UK Cave Technology Symposium 2010

[David Gibson]

UK Cave Technology Symposium 2010
---------------------------------
9am to 5pm, Saturday 17 April, Horton-in-Ribblesdale Village Hall,
North Yorkshire, UK. Admission discount for BCRA members.
Latest info from http://bcra.org.yuk/forum

As usual, this one-day symposium - organised by BCRA's special interest
groups CREG and CSG - coincides with the Cave Surveying Group's spring
field meeting, which will take place on the Sunday. If you need
overnight accommodation, CSG has reserved some beds at the YSS at
Helwith Bridge. Please contact Allan Richardson to enquire about this,
(mailto:a.richardson at bcra.org.uk) and note that places are limited. 

Symposium Programme
-------------------
The Saturday symposium will start at around 9am. Tea and coffee will be
available during the day, and you will be able to get lunch in the pub.
It is expected that the outdoor equipment manufacturer Beast Products
(http://beastproducts.co.uk) will be selling gear on site. 

A programme will be posted to the BCRA News forum in advance of the
event. Talks are expected to include the new Nicola 3 radio, Loran,
resistivity measurements, caver counters in Ogof Draenen, and a
discussion of 'old' caving technology. On surveying there will cave
mapping online with tiles, a Therion update and more. Please do check
http://bcra.org.uk/forum to see the latest information, as the programme
is still being assembled. On Saturday evening there will be the
opportunity to look in more detail at the techniques for tiling surveys
on top of online mapping / aerial photos, following on from the talk at
the symposium.

CSG Field Meeting
-----------------
On the Sunday, the Cave Surveying Group will be looking at the new craze
of fully-electronic surveying with DistoX and PDAs. You will be able to
try out the kit, learn the techniques and find out the pros and cons,
before forking out for your own kit (most people who try it do...). We
will also look at the process of turning the results into real surveys
and we will be doing some experiments on the technique of generating
surveys from video camera footage, in order to determine whether this
technique is practical for low-budget cavers. The more lights, cameras,
expertise and computing facilities that people can bring for this, the
better.

Training in any aspect of surveying is available if you ask in advance
(so we can bring the relevant kit and get someone who knows how to use
it). All survey-related tasks are of interest so if you have something
you want to show or discuss, do please bring it along. 

As noted above - if you want to reserve accommodation at the YSS you
must contact Allan Richardson. CSG has block-booked but there are only a
limited number of places. Don't for get to bring food - or go to the
pub. Tell Wookey (mailto:wookey at wookware.org) if you want training, or
have ideas for things to do, or will bring stuff to play with.

Contacts
--------
Symposium Lecture Secretary, Mike Bedford
mailto:tech-sym at bcra.org.uk

On-site facilities and accommodation, Allan Richardson
mailto:a.richardson at bcra.org.uk; mailto:tech-sym at bcra.org.uk

CSG field meeting enquiries, Wookey 
mailto:wookey at wookware.org

URLs
----
BCRA News Forum http://bcra.org.uk/forum
BCRA Notices List http://list.bcra.org.uk

-- 
David Gibson