Data collection in the field

[exoskeleton]

Hi folks.

I go out with the Shropshire Wildlife Trust doing surveys of various sites around Telford. We generally capture data using the age old (and possibly still the best) method of pencil and paper and then keying into an Excel spreadsheet on a PC. We are considering using a PDA or similar in the field to capture data but trials with entering data into Pocket Excel so far have not been encouraging.

The only thing that might make it worthwhile is if it is possible to capture a Gridref from an attached or built in GPS automatically (it would need to be OS Grid ref.)

Is anybody doing this successfully at present or know of a device/software that might help ?

[Meta menardi]

I am the most gadgety person for things like this, and I use a pencil and a piece of paper, with a GPS to get Grid Refs. Anything else is just too vulnerable to weather/ fiddly/ inflexible and just plain too difficult in my opinion, unless you go for some customised system, then it will be too expensive. Also you can save your data by putting the paper into a device called a file!

[Hobjob]

I'm terrible at recording data etc.. I think all my firends who are good recorders use pen and pencil.

Often use a dictaphone if on an educational outing, and then transcribe when I get home. Very quick in the field. An old tape machine, not MP3 recorder which, in my experience, makes multiple files that need unscrambling.

Camea with GPS input is another qucik method I suspect, but I have no experience of that combo.