GPS

Okay, you guys are going to laugh at me for being a spaz, but it's okay, I'm getting used to it now. I dropped my GPS in the drink over at Catalina and discovered that it does not float. I tried all sorts of dumb things to get it back, even diving to it - but it was deeper than it looked, and COLD!! I made it home just fine with my compass and charts despite the fog that was taunting me. In searching for a worthy replacement, I've found this Garmin GPSMAP 76S <https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=161&pID=183> [I hope I made that link right] and it floats, but it's little brother, the 76 without an S got slightly better reviews on Amazon. I realised that for the best reviews of all, I should just ask you guys for your recommendations. So; what do you guys recommend in the way of GPS thingers? ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

I have had a GPS76 for about four years. I bought it off ebay for about $250. It works great and is simple to use. I also bought the bicycle handle bar mount to attach it on my binnacle support post and wired it to my house battery. You'll like it. I finally decided to upgrade and bought a GPS276C (chart plotter) and a Garmin Bluechart card for it, although I still use the GPS76 more often than not. Michael Duvall s/v Magic, Cal 2-27 Pompano Beach, FL Lord Nougat <lo… [at] yahoo.com> wrote: Okay, you guys are going to laugh at me for being a spaz, but it's okay, I'm getting used to it now. I dropped my GPS in the drink over at Catalina and discovered that it does not float. I tried all sorts of dumb things to get it back, even diving to it - but it was deeper than it looked, and COLD!! I made it home just fine with my compass and charts despite the fog that was taunting me. In searching for a worthy replacement, I've found this Garmin GPSMAP 76S <https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=161&pID=183> [I hope I made that link right] and it floats, but it's little brother, the 76 without an S got slightly better reviews on Amazon. I realised that for the best reviews of all, I should just ask you guys for your recommendations. So; what do you guys recommend in the way of GPS thingers? --------------------------------- Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

I have a small Garmin Handheld that I use as a back up. My primary is a Garmin GPS Wristwatch. Though it does not have mapping features, I find that it has everything else that I need. In fact, it is just the coolest liitle gadget that I have bought in years. I bought one for myself for Xmas and received one as a gift. So...if anyone is interested I'll sell it for $120.00. Check it out on the Web and save yourself $40.00. It's a Garmin Foretrex 201, not a Forterunner. Bill

My 2 cents, I just retired my old garmin gps 38 -thats right, stop laughing -a gps 38. Thing still works fine but take 30-45minutes to aquire and chews thru 4 AA's in about 4 hrs. I bought a Garmin GPS 76CsX on-line and have been very happy with it. So much faster than the old one, and 2 AA's last forever. My only complaint is the 4-way button for the cursor is too close to the other function buttons so you can get a lot of mis-key issues. Oh-and it floats! Frank Cal31 ----- Original Message ----- From: Lord Nougat To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 9:39 PM Subject: [Cal_Boats] GPS Okay, you guys are going to laugh at me for being a spaz, but it's okay, I'm getting used to it now. I dropped my GPS in the drink over at Catalina and discovered that it does not float. I tried all sorts of dumb things to get it back, even diving to it - but it was deeper than it looked, and COLD!! I made it home just fine with my compass and charts despite the fog that was taunting me. In searching for a worthy replacement, I've found this Garmin GPSMAP 76S <https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=161&pID=183> [I hope I made that link right] and it floats, but it's little brother, the 76 without an S got slightly better reviews on Amazon. I realised that for the best reviews of all, I should just ask you guys for your recommendations. So; what do you guys recommend in the way of GPS thingers? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

I've been looking at the GPS's and Chartplotters out on the market and get more, rather than less, confused the more I see. It seems alot of them come with street maps and you have to spend extra $$$ to get the nautical charts? I've had a PDA for years, so I'm sensitive to the screen you can't see in direct sunlight, or in low light, depending on the model. But you really can't tell that sort of stuff looking online (obviously) or under the fluorescent lighting in a store. Not only that, I've developed 'accordion eyes', and don't want something mounted that I can't see. Most folks I know swear by Garmin. Is that the only one to seriously consider?

