When you take the quiz and register GPSS, Robin Lovelock sends you a link or two to appropriate mapping for your area based on the latitude/longitude you put on the quiz form.
United States
If you have GPSS Rev. 5 or higher, and you're from the United States, a great deal of work has been done for you because for the entire nation, you can download maps down to the street level (1" = 100 yards) based on TIGER data. TIGER is mapping done by the U.S. Government for the Census.
The resulting GPSS maps are downloaded by areas measuring 1 degree of latitude by 1 degree of longitude. Perhaps the best way to find the lat/long for an area of interest for you is via the...
...downloadable maps from National Geographic (handy for locating latitude & longitude), found here: National Geographic Xpeditions Atlas.
| 1. Select Detail Level "detailed" and Country Borders "on"
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| 2. In the drop-down list for "Select Location(s):" pick United States of America
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| 3. You can down select your state on the drop-down to the right of "Select Location(s).
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Latitude runs horizontally (Massachusetts spans from latitude 41 to 43 degrees north of the Equator). You can't see the delimiter for 41 degrees or 43 degrees North, as they are beyond the map's northern and southern borders.
Longitude runs vertically (Massachusetts spans 69-74 degrees west of Greenwich, England). Only a tiny segment of Massachusetts at the far right lies in 69 degrees W.
Once you have the right lat/long for the area you want, you can download directly from
http://gpss.co.uk/usa/[LAT] [LONG].EXE.
The [LAT] [LONG] for Boston is 42N71W.EXE (note that you use capital letters), so downloading Boston is done by entering the following address in your browser: http://gpss.co.uk/usa/42N71W.EXE.
A file saving popup should appear. Save the EXE file in your map directory (by default, the directory where the GPSS program itself resides.)
Once downloaded, run the self-unpacking file in your GPSS map directory (again, by default this is the same directory where the GPSS program itself resides.)
| Avoid Painful Internet "Integration"
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| NOTE: If you are using Internet Explorer and run the executable by clicking on "Open" on the Download popup -- which the developers at Microsoft thinks would make your life easier -- IE will probably unpack the files onto your desktop. You have to manually move these files to your GPSS map directory, a pain.
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| Instead, select "Open Folder" on the IE Download popup and double-click on the EXE file there. It will unpack in its directory.
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| All the maps for Massachusetts
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| Downloading all of the appropriate maps for Massachusetts would require separately downloading the following files:
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| 41N69W.EXE (the eastern reaches of Nantucket and Cape Cod)
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| 41N70W.EXE (Plymouth south of Martha's Vineyard)
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| 42N70W.EXE (Newburyport through Boston and south)
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| 41N71W.EXE (Attleboro to Rhode Island)
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| 42N71W.EXE (Fitchburg through Framingham & south)
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| 42N72W.EXE (Greenfield through Springfield)
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| 42N73W.EXE (North Adams through Great Barrington)
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Robin has made available a large number of maps for a great many countries. You reach them via links found on the same page you downloaded GPSS from: GPSS Download page
Adding your own maps from your sources
This takes some work on your part (note that all of this work has been done for you on the maps you download from the GPSS site.)
To add your own maps, aerial photos, plat drawings and so on, see Adding Maps
By Dave Gehman
© Copyright 2004, Robin Lovelock
Send changes, suggestions to Dave Gehman