Handheld GPS

What to buy, like user friendly, reliable, compact and light weight. Suggestions would be appreciated, thanks all.

See
http://www.forsterlewis.com/soaring/soaring_with_gps/ index.html

I've tried to collect the wisdom of numerous contributor's on this subject, including xcnick and Ruud Holswilder.

The specific GPS info is mainly limited to the Garmin eTrex Vista and the Garmin GPSMAP 76s. It would be great to get further usable content on other GPS's

e.g. (1) an inexpensive handheld where you don't care about logging, but probably want to use glider power and a data connection (2) an inexpensive handheld which logs GPS altitude (3) another make than Garmin.

You'll see from the current content that we need a bit more than 'I've been using a Garellan FunkyMap for 5 years and it's great', but any contribution with plusses and minuses will be added.

Good luck,

Garmin etrex Vista meets compact and lightweight requirements. Pretty easy to upload airport waypoint data, e.g. use a perl script to pull all airports within a given range from a set of coordinates and upload them. Several types of maps you can upload inc. topographic. There is a comparison matrix on the Garmin website to compare various eTrex models.

PERL script? Elaborate, please.....

Dave

Ignore, fixing my displayed name....

wrote...

The original eTrex (yellow) logs GPS altitude, as do all recent Garmins, except those that have altimeters (which log barometric altitude). The problem with the yellow eTrex is that has a relatively small track log memory, and does not support logging at user specified time intervals. The logs it produces aren't terribly useful for our purposes.

The eTrex Legend, GPS 76, and the (upcoming) GPS 72, have more useful track log capability (with altitude), and all can be purchased in the US for $200 or less. All support WAAS. One thing to watch out for with the eTrex models is that their internal antenna is oriented for best performance when the units are held horizontally. The 72 and 76 internal antennas are oriented for vertical mounting.

GPS altitude is preferable for determining altitude needed for final glide. Barometric altitude is more accurate for determining short-term (30 seconds to 30 minutes or so) changes in altitude, so it is primarily useful for calculating average rate of climb.

Most of those praising the 39xx screens are talking about its screen being better indoors, have you (or anyone else) compared them outdoors? Don't confuse clock frequency with actual performance. The 39xx models run real applications only about 20 to 30% faster than the 38xx models...

Thanks Marc . . you made some good points . . also:

Anyone know how the Magellin GPS315 suits our stated objectives? Apparently it can have aviation data added quite easily - and is very low cost.

How will the Garmin 72 compare to the 76?

Anyone used iPaq 38x0 AND 39x0 with GlideNavigator II or GPSLOG or WinPilot?? ie Is the 3900 worth paying so much extra for?

Cheers,

Jim Kelly.

: > Seems that an inexpensive GPS that logs GPS (or barometric) : > altitude would be good for us to all be aware of. : : The original eTrex (yellow) logs GPS altitude, as do all recent : Garmins, except those that have altimeters (which log barometric : altitude). The problem with the yellow eTrex is that has a : relatively small track log memory, and does not support logging : at user specified time intervals. The logs it produces aren't : terribly useful for our purposes. : : The eTrex Legend, GPS 76, and the (upcoming) GPS 72, have more : useful track log capability (with altitude), and all can be purchased : in the US for $200 or less. All support WAAS. One thing to watch : out for with the eTrex models is that their internal antenna is : oriented for best performance when the units are held horizontally. : The 72 and 76 internal antennas are oriented for vertical mounting. : : > I don't believe that any gliding software for iPaqs can yet : > take advantage of the barometric info from (say) the Vista. : > Perhaps the software vendors will respond with their plans? : : GPS altitude is preferable for determining altitude needed for final : glide. Barometric altitude is more accurate for determining : short-term (30 seconds to 30 minutes or so) changes in altitude, so : it is primarily useful for calculating average rate of climb. : : > Note that the new iPaq 3970 and 3950 have displays that are : > immensely better than any other PDA, and twice as quick as the : > 3800 series which were a big improvement over earlier models. : > Hence the 3950/70 is worth paying the extra for . . and this : > makes it a big expense. : : Most of those praising the 39xx screens are talking about its screen : being better indoors, have you (or anyone else) compared them : outdoors? Don't confuse clock frequency with actual performance. : The 39xx models run real applications only about 20 to 30% faster : than the 38xx models... : : Marc : :

I have a text file with all US airports and their coordinates, so I parse this file and calculate the distance of each airport from a given lat & long. If it's within my specified distance I add a waypoint entry in a waypoint upload file. That's not the most efficient way to do this, but on a 1.8 GHz linux box I don't really care. Now that my waypoint file is created I use an upload utility to put those waypoints on my eTrex Vista. The utility I have for linux is gpstrans. There are other utilities but the waypoint upload file format may be different.

Cheers,

I while ago I posted a tool to generate an excel spreadsheet of all Airports (private, public, military) from a fixed location from a specified airport.

See http://www.gtwn.net/~flf/AirNavLookup/AirNavLookup.html And yes this is a perl script also ...

I do not know where Jim got his database or how often it is updated, or what type of airports are listed.

It's for my personal use, so it doesn't really matter. I was just sharing the strategy I use to upload waypoints to my vista. The same approach might be used for any database of coordinates. Now, if you really want a current data file of airports, buy the CD from the FAA for $36.

Cheers,

Hi,

This is a response to a question about the iPAQ 3950 below.

For a short time I owned both an iPAQ 3850 and a 3950.

The 3950's screen is much brighter than the 3850's screen. There was less difference outdoors than indoors, but the 3950 was still brighter than the 3850 in sunlight in my opinion.

Someone commented here earlier that they thought the processor speed difference (400 MHz vs. 200 MHz) didn't make much difference. I must disagree. I noticed a big difference when running applications that use a lot of processor power. One example is displaying large SUA or waypoint files. The screen updates are much faster with the 3950. But I'm using a very large SUA file and a waypoint file with 2000 points. I also noticed a major improvement when using Microsoft PocketStreets with a CF Card GPS. Again, screen updates were much faster.

But, to be clear, I should mention that I sell iPAQ's from my web site. My statements above are absolutely honest though.

If you're thinking of buying an iPAQ, why not buy one from your local glider supplies vendor?

Paul Remde Cumulus Soaring Supplies http://www.cumulus-soaring.com