Ot Bought A New Toy Yesterday

[Normspeed]

That's the same light I have. I got it as a gift last Christmas.

[BobT-47P15]

Anyone remember these old carbide lights?? They used them around here in the lead and zinc mines.

Or the coal oil lamp??

Or just rub this lamp and the genie will come out to tell you where you are. Dont need no gps with this.

[Normspeed]

We had a carbide lamp that we used for night fishing when I was a kid.

[Reg Evans]

Here's a question for you guys with a Garmin GPS street pilot. Will these show and tell you where you are in a large lake or reservoir or even in the 1000 miles of the California Delta network. My wife Lisa and I just got back from a 4 day scenic driving trip. My wife is the designated Navigator but has a tough time reading maps and likes to rely on her intuition 50/50. So we are sort of lost 1/2 the time but keep telling ourselves it doesn't matter. We are sight seeing. It's all good until we discover we just drove by that place an hour ago.

On our way home from this trip I told her I was going to get her one of these Gadgets for her Birthday which is coming right up. She said OK so I'm in the market for one but I thought it would be great to have one we can use on the boat in inland waterways and large lakes as well as on the road.

[bob_amos]

Don't have one, don't want one. When I am late getting home my excuse is "I was lost". My wife knows me well and believe it. If I had one of those my favourite excuse would no longer be of any use.

[TodFitch]

The hand held units are pretty neat. I have a low end model I use for hiking, camping, back country skiing, etc. For me the item that drove selection was battery life rather than map features and the low end model worked out best. Down load the intended waypoints from the computer before driving to the trail head, set a waypoint at your car when you put your pack on (so you can get back there) and you are in pretty good shape.

However the batteries don't last forever and deep canyons or wet trees leaves overhead will degrade performance. So it is best to have a old fashioned map and compass. I also like to carry an altimeter too. Usually the map, compass and altimeter stay buried in the pack and I go by the GPS but redundancy in systems is safety.

The serial cable on the GPS unit can also be used with the map software on the laptop to do a "moving map" display for highway use. I used that in my old 1991 Jeep from time to time. The 2004 Prius has its own GPS and map software so I have not bothered to run the hand held and lap top in the new car.

I have found that the chicken wire and fabric roof on the 1933 is transparent enough to the RF spectrum used by the GPS that I can use the hand held in that car without having it near a window. That makes it really easy to do things like check the calibration of the speedometer and odometer. At the moment I don't have a way to charge the laptop off the 6v electrical system so if I want to set up the mapping software for use while driving I am limited to about two hours of operation.

[David Maxwell]

I not only have a great GPS system on my laptop computer (don't go anywhere without it), but I also have Google Earth. Now, I can not only get all the info Pete talked about, but I can actually see the all the terrain and the destination before I get there. This really helped more than I can tell you last June. I was going to Ft. Worth for a family reunion. All the paper maps we were given (from the hotel, rental car agency etc) were WRONG!!! They had incorrect street names etc. Fortunately, I had the photo I downloaded from Google Earth and we could clearly see a building in the photo which confirmed we were in the right location heading the right direction. If I had brought the GPS attachment to my laptop, I wouldn't have really needed the photo, but I forgot it and therefore the photo was a god-send. Another cool thing you can do with Google Earth is (for areas with USGS data) change your angle of view and literally fly around the terrain. If you haven't don this, I highly recommend you go to Google.com and choose their "More" > "Even More" > "Earth" selections. Then dowload Google Earth and take the tour of the Grand Canyon. It will blow your mind!!

[D25_Steve]

I tried that grand canyon think... stayed looking flat to me.

[David Maxwell]

...the blue controls at the bottom of the screen or you can use the center wheel of multi-button mouse. I like the wheel on the mouse because it's much easier to control your perspective while you're flying down the canyon. If you push down on the wheel while you move the mouse in any direction, you can dynamically navigate the canyon. Hope that helps.

[De Soto Frank]

A buddy recently got one that has John Cleese's voice in it... make too many wrong turns and you start getting berated in proper Monty Python style...

( "Ah, yes; I'd like an argument?" "No you don't" etc )

Having just succumbed to getting a tracfone ( elderly parents far away drove me to it), I really can't see getting another gadget, and becoming dependent on it...

I've done pretty well by Map-Quest so far; and like to have a "real map" of the areas I'll be travelling in on-board.

A few years ago, I ran across some road-maps of Penna from about 1940... I spent some time studying them, getting an idea of what it was like to drive around this state before the Interstate system...

I was a little surprised that many of the still-existing US-highways and WPA state highways got re-numbered after the interstate system went in... the same roads are still there, but they had different numbers back then...

For example: I-83 that runs between Harrisburg and Baltimore was previously known as US 111... certain parts of present-day I-83 still run on the old right-of-way...

Certain US highways still have their original number: US 1, US 30, US 6...

I think it is more likely that I will get a Hull compass before I go GPS...

[Merle Coggins]

Reg, I have the Garmin GPSMap276C. It is designed for road or sea duty. You can load detail maps on memory cards from different Garmin maping software programs. I use CitySelect North America. There are also Topo maps for off road use, and Blue Chart maps for use on your boat.

I love it. I use it on my motorcycle and in my truck. It does everything a Street Pilot will do in a slightly smaller package, but with the same size screen.

Merle

[Reg Evans]

Thanks Merle,

I'm looking for one with a pretty large screen. I saw one on eBay with a 7" diagonal screen. That seemed to be the largest portable one I found. I might be able to read that one without hunting for the reading glasses. What size screen does yours have?

[Dennis_MN]

I have a Magellan GPS purchased mainly to prove to my wife that I actually know where I am, no need to ask.

However a few weeks back I was driving my newly purchased '49 Dodge Pickup home to Monticello and it seemed to be really pushing it when I was running about 50. I pulled over and went back to my chase pickup and got my GPS and turned it on and used it as a speed-O-meter in the old Dodge. At 50 indicated my GPS was showing about 64. Turns out that there were oversized rear tires causing the dash speedometer to be off. The GPS is a cheap fix and will also help calibrate the new tires when I get them.

I'm thinking of adding a Alternator as a 12v charger so that I can run it off the system instead of AA batteries.

Real guys don't need no steenking directions!

Dennis Sullivan

Monticello, MN

[Merle Coggins]

I'm looking for one with a pretty large screen. I saw one on eBay with a 7" diagonal screen... What size screen does yours have?

Reg,

I don't have mine in the truck today. I just returned from a 12 day motorcycle trip yesterday and I haven't reprogrammed the memory cards with my local maps yet. But according to Garmin's site it has a 3.8" diagonal screen. ( http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap276c/ ) I know a guy that has a Lowrance unit on his bike. It is HUGE compared to mine. Maybe that's what you saw on Ebay. I don't know much about that one, but as far as I know he likes it.

Merle

[Brad Lustig]

Extremely cheap GPS on www.woot.com right now. Probably won't be up there much longer, though. $80 for a Cobra GPS. I can't say that I recommend it, though.

[Reg Evans]

Brad, Look for a PM from me.

Reg

[Don Coatney]

Interesting observation. I left my new toy turned on for the past 5 hours but never moved the vehicle. I have it programed for a trip I will be taking later today. I see that even though I have not moved the vehicle I have averaged 1.3 miles per hour in the past 5 hours going nowhere. Seems the satellites have a bit of slippage in there orbit.

[Reg Evans]

The satellites are ok Don. It's just the tectonic plate movement being tracked by your new toy.