Date:         Tue, 10 Aug 2004 15:26:05 -0500
Reply-To:     Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Subject:      Re: GPS
Comments: To: Ron Tipton <uther@DRAGONHOME.ORG>
In-Reply-To:  <C62A1C09-EAFE-11D8-9CFC-000D93C22EF0@dragonhome.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

Ron,  (and anyone else who wants to know) email me offline and I'll
provide the info I have on GPS.

My approach is to have ONE cheap GPS and good apps on my pda and
laptop, then learn to use the gps so you can find yourself on any map
with lat/long or UTM grid on a paper map.

On the Mac, I use MACGPSpro because I can take free topo quads from the
state archives, any aerial photo, scanned historic map or even a hand
drawn map and quickly add gis information to it so I can follow my
position on a home-made map or aerial. I use photoshop layer
transparency to align distorted aerials or hand-drawn historical maps
with new maps to get them accurate. It's pretty cool to plot your
position from a 1700s historical map!

Anyway, let me know what you want to do and I'll help you as far as
I've gone.

I'm still using the cheapest good one on the market, the garmin etrex.
With the map on your computer, and not in your gps, you get the exact
map you need for your journey, something the built-in GPS maps can't
give you.

Jim


On Aug 10, 2004, at 1:54 PM, Ron Tipton wrote:

> I'm thinking of getting a GPS unit so I'm looking for recommendations.
> I'd like to get
> something that was good for use on the road and off the road.  I
> sometimes go off paved
> roads but not really "off road" so it would be nice if whatever I get
> has some capacity that's
> not "paved streets only".
>
> It will never come out of the car so such issues as size and battery
> life are not important.
>
> I have a Mac G4 laptop which I use to drive a couple of cameras (a
> backup camera and
> an inferred one) which I display on a small monitor.  I'm wondering if
> I can use the Mac as
> a display for a GPS.
>
> Anyone have any experience they'd like to share?
>
> Thanks,
> r
>
>
> Ron Tipton
> IT Specialist III
> Laboratory for Information Technologies
> University of Tennessee
>