geospatial_junkie

Prime Suspect, I wasn't talking about the digital compass option in the GPS unit itself. I was talking about the GPS unit itself. I can see how my above post could have been confusing. Sorry! I know that you get what you pay for with conventional compasses. Some are more sensitive than others and some have defective needles, etc... My guess with a GPS unit is that this would be a secondary feature, thus cheaper parts would be used for the compass itself and all the attention would be focused on the GPS portion. Remember, there is no way to test the quality of the compass in a GPS compared to a conventional compass! Also, there is a reason some conventional compasses cost in the hundred's of dollars. If your compass is 3-D, I am assuming it has a gyroscopic component to it (involves readings from the earth's tilt). This is something I would be very wary off as you are ow introducing another variable into calculating your position, thus potentially increasing the error of your reading. If you heading anywhere with dense canopy cover and is fairly far from a road or trail, please take a conventional compass with you (and know how to use it!). I work as a GIS/Cartography professional and I regular hear from people coming back from field work that they had gotten lost because their GPS stopped functioning (got wet, ran out of batteries, GPS unit itself got lost, etc...) Should've taken a real compass and a map with them as well...

I've been on a benchmark kick for a while now. I've made a map of all the available geodetic markers in the Minden area. I've got quite a few now.

That's a good question. For my money, nothing beats a conventional compass. I've been in too many situations where I've had to defer to my conventional compass because the GPS loses it's signal or has stopped working. I recommend to keep both on you.

As a GIS/cartographic professional and one that uses GPS-based technology on a daily basis, I can tell you that my experiences with Magellan have been extremely poor. I've owned Magellan, Garmin, and Lowrence GPS's. I've found customer support as well as 3rd party support is BY-FAR best with Garmin. However, with that said, the Magellan receiver tends to pick up slightly more accurate readings in a few areas. Furthermore, there is more conversions that always seem to take place with Magellans, whereas Garmins tend to be quick a painless. The lowrence unit I have used works suprisingly well and has the best detail in the maps I have seen (although, basemaps on a GPS are fairly useless to begin with) and customer support is decent. Bottom line, for customer support purchase a Garmin. If you live in Canada, try purchasing a GPS from a scientific equipment distributer such as Cansel Survey Equipment Ltd. or Halltech Ltd. These companies will actually support your unit and walk you through steps over the phone, rather than send you to the manufacturer's tech-support.

If you can get some film canitsters, those would make great micro-caches.

testing testing testing