Any point in basic GPS reciever?
 

Hi all,

Apologies none of this makes much sense to me... I've got some really nice Reise maps and a decent working compass which always shows north. I guess that's a good start? I am doing a loop around S.America, or intending to anyway! I don't want to be glued to a high-tec GPS/Satnav screen. My reasoning was more to keep in the thing in the bag and only pull it out when I wasn't happy with having absolutely no idea where I was. I want to do things basic and simple, and I'm on a budget. I can pick up a very basic GPS receiver cheaply (Garmin eTrex H) but what will it do exactly? Will it give me my exact co-ordinates which I can then trace on the map and correlate my position? All my map has is the basic grid of longitude and latitude - am I right in thinking even with exact co-ordinates I could really hazard a guess whereabouts I actually was inside the 'box' on my map? Sorry if this sounds dumb but I'm a total novice and can't even claim to have been in the boy scouts.

:confused1:

A GPS is very useful when in the cities. It is very useful for finding places to camp or hostels. On the highways, it isn't that useful. I use both paper maps and GPS. I don't like to spend a lot of time searching for places, the GPS makes it much easier.

Even with a basic GPS like the eTrex 10 H, which has no maps to speak of, can you dial in some GPS coordinates, i.e. a hostel, etc, and then it will lead you there, more or less?

There are times when you want to get lost and times when you don't. Spend £20 on the etrex for the times you don't.

Back in the days when I was in the boy scouts we were taught map and compass stuff - back bearings from the church spire, hill in the distance, that kind of thing so you could work out where you actually were. When, about 15yrs ago, I bought my very basic Garmin (GPS2+) it was like magic; I didn't have to fiddle around with a compass, I could just look the numbers up and there I was. That got me out of the sh*t many times both hiking and riding.

It also had the ability to pre program a route with waypoints and about 10yrs ago that got me across a 50 mile featureless stretch of the Sahara knowing I was heading in the right direction. Ok it could have been done with compass bearings but the gps made it so much easier.

Things have moved on but a cheap basic gps is very useful as a backup. I'd still be using mine if it hadn't been drowned in a rainstorm about 3yrs ago.

personally I would splurge a couple of hundred bucks and get a decent GPS and mount. I've travelled both with them and without them, and I've found that when I don't have a GPS I tend to be more conservative navigationally, because I don't want to spend several hours lost somewhere or go somewhere I won't be able to get out of (I usually travel by myself).

This summer I was in Mongolia; there weren't many signs to speak of, and it was a pretty good feeling being able to navigate around. The biggest thing is being able to navigate into, out of, or through cities without getting lost.

Count the time and cost of fuel etc. you spend on finding the way in, out or to anything you are looking for or want to visit without GPS, not to forget the things you won't find at all and your conclusion can only be one: A decent GPS (few hundred) with actual maps(free) and waypoint/track info(free) from other travelers, is very cheap.

GRTZ,

JP

Now South America doesn't have as many roads as Europe, meaning that there are far less intersections and turn-offs. So a GPS isn't as important as for densely populated countries. It is also better sign-posted than eg. Africa. So navigating by maps is fairly easy in South America.

But since I bought my first GPS years ago I wouldn't like to miss it. It doesn't enslave you if you use it in addition to good road maps. Besides that, there are fairly cheap GPS's to be found in Ebay, like the Zumo 550, which is still a very good bargain today.

You can just use your trip meter and paper map to navigate. NO GPS.

You start at point A .. you should be able to find that on your map!.

Now you travel say 20 km .. in a south west (SW) direction .. look on your map ... Point A .. then 20 km away SW .. there should be a road leading out of point A in that direction and your 20 km along it ..

See .. no GPS. This is a way it was done before GPSes were available.

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With A GPS .. it will take some time work out where it is when turned on. So if you going to stop and use it - turn it on first before you get out the map. If your quick with the above you'd already have your approximate position on the map before the GPS gives you anything.

I prefer a GPS with an internal map. This means I don't have to work out where I am on a map as the GPS does that for me - shows where I am (the screen is usually centered on me), the roads and places around me. Usually I don't have to pull out a map or look anywhere else to work out where I want to go .. that helps if you don't like where you are, and want to leave fast.

Everywhere has big cities where a GPSmap is very desirable. One of the etrex series has a map capability?

If you've got a smart phone, you've got a gps. No service required to use the gps. Get a map program for it and download maps via wifi and pull it out when you need it. Just make sure its charged or you have a way to plug it into your bike when needed.

Now if you don't have or are not taking a smart phone, then thats another story.

The smart phone would do every bit as good as a cheap gps...maybe not as good as a high end gps unless its a high end phone.

Thanks guys some good opinions:-

Just one thing - so the coordinates on my GPS can be correlated to my Map i.e by the latitude and longitude (which I presume are the numbers running up and down the map, which cross each other and form those 'boxes'?)

thanks!

I've never done this so might be wrong, but depending on the scale of map that you have, I think it might be difficult to do this in any way that is helpful. For instance, I would think that trying to do this with a 1:2,000,000 map would be a pointless exercise; if you've got a (or rather a stack of) 1:50:000 maps you might be able to do it but to me it sounds like more trouble than its worth.

Also, note that GPS display coordinates using different coordinate formats, including UTM, WGS-84, NAD-27, etc. and there could be issues translating these into standard lat/long. You might want to look at this link for more info: Garmin Manual: Working with Coordinates and Units

Moroever, as others have pointed out, there are free digital maps for most parts of the world, so it might be better to get a GPS capable of using those maps then looking on the GPS to figure out where you are--you can always look at the map if you need to look at the "big picture".