kb9nvh

The biggest pet peeve I have with the V is that it algorithum to tell you when to turn is strictly on angles of interection to the road you are turning on from the one you are turning from. The map data has everything to do with this. Some obvious turns dont show up on the V because the map data has that road as a gradual turn. This never happens on the hiway for me...its always been dead on for interstates. but for back country roads you have to watch out..it will get you turned the wrong way lots if you dont keep an eye on your distance to next when its telling you to turn. Also, I've found it best to do manual routes (with autorecalculation turned off) when doing a routed to a far away place..otherwise the recalculation takes too long and by the time it has a new route layed in it has to calculate a new one cause I'm already past where it wanteed me to go.. I love my V but it has lots of things that could be better.

Yep, price is a major consideration. The two GPS's you were comparing were apples and oranges really. What was the price difference, like 125 compared to 400. You will love havign a GPS. My lowrance airmap 100 did me well for many years. If you can create routes that stick to roads on the sportrack then that is a big advantage over what I had with my old lowrance. Good luck with your purchase and I'm sure you will love having "any" gps if you didnt have one allready.. Todd

You have to try it with mapcreate and see. Each map section can be off different size depending on density of "stuff". Most long trips you are forced to load in sections at the start and sections at the end and leave out the middle. The GPS V then must be used to create your route. It will use what it has to create the route. If no loaded map exists for an area its going through then it uses its base map (which is usually fine since you will probably be on the highways anyway). I'm thinking about 2 to 3megs per map section meaning 7 to 10 map sections can be loaded up. Todd

My GPS V with cityselect has all towns rural and major. Maybe it didn't used to but it does now...every road everywhere from what I can tell is in my cityselect CD. The V does autorouting, the other one you are looking at doesn't. You pay for that functionality. All GPS's have their strengths and weakness's including the GPS V. If you want autorouting (tells you to turn right, turn left) then the GPS V is your cheapest choice and its small enough for handheld uses as well. Better read up on all the units and decided what you want based on thier merits before you buy. Todd Snyder quote:Originally posted by Johnnyvegas:While the GPS V deluxe includes City Select software, this software only covers Major Metropolitan areas, if you need coverage for small towns you will need to buy more software. Also keep in mind that the Magellan topo software includes street names, the Garmin Topo does not. Also COmaping the GPS v to the Magellan Sport trak map is like comparing aplles to oranges. THe Garmin is designed with driving in mind and the Magellan is designed with hiking in mind. If you are looking for a model just for driving get the Street pilot with the larger screen.

Well, I really did like my airmap100. For the time is was the firest mapping gps and it was waterproof (but not the battery compartment). I liked the ability to define 3 PAGES that you could change to suit you and then flip between them (Garmin are you listening). The globalmap100 was the same unit basically as mine. I never had trouble locking and keeping lock on sats with mine. The Ifinder has SD memory cards..thats a big plus. For it not being waterproof, and it haveing that lithium battery I might have considered it (If the autorouting wasn't a must have for me that is). You have to make your best guess at what features you need/want. The meridian platinum was my second choice..then the 76S then the ifinder. My GPS V is great though and for $325 with its features it was really MY best buy.

I started out with a lowrance and really liked alot of its features. I presently own a Garmin GPS V. The lowrance isn't waterproof and my lowrance used a 10yr lithium battery for backup of user data...pissed me off when that battery went bad after one year. The Garmin nonvolital memory doens't need a battery. Sooo....I liked my lowrance. Hated it when it broke and they said my 10yr lithium battery it was out of warranty after 1 year. That alone is enough reason for me to find another brand. Garmin and Magellin are the most popular...there's safety in numbers.

Wow, you should have bought it last month when they had a $75 rebate. I got mine on ebay for $405 and then got the rebate. Take a look at ebay and see what you can find.

I bougth the GPS V. A better value was the Meridian Platinum and I liked it alot but it doesn't autoroute. The V was my only choice and I'm hapy with it. I come from a lowrance background so neither of these did I have any bias towards. Oh, and I do miss some of the features of my lowrance...there's no perfect GPS (except maybe the Garmin 196 since I fly some too)

Whats that you say....I can load city select maps with autorouting off and save space??? I didn't know that. How much space does it save? I think I could live witout autorouting at home most of the time.

Well, my cell phone puts out enough RF to hear in my TV audio if its close enough to the TV. I've had a 2 watt walkie talkie BLANK the display on my VCR when it was keyed in close proximity. Just for the record, I dont believe a GPS will interfere with aircraft avionics but I wont go as far as to say that they dont output RF (even though its just a receiver it does produce frequencies that are used to demodulate what it receives). To be sure what eminates from them is very low but you cant say with certainty it wont be a problem until it is tested in the environment that you are worried about. Structure on the plan can act as antenna possibly "ducting" and or directing the low RF field to places you might not expect. Aircraft have strict testing requiremnts for any device that is allowed to be installed in that airplane. Dont get me wrong...I'm just being the devils advocate here. I have used my GPS during flight on commercial aircraft and I dont worry about interference but there are arguments for NOT allowing any device that can possibly interfere with an aircrafts electronics and a radio receiver(GPS) is in that catagory. Todd Snyder quote:Originally posted by JW77:I agree. I'm not a scientist nor an electronic engineer but common sense dictates that it would be impossible for aircraft avionics to be affected by puny transmitters such as cellphones, etc. Look at it tis way...if these things were so damned "dangerous" why haven't some deranged terrorists used these to bring down planes. Much easier to smuggle onboard a cellphone and leave it it... Just plain stupid policies.

