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gps suggestions

T

Tropical Itch

Well-known member
im brand new to airboats and this form, in fact this is my first post, although i have been snooping for a while. lived in southeast florida for over 40 years, and salt water fished not quit as long. finally taking the plunge to get an airboat ( should have by the weekend) :D . my question is in regards to gps's. hand held verses mounted(to what) and is there any map cards for the everglades?? they advertise inland lakes and am not sure if they include the everglades as a lake??? im really looking for some direction and advice. coastal landmarks are easy, one blade of saw grass looks like another to me so far.

thx in advance mike
 
Itch, for me it comes down to how secure a place you have to store your boat.
If you have a place where you can lock it and cover it, away from thieves, then I'd go with a permanent mount.

If not, a handheld would be my choice. JMO

Welcome aboard. Nice to have ya.
 
I would go with a handheld. That way, if you go with someone else, you can mark spots to visit later, also, you never know when you might have to walk out of the glades. My advise is join one of the local clubs. You will find many people willing to show you around.
 
Get a hand held. And there are two accessories that are indispensable....
1. A mount for it so you can see it while driving - I've found that sometimes when I stash my handheld into the seat basket, it'll lose signal and that precious "crumb trail" is gone. C Chardt has his mounted right with his gages and it works great. I made a "pocket" on the side of my seat to stow it so it will not lose signal.

2. Get the interface USB cable Make sure it's a USB cable. A lot of GPS units come with serial cables and while they work, they can be a pain to configure. The USB (newer units) cables ones are pretty much plug-n-play. NOTE: If you or anyone has a serial cable, there is an adapter available that converts it to USB VERY WELL.... contact me for info or google "Keyspan usb/serial adapter" It costs about $30

You need the cable so you can enter landmarks. Typing on that GPS screen is worse than typing on a cell phone keypad. With the cable, (and accompianing software) you can create a map with all your favorite coords, then type them in AND NAME THEM using a REAL keyboard.

Plus, your GPS will have a limited memory for where you've been, sooner or later it'll start to get full and unless you DELETE your tracks, they will really clutter up your display. You can save them before you delete them.... and then do some amazing things with those track files with some creative software. ;) Such as overlay your tracks onto aerial photos, see other info such as speed altitude, etc. Stuff that does not always display on the handheld unit. If you really study your tracks after you get home, you'll quickly know your way around and will soon have no need for the GPS at all.

Now, I've been collecting GPS coords from my travels and from kind souls here on s/a and have a pile of notes and papers on my desk next to the computer - within a week or so, I ought to have it compiled into some sort of useable list. PM me and I'll send you a copy. I'm not sure it's right to post it openly on the internet, but I'm happy to share it with anyone who asks. I just need the time to compile all of it into one large text file.

Keep you eye out for my new everglades map. I've been working on it and it's coming out really nice. Maybe need another month though before it's printable.

Welcome to the forum and we hope to see more of ya in these parts!
Join us at Camp Mack (near Lake Wales) THIS WEEKEND (4/7/2007) be there saturday morning early and have a fun time. Bring your boat or not. It's like a boat show where you KNOW all the boats have pistons in the motors! LOL

matt.
 
I like the idea of the hand held better you can always get a mount for them then remove it when you stop somewhere or park the boat.

now with that said , I still can't figure out how to use mine :(
 
Hey Gold - and the thousands of others that are lost on the GPS.... I was too...

But I got over it by frequently reading the manual. It seemed that every time I used the thing, I picked up a little more about it, and the manual started to make more sense. After re-reading it 5 times in 6 months, I about had it completely figured out.

I was so intimidated by the GPS when I first got one.... Laura helped a lot, we both read the book and used the unit a lot....

But most of all, I got over the "lost" part by trying to learn JUST ONE THING about the unit every time I used it.

Trying to figure it out all at once sure is intimidating! Break it down into little parts, and before you know it, you'll be a pro at every feature and capability of your GPS.

Don't be intimidated!!! :)

matt.
 
p.s. like they've said - a hand held can be used out of the boat.... I think I use mine in the truck more than the boat. Partly because my speedometer is broke in my 'crap truck', but it sure is helpful to landmark points of interest on the roads too. Laura - my navigator - can tell me when my next turn is 2.5 miles away or 340 yards away.

