Re: UK-biased question about GPS

On Wed, 17 May 2006 11:15:00 +0100, David Collier wrote:

I'd like to take a GPS with me on my Sunday walks.

I assume that if I buy the bottom level GPS I have to "manually" enter a
set of waypoints, which I derive in some manner from my OS map, and it
just watches satellites, and points me towards the next waypoint

Yes, if your bottom-end GPS lacks any form of PC connectivity.

Obviously the best thing in the world would be a colour GPS, compass, etc
which had a walkers map of the Cotswolds in it.

You might think so, but I'm sure if I had such a thing I would spend too
much time looking at the GPS and not enough enjoying the scenery.

Should I write a book of country walks with the downloadable waypoints
available?

Why not? I've had similar thoughts.

I already own an XDA-IIs/PDA2K PocketPC, with a much nicer screen than
I'm likely to get on a GPS... I suppose I could justify buying one of
those battery-powered bluetooth-link GPS bricks. How easy is it to get
the OS maps onto my PDA, and get the PDA to take fixes from the GPS
lump?

Altogether too much kit to lug about, and PDAs tend not to be very
waterproof or rugged. It's all too easy to get your GPS wet, or to drop
it.

thoughts? recommendations?

What I got was a Magellan eXplorist 210 which is a reasonably
well-featured monochrome unit with USB connectivity, and a copy of
Memory-Map's OS 1:50000 Great Britain (from eBay). Around £275
altogether, and it does more or less everything I want. I can plan routes
on the PC, download them into the 210, upload tracks and see exactly where
I've been.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: TR - Expedition (longish)
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  • Re: Garmin topo UK v2
    ... Best software for dedicated GPS data management IMO. ... I use Anquet for general map browsing, study, route planning & measuring ... create the waypoints & routes in Ozi, then save new waypoints and tracks in ... Anquet is also useful for printing out a map of an area for when I'm ...
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    ... but I've never liked the way Anquet handled GPS stuff. ... As far as GPS routes are concerned, I've never liked to have loads of waypoints in a route, just a few key waypoints usually work fine, you don't need to trace every twist and turn in order to produce a route that is easy to follow. ...
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    ... > I didn't know nodes turned into waypoints. ... but I've never liked the way Anquet handled GPS stuff. ... I find the old paths/routes system works fine for route ...
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  • Re: OziExplorer and Datums
    ... > I have waypoints and routes ploted using BlueChart Pacific which I ... > accurate and upload to the GPS rather than using BlueCHart Pacific? ... calibration of the scanned maps. ...
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