Does anyone have this version posted anywhere? I probably have room to post it if someone would FTP it to me. Todd Snyder todd@home-fires.com

Did you see the new airmap 500 based on the ifinder. Must be brand new cause there's none on ebay yet. I loved my airmap 100 (I have a GPS V now) but miss all my lowrance specific features. (not that my garmin unit isn't great). Todd Snyder quote:Originally posted by alfredpr:Was initially using my Lowrance AirMap300 for GCing, but even though it is an excellent GPS for flying, it is too bulky and valuable to be carting through the woods. I like the Lowrance products, so I got an iFinder. It's nice not having to worry about the screen or case getting beat up - just buy a new face plate for under $20. [This message was edited by alfredpr on June 15, 2003 at 12:53 PM.]

WHat the heck is the difference between an automatic route between two points where you have addeda few vias and a MANUAL route that follows roads??? They seem exactly the same functionality except you can have more manual waypoints than vias??? Todd

Yep, I know the feeling. I miss much of the "FEEL" of my lowrance airmap with all of its special customizable pages and its better basemap (for lakes and streams). But, the V is still better for what it does that my old lowrance could never do. Garmin could program in just about anything but they wont. They can't please everyone. Too bad they dont release specifications for programming your own firmware. Man, we would have all types of flavors for everyones desires. Wonder if any of the GPS manufactures will ever do that...release a developers kit so that then you could truely have the PERFECT GPS. Todd quote:Originally posted by Criminal: quote:Humm, the V does have a round compass page when you are doing offroad navigation... That's the problem, you have to be navigating to a point. Sometimes I want the round compass while I'm driving around going nowhere. I know I can get the bar compass across the top of the data page, but I liked the round one better. http://fp1.centurytel.net/Criminal_Page/

Yup, its happened to me too...lost lock for about 15 to 20 minutes for no apparent reason and then suddenly it was all back... This happened all within about a 20 mile distance...so could have been local interference... Once when flying to DC I had my altitude drop drop drop till it showed negative altitude..all this while we were still at 25K feet??? weird

Well actually, I was thinking more for a bicycle than a motorcycle (but I do have one of those also). A bicycle can put some pretty harsh jolts to the handlebars and I was wondering how well the mount and GPS would hold up to that punishment. I dont think a motorcycle would have much problme as they isolate from the road pretty darn well. Todd

Sorry, I remember changing this now in mine.... I suppose while driving, cardinal letters might be less confusing....I changed mine because I'm from a flying background and magnetic degrees are what you have to go by (I really miss my flying!! GPS versitility really shines for that type of navigation!!) quote:Originally posted by KB9NVH:What? Mine does displays in degrees. I had the choice of magnetic or true in the setup... My question is, "whats a compass point"??? Todd Snyder

So how well does this mount work on a bike...I would be worried about hitting rough spots and having something shake loose...how does the gps and mount handle rough roads using that mount?

I tried it this morning...createing a manual route and then having it follow roads. Seemed identical to an automatic route with via's to me. When I got off the route it recalculated just like before. The only weird part was that I apparently didn't get close enough to one of my manual route points and as I drove past it on the road it told me to pull a U'y and go back even though I was still on the correct route. Once I got to the next route turn it was happy and continued on... Todd

OK, so let me see if I have this straight... routes can be manual or automatic Routes can be offroad or on. What is the difference between a manual and an automatic route? Is it that the auto route will contantly try to find the best route to your destination if you get OFF the original route where a manual route wont? Todd quote:Originally posted by Bob K.:Olar, I'm sorry, but I haven't tried downloading routes from EasyGPS. If EasyGPS downloads routes to the GPS as a manual route (i.e. the little hiker beside the route name on the GPS route screen), then I imagine you could "follow roads" with the route just like any other manual route. If EasyGPS downloads routes to the GPS as an "auto" route (i.e. little car beside the route name), then the "follow roads" feature is not available. Check this out, though. You can actually create manual routes in Mapsource and do the same thing. Open a new Mapsource window, go to Edit/Preferences. Under "Calculation Style," choose "Direct Route." Now, when you create a route, it will be a point-to-point manual route. When you download that specific route to the GPS, it will show up on the GPS as a manual route (the little hiker icon). When you activate that route, you'll have the option to "follow roads." It's not perfect, but at least there are some ways to sort of get the GPS V to do what we want it to do.

What? Mine does displays in degrees. I had the choice of magnetic or true in the setup... My question is, "whats a compass point"??? Todd Snyder

This was another pet peeve I had...THANKS quote:Originally posted by appletree:One more shortcut I learned about with my Vista that also works with the G V: the Page button is the OK button when working with a data entry screen. It is easier than using the rocker to navigate over to the OK box and then press enter.

Sounds like "saved routes" should also save pertinant road data for that specific route so that you can traverse a route without having the map section uploaded. Too bad Garmin choose to allow only predefined map sections to be uploaded instead of the "Lowrance method" of allowing you to pick your borders using the mouse. With lowrance you could choose a strip along a highway using much less memory. (not trying to compair apples to oranges here but some aspects of my old gps were implemented better). Who would have thought two years ago that 19meg would be too little memory in a GPS. My lowrance only had 2meg. How much memory does the garmin 196 have..or does it just have predefined modules? Todd Snyder

**Could you have mistakenly pressed and held down the PAGE button **for approx. 1 1/2 - 2 seconds? Doing this toggles between **portrait/landscape screen Learn something new everyday...Thats two shortcuts I know of now...(hitting find twice automatically tries to route you to any waypoint called 'home' And now this one...GREAT!! Any more anyone???