--- In Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com, "amracel" <amracel@...> wrote: > > I've been looking at the GPS's and Chartplotters out on the market and > get more, rather than less, confused the more I see. > > It seems alot of them come with street maps and you have to spend > extra $$$ to get the nautical charts? > > I've had a PDA for years, so I'm sensitive to the screen you can't see > in direct sunlight, or in low light, depending on the model. But you > really can't tell that sort of stuff looking online (obviously) or > under the fluorescent lighting in a store. Not only that, I've > developed 'accordion eyes', and don't want something mounted that I > can't see. > > Most folks I know swear by Garmin. Is that the only one to seriously > consider? I have the Garmin 276C which I bought at a discount. Timm Lessley has a similar model but with a lot more capability for plotting long distance races, etc. I mounted it below decks and above the chart table/ice chest, out of the sun. We had a little trouble with the 12 volt power cords, getting two bad ones before we finally got one that worked correctly. I bought the chart set for the southern California area and installed it via a PC. At that time Garmin did not work with Macs. I think that may have changed. Navigation here is less critical than in some areas where shallow channels and so forth may make a topside mount more important. We're satisfied with it so far except for the power cord problem, which is now solved. Mike Kennedy Conquest Cal 40 # 96 >

There are a number of ways to go, I'll arbitrarily make two divisions. 1. A GPS receiver - hooked up to a laptop 2. A GPS that also tries to be a "standalone" Chart plotter. My preference is #1. The GPS signal is sent to the laptop, where I have a chart plotting module that overlays weather, currents, charts, radar, AIS, ship instruments and routing on the laptop. The GPS is connected to the instrument system, so I not only get position, but can also record and track all instruments to graph trends, and display calculated data on my instruments. Laptops are quite powerful, and complex operations are handled easily using a command structure I'm familiar with. I can easily move around and see what's going on. Zooming and looking at charts on a 14" screen is useful when you' re tired, and I already had a laptop...so I got all these features for a limited investment.. just the GPS antenna and the charting software that I use anyway. This system runs off a Garmin 76 ($100), Mighty mouse amplified antenna ($40), My laptop ($400), and numerous software packages, Nobletec (older $300), MaxSea (older $400), Expedition (Main software $1000), Nexus (Free), and charts (Softcharts $180, C-Map $200, Passport $189), NOAA (Free)). For a simple system, look for charting software that will read the free NOAA raster and/or vector charts. The second option is probably more used.. When I was on Mike Kennedy's Conquest, I brought along my "back-up" Garmin 478 ($1000) w/ XM radio antenna (@$150 + $50/month). While a bit clumsier to use, this unit does amazing things, like "real-time" weather, Nexrad radar shots, Marine Weather Forecasts, and of course @100 radio stations. It was really nice to be offshore, and look at a Nexrad radar to see the weather coming towards us... Unfortunately XM forecasts are limited to the broadcast range, maybe 50-100 miles offshore. This Garmin unit came with both Coastal marine and city charts. So a bit of everything is out there, just depends on your budget, how much you use it, and the growth path you want to follow. Cheers, dEmO. From: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com [mailto:Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of mtkennedy1 Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:40 AM To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Subject: [Cal_Boats] Re: GPS --- In Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com <mailto:Cal_Boats%40yahoogroups.com> , "amracel" <amracel@...> wrote: > > I've been looking at the GPS's and Chartplotters out on the market and > get more, rather than less, confused the more I see. > > It seems alot of them come with street maps and you have to spend > extra $$$ to get the nautical charts? > > I've had a PDA for years, so I'm sensitive to the screen you can't see > in direct sunlight, or in low light, depending on the model. But you > really can't tell that sort of stuff looking online (obviously) or > under the fluorescent lighting in a store. Not only that, I've > developed 'accordion eyes', and don't want something mounted that I > can't see. > > Most folks I know swear by Garmin. Is that the only one to seriously > consider? I have the Garmin 276C which I bought at a discount. Timm Lessley has a similar model but with a lot more capability for plotting long distance races, etc. I mounted it below decks and above the chart table/ice chest, out of the sun. We had a little trouble with the 12 volt power cords, getting two bad ones before we finally got one that worked correctly. I bought the chart set for the southern California area and installed it via a PC. At that time Garmin did not work with Macs. I think that may have changed. Navigation here is less critical than in some areas where shallow channels and so forth may make a topside mount more important. We're satisfied with it so far except for the power cord problem, which is now solved. Mike Kennedy Conquest Cal 40 # 96 >

On Wednesday 27 February 2008 02:11:48 am ti… [at] ch2m.com wrote: > There are a number of ways to go, I'll arbitrarily make two divisions. <snip all good stuff for brevity> > So a bit of everything is out there, just depends on your budget, how > much you use it, and the growth path you want to follow. Thanks for an excellent breakdown as Im currently going through the same exercise. The only other factor I would throw into the statement above is, "and where your intending to cruise" as both sirius and XM have a "limited" coverage range. While its huge it is limited so weather fax (several formats available) may be a needed or desired option. GPS works everywhere, no issues on that front. The other factor is cost, coverage and accuracy of charts. Thats a whole nother matter. If you coastal sailing the breakdown is dead accurate however IMHO. Many thanks /ch