GPS & Map Resources

[RollingStone]

I thought I would pass along some resources for those with GPS units, even those with Blackberry and iPhone units could utilize some of these.

iPhone and Blackberry --- two good tracking, routing and waypoint softwares are GPSed.com and everytrail.com. Each will allow your phone to run a route, set waypoints, attach & Geotag photos you take with your phone to your route, upload the route to their website and then view it on a map of differing styles. You can also export the routes out as GPX files for use in traditional software, like National Geographic Topo!, Delorme Topo USA, or Garmin.

It's important to note on the blackberries that your carrier may have blocked third party access to the GPS unit. Verizon is notorious for doing this. Also, the phone GPS units are not WAAS enabled so their accuracy is going to vary from 50-65 feet of actual position.

Because I live in wide open spaces, I actually ditched by DeLorme PN20 and strictly use my Blackberry 8530 now. It works unbelievably well, even in canyons. Not sure yet about a thick tree cover.


Software -
Easy GPS - Good free route and waypoint management software. If you are the user who does more work with routes and waypoints, this handy little tool works great. www.easygps.com

TopoFusion - Topo Map software that is free, but a few restrictions. The tools are good, but it's a little slow because it draws it's maps from various online servers. The major restriction is that some of the map tiles with be overlayed with "TopoFusion" unless you choose to give them 60 dollars for a full license. But, if you are just getting into Topo mapping, this can be handy to learn on before moving to other software. - www.topofusion.com

Expert GPS - Expert GPS is made by the same people who do Easy GPS. You can grab a 30 day free trial at their website which is unrestricted. Expert GPS works much like the major software from DeLorme and Nat Geo. It also supports sending GPX files back and forth with Garmin and Magellan. It too is dependant upon online map servers. One time charge of 59.95 after free trial.

Most people tend to use whatever software comes with their unit. But some of them are notoriously difficult to get a grasp on, even if they are so powerful.

For DeLorme users, the company itself has the best service and attitude in the industry but easy to find FAQ's on their website are not plentiful. There exists an unofficial Wiki that is a great help - http://delormepn40.wikispaces.com/

For Garmin Users, they have an extensive FAQ Database although getting clear answers sometimes doesn't seem to be their forte', there is a great deal of information there and is easy to wade through.

Hope this helped someone.

[Marvin]

Ken has reviewed Backroads GPS Maps by Backroads Mapbooks. The company has decent topo maps for (some) Canadian provinces. It is not the least expensive way to get maps, but based on Ken's comparison screen shots, the maps seem to have much more detail than Garmin Topo Canada v4 and Ibycus Topo: www.laptopgpsworld.com/3545-review-backroad-mapbooks-gps-maps

[BrianLe]

For smartphones running some version of Windows Mobile I suggest also checking out http://memory-map.com/

I'm a happy customer of these guys. If you buy their higher end product for $100, "Navigator", you are able to load maps for from other sources, i.e., you're not locked into using their maps. With sites out there like http://libremap.org/ you can get maps for free if you don't need a whole lot of them at a time.
And you can buy all of the maps at 1:24k resolution for the AT for just $25 from http://www.edigitalmaps.com/product_...roducts_id=184
Now add in the free * http://www.gpsbabel.org/ tool to grab trail overlay data from various online sites and you've got a good package at not too much money.

[Wise Old Owl]

I thought I would pass along some resources for those with GPS units, even those with Blackberry and iPhone units could utilize some of these.



It's important to note on the blackberries that your carrier may have blocked third party access to the GPS unit. Verizon is notorious for doing this. Also, the phone GPS units are not WAAS enabled so their accuracy is going to vary from 50-65 feet of actual position.


Hope this helped someone.

Great post I cant wait to start looking up some of this, but the WAAS part for Pennsylvania is useless until they launch a Waas capable sat over Kansas. The signal is rarely available Bar 22 on Magellen, and if turned off, your location appears faster.

[Kerosene]

Of course, you have to worry about battery life with your Blackberry, so I'd only rely on this device for dayhikes or periodic checkpoints.