sbur6

I have the Lowrance H20 and I couldnt be happier with it. The larger screen makes all of the difference in the world. No problems at all geocaching with it and it works great for fishing. I like the software better than the Magellan CRAP I used to have.

From MIT's Technology Review I N N O V A T I O N Hikers and drivers who use satellite-derived location information may not need to know their latitude and longitude down to the decimeter. But phone company workers digging near fiber-optic cables, drillers working on offshore oiland- gas rigs, and farmers tracking crops row by row do need that kind of accuracy. Right now, though, they depend on expensive, localized ground-based reference-and-correction systems to get high precision from the 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System (GPS), run by the U.S. Department of Defense. That’s about to change. Thales, the French aerospace giant, says it has developed the first GPS-correction service that’s accurate to within 10 centimeters virtually everywhere on the planet—compared to the one-meter precision guaranteed by similar existing services. “This makes something that was once very difficult much easier, because you won’t need expensive equipment,” says Andrew Barrows, president and founder of Nav3D, a Palo Alto, CA-based company that develops graphical location displays. The Thales system will beam out signals that subscribers can use to continuously clean up coordinates on ordinary GPS receivers. “They are saying, ‘throw out all your GPS-correction infrastructure; we’ll just send you the signal,’” Barrows says. A GPS receiver fixes location on the basis of the travel time of radio signals from at least three of the 24 GPS satellites. The Thales system is a “new milestone” in sophisticated computer algorithms that attack several sources of error in the satellite coordinates, says Angus Cooper, marketing director for Thales GeoSolutions Group. By independently tracking satellites’ locations, Thales double-checks the coordinates reported by the satellites. Then it corrects for atmospheric disturbances that might alter signals’ travel time and for known errors within the clocks aboard each satellite. Finally, the company maintains 85 groundbased reference stations worldwide. The correct coordinates of these fixed stations are known, and they are continually compared against the coordinates reported by GPS. By this summer, Thales expects to beam ultracorrected GPS signals from outposts in Singapore and Aberdeen, Scotland, to paying customers. The system will help farmers spread seed and fertilizer only where needed and even track individual plants for research. The technology should be a special boon for offshore oil-and-gas drilling industries, which need precise information to map their work locations and can’t install fixed-reference stations at sea. And it could help utilities map existing rights of way and workers dig without disturbing buried cables.—David Talbot

Is there a way to reset the odometer on the Lowrance H2O? I dont see a way other than resetting defaults. ScottB

Look at the Lowrance Hunt. Its pretty new and the price isnt bad! ScottB

Take a look at the Lowrance model. I just got a H2O and I like it a LOT more than the SporTrak Pro I sold to get it. This is my 4th GPS and my favorite so far. For the price you cant beat it! I gave a mini review here: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=82104 I would get as much GPS as you can for your money or you will just find yourself looking again when you figure out what your doing. Thats why I am on GPS #4 ScottB

I received my H2O in the mail yesterday from GPS Explorer. I was disappointed at first because when I opened the box I pulled out a Magellan SporTrak Pro Marine and I thought "Man! They screwed up the order!". Then I looked under the foam peanuts and there was my H2O! They dropped an extra GPS in the box on accident! I called them and they knew they were missing the unit and were about to start calling customers. They are sending UPS to the house to pick it up. I could have kept it I suppose, but that wouldn't have been right. Any way, about the H2O. Here are my first observations: 1. The unit is a little bigger than I expected, but I guess it has to be to house that BIG screen! 2. The screen is fantastic! Great resolution and great size! SporTrak owners would be amazed at the difference. So would Garmin users as far as that goes. 3. I don't like the battery cover. It is hard to put back on. It's pretty tight fitting. I guess it has to be to keep the water out. 4. The rubber cover for the external antenna connection doesnt stay closed and that is a little annoying. 5. The maps are a lot more complete than the Magellan SporTrak Pro was. There are roads on the H2O that weren't on the Magellan. At least this is true for North Texas. 6. I used it to navigate to work this morning and the accuracy was better than the STP. 7. Time to aquire Sat. lock is VERY fast! Even in my living room. I used it in the car and never lost the signal with the unit sitting in the passenger seat. 8. Very user friendly 9. Hotmaps fishing maps look very good on here and are easy to install and run 10. The MMC card stores under the batteries so I would suggest getting a large MMC or SD card and load the biggest area you can into the unit. I have a 128 MB card installed with 100 MB of maps and it loads them VERY fast. 11. The zoom in and out is very fast. Actually everything on the unit is faster than the STP. I guess the dual processors really help. Thats all for now. More as I get time time to play with it. ScottB

Lowrance H2O.......

