Hi all;

I'm not a biker but this forum is so good for info I had to join

I will be travelling by vehicle through Turkey to Syria and Jordan and wondered which were the best softwares and maps to use on a laptop.

Please bear in mind that I'm new to GPs, I haven't felt the need to use it in UK

Are you using the laptop as the moving map display, or just to plan routes with to upload onto a dedicated GPS unit?

If the latter, which GPS unit?

I intend using mobile display when necessary and also plan routes, but I don't want a dedicated gps unit.

After posting my question here someone suggested Garmin Moblie pc software and a gps dongle, does that sound good?

This Fab Trek - Photography and Journey, Garmin GPS, Mapsource, TTQV, Google Earth and Maps.
I've used it over 5 years and a variety of software. What u do with it depends on u? This has been just my approach to it.
Obviously there now is even more and more features and Iphone and..
It'll never stop. But just as an idea what u can do...

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Manfred
www.thisfabtrek.com

If you've not yet got the laptop have a look at Asus's EEE PC T91, it's a 9 inch touch screen, tablet form computer with built in GPS and solid state drive.


I imagine with the right software it could be pretty much perfect for what you're looking for.

More here...

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I'm a 4x4 driver. I've got an ASUS 10 inch netbook I plan to use with a remote touchscreen mounted on the dash (see car.tft.com) and an external, wired Globalsat GPS aerial. Bluetooth or magnetic gps aerials seem to be built to lower specs, eg the operating temperature range is narrower. The laptop will sit under the passenger seat cooled by an additional fan and aircon, screen closed. This arrangement in my opinion is arguably the best because...

- You get laptop functionality ( +moving map) but with a sunlight readable screen (instead of an unreadable in sunlight screen).
- You don't have to have a laptop floating about untethered

I use TTQV software, there's not many countries you can't get maps for TTQV.

In the past I've used a GPS152 chartplotter which is excellent. Obviously you don't get a moving map display and have to pre-load your routes, and depending where you're going and what model you use, the screen may not be easy to read in sunlight. A little hazardous maybe in foreign traffic.

I'll use a handheld gps and paper maps for backup.

BTW You can get ASUS solid state drive (advisable for high temps/rough tracks/dust) netbooks or can retro-fit a SSD to a disc drive (again see cat.tft.com).

Andrew.

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Thanks very much for the help, I'll do some research on your suggestions.What are the highest temps I can expect in Syria, Jordan in Jan/Feb?