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 Post subject: GPS questions
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 7:48 am 
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Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:07 pm
Posts: 148
Location: Henderson
Well I have several ?'s

I have been reading about handheld, and auto gps, boy does Garmin ever have multiple versions.
200, 260 and .......

Which type is the best for using in your offroad vehicle for exploring all the different runs.

I thought about buying a handheld so I could use it on my mountain bike when I am exploring as well, but if I crash there goes some $$$.

I also would like a gps that I could transfer to my Mini for traveling.

It seems like the little handhelds would be to small.

I understand the using of a gps for city driving, but I am confused about when people post images of their exploring by satellite. If you are using a satellite image for exploring a trail how does that exactly work and show up on the LCD.

thanks, Kelly

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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:04 pm 
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Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:50 am
Posts: 76
Location: Las Vegas
I have the 550 garmin and love it you can move it from your jeep to your mini van, but you have to order the offroad chip for trails then if you want a better trail maps you have to order them to you can spend a lot of $ getting maps or if you can get some from people on here

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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 6:18 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 6:19 pm
Posts: 47
Location: N. Las Vegas
I use my Garmin 60csx in the Jeep and on my bike. I've had it for a couple years now and it works great. Very easy to learn to use.

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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:53 am 
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Posts: 174
Location: Winnemucca, NV
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I use a basic Garmin eTrex for recording my trips and for taking with me in the field. No maps, just basic GPS. I've used it to program waypoints or program a route - collectively use a series of waypoints - to guide me over confusing web of trails in country that I've never been in before. It's very handy.

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I also have a Delphi NAV200 navigator. It's like the TomTom, Magellain and Garmin navigators. But it's so smart it's stupid. In the cities, it's up to date and accurate. In the rurals it's a mixed bag - signed and maintained roads not shown, overgrown and reverted back to nature cowpaths shown. You can also use it to aid in navigation, but I seldom use that feature, unless I'm in a city and need to locate an address that I'm not familiar with. And even then it's often not accurate - I've had it bring me to a dead end and it telling me that my destination is another quarter mile out in that cow pasture out there ... :roll:

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~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.


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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 10:35 am 
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Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2005 12:45 pm
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Location: Las Vegas
when I get some extra money, I think I want the Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx:

http://www.gpscity.com/garmin-gpsmap-60csx.html

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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 9:46 am 
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Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:10 pm
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Location: Henderson
I use the Garmin GPSmap 60CSx as well as a Garmin 765. The 765 live updates for traffic etc with a free subscription. I guess when you pay a bit for the Garmins they throw that in. The 60 CSX is just a good hand held GPS. Screens a little small for on road stuff hince the 765. But for mapping trails, Geo Caching etc I love it. Almost went with an Oregon but I am glad I stuck with the old reliable.

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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:08 pm 
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Location: Las Vegas
I think a lot is pesonal preference. I LOVE my Magellan, but a lot prefer the Garmin or Lowrance.

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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:18 pm 
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I've had my Magellan 500 for a few years now. It's perfect accompanyment to topos, and a real compass. For city driving it does what I need. It will point me to the nearest gas station or resturant or peak just as good as something that takes up half the dashboard :o

Got it for it's specific geocaching feature.


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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 1:54 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2009 5:42 pm
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Location: Cookeville, Tennessee
I agree with David on his choice of the Garmin eTrex. For around $99.00 ( $ 81.97 on Amazon ) it gets the job done. I've had more expensive units but they drive me nuts. I have another unit for street navigation that can take me to a Starbucks when needed.

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Last edited by scuba steve on Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 2:14 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:41 pm
Posts: 164
Location: Las Vegas
I have a Lowrance "I Finder Pro" and always turn it on at the beginning of a trail, but forget to save the route. Since this is the only GPS I have ever owned, I can not make any comparisons, but is probably good enough to get me back to civilization, if need be, I hope. :)

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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:10 pm 
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 9:03 pm
Posts: 174
Location: Winnemucca, NV
scuba steve wrote:
I agree with David on his choice of the Garmin eTrex. For around $99.00 it gets the job done. I've had more expensive units but they drive me nuts. I have another unit for street navigation that can take me to a Starbucks when needed.

Steve, you're one of the first defenders of the basic, no frills GPS I've encountered! Nice to know we're still around!

I didn't go into a lot of detail, especilly on the Garmin, because I figured anything I said would go ignored because most eveyone has higher end GPS units. But a bit of personal history:

* For over a decade, I wanted a GPS but couldn't really justify owning one. I did fine for decades on my wits, intuition, maps and research into the locality I wanted to visit before hand.

* In 2007, an online electronics vendor was offering the basic eTrex for just over $90. So I just couldn't resist any longer and I bought one and a case to go with it, coming to a total as delivered price of $111.

* I'd have bought the Garmin windshield mount, but I've found that a 79 cent suction cup with hook from a hardware store does wonders holding the unit upright on trips in the windshield where the GPS gets a good signal.

* The Garmin, as well as with help from a friend who is a scientist and a GPS afficinado since GPS's early days), really aided me in learning the basics of GPS and believe me, just because the eTrex doesn't display a map doesn't mean it's redundant or outdated. It will take you where you want to go, period. And it has a remarkable degree of acuracy.

