I've been keeping an eye on Grove and Wantage for a while now, and updating seems to have ground to a halt.

As I happened to be in Grove on Sunday, with an afternoon of prime mapping time to spare, I thought I'd go for the relatively easy-to-map northern edge. Added Steptoe Close (where I used to live, a long long time ago), North Drive (where I used to go to school), Wick Green, Station Road and Westbrook, plus tagged a few post boxes, phone box, etc. There's a lot still missing round here, a new housing estate off the Denchworth Road (which I've just noticed isn't tagged, I'll fix that in a moment :-) There are also areas of village green near the brook, not to mention a network of footpaths heading out to the north.

Can't make it back there for a few weeks, anyone willing to fill in some more gaps?

This weekend and last's mapping has completed about 80% of Steventon, there are a few missing residential streets, and the footpaths to the East need adding, where they join to Milton. The Steventon Copse area also needs attention, as does The Green, which has some footpaths that need adding. I think there's a big new development somewhere to the North that also needs investigating.

There are some unusual raised cobbled 'causeway' footpaths through the village, as well as a network of tiny streams, all running right alongside the roads. I think these are pretty well impossible to map, it would certainly be quite time-consuming, especially separating out the GPS traces for path - road - stream. Plus the streams keep disappearing under streets, through culverts, etc. Could be a project to come back to when some other areas are done - this sort of refinement is very time-consuming for little practical value.

Just bought one of these on Ebay for UKP 35 + P&P (it's probably possible to get it cheaper by careful bidding, this was a buy-it-now price).

The device logs data to internal memory, as well as providing Bluetooth connectivity for external devices. There is a single button on the front which logs a waypoint, and a dual mode switch for Bluetooth only / Bluetooth + logging.

The software supplied with the device isn't very useful, but a quick internet search revealed the excellent (and free) BT747 software (for both the PC and my mobile (Sony K800i)) which allows advanced configuration. I'm only interested in lat and long, not elevation, speed, etc, and I'm logging HDOP (which JOSM will display in the GPX trace). The version for mobiles allows me to monitor satellites, as well as recording waypoints and change the device's configuration, reset it, etc.

I've been experimenting with using it in tandem with my Etrex Venture Cx, which being the older, lower sensitivity receiver, I've been having to take multiple readings for many paths. Dual GPS receivers should help with getting more accurate readings and save a bit of flogging up and down.

All in all, the is a very cheap way of logging reasonable quality data - the addition of Bluetooth allows external monitoring and configuration, and you can extract the data later on a PC (or even on the go from the mobile).

I was planning to wait until the winter, when the leaves were off the trees, but as I'm in often in these woods, thought I'd give it a go. To my surprise, my GPS seemed quite happy under quite dense tree cover - its a Garmin Venture Cx, so not even a 'high sensitivity' receiver. Was getting between 20 and 30 foot accuracy, which whilst not ideal, is okay after multiple readings (and I'm in these woods a lot!).

Compare this with the weekend, when I was trying to map some footpaths around East Hendred, when the wretched GPS wouldn't get a decent fix at all -- it had 5 satellites, but only reported 150 foot accuracy (useless). At its best, this unit reports 6-foot accuracy, which is great - but you do need open skies. I guess the time of day I was mapping at had poor satellite coverage. I wasn't even under any real trees, just the odd hedgerow.

Began work this weekend on surveying West Hendred, plus the very many footpaths that connect it to East Hendred. Sorting out the designation of the footpaths is a real pain, as the signs seem to contradict themselves, with different signs at each end of a path (I'm assuming they change designation half way along, often at other paths, though the next set of signs is often missing).

It's also frustrating how many footpaths are next to or completely impassable -- missing styles, nettles, brambles, etc. I guess these are rarely used!

Next step is to start heading from West Hendred to Ardington, and up and back to the Ridgeway, filling in a mesh of footpaths that exist. A couple of streets also are missing from West Hendred, but it was getting hot!

The rendering of tracks seems distinctly imperfect to me -- especially if there is a footpath or bridleway on the track. To me, a track means a wide, non-paved lane, wide enough to get a vehicle down. These, in the UK, often have Public Footpaths, or bridleways (or are restricted byways) on them. Tagging combinations never seem to achieve the 'right' result, which would be a thin, but 'road like' line, having width, with the dotted footpath / bridleway designation on it. "Highway=track; foot=yes" doesn't seem right, because it won't indicate that it's a Public Footpath properly; however, "highway=footway; foot=yes" doesn't indicate that it's a track / wide path.

I'm starting to notice more and more street signs whilst driving, that I never saw before, also a lot of roundabouts in the UK seem to have names, that aren't on the map -- need to investigate the best ways to name these.

Phew, several hours of mapping over several Saturday afternoons has resulted in a pretty much complete and detailed map of East Hendred. Now it's a matter of filling in the various outlying footpaths that connect it with West Hendred, Steventon, Rowstock and the Downs.

Meanwhile, I've added a lot of data into the High Street in Sutton Courtenay (where I live), and am now expanding out towards Milton and Steventon from that direction.

I'm also often around Ipsden, and there are lots of unmapped footpaths around there too, but most of them are in dense woodlands, where my GPS doesn't work accurately (if at all) -- I'll have to wait for winter when there are no leaves to get good enough logs.

Spent Saturday afternoon completing the remaining streets and internal footpaths in East Hendred - still a few things to sort out, particularly the street names around Ford Lane, Fordy Lane and The Lynch. There is also a problem around St Mary's Road, the street layout from GPS looks wrong.

There are still a few features to add to the central area, plus a lot of missing footpaths on the outskirts and between East and West Hendred.

Just returned from a couple of weeks in North Norfolk -- lots of missing map info up there, round Holme-Next-the-Sea. Managed to fill in some gaps from GPS surveying, but needs NPE map fill-ins.

Spent a couple of hours Saturday walking round the top half of East Hendred, getting accurate GPS readings (GPS recording around 10ft accuracy). Added these to the previously very sketchy East Hendred map. Plan to do the remainder of East Hendred when I next get there in a few weeks time.