GPS ....Yes Again!

“I have been looking at GPS units and my local Target has the Etrex Basic unit for $119....but I think I would like to have the Electronic Compass + Barometric Altimeter are they worth the extra $100 dollars???

"Now, for a limited time purchase a mountain-wise eTrex Summit and get a $50 rebate from Garmin. Follow the link below for more rebate information.

Palm-size tool for the serious mountaineer, this handy tool combines a full-featured GPS with an accurate altimeter and electronic compass
The electronic compass provides your current bearing; declination adjustment-auto compensating
Picture compass displays broken down into 5 or 6 degree increments
The precise altimeter states your current altitude, as well as your rate of ascent
Sleek in design and similar in size to many compasses, yet the display window is as large as most full-size units
Operational buttons are located along the side for easy 1-hand operation
Track up to 20 routes, marking up to 50 waypoints on each
Find your way back with Garmin's exclusive TracBack™ feature
Store up to 500 waypoints with names, elevation or graphic icons
Summit maintains tight satellite-lock, even through dense forest, by continuously tracking up to 12 satellites
Weatherproof case is completely waterproof to withstand full immersion in a meter of water for 30 minutes "”

“Where's the link? I've been eyeing the Summit!”

“I just bought a Magellan Meridian Platinum, their top of the line, from this outfit for $256.00 complete, including shipping....this normally goes for around $300.00 to $400.00
Harmony computers
I checked all the Geocaching sites and forums and found the place offers good service and quick delivery...

I found a Garmin Etrex Summit here for around $219.00

Have fun.....”

“Ooops that should be.....Harmony
If that dosent work you will have to resort to clicking on the correct link on their page....I'm too tired to keep messen with HTML.....”

“The barometric altimiter and electronic compass features are overrated.

The Altimeter function is a decent altimeter but it needs to be calibrated each time you use it either by setting the barometric pressure (get that from NOAA weather radio)or going to a known benchmark altitude and setting the unit. There is no way for the unit itself to track drift in altitudr due to shifts in barometric pressure (fronts moving in and out). All the E-trex units will give you an altitude reading based on sattalite position fix.

The electronic compass is a joke. It can be effected by radio interference as well as magnetic. the over adduracy of the compass featuer is 5deg+-. a $10.00 Suunto ranger will give you 2deg+- with a little practice. Again, all E-trex units will orient themselves to North once you begin moving and establish a track (usually 10 to 20 feet of travel is all that is necessary).

If you want to spend a few extra $$ and want a more powerful unit that the base E-trex look at the E-Trex Legend. More memory, better graphincs on the screen, icon driven, simple to operate, downloaded map capable (from Garmin Mapsource software only, though). Dollar for Dollar it is Garmin's best bet. I have a Legend and use it in conjunction with National Geographic Topo software, great system.....”

“I gotta learn to type...sorry..”

“One more shot

This should be just the ad....”

“Just to stir it up a bit........

The Magellan Sport Track Pro has been recently tested by this outfit Test and shown to be the most accurate one to date.

This page has more information on GPS's then most folks want to know...a great resource.

Both Garmin and Magellan make good products....each has it's own following.”

“It's the fall season for geocaching! Trees losing leaves, so you can keep your signal!!!”

“I'd, imo, get a GPS with more beef. I'm sure once you get the feel of the Etrex Basic, snd see what other GPSs have to offer, you'll think the same thing.”

“I have a watch with a barometric altimeter. I love it. Yes it has to be reset to be accurate. I can do that from a topo or just zero it out from where I start. All I really care about is how far up or down I move from a particular spot not my elevation from sea level.

The electronic compass is not as accurate as I would like. The precision is just not as good as a conventional compass.

I would still get the Summit. More gadgets for play with!”

“Pineneedles that was a quote from the REI website about the $50 rebate and the features of the Summit. Reg price at REI is $250...so if and when you get your rebate check it would be $200 even, not a bad price.”

“Bacpac said, "All I really care about is how far up or down I move from a particular spot not my elevation from sea level."

But how does this help you other than giving you how far up you've climbed? The advantage of an altimeter is to be able to use it in reference to the topo. I guess you could do the math but why not just zero it out to sea level?

I guess you don't have to sweat it with a state highpoint of 2,000 feet...