* I can't download my tracks to my latest computer (laptop), as my computer doesn't have a serial port (Garmin did stubbornly stick with serial port only output until just recently), but I still can get useful data from it as far as distances covered, time, speeds, averages, and more. It will even tell me when sundown or sunset will occur and I notice it changes if I climb in elevation or drop, or go behind a mountain range, so apparently it's not using just a generic formula for generic sunset every day. As for downloading information, I can get a USB cable from Garmin, but they're darn near what a new eTrex costs, so I doubt I'll ever get one (I've been told by some that you can get a cheap serial to USB adaptor, but others have told me you get data errors using that - aftermarket cables and even Garmin's have software in the package to interpret the two types of cable data handling differences). But I still use it to note the coordinates of things that I find in ghost towns, I use it for measuring, elevation, etcetera. I've used the "cookie crumb" feature a few times.

* My Garmin has been reliable as there being dirt on the ground every morning when I get up. A friend of mine, who bought the same unit from another vendor just before I got mine has had issues with his. Some of it was his lack of knowledge, but then it was determined that there was some reliability problems with it. Garmin replaced his unit with a higher end eTrex (ours are now discontinued) and sent along a ton of accesories as a consolation. Now that's good business!

* Using our eTrex's, a friend of mine, who owns a 2000 Toyota Tacoma TRD and I were able to determine his speedometer was about eight miles per hour slow (his truck is stock and he uses stock size tires). My speedometer, as per my eTrex is 1.2 mph slower than indicated speed. My buddy, setting his cruise control at the same speed as I would tell him over the radio I was travelling at, would always fall behind fast. We found our eTrex's would read spot on simultaneously, thus we were able to deduce his speedometer deficite, which he's had a speedo shop re-calibrate (interestingly, the shop uses a GPS to confirm their efforts). I even measured my property when I bought it using my eTrex.

Though my Delphi displays pretty maps that move with me, it's simply another tool in my "toolbox" in the cab of my truck. I have a love/hate relationship with it as its faults are frustrating and it's nowhere near as accurate as the eTrex for speed and altitude. But for real navigation, getting coordinates on things to note, and other tasks, I use my eTrex. It's booted up when I leave my driveway on any exploration, 4x4 or ghost town trip, it doesn't get turned off until the trip is over (well, I do turn it off at night when I camp out ... ).

I view GPS as an aid to navigation in addition to my maps. Take for example the ghost town of Delamar, in Lincoln County. In 1999 I visited the town. I had trepidations as to actually finding it as I had read online a Las Vegas based 4x4 club trying to find Delamar without success (they did find the cemetery, a mile before hitting town) even though they had the coordinates programmed. I surmise that they were so busy looking for Delamar digitally that they missed it visually even though they were very close (you can't see town from the cemetery because of an intervening ridge). I found the town easily with an AAA map. I also found the road freshly graded all the way in and I enjoyed the day exploring the extensive ruins.

And that brings up the point of datum settings on your GPS, a topic in itself. I use NAD27 CONUS setting on my Garmin because that's what topographic maps are based on. When I first got my unit, I left it in default WGS84 mode. Plotting my home coordinates onto my topographic mapping software, my house ended up being a dozen miles west of its true location. But my learning curve continued and I really appreciate raw GPS as a science as well as in actual use.

If you wish to learn the basics of GPS, I'd heartily recommend a basic H model eTrex or equivelent from another manufacturer. It will make you appreciate your high tech GPS units far more.

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~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.


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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:44 am 
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Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2009 5:42 pm
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Location: Cookeville, Tennessee
It's nice to to be familiar with a map and compass. The Benchmark maps are great. Depending solely on a gps can get you in trouble. Maps are much more fun also.

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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:45 am 
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 9:03 pm
Posts: 174
Location: Winnemucca, NV
Decades ago, when I worked for Mono County in June Lake, California, I had one wall of my office covered with a collection of those relief maps that were based upon 100,000:1 series topos. I cut them and fit them together so that they made one large map that stretched all across most of northern and central Nevada and eastern California. During the long winter days, during heavy snowstorms and there wasnt' a lot for me to do in my day to day duties, I'd sit in my desk chair, put my feet up on the desk, have a hot drink at hand and stare at that thing for hours. Plot new trips, get the lay of the land indelibly burned into my brain.

All my travels were marked in blue felt pen, and over the years the blue lines ran everywhere.

Though the relief was exagerated, it gave me a lay of the land that stuck with me, and to this day I can usually go to a new spot I haven't been to before and be able to know the landmarks.

And I do have a Benchmark Nevada atlas, which resides in the seatback pocket of my Tacoma for quick retrieval when I head out somewhere. If I'm alone, the atlas is always open to the appropriate pages on the passenger seat.

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D.A. Wright
~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.


Last edited by David A. Wright on Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:23 pm 
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Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 6:36 pm
Posts: 577
Location: Las Vegas
I also use maps in combination with the GPS. I agree that maps are more fun, but the GPS system is invaluable to determin where you are located on the map at any given time.
Benchmark is my map of choice. I have the entire Southwest series and use them every time I hit the trail. I bring them even if I'm I'm just going over Mormon Well. Probably out of habit, but you never know when you're going to need them.

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 Post subject: Re: GPS questions
PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:28 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:55 am
Posts: 582
Location: Las Vegas
I bought the Garmin Etrex about 5 years ago and use it occasionaly with maps. Also use it to geocache once in a while. Learned map and compass in the Army so this thing was awesome when I bought it ($99). It's a battery hog and not as accurate as one with waas but gets me there. Most importantly it tells me where I am, everything else is bonus. Also got National Geographics Nevada software and the USB cable for it and can store waypoints or routes that way. But thats pushing an etrex to its limit. Thinking about replacing it with something with topo in it and some memory, guess im getting lazy. Ok, I know Im getting lazy, I follow the Jeep in front of me :twisted:

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