nv0u
-
Posts
9 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Never
Posts posted by nv0u
-
-
Last October I bought my first GPS receiver - the Magellan 315. At the store there were umpteen different units to buy. But I started cheap for a number of reasons.
First, I was not sure what all the different things on a GPS did. Yeah, I know what mapping did, but not some of the other things. Even though the 315 is one of the simplest things in the world to use, it still took me a month or so to finally get well aquainted with it. I found that most of the stuff that was being shown to me I was just not using.
I normally only have a few of the screens turned on for use - the compass, map, sat status, and maybe one of the To: screens.
Next is price: A few weeks ago I bought a Street Pilot III for use as a cool geek toy in the car. It cost 4 times as much as my 315 and provides 1/8th the information that the 315 spits out. But, it is meant to do street routing - and it does it pretty well. It is nowhere near exact when it comes to "fastest route" or "shortest route", but it does work.
Last weekend I bought a Magellan Meridian - the base model. It has all the features of the 315, plus has that nifty card slot. Yes, it only has a 2 MB base map, but I will get to that in a moment. It also has a few more bells and whistles than the 315, but what more I can't really be sure of right now. I do like the thing a lot, but I am still learning it and finding what is useful and what is not. The useless functions will be turned off soon.
Now - as for the base map... I honestly don't care about that. I can slap a 128 meg card in there and take care of any mapping that I need done. All I have right now is a 16 meg card and I am only using 7 meg for that, and that covers almost 1/3 of the state, and a much larger area than I am ever going to be able to cover in geocaching over a month long period.
So, I guess my point is this - get something good that is going to get you started. Don't think that you need to have all the latest bells and whistles. Yeah, they are cool in that geek factor way, but when it comes down to it you will probably find that most of the stuff is just nice frills - for instance the temperature gauge. I saw a comedian back about 10 years ago who was complaining about the weather people on tv. His comment was something along the lines of "I can't tell the difference between 61 and 63. Just tell me if I need a coat!" (Jerry Seinfeld maybe?) The same is kind of true, to me, of the base map. If you are going to be in an area, you are probably going to have the detail map loaded up. In that case, the size of the base map matters not one bit.
Anyway, hope this helps some.
-
Last October I bought my first GPS receiver - the Magellan 315. At the store there were umpteen different units to buy. But I started cheap for a number of reasons.
First, I was not sure what all the different things on a GPS did. Yeah, I know what mapping did, but not some of the other things. Even though the 315 is one of the simplest things in the world to use, it still took me a month or so to finally get well aquainted with it. I found that most of the stuff that was being shown to me I was just not using.
I normally only have a few of the screens turned on for use - the compass, map, sat status, and maybe one of the To: screens.
Next is price: A few weeks ago I bought a Street Pilot III for use as a cool geek toy in the car. It cost 4 times as much as my 315 and provides 1/8th the information that the 315 spits out. But, it is meant to do street routing - and it does it pretty well. It is nowhere near exact when it comes to "fastest route" or "shortest route", but it does work.
Last weekend I bought a Magellan Meridian - the base model. It has all the features of the 315, plus has that nifty card slot. Yes, it only has a 2 MB base map, but I will get to that in a moment. It also has a few more bells and whistles than the 315, but what more I can't really be sure of right now. I do like the thing a lot, but I am still learning it and finding what is useful and what is not. The useless functions will be turned off soon.
Now - as for the base map... I honestly don't care about that. I can slap a 128 meg card in there and take care of any mapping that I need done. All I have right now is a 16 meg card and I am only using 7 meg for that, and that covers almost 1/3 of the state, and a much larger area than I am ever going to be able to cover in geocaching over a month long period.
So, I guess my point is this - get something good that is going to get you started. Don't think that you need to have all the latest bells and whistles. Yeah, they are cool in that geek factor way, but when it comes down to it you will probably find that most of the stuff is just nice frills - for instance the temperature gauge. I saw a comedian back about 10 years ago who was complaining about the weather people on tv. His comment was something along the lines of "I can't tell the difference between 61 and 63. Just tell me if I need a coat!" (Jerry Seinfeld maybe?) The same is kind of true, to me, of the base map. If you are going to be in an area, you are probably going to have the detail map loaded up. In that case, the size of the base map matters not one bit.
Anyway, hope this helps some.
-
There was a cheap and dirty APRS TNC in QST in 2000, I think it was. I ordered one of them and the thing works fantastic. Ya can't beat the $65 price tag.
As with all the TNCs I have seen, you can only have your GPS hooked up or the computer - not both - though you can have the GPS hooked up and monitor the line with the computer (if that makes sense) by making a dongle.
I built mine in about an hour. It will not key my FT8100 though, but it works great with my Icom 02AT
-
There was a cheap and dirty APRS TNC in QST in 2000, I think it was. I ordered one of them and the thing works fantastic. Ya can't beat the $65 price tag.
As with all the TNCs I have seen, you can only have your GPS hooked up or the computer - not both - though you can have the GPS hooked up and monitor the line with the computer (if that makes sense) by making a dongle.
I built mine in about an hour. It will not key my FT8100 though, but it works great with my Icom 02AT
-
Randy, NV0U
Independence, MO
-
Check out this link. The main paragraph you want is near the bottom.
Essentially, you were standing at the Airy Transit, and the International Meridian is 102.5 meters east of that.
Here is a more in depth discussion of why it is "off" as well.
That's pretty cool information, actually... Thanks for asking that as I had no idea either!
-
Check out this link. The main paragraph you want is near the bottom.
Essentially, you were standing at the Airy Transit, and the International Meridian is 102.5 meters east of that.
Here is a more in depth discussion of why it is "off" as well.
That's pretty cool information, actually... Thanks for asking that as I had no idea either!
-
quote:
Originally posted by Lost Bob:I downloaded and ran the update(from v 3.14) a little over a week ago ... The data transfer seemed to proceed OK and I got the "update complete" message, but my receiver wouldn't turn on! I emailed Thales,got an RMA #, and sent the unit in for repair. Luckily it was less than a year old, and should be covered by warranty ... Anyone else have trouble completing this update?
Yep. Upgraded last week from 3.14 and the unit would not pick up any sats. Just sent my 315 back yesterday, so I should see the replacement at the end of the week. I wonder if there was a faulty batch?
Kansas City area Geocachers?
in Midwest
Posted
I would be interested...