GPS ain't just for the boat!!! Not when you get a handheld.

Want to have some fun? - Fire it up on an airliner. It does not transmit anything to interfere with the plane's electronics as far as I know..... but it's great to see your track and speed and altitude and so on. Hard to do with a perm-a-mount.

:)
 
thx everyone. this weekend will be get aquainted w/ my boat, clean fix inspect. deal w/ the local airport in the attempt to get av gas. most likely it will be a hand held , but a large color screen at night looks bad a$$. are there gps maps that cover the glades??? moodfood thx for all the advice. love to know more about map overlaying and those programs

thx again all
 
moodfood , sorry i didnt realize you and matt and airboat maps are all one and the same.. im in in boca so map 2 would be great, count me in when you get it finished. put me on a list ill get it at press release. :D
 
I have a color fix mounted screen garmin. the big advantage is the memory over the handheld. Holds way more waypoints and track lines. I also have a regular boat and found i do not need track lines in the airboat like I do on my boat. A handheld is great for backup and portable so you can take it to other things too. (my atv comes to mind). they are becoming relatively inexpensive. just my opinion. also I have the garmin 330c street gps for the car. it is truly amazing with all the pre loaded info including hotels, gas, restaurants etc...those units are down from $500 to $300 on the internet.
 
Mood,
I have read that darn manual so many times ...well anyway I have never been able to learn much form read about something have to see it done once........but so far in two years I have learned to turn it on by reading the manual :lol:
 
I went from a Garmin GPS12 and work my way to the Garmin GPSMAPS 276C and it works great. I've got the bag mount for my truck and a Ram Mount for the airboat, which I've installed in 3 other airboats for my buddys around here. They also have 276C I purchase this units from GPSCity.com for them, I paid $600.00 and now there $499.00
http://www.gpscity.com/item-garmin-gpsmap-276c/276c.htm

Here is the mount

http://www.gpscity.com/item-ram-mount-g ... 138ga7.htm

It has 3000 way points so I,don't think you have to worry about running out of space. As far as the glades, I don't think a Blue Chart will help. The 276C uses cards which you can pick up at Ebay cheap. I have New Orleans to Tampa Bay and Crystal River to the Keys. Southeast Freshwater Ways and road maps.
I just like taking it from the boat to the truck to the computer and being able to run the tracks and waypoints at the house. I can then tell what mpg I'm getting.
 
I'll tell you the problem with handhelds and airboats. The screen is awful small even on the color versions for where you get to mount it. What I did is buy a flex mount , its like a 12" long stiff snake like flexible arm. I bought an extra mount and power cord for the GPS on my boat(lowrance fixed mount gps). I mounted it to my guage panel. Now I have a 3 x 5 inch color mapping GPS that I can move if it gets in the way. Downside... its not the prettiest looking thing. But I can now move the unit back and forth between my boat and my airboat saving me 500 bucks.
I think you really need to look at the mounting options you have for your new boat before you make a deciscion. Handhelds are great and if you can figure out a way to get it close enough to you that you can actually read it while running 40 MPH through trails then I'd say go for it. ANd I'd say your a better man then I. I'd borrow a handheld unit from someone and take a ride on your boat and put it in the general vincinity before you dump your money into it.
If you go with a fixed/permament mount unit your only limiting factors are price. Get one that has an external antenna or an option for one and you can mount it virtually anywhere.
As far as the everglades and mapping my lowrance mapping unit has a pretty decent basemap of the glades. I can check my blue charts CD tommorrow at my office and see if there are any details in the everglades that would make getting a map cd or chip just for that area worth it.
 
Their is some good advice here ... I obviously know nothing about the everglades but GPS are fun toys. But keep paper maps and a good compos in your boat just in case that piece of electronics has a bad day... We keep zip lock baggies in the boat to throw over the GPS incase of rain or rough water. Check out the Garmin Rino it also has two way Family radio and if you go to the 130 you get 24MB. of memory instead of the normal 8MB. But you have the small screen .. We too have the Garmin 176 now replaced by the 276c it is super and it quickly disconnects from the mount and can to be used else ware... We do a lot of night running and have found out the hard way that even if you know the area very well turn on the GPS before you leave just in case the fog comes in and all of the landmarks are gone from sight.

Welcome to S/A
 
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