Has anyone seen the little clip-on altimieter I've seen advertised in BPer? Can't remember who makes it but I'm thinking about picking it up. While GPS are a cool toy, I still prefer a map.”

“I personally don't care for the e-trex series. In my mind they're kind of like the Macintosh computer. Sacraficing power and fuction for user friendliness. I've got a GPS 12XL, which is back from the day before maps, and it does all I need it to do. If I were to get a new one, it would probably be the GPS 5 or the GPSmap 76 just for the sake of the WAAS reciever and larger memory. Half the usefullness of a GPS comes from knowing how to use it. If you only use it to find your location on a map and go to a waypoint someone told you the coordinates of, then you're seriously missing out.”

“Wind Walker, I've had both the Garmin 12 and the Summit. Both are great. Just as Big Wave Dave stated, the electronic compass is of little use. In fact, I doubt if I've had the compass activated more than a handful of times. Barometric pressure shifts can be useful, especially in the mountains where weather can move in very quickly. all units have an altimeter.

What I do like about the Summit, and why I have one, is the elevation profile it keeps. Here in Montana where the majority of our hikes are major elevation gains and loses it's a feature I use a lot. It's compatible with National Geographic's TOPO software as well.

That being said, if you don't need the elevation profile, go with the Legend or Vista.

Note on accuracy, I can't see how one unit is anymore accurate than another. Accuracy is determined by sattelite reception not the unit. They all have the capability of locking unto 12 satelites. The new WAAS feature is more accurate than the older technology but that's available in most high end units.

No matter which unit you purchase, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.”

“Back to spelling class. I used the word "satellite" twice and spelled it different, and wrong, both times.”

“Both the Summit and the Legend are both WAAS compatible. I have used the WAAS setting a couple of times with my Legend. It did put me SPOT ON to my target but the satellite acquisition time was much longer. It's good to have if you need that kind of accuracy but I don't use it all the time.”

“Dave, It it the Legend with the street maps and if so, how do you like it and how is the detail?”

“The Legend come with a National and World basemap of major interstate highways and National maps of state highways adn major roads. It also had a database of all exits in the US interstate highway system. We drove from Salt Lake to Chicago last year and could easily locate what services were at upcoming exits (resturants, gas stations, hotels etc). You can purchase additional maps from garmin via their MapSource CD ROM software packages to download onto your unit. You can choose from a few different titles, TOPO is just what you would think, Road and Rec is detail of all major national parks and recrestion areas, Lighthouse and bouy is primarily costal marine navigation, etc.

The resolution on the screen is ok but very small. For street navigation (Metroguide software package) it would be good, but for backcountry usage I still prefer a paper map, good compass, and plotting tool used in conjunction with my GPS.

I do use the National Geographic TOPO software with my Legend. I can go into the software, plot my route and save it as a route or waypoint file, download that file into the Legend, print a paper map of the route and just go. The entire process takes 5 minutes.

The system works in revers also. I can go out, save a track or series of waypoints in the field, upload that to the NG software and plot that on a map to see exactly where I was. Handy if you are sending someone else into the area.”

“Thanks BWD”

“Hey Geezr, have you been playing with TOPO in combo with your GPS yet? Do you have a cable yet? Haven't had any tech support calls lately....”

“Hombre, no cable yet. Spent my allowance for the next six months on a Golite Trek pack. Might get it prior to the Canyonlands/Zion hike. I have a ton of waypoints to enter and hate the thought of doing it manually. I figure if I pout and whine enough Weezr will crack under the pressure.

Have I mentioned to you and SnowDude just how much I love TOPO?

I did have a question come up while my tech support was out of town but for the life of me I can't remember what is was. I'll bump my head in the next day or so and I'll recall.”

“Just tell Weezr that a $38 investment in this will give you hours of free time to do stuff like cook, clean, wash dishes, take her to movies, etc. Otherwise, you'll be forced to sit in front of the computer, read the waypoints off of TOPO, and enter them into the GPS.”

“I got my cable off e-bay for $8. However, I have yet to spend $100 on the damn software to download waypoints...”

“I use TopoZone to get waypoint info if I need it before hikes, such as the Roaring Plains hike.

