I spoke with the "expert" at kestrel's customer service today and told him what I'm trying to do. Here is what I learned:
1. When I'm on the baro screen and set altitude reference to "0" on the baro screen, the altitude (on the altitude screen) is TOTALLY worthless and doesn't mean anything.
2. When I'm on the altitude screen and set the baro reference to the correct reading from the baro screen, it varies from showing that I'm either 5' above sea level, to 15 feet below sea level...but it isn't important.
3. If I'm trying to use the elevation screen and calibrate it to the baro screen, the standard acceptable variance on the elevation is +/- 25 feet. But this isn't important as I want to use Density altitude anyhow.
4. When I asked about the calibration screen, I was told don't worry about it, or mess with it. There is also a humidity calibration screen in the same area, and to calibrate that, I would need to buy a kit costing around $97.00. Because I'm going to use density altitude, it isn't important.
I have the Exbal ballistic program entered into a palm pilot for field use. I asked how to sync the exbal program with the Kestrel, using the density altitude...the expert couldn't help me there. For those who aren't familiar with Exbal, it asks me to either enter humidity, temperature, altitude, baro pressure, or there is a little box I can check that says "calculate std pressure". (This is under the field data screen.) Under sight in data, it asks for velocity, altitude, temp, pressure, humidity, and there are two boxes to choose "calculate std pressure", or "use field conditions".
When I try using the "calculate std pressure" box, I can enter zeros in everything but velocity and pressure. If I try to enter zero for pressure, the system shows a screen that says I must enter a value between 28-32.
So, I'm good with the density altitude and temperature on the Kestrel, but am wondering which is the best data to enter into the various screens on the Exbal program on order to get it to work with density altitude?
I'm genuinely thankful for the patience and help of Lowlight, Farmerbrown and others as I adjust to a different system. Any assistance coordinating the Exbal with density altitude will be much appreciated.