[Paddlewise] FW: Garmin GPS 12 and Chart

I haven't tried any of the software in the message, but for a trip to
Lake Superior's Apostle Islands on Memorial Day weekend, I did use the
Topo! map program to obtain coordinates that I manually programmed into
my Garmin GPS 12XL. For this test I set waypoints for the put-in at
Little Sand Bay, our campsite on Sand Island, and prominent points
around Sand Island, which averaged about 1.7 miles between waypoints.
On Sand Island, I used these waypoints to create a route around the
island. Despite having rounded off the waypoint coordinates to the
nearest second, I received an "Approaching waypoint" message as I
approached within a hundred yards or so of each point, which is close
enough for me.

Wildflower Productions (http://www.topo.com/) is working on a plug-in
for Topo! that will allow the user to transfer data between Topo! and
the user's GPS unit. I volunteered to be a beta tester, but last I
heard, they aren't that far enough along yet. Until then, coordinates
must be transferred manually, which is extremely tedious.

I have read that the Garmin software is not worth getting, since there
is a lot of good shareware out there that works better. The data cable
can be ordered from West Marine
(http://www.iwol.com/iww/customers/westmarine/) for about $27. West
Marine also carries waterproof pouches for hand-held GPS units. For
reviews of GPS software see Peter Bennet's GPS Web page at
http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter/. (Although I have downloaded
software from Peter's site, I haven't had time to load it onto my
computer yet.)

Chuck Holst

 -----Original Message-----
From: Doug Barnard [mailto:dbarnard_at_virtualacreage.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 1998 12:47 PM
To: paddlewise
Subject: [Paddlewise] Garmin GPS 12 and Chart Vi


Has anyone tried out this combo? It seems like a great way to plan a trip
ahead of time at home on your computer, then upload the waypoints to your
NMEA 0183-compliant GPS. When you get back, you can download your track
from the GPS and see exactly where you've been. The cheapy version,
"Planner" would be great for kayakers; the "Tracker" software can show   you
your position on a chart in real time if you have your computer along.

Defender Industries has some good prices http://www.defenderus.com
Planner- $99
Garmin GPS 12- $139.75
Data Cable- $21.50
NOAA/BBA CDROM charts- $179.95 each (contains 30-80 charts, a typical CD
covers So. Cal. from Pt. Conception to Ensenada)

Garmin has this kit that they sell that includes software and cable for
$99. Maybe the Chart View software has what it needs to communicate with
the GPS.

Anyone got a good GPS that they want to sell?



________________________________________________________________
Doug Barnard                                   Virtual Acreage
Agoura, California (near L.A.)        Visualization in 2D/3D/4D
http://virtualacreage.com                    818-991-9328
                                            

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