other people. The last thing you want to do is drive with the windows open with the AC on because you smell in one way or another.

* Do not draw unwanted attention to yourself. If you have a lot of things hanging off your vehicle or look like you are a driving a bomb chances are you are going to get pulled over because you drew enough attention to yourself for someone else to be concerned in what you are actually doing. Your navigator should dim LCDs at night if they need them otherwise anyone half a block away can see you have a computer in the passenger seat. Do not drive staring at an LCD as this is also unlawful in many places due to driver distraction hazard. When driving just look straight ahead and don’t look lost even if you are. Always know your routes even if just by street names. Pulling over a lot will bring attention to yourself.

* Make sure you fill up your tank before starting your wardriving adventure.The last thing you want to do is call your local AAA service because you ran out of fuel. Even if you only think you will be out for an hour or so make sure you have enough fuel to make a halfway point and back. Sometimes wardrivers may be distracted enough to forget they forgot to get enough fuel to make it home.

* Camouflage your system.The last thing you want is someone breaking in your window while you are eating lunch because they saw a new laptop and GPS unit in your passenger seat. Also hiding your wardriving kit in plain sight does not draw attention to yourself thus does not allow someone to stop and ask what that beeping thing is in your car with a bunch of wires going everywhere. Using a plain box with some tape on it just makes it look like you may be carrying an old lamp or something not worth the theft value.This also helps in people asking less questions. Less questions means more time wardriving and less time explaining.

* Wardriving is legal. Do not be nervous of police officers or act erractically when anyone not “in the know” is around. Driving in neighborhoods may appear to be behavior similar to would be thieves “casing out” a place.This is not what you are doing as a wardriver. If you route your target areas successfully no one will know you were even there.When asked questions by strangers do not giggle or try and act as if you are walking a gray line. Doing so will only bring more questions. Act smart and don’t fool around when being asked questions.

Wardriving Secrets v1.0
http://www.chroniclesofawardriver.org/wardriving_secrets.html

The following information is for responsible use only.

Need to get a few thousand APs fast to rank up tonight? Here is how...

* Apartment Homes. Apartment clusters are great sources for replenishing APs, every other month or so you can check back the same route and see who has moved out and who has moved in. Owners take their APs with them, or get new ones when they move and apartment units are in constant flux of people moving in and out. Databases such as WiGLE may show that an area has been swept over by a few wardrivers, but nothing is stating that these haven't changed over time. It is a risk of finding out you wasted your time with duplicate data, and a reward of having the upper hand.

* The Ghetto. A lot of wardrivers seem to think that ghettos in general are a waste of time to wardrive. I have found through experience that in fact it is the other way around. People that don't have a lot of money don't usually pay to lay wire in their homes or apartments, yet they want wireless. APs are cheap enough for anyone to buy and thus these lands are knee deep in APs. The tradeoff of finding these networks of gold is that you may end up getting carjacked or molested in one way or another. My word of advice is keep the doors locked and don't take your foot too far off the accelerator. If you are running low and don't know where to go because they've all been already logged try here.

Need to get more APs per wardrive adventure? Here is how...

* Get reliable hardware.The last thing you want to do is wait for your system to boot or recover from an unexpected reboot. Make sure you are powering your computers and gps units from the vehicle. Running off batteries is for the birds. In the end you end spending a lot more since eventually you will figure this out and end up paying for the converter bundles. Always try and get a DC/DC converter if you are using a laptop. Going from DC/AC/DC is a waste of energy and could put a strain on your vehicle or hardware. Chip up to some decent electronics if you plan on doing this a lot.

* Use reliable software. Use something you feel comfortable with. Many wardrivers try using one piece of software over another, oftentimes it is platform-based and wardrivers make the leap of faith using a system they don't understand. The best plan of action is to use something you do understand and eventually try and migrate over, otherwise you end up accidentally deleting your log files or realizing that not all the services you wanted started when they were supposed to and you just wasted 2 days learning this. The best idea is to learn as many of these that you can so you can compare and contrast and wisely choose what may benefit you. Learn how to automate your rig so that it requires almost no maintenance. Being interactive with a machine and waiting for things that you could have scripted in is a waste. You should be concentrating on the road not your machine or the software it is running.
* Follow these tips 'n' tricks to make your wardriving adventure worthwhile.

Israel Torres