Things I Learned: KML, KMZ, and National Forest Boundaries

Today I learned that the National Forest Service will just give you a kmz file containing national forest boundaries. This comes in handy for mapping things like POTA boundaries. Also, if you'd like to modify the boundaries so say they had a brigher border, well, you can, after you unzip the kmz file.

Free Forest Boundaries:

Eight year old Tawnse and I got to play radios in the forests of New Mexico over the last few days, specifically at Villa Nueva State Park and again at Cibola National Forest. The scenery was phonemal and the POTA contacts were ample.

But, sometimes, especially in National Forests, I wonder if I'm actually in the forest. It turns out teh forest service has an answer for that. You can find kmz files containing forest and other interesting boundaries at

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/r3/landmanagement/gis/?cid=stelprdb5201889&width=full

Consequently, I was able to cofirm that yes, I was very well within the forest at the campsite pictured above

The thing is though, the boundaries and overlays were a little low contrast for my taste and my eyesight. That's OK though. Since I learned how to unzip a kmz file, (see the next section), I was able to simply edit the text-based kml to get an overaly that was better suited to me:

For a full view of the QSOs and spots we made from Cibola Nationals Forest, (more to come about our POTA adventures soon.)

Unzipping kmz files:

And now, finally, what to do with a kmz file to be able to edit. If you're on a Windows machine, simply change the .kmz file to .zip and let the file explorer unzip it for you on double click. Then, Open the .kml file you're interested in, make your edits, (as mentioned above), and save it as your very own kml file to use as you see fit.

Anyway:

There's also really nice distributed camping on Rose Cloud Road outside Corona, NM well before you get all the way out to Rose Cloud Campground.

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