A GPS routing how to

[scrubjaysnest]

For our trip to Alaska this year we bought a Garmin NUVI. The attached .DOC and .PDF are files on how I handled making the routes.

What is your method. Routes were also done on paper maps with magic markers.

Credit goes to Bill for his editing of this project. Tech report writing was a course I barely passed in college. Thank you Bill

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by scrubjaysnest

For our trip to Alaska this year we bought a Garmin NUVI. The attached .DOC and .PDF are files on how I handled making the routes.

What is your method. Routes were also done on paper maps with magic markers.

I've gotta tell ya........I feel so weird about this whole "GPS" thing......I have one in my truck and I will use it on occasion but it just seems oddly strange to me.

For years, I sailed across open oceans with nothing but a compass and sextant. ~1987, I bought a "Sat-Nav" (pre-curser to GPS). It was weird depending on that thing for awhile. Then I got my 1st GPS around....1993. That thing was deadly accurate in my mind but the ocean charts were not done by GPS and a lot of boats used to run aground because an Island was 1/2 mile off on a chart that was drawn using a sextant in the 17 or 1800s.....

I went through all that stuff and sailed around the world relying on GPs but darn-it....there are no roads or street signs in the ocean.

A couple years ago, I finally broke down and bought a GPS for the car. I named it "Dorothy", after my sister (because it talks too much).....It just feels weird to me. It's hard to explain.........When it comes to trip planning, give me a map any day..........I guess I'm from a different planet.....

[Barb&Tim]

We normally use a garmin Nuvi for simple uncomplicated trips and let it do the routing(within reason that is). If i want specific routing we sometimes use MS Streets and Trips software that i have installed on a netbook with a Gps receiver--> much easier to customize the route. Paper maps are a backup.

Tim

[Bill]

I got my 1st GPS around....1993. That thing was deadly accurate in my mind but the ocean charts were not done by GPS and a lot of boats used to run aground because an Island was 1/2 mile off

Hmmm. GPS was not available to civilians in any useful sense until President Clinton ordered SA (Selective Availability, or intentional degradation) turned off in May 2000. Until then, accuracy to non-military receivers was on the order of 100-300 meters (1/4 mile, more or less). No wonder boats were going aground! At that time, only military GPS receivers could cancel out SA, and they cost tens of thousands of dollars and were classified.

After SA was turned off, several companies such as Garmin decided it was worthwhile to mass-produce GPS receivers. Only with mass production did cost go down to a level acceptable to a large number of consumers, while accuracy went up to a level that made purchase of even a low-priced receiver worthwhile. And now we can all get accuracy that used to be limited to the military, for only a handful of dollars. I use my Garmin handhelds for geocaching, and my Nuvi for road navigation.

Now that a GPS receiver is owned by so many consumers, it would be a very difficult decision for the Government to turn SA back on again. But it can be done, at the flick of a switch, if needed. Hope it never happens!

Bill

[Wavery]

My 1st GPS was a Garmin, available at any West Marine. I just remembered, mine was a 2nd generation. It was a model 75...the 1st generation was a model 45.
http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/GPS75_OwnersManual.pdf
It was 1st available in 1992 according to the Owner's Manual above.
It cost ~$400 at that time. It had Lat, Long, distance to way point, man-overbaord capability (reverse course to way point), speed over ground, heading and a few other things. Of course those were mostely just calculator functions. It would track up to 8 satellites at a time.
.........accuracy was more like +/- 90 meters. It was also intigratable with my Radar unit (for display purposes only) and auto-pilot.

Just a few years later far better GPS units were available for ~$100.

SA blocking was only open to the military at that time and to my knowledge was not available at any cost.

The accuracy that you are talking about was available with the old "Sat-Nav" units. My sat-nav cost $1200 in 1987 and that thing sucked up power like crazy (5A if I remember correctly). It would only track 3 satellites at a time and there were areas of the world that I might only get one accurate fix a day. However, when you are only making 100-175 miles a day, 1 fix was OK.

BTW.......a good sextant fix from the deck of a boat was +/- 3 miles. Even 1/4 of a mile would have been amazing in those days. The advent of the early GPS built over confidence in the crew. People got lazy and boats ran aground from not paying attention, mainly.

