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BCRA Cave Technology Symposium - Update
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The Location is the Hunters Lodge Inn, Priddy, WELLS, BA5 3AR. 
Grid ref: ST 549 501, starting at 10 am on SATURDAY 19 APRIL.

A few quick updates to the message I sent out last week, which you can
read at http://bcra.org.uk/detail/tech2008-2.html

* There is still accommodation available at Wessex Cave Club. 
  Allan Richardson is co-ordinating this

* It has been suggested that, in order to spare you any embarrassment,  
  financial loss, or pain, I might like to remind you all that the use 
  of mobile phones in the bar the Hunters Lodge Inn is expressly not 
  allowed.

* The Cave Surveying Group has drawn up a plan for their field meeting 
  on the Sunday. Activities will include...

    - Surveying Training, both underground and drawing up.
    - Laser surveying (SAP & Bosch)
    - Interfacing the Bosch 'disto' to Shetland Attack Pony
    - Fancy laser scanning kit to play with

The programme
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Doors will open sometime before 10am, I guess.

At 09:45, we'd better have a head-count and see who is present and is
offering to talk, so we can draw up a timetable.

First talk at 10am.

Promises of talks continue to arrive, although they tend to be third or
fourth-hand, without abstracts, so I cannot add them to a programme; I
can only say that it looks like there could be some interesting talks,
depending on how accurate are the rumours that are reaching me. 

The programme so far (not the running order; and assuming everybody
turns up :-) looks like this...

* Kevin Dixon: Laser technology in underground surveying  (Laser 
  scanning, 3D map generation, borehole scanning systems, results for 
  man-made and natural cavities from around the world. Use of other 
  sensor technology, including inertial, gravity etc.).

* David Mattey: CO2 logging in caves (a multichannel CO2 logging system 
  has been collecting data in the St Michaels system in Gibraltar for 
  nearly 2 years, featuring simultaneous CO2 logging at 7 sites in the 
  cave and outside air at hourly intervals).

* David Mattey: Water drip sensors for water discharge measurement in 
  caves.

* Wookey: Review of LED caving lights

* David Gibson: Batteries for the 21st Century. (New developments in 
  NiMH technology has resulted in so-called "hybrid" batteries that 
  present all of the advantages of rechargeables and none of the 
  disadvantages).

* David Gibson: Communications through coal seams. (Coal seam 
  communication relies on geophysical properties that may be shared with 
  other types of tunnel and also with limestone bedding planes).

* Mike Bedford and Rob Gill:  Speech Intelligibility over Noisy Radio 
  Links. (We have assessed the functionality of commercial "noise 
  filters" by scoring the intelligibility of speech using a formal ANSI-
  defined method and found that whilst noise filters do reduce the noise 
  they can also reduce the intelligibility of speech).

* By "popular request" I'll give a repeat of the talk on telemetry that 
  I gave last year.

* A couple of talks on cave surveying / exploration have been "promised"

* A talk on resistivity surveying has been "promised"

* There will also be an opportunity for various "discussion forums", 
  depending on who is present and what the audience requests (home-made 
  CO2 sensors, flashgun slave units ... whatever).

* ... and we hope to show a few videos too.

-- 
David Gibson