My son and I disagree...

[+mixwithh2o]

I have a magellan Sport Track Pro and I have the software for maps. Do you actually have to load in the sections that you are going to or will the GPS give you coordinates anyway? I also don't know whether I have room in it to load more info as I think we originally loaded like all Ct, Mass, and RI and a good portion of western NY. I'm supposed to go to NH this weekend just the southern part and hopefully will find time to geocache but will it work if I don't special load the map stuff. I figure its closer than when I go all the way to upstate NY (3hrs compared to 6) but we did put that section in and I've never had to re initialize it when I went there will I have to with this NH trip? The manual is going with me but it's almost as bad as making sense of an insurance policy. Can anyone explain it more simply?

[+nincehelser]

Your GPS receiver will give you your coordinates regardless if you have maps for that area or not.

 

Maps just give you extra information such as roads and rivers. It isn't necessary, but it's nice to have.

 

George

[+Alan2]

When I travel or go on vacation, I take my laptop which is preloaded with my GPS software maps and GPS to PC cable with me so I can change maps, upload and download waypoints, tracks, etc.

 

I have a Garmin Vista but I would think you can do that with a Magellan too.

 

Alan

[dampeoples]

Not sure what model you have, but some of the Magellans have standard removable memory cards, a feature I envy. Memory is cheap nowadays, you could grab a large card and possibly fit the entire trip on, or have several smaller one's for different areas, needs, etc. For example, I'd love to have one Garmin, with 3 cards, Topo, Fishing Hot Spots, and Metroguide.

 

Check my scandalous stories, site, and my fishing skills

[+Alan2]

Garminm allows you to load Topo, <etro etc onto the same gpos at the same time.

 

Alan

[+Marky]

Also note that the Sportrak Pro has a decent basemap, so you'll have some of the major streets and all of the highways, most likely.

 

--Marky

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

[+apersson850]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alan2:

When I ... go on vacation, I take my laptop [snip]

Alan

---

Geeez, I (and my family, in particular) thought that I'm crazy!!

 

Anders

[+Alan2]

...and to go with my laptop, my portable printer to printout the cache pages.

 

Alan

[+Team Trout]

I ran across this issue last week. I have a SporTrak Pro and a Meridian Green. I like the Meridian because of the ability to have multiple detailed map files loaded on the SD card and then the ability to switch between them as needed. I generally run it with a small detailed map (11M or so) as I perceive it to update the screen a little quicker with smaller maps. (No, I'm not certain it is quicker -I've never scientifically measured it).

 

Anyhow, I was driving last week to a cache further from home than usual and got very disappointed at how little detail that MapSend had for the area. I came to a fairly major intersection were the road I was on did a hard right, but another road continued straight. To my surprise, the Merdian didn't even show the other road going straight. I mentally chalked it up to the map being outdated. But as I continued on the road that turned to the right I notice how badly drawn it was on the GPSr, just long straight lines with none of the subtle curves or small bends represented at all. That's when it hit me, I'd driven outside of my detailed map. I choose a different larger detail map that I had previously loaded on the SD card and all the detail I'm used to seeing suddenly appeared, including the missing road and the intersection I'd already gone through.

 

So, even though the cache I was headed to was outside the detailed map area I was using, I was able to enter it as a waypoint and have the GPSr show me how to get there. The GPSr continues to function just fine outside that area and still accurately computes the current location. Once I left the area of the detailed map I had active I only lost the extra detail that MapSend Topo gives you.

 

[This message was edited by Team Trout on September 12, 2003 at 11:07 AM.]