Date:         Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:39:55 -0500
Reply-To:     Chuck Mathis <cvmathis@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Chuck Mathis <cvmathis@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Re: GPS recommendations, handheld & incar?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes

I'll chime in kind of late on this one.  I'm a retired Coast Guard
Quartermaster that started learning navigation when LORAN C was the up
and coming thing - I actually learned to use a LORAN A receiver.  I
was also a hot s##t with a sextant.  By the time I retired GPS was the
thing and most of the new guys hadn't heard of LORAN or OMEGA or
SATNAV.  I had a brief exposure to Commander Ivan Luke a navigation
instructor at the Coast Guard Academy.  He was famous for walking into
the nav shack on the EAGLE and turning off all the electronics because
" All those red LED blinking SOBs are trying to take over the world."

I own and use a Garmin GPS III+ purchased on eBay for $50.  The Garmin
is nice because it is a dumb GPS - doesn't have a perky voice to tell
me where to turn, etc. - just shows me where I am.  It is very
accurate and very dependable (as dependable as any electronic widget
can be).  In addition to the Garmin I always carry a good map, either
one I've generated myself from Google Earth or Topo Explorer , or a
commercially printed map.  When planning a trip I will program in way
points and build routes but more often than not I ignore them when
something of interest comes along.  Any map I use ends up almost
illegible because I tend to make notes on them about what I've seen,
bad road, great food, and stuff I might want to check out later.

Several years ago when a coworker and I were doing field work in
Wyoming using a DeLorme GPS/laptop/Street Atlas setup to find our way
through the wilds we followed a mapped road across the back of a large
strip mine operation to the point the only way out was through the
front gate or turn around and go back the way we came.  On another day
on the same job we found a mapped road that ended at the top of a 70
foot bluff but the map showed the road continuing several more miles.

Chuck
'85 Wolfsburg Westy - 'Roland the Road Buffalo'