Light-weight GPS tracking

Hi Guys I was thinking of getting a gps in Brisbane would it work in nz or would i have to load nz maps and things into it,as you can tell i dont know much about them Lindsay

You MAY have New Zealand as a basemaps, if you want the 1:50000 maps then you will have to load them on. Yes you can use 60CSx with one hand and they are completely waterproof, I think even the 70 series float! They are normally out by 20 metres because the Americans don't want to get blown up! They do tend to go up the valley sides and that if your only got 2 or 3 satellites or you stop for a wee bit.

Apparently even the GPS60 series will float if you have lithium cells in it. Don't quote me on that, though. Thanks everyone for your help and feedback on this. To comment on the eTrex input since I brought it up before, it seems the more sophisticated eTrex models with mapping capabilities (ie. everything above the eTrex H) also have an extra jog-dial on the front which supposedly makes getting around the interface quite a lot easier. I might investigate this further and check the manuals in more detail, but an eTrex Vista is still looking tempting. It's a shame the very basic eTrex H is the only eTrex that's well stocked around NZ, since it'd be nice to see a more advanced one beforehand, but whatever. I asked Tony about the touch-screen thing and he wasn't sure about the Dakota, but he said the Oregon touch screen models have had heaps of software problems since their release. I didn't ask if they were related to the touch screen side of it though.

The topo maps I use for my 60CSX are Gary Turner's maps http://www.gtmaps.co.nz for $150 I have also made some other maps myself from data I have got. eg. All property boundaries in Rotorua and all DOC boundaries. That isn't too difficult if you can be bothered trying. Street routing road maps for Garmin are free in NZ, thanks to the Open GPS Mapping project http://nzopengps.org/ This is a unique service that we have that is the envy of other countries. As for the GPS floating... "Your GPS will float, try it... Yeah Right!"

I wonder how they'd deal with that if you sent it back under warranty. Not that I'm going to try, of course.

My unit was replaced under warrenty. You can read the whole story at http://forums.gps.org.nz/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2143

Speaking of accuracy: looking through trap waypoints from the etrex for this week and the record for lowest elevation is 36m below sea level. Caught a possum on that one too.

Hi Guys I am going to get a etrex at the end of the year for the Hollyford walk in march I have some questions 1:can the etrex use the NZGD 2000 Datum 2:do you have to use the WGS 84 Datum instead 3:is there a difference between them 4:what datum do all you experts use Lindsay

Hi Guys i have another question which one would be best as i just wont to plot my course and see where i am going Lindsay

You need to understand the difference between a datum and a Projection. A datum is a mathematical model of the shape of the earth. You memtion 2 datums, NZGD2000 and WGS84 and yes, for our purposes those datums are identical. The other datum you need to know about is Geodatum49 and it is different from the above two (by about 300m). The projection is the system that the Map/GPS uses to get the datum information onto a flat sheet of paper/GPS screen. The projection we are most familiar with is NZMG (NZ map grid) which is used on the current 1:50,000 map series. NZMG always uses Geodatum 49. The projection used on the new series of 1:50,000 maps about to come out is called NZTM2000 and it uses NZGD2000/WGS84 To answer your questions about the Etrex. It knows about both datums WGS84 and geodatum49. It knows about NZMG but i understand that its limitation is that it doesn't know about NZTM2000. However I believe this can be programed in using a custom grid. I am not sure how successful this is. The Garmin 60CSX (which I use) knows about all projections and datums mentioned, however Garmin Mapsource, which is the computer program that goes with it, does not know about NZTM200, which I think is an oversite and hopefully will be fixed in a future version. I hope this helps.