schmism

Ive continued to use my Meridian gold for the past 3-4 years on same maps i uploaded from my streets and destinations from like 6 years ago. anyone know if they updated the mapsend streets and destinations? my version is 4.00f copyright 2001.

is like the AKC for fish? cool i got some killer gold fish keeping the mosquetos down in my rain barrel. anybody got any better scoop on this? i havnt bothered to go to 5 from what peeps have said.

if your useing geocacheing.com then there is a link on the page to download the cordinets in a .loc format (for basic members) this contains the basic info needed for the waypoint. From what i understand more info is contained in the other format that is available if you register. download the loc file, then inport them to GSAK, like they said. at least thats what im doing at the moment.

My wife works for a survey company. They are looking at a new GPS setup. $15K will get you a nice setup that requires a basestation to brodacast a correction, but hey the handheld is good to sub centimeter! If I can get withing about 5-8 meters with my Merdi im happy.

There were GPS's in the pic, i didnt notice the man has a cobra, nuf said

How many out there go chacheing with friends that also have GPS? Do you find that even 2 units of the same type will read diffrent? How about accross platform? I have a buddy that has a diffrent version than mine and half the time it seems like im "off" and the other half the time it seems he is. second question Is differential measurement with a GPS more accurate than the readings themselves? from point A walk 20 meters to point B (via "distance" on the GPS) now if you know there is some amount of uncertainty about point A and you assume the same uncertainty for B Then do the uncertainties cancel out? and leave you with a (arguably) accurate distance measurement?

low bat warning (beep) and then "im out of battery and shuting off" thats my guess

I have the Gold and looked hard at the color. I just didnt get the impression it was THAT much better. Plus being a techie i konw from other devices that you have to pay HUGE money for really good color screens. (or used to) so id rather have a really good gray scale screen with features i wanted than a "nifty" (sorta works) color screen. just my .02

I just got my first GPS like 2 weeks ago. I did quite a bit of shopping for units in stores were i could actually hold units next to each other and see the diffrences. I settled on a Merdian Gold. large screen, easy to use buttons, and the aforementioned better antena etc. Im a firm belever in you get what you pay for. If i had to do it again i would probibly get the platnum that has the internal magnetic compass which for me would come in handy. (the way i cache now) but short of that, i would get the Gold again. my .02

I think you misunderstand the coke thing a little. The coke thing is more based on celuar tech than it is GPS. When you press the little button it makes a cell call. Durring which a plane old GPS reciver transmits its cordients to the person on the phone. I'm assuming that if your talking to the peeps in the can, and they cant get your corordinates they would instruct you to go "outside" etc. But it doesnt have some sort of nifty GPS transmitter. Most of the current tech surronding detecting your stolen whatever are based around cellular tech. Onstar etc require you to have a cellular account inorder for hte service to work. You place a call to a reciver, that then transmits its location back to you over the "phone".

Its a catch 22. If it only cost $40 is it that big of a loss if you lose it, therefore are you very carfull with it? On the other hand, if it cost $300 your more likely to take better care of it because it cost more.....

you get what you pay for? if "they" also understand that the rocker panel is a better input and "they" know people like this then why put it on the cheepie models?? you always put your best features on the most expensive product to better promote "buy me"

I called magellan when i opened the package on my meridain, put the bateries in and it didnt come on. needless to say they wernt much help, but it did waste about 30 min of my time....

When ive wanted to do what your talking about in the past, i simply set cord A as a waypoint, then travel away from it. my GPS tells me what my bearing and distance is to that point. when im 45deg and 950 feet away im standing "on top of" point B. When i get to B i pull up the other nav screen for the cordinates of were i am and write them down. no need to go through the bother of figureing out what the actuall cordintes are before hand