Whatever you come up with would be great. Firefox is my new browser of choice and any extension that helps with GeoCaching cant hurt! ScottB

I used the methods listed above at it worked great although it WOULD be nice if it was integrated into one tool. I got my Navionics chip ordered for my H2O today and I have orderend my MapCreate as well. The H2O should be in the mail in the next couple of days as well as my 128 MB SD card. I miss my SporTrak but I am hoping that the H2O will make that go away. I have been playing with the tricks and utilities mentioned on the site using the H2O simulator and its pretty cool. How accurate are the maps when your driving down the road? That was one thing I hated about the SporTrak. It was WAY off a lot fo the time in North Texas using the Streets and Destinations. It seemed to be more accurate in other places. ScottB

I ordered my iFinder H2O today. I cannot wait to get it into my hands. I sold my SporTrak Pro to get it. I only had the SporTrak for 2 1/2 months and it was okay, but I wasnt real happy with it. This unit looks great. My only regret is that I had to get just the unit and not the Plus pack. Now I wish I had ordered the bundle after reading the posts. ScottB

Sold!

Sold! Got the iFinder H2O ordered! yea!

Thanks for the tip!

Actually, I will let the package go for $200. Shoot me an email if you are interested. ScottB

SporTrak Pro in EXCELENT condition (Value $239.00) Swivel Mount (Value $19.00) PC Cable with 12 Power Adapter (Value $30.00) Software (Magellan Streets and Destinations and Magellan Topo) (Value - email me) Shoot me an email if your interested. I will sell the whole bundle for $250. PayPal ONLY! I want to buy a different GPS specifically for fishing. Thats why I am selling this one. scott.bursik@pbsg.com

I am an avid fisherman and I saw the IFinder Pro can take the Navionics Chips which is great for me. I bought a SporTrak Pro about 4 months ago and love it but I would get better use out of the IFinder Pro. I will trade: SporTrak Pro in EXCELENT condition (Value $239.00) Swivel Mount (Value $19.00) PC Cable with 12 Power Adapter (Value $30.00) Software (Magellan Streets and Destinations and Magellan Topo) (Value - email me) Shoot me an email if your interested. Or I will sell the whole bundle for $250. PayPal ONLY! scott.bursik@pbsg.com Thanks! ScottB

I do the same. I attached velcro to the bottom of my swivel mount so I can move it from the boat to the truck easily. ScottB

It took you this long to figure all of that out? We all know that so we didnt see the purpose in posting it. It would just confuse the "simple" minded. ScottB

I thought this was interesting. Could be fun to paly with. Anyone out there got it yet? I wonder if the GPSR that comes with it will work with MS Mappoint?

MAGELLAN MAPSEND BLUENAV CD NORTH AMERICA Has anyone here tried this? What is your opinion of it? Thanks, ScottB

Here is the swivel mount with a Buy It Now for $16.50 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...5713650391&rd=1 The cables are a little more expensive: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...5714969470&rd=1 The combination of these two really make the GPS a great tool! ScottB

I got the swivel mount on eBay and I love it. I use it in my boat and in the car. I am going to attach some velcro tot he bottom of the mount and put one on the dash board and in the boat so I only have to use one mount. I bought the cable with data and cigarette lighter in one and it snaps into the back of the mount so you can just pop it out of the mount and keep on running with the batteries.

Thanks for the heads up on this. I may build a virtual machine and test this. One issue though is that SP2 is still in pre-release form and MS has been notorious about changing the code significantly between pre-release and final versions. The bottom line is we'll never know for sure until the final release comes out. I find it amazing that Magellan/ Thales, doesn’t come out with patches for the software. Is there coding that good? You don’t see many software companies that fire and forget their software and don’t send out occasional patches. Especially since the software costs more than some of their products. ScottB

I went into the About page under Menu and it says: Basemap: N.A. Marine - 1.05 Size: 9486222 bytes Firmware revision is 5.34 May 21 2004 Is this normal? Seems a little odd. I have the SporTrak Pro not the Marine. Do they share the same base map? ScottB

Is there an rss feed for this site? ScottB