Click on the spot on the TopoZone map you want to waypoint on your GPS, and just above the TopoZone map will be written the coordinates for the crosshairs of that spot you clicked on. Create a waypoint in your GPS then change the coordinates of that waypoint to correspond with what the TopoZone map's coordinates are. There, you created a waypoint.”

“Right. I've considered it before but I guess I'm just too lazy. I'd like to enter about 50 waypoints for a route, like all the peaks, rivers, lakes, etc. wherever I'll be hiking. BUt maybe I'll just enter some of the key ones if I have time before my next hike.

Someone want to sell me a pirated copy of Topo for CA??”

“Buddur, that's basically how we do it now, but with the cable and TOPO once you click on the coordinates it downloads them directly into the GPS. No need to enter numbers at all. No Muss No Fuss”

“10 CDs how's $89.95 sound?

The price of that stupid cable is ridiculous....cheapest I've found it is $29.95.”

“What Map Datum/Format do you guys use?”

“Geezr,
here's what I had to do to get a cable, my wife wouldn't let me buy a cable either.
http://www.lexicon.net/firstwaypoint/gps/datacable.htm”

“I primarily work in WGS84 as a datum. It seems to be fairly universal for my neck of the woods. Also the Mountain Search and Rescue teams use WGS84 in this area, so it's good to speak their same language.”

“just a tip, look at the bottom of your map. If it's a survey map it will say which coodinate system it uses. 9 times out of 10 your GPS will read that grid. Just set it in the options.”

“YOU CAN FIND THE CABLE ON EBAY. I GOT ONE FOR $8.

Anyway, Wind Walker, $89.95 is no bargain :) Wanna split it?

I'd give someone $30 tho, and supply the CDs...”

“Roseymonster....got that cable off of ebay for 10.95 ( buy now price)

Thanks!

Topo! California must have some sort of copy protection on the CD I couldn't dupe it :(”

“You could try using a Sharpe to blacken the outer rim of the CD. This has been an effective way to get around the high tech protection. It might work with Topo!”

“This is what I'm talking about. Worth a try?

CD Crack: Magic Marker Indeed”

“Never mark your plant locations incase The Man catches up with you.”

“White House releases GPS upgrades
By Jeffrey Silva
Jan 25, 2006
WASHINGTON-The Bush administration today announced the availability of new Global Positioning System capabilities, accuracy and reliability upgrades that are expected to benefit cell phone communications and strengthen the U.S.' technological leadership position. The move comes as Europe inches closer to launching its own satellite-based navigation system.
"The new signal-known as 'L2C-was specifically designed with commercial needs in mind," said Deputy Commerce Secretary David Sampson in remarks prepared for delivery at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce press event this morning. "For example, it is transmitted with a higher effective power, so GPS receivers work better in urban areas and indoors. And it requires less energy to receive the signal, an important feature for battery-powered devices such as mobile phones."
Officials from Lucent Technologies Inc., IBM Corp., General Motors Corp.-which owns telematics provider Onstar Corp., Trimble Navigation Ltd., Lockheed Martin Corp. and other companies participated in the U.S. Chamber program.

Earlier this month, a European satellite began transmitting the first Galileo signals from medium earth orbit. The signals are for location positioning.

The European Space Agency said Galileo will be Europe's very own global navigation satellite system, providing a highly accurate and guaranteed positioning service under civilian control. It's expected to be interoperable with the two other systems: the U.S. Global Positioning System and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite.

The U.S. GPS system was developed by the Pentagon for military applications, but the Clinton and Bush administrations have embraced policies fostering greater civilian and commercial use of the technology.”

“so I now have GPS on my laptop. LOL I know you probably are way ahead of me on that, but woah...this is cool. I can't get lost. Well, I could drive into the river or do something stupid, but it's pretty damn cool.

I don't have a GPS for the trail. Didnt' like them too much. Call me weird. :(

dammmmit, i hate when I make stupider then usual mistakes. ;)
last edited: 3/09/06 9:11:59 AM”

“I am putting a Street GPS on my Dell Axim...but I also use GPS for hiking and kayaking”

“GPS and laptop is way cool for driving. I never leave home without it.

Road trip!!!”

“GPS and laptop is way cool for driving. I never leave home without it.

Road trip!!!”