Newbee hear, (Magellan gold) used the search to check out what the stink is on some of the various mapping software’s and I’m hoping some of you guys can explain some of the differences. I visit the Rocky Mountain national park about every 2 years. Last year i picked the National Geographic Trailsmart CD-rom. I used it to print maps for day hikes and such so i went about looking what other similar mapping software was offered by the same peeps to use with my new GPS. on www.trailsillustrated.com you’ll find the other products listed like the above one. for other National parks, regional areas, states, and so on. of interest TOPO! USA GPS "Plan your trips using this software – whether they are using a GPS or not. Routes can be drawn, notes and pictures can be added, and you can search the USA Place Finder for new destinations to explore..... Note: TOPO! GPS USA is not compatible with the TOPO! Regional Series." anybody know what the last part means? or how about TOPO! Back Roads Explorer * Seamless 1:100,000-scale USGS topographic maps for the entire U.S. * Up-to-date roads and highways from GDT's Dynamap 2003 database * 3-D shaded relief helps visualize changes in elevation * GPS compatible: Garmin, Magellan, Lawrence, Eagle bran I do a LOT of off roading so this was of particular interest in conjunction with the fact that most caches are "off the beaten path” anyway... and lastly the state maps (TOPO! Missouri) National Geographic's Topo!® CD-ROM set for Missouri contains every topographic map you could possibly need for the state. The set includes 5 CD-ROMs with more than 1299 scanned USGS maps enhanced with digital 3-D shading. You'll be able to interact with the maps in more ways than you would think possible TO MY QUESTION anybody know what the difference in the above 3 listed are? they range widely in price? How are the above different from the product put out by Magellan, "MapSend Topo"? I have read the review of Magellan Direct route over on Robert Lipe's page. so im sort of clear on what that is. (a "streets and trips" with a firmware patch to do turn by turn directions, which is a feature very low on the list) but is not MapSend Streets & Destinations Magellan’s version of Microsoft’s streets & trips? I already own MS Streets and Trips (have for awhile) so im really not wanting to duplicate that. I know i have to have some sort of MapSend product to get any detail maps(or waypoint downloads) into my GPS. so final question is Do you go with the cheapest MapSend you can find, because you’ll use a "third party" mapping software for detail maps, or is it not worth having 4 different mapping software’s so just get one. thanks steven (long winded i know)

as also part of the tin foil hat group shoot me some info about other ways to donate to the GSAK fund.

they beat me to it but yes its a bios setting but why a new PCI card? AGP would be much faster and better for the graphics card. as to running a PC with both an AGP card and a PCI video card simulatinously ... it would be news to me that, that works IN the days before dual ouput cards it was feasable (all-be-it a MAJOR PITA) to run 2 (exactly) the same PCI video cards. but in todays world a decent dual moniter card can be had for like $60 so its not nearly worth the headache

my advise would be find a hand-me-down. Generally peeps take good care of there GPS's so they would be in good condition. Those that have been doing it for a while always seem to upgrade once they figure out what they want.

Well i got good news and bad Good news is i have a Rocky mountian national park Cd-rom. (think all the quads on cd for the park) and on it, it shows all the camp locations for the entire park. i can also set waypoints for said camp locations. now for the bad news as far as i know you have to manually do that for all the locations you want ot know, and then "upgrade" to some sort of TOPO something or other to export the waypoints.

First time i went out caching i didnt take my mag compas with me.. hunted 3 caches that day... the next day i decided to take it with and it made a huge diffrence. The (what i now know is called the) boomerang effect was cut by about 80% by doing so. If i had to buy again, that (built in) feature would be toward the top of the list.

For learning i would say the meridain series has to be at the top of list. IMO You can turn on/off the various nav screens based on what info you want to expose him to. GIve him say 2 basic screens to figure out... then add more as he figures it out. Screen is large (one of the largest for a handheld) buttons are well placed/easy to punch etc. but i suppose you have already started with a Garmen soooooo.....

Ok so i havnt had my Meridian gold for verry long either (wish i had got the platnum but oh well). Whats all the talk with gpsbabble? and useing Streets and trips to plot waypoints and routes then "download" to the GPS. What your saying is all these addtional maping softweres can be converted? to something that mapsend understands? because mapsend is the ONLY softwere that is capable of talking to the GPS? It just boggles my mind that given the "Standards" that Magellan adhears to (serial port) there isnt SOME other way to get other detail maps loaded? expecially with the removable SD cards (we) have. Have i totatly missed something hear? I have spent quite a bit of time lurking and reading other posts and such trying to figure this out, but i will have to admit, im no closer to understand than when i started. (and quite frankly refuse to admit i have to cough up another $100 for softwere to talk to the thing)

My wife works for a small survey company. They have recently looked into GPS survey equipment which is said to be accurate down to 1 cm. Although it does use a base station to rebrodcast a corrected postion for the hand held unit. (i dont claim to know how it all works) course those systems run you about $10K so....

Oddly enough when i got my Magellan. Unrapped it, stuffed the bats in and nothing.... Pluged in the cig adapter i got with it and it worked... hmmm checked the bats... good.... hmmmmm decided the bat termials must have gotten hosed some how (with the one time that i put them in) and took it back to the store. Had i know it was a known issue i would have just fixed it....

As I have read, Magellan had to lisence some sort for "marine info" ("maps") or something like that. Because of this the Marine version is more expensive. It is possible to change the base map of a meridian to a diffrent one. (all be it with a hack)