jrhoffman
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Posts posted by jrhoffman
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I want to know which handheld gps is the best, for land navigation assistance, for remote areas that have no cell phone coverage and in scenarios where getting lost could mean some hiker accidentally finding your sun bleached and animal scattered remains a decade or two after you died of thirst, exposure, hypo/hyperthermia or whatever.
I have a lot of fun geocaching but, just for a moment, let's forget about the bells and whistles, the paperless this or that, and how many mouse clicks it takes to do this or that. Also, let's put on pause the consideration of the benefits and capabilities of WAAS and Assisted-GPS. Since I'm not stupid enough to go anywhere in the boonies without a weather proofed paper map and a good compass, I don't care about most detailed this or prettiest that.
So I want to know which available handheld has the best combination of chipset, antenna, power consumption, and external antenna options for areas that have ZERO cell phone coverage. Terrain and conditions varies from desert to heavily wooded to mountainous.
Thanks in advance to all who share thoughtful and considered responses and opinions....
One option, if you don't care about mapping and want emergency protection, is the SPoT Personal Satellite Tracker.
It won't guide you to anything, but if you are lost you can use it to send a Help message to personal contacts or a 911 emergency rescue signal. It uses sat-phone coverage, so it will work where there is no cell phone coverage.
But, to repeat, it is not a personal GPS.
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From the TOPO! website FAQ
GPS Troubleshooting - PC
GPS and COM port won’t communicate and I have used a Palm Pilot on my computer
Do you have a Palm Pilot? If so, locate the "Hot Sync" icon at the bottom right of your desktop screen and right click on the icon. In the pop-up window that opens, find either the “General” or “Settings” tab. Find and select the setting that enables the Hot Sync feature to run only when the Palm Pilot is running (rather than the default setting to not run continuously).
Until you have changed this setting, the Palm Pilot controls the COM port continuously. Adjusting this setting will free up the COM port for use by other applications (such as TOPO!) and should eliminate this error. If you continue to have trouble, send an e-mail with your name, e-mail address, and a comment about the technical issue you are experiencing to the TOPO! help desk at topo@ngs.org.
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Has anyone had success in getting Topo Notes with Photos to display on a Tungsten T?
SPOT Connect and Smartphones
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
Redwoods is correct. The Connect does not need a smartphone to function. It's the other way around. Connect allows you to use your smartphone when there is no cellphone signal available.