rwerning@wi.rr.com wrote:
: What sort of GPS systems do you all use for your Dak's? Debating picking one
: up, but would actually have more use for a hand held one I could take on my
: backpacking trips than a vehicle mounted one.
I have a Garmin Geko 201, which I bought about a year ago. Its a
pretty low-end unit, but it had a great bang for the buck. In the
Dak, I use a laptop with Delorme Street Atlas USA. I can just plug
the Garmin into the serial port. That gives me a much more functional
system in the vehicle than 99% of the dedicated "in-vehicle" GPS
systems, with the sometimes inconvenience of having to find a place to
put the laptop. If I'm travelling alone I just set it on the passenger
seat.
I used to use Delorme's GPS (it came bundled with Street Atlas as a
package), but I never would have bought it if I knew then what I know
now, which is that it is designed to only work with Delorme's software.
Fortunately, it died which inspired me to buy a different unit. The
Geko has a screen which will show tracks and waypoints and such but
doesn't display an actual map on the screen. (it doesn't show roads
or anything like that, so it helps to preload it with known waypoints
and keep a paper map handy for reference.) It has worked fine for the
non-vehicle uses I have put it to such as geocaching, very limited
hiking/kayaking or finding out how fast the airplane I'm riding in
is going. I have also used it for real estate to get approximate
property boundaries, road frontages, etc. Oh, I have also used it
as an impromptu speedometer in the 'cuda since the one in the car
is way off.
I guess wether you need a unit which displays an actual map is
a personal decision, I'm happy with mine which doesn't have the
map since that allows it to be very compact and I don't have a
lot of use for the map feature anyway since the only time I would
really need it is in the car, which is where I have a laptop with
bigger, better maps than any GPS can provide on-screen. :-) If
you already have a handheld computer/PDA of some type, some of them
have software available for them which allow you to plug a GPS into
them. I believe there are some GPS receivers now which will use
bluetooth also. Anyway, that might be an option to get in-hand
maps without having to spend a lot of money on a GPS which displays
a map.
Features important to me are the ability to plug it into a
computer to transfer waypoints, track in real time, and it must
also have the ability to take power from the computer or 12v
source so that the batteries don't wear out on long trips. One
annoyance with the Geko 201 is that I have to remember to take
the batteries out when plugging in the power adapter because
even though it is plugged into power, it will run out the
batteries before it uses the vehicle power. (Pretty stupid
design decision, IMHO) But its one of the very few gripes I
have; its been an excellent unit for the price.
--
-Jon-
.-- Jon Steiger ---- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com --.
| 1970 Barracuda - 1990 Dakota 'vert - 1992 Ram 4x4 - 1996 Dakota |
| 1996 Intruder 1400 - 1996 Kolb FireFly - 2001 Ram QC 3500 CTD |
`------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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