This isn't a very flattering picture and I was a little off on the date. This pic of our early Sat-Nav was taken May 1986. The Latitude reading was 00.000.00S, as we crossed the Equator, on our way to Samoa from Palmyra. We spent 3 months on Palmyra all by ourselves (Palmyra was a deserted Island 900 miles south of Hawaii. Today, it is inhabited by the Conservatory of the Pacific)..

These days, I wouldn't dare try to board an airplane looking like that.........

[scrubjaysnest]

It is to bad that the loran system was killed this year. With it at least once you had been there it took you right back. Imo it did a better job of taking you back to that small rock in 40 feet of water then the GPS. My daughter was out geocaching, had located the container and while signing the log the GPS suddenly showed her to be 50 miles away in Al. Some body bumped the SA switch??????????

[Bill]

I certainly stand corrected on one thing. I didn't realize that any consumer-oriented (as opposed to heavy commercial) GPS receivers were available in 1992 at a reasonable price. I was aware that cargo ships, for example, carried GPS, but they were quite expensive. It was Clinton's decision to turn off SA in 2000 that spurred the development of smaller, cheaper, more capable receivers.

The operator's manual for the GPS75 is pretty good. I notice that Garmin's decision to come out with lower-cost receivers included dumbing down the manual to the point where it is basically useless. When I got my GPSMap60 several years ago, I thought nothing could be more worthless than the manual that came with it. I was wrong. The manual that came with my wife's Garmin Colorado a few months ago has it beat by a wide margin.

I noticed one other thing. The manual for the GPS75 states that the accuracy is 15 meters, but there is an asterisk on that number. The asterisk states that the 15 meter accuracy is subject to a "degradation to 100 meters under Selective Availability". Since SA was always on, this was a bit disingenuous. Sounds just like vehicle tow ratings that we discuss on this board!

As for a sudden 50-miles position error? Whatever that was, it wasn't SA.

Bill

Originally Posted by harveyrv

When it comes to trip planning, give me a map any day..........I guess I'm from a different planet.....

I'm the same way. I prefer studying the maps and having a good understanding of the route before leaving the house. I use the GPS mostly around home and then at the final destination city to find our way around, but not so much for the main travel. I still have it mounted and on when running down interstate as it does contain certain tools that come in handy (shows the speed limit, quickly finds a fast food joint or drug store wherever you're at at the time, etc.)

I only just got the GPS about 6-8 months ago when taking on new job responsibilities that require me to run around town... again, mainly used to find addresses and best routes within my home town.

[T and C]

Originally Posted by harveyrv

I've gotta tell ya........I feel so weird about this whole "GPS" thing......I have one in my truck and I will use it on occasion but it just seems oddly strange to me.

For years, I sailed across open oceans with nothing but a compass and sextant. ~1987, I bought a "Sat-Nav" (pre-curser to GPS). It was weird depending on that thing for awhile. Then I got my 1st GPS around....1993. That thing was deadly accurate in my mind but the ocean charts were not done by GPS and a lot of boats used to run aground because an Island was 1/2 mile off on a chart that was drawn using a sextant in the 17 or 1800s.....

I went through all that stuff and sailed around the world relying on GPs but darn-it....there are no roads or street signs in the ocean.

A couple years ago, I finally broke down and bought a GPS for the car. I named it "Dorothy", after my sister (because it talks too much).....It just feels weird to me. It's hard to explain.........When it comes to trip planning, give me a map any day..........I guess I'm from a different planet.....

I call my Garmin NUVI "Garminita". She can be very handy in an unfamiliar city, helping to guide you to motels, restaurants, post offices, and so on.

Just don't disobey her instructions. If you do she will nag you insane. A while back I went from Pueblo, Colo up the mountain to Silver Cliff. There are two routes. One is more twisty and is shorter, the other less twisty and longer. Twisty makes my wife feel nauseous. Garminita prefers shorter. I had to turn her off.

In November I was towing the TM but decided to stay in a motel. Garminita directed me into a neighborhood to get me turned around. She is definitely not infallable! She directed me into a residential cul-de-sac towing that trailer.

Lucky to be home.

Tom

I don't remember the year but I started out with a Rand Mcnally Streetfinder that plugged into my old Windows 98 laptop. It did ok but the DW can't do anything with a computer. The main problem with it was that it didn't talk. DW often gets a craving for a particular restaurant and sometimes finding the desired one takes well off the beaten path. It was very helpful in getting me back to interstate. We use a TomTom now but I am convinced it is a sin to use one while the DW is in the car. After all, the Bible says, "A man cannot serve two masters."