mick the mole
New member
Hi, I am looking at logging my finds in the field and would like to know your views and ideas on what GPS to use and purchase.
Mick the Mole
Mick the Mole
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GPS for recording finds
- Thread starter mick the mole
- Start date
The choices are kind of like metal detectors... endless. If you don't mind taking notes and of the cheaper ones will do. You definitely want to make sure the unit is WAAS enabled. This will get your accuracy down to about a meter. A simple unit should be less than a $100 now days. If you really want to get fancy you can get a GPS enabled camera. The units that I use fro surveying are about $18K and it takes two, but we are talking centimeter accuracy.
BarnacleBill
New member
There are tons of models to choose from, but having been involved with Geocaching many of the needed qualities are similar.
A. Waterproof or water resistant.
B. Good battery life with a back light that can be turned ON/OFF. Does it use standard batteries?
C. Excellent sensitivity under the tree canopy.
D. Depending on your eyesight, is the display clear & large enough for you to see?
E. Does it come with Topo maps, if not can they be purchased? If so how much extra cost?
F. Does it come with computer software that will let you upload & download maps?
G. For Treasure Hunting a touchscreen is out of the question, sand and dirt will scratch it. You need buttons, and if you are going to be wearing gloves check out how big the buttons are and their placement.
H. Does it look like it can be dropped and survive? Because at some point you will drop it!
I. Look at an online manual to see how many button presses to mark a location. Also look to see how text is entered if you are going to label the locations with a long description.
J. Warranty?
As far as accuracy, remember that each time you start the unit you want it to lock on to as many sats as possible before beginning to walk with it. About 20 minutes would be ideal but not always practical. Therefore I get out of my vehicle, turn the GPS on, set it on the roof of my car while I get the rest of my gear together. The clearer the view of the sky the better! If you locate a site you want to mark as accurately as possible, find a clear view of the sky, and set the unit down to let it soak for 20 minutes, then mark the location. 10ft/3m is about as close as is normally expected out of the better handhelds. With surveying units, several kilobucks, you can do better as they can use some fixed earth sites to further triangulate your position and correct satellite signal jitter.
These are just a few considerations. I would look at the Geocaching web sites to see what people think of the latest crop of units as this is the primary tool of that hobby.
HH
BarnacleBill
A. Waterproof or water resistant.
B. Good battery life with a back light that can be turned ON/OFF. Does it use standard batteries?
C. Excellent sensitivity under the tree canopy.
D. Depending on your eyesight, is the display clear & large enough for you to see?
E. Does it come with Topo maps, if not can they be purchased? If so how much extra cost?
F. Does it come with computer software that will let you upload & download maps?
G. For Treasure Hunting a touchscreen is out of the question, sand and dirt will scratch it. You need buttons, and if you are going to be wearing gloves check out how big the buttons are and their placement.
H. Does it look like it can be dropped and survive? Because at some point you will drop it!
I. Look at an online manual to see how many button presses to mark a location. Also look to see how text is entered if you are going to label the locations with a long description.
J. Warranty?
As far as accuracy, remember that each time you start the unit you want it to lock on to as many sats as possible before beginning to walk with it. About 20 minutes would be ideal but not always practical. Therefore I get out of my vehicle, turn the GPS on, set it on the roof of my car while I get the rest of my gear together. The clearer the view of the sky the better! If you locate a site you want to mark as accurately as possible, find a clear view of the sky, and set the unit down to let it soak for 20 minutes, then mark the location. 10ft/3m is about as close as is normally expected out of the better handhelds. With surveying units, several kilobucks, you can do better as they can use some fixed earth sites to further triangulate your position and correct satellite signal jitter.
These are just a few considerations. I would look at the Geocaching web sites to see what people think of the latest crop of units as this is the primary tool of that hobby.
HH
BarnacleBill
Crash620
Member
Used a Magellan Explorist 500, now using a Garmin Oregon 400t (topo). The Garmin has significantly more aftermarket program support. (i.e. Google Earth) making it easy to import your tracks in addition to marking your finds. I have been using the my GPS units extensively to chart my finds and to locate the "hot spots" in the fields. You will need to get an aftermarket program to calibrate any old maps you may have to be able to get the coordinates of the old structures, but the cost is well worth it. As to Barnacle Bills post that touch screen is out, I use a screen shield from that company we dont mention here. It works very well. I do take my glove off to enter waypoints, but then again, I also update target names, and info to reflect the fe-co numbers and the depth of all my targets. A couple extra seconds pays dividends in the end. There is always some drift in readings even with WAAS enabled, but most units will get you close enough.
Regards, Keith
Regards, Keith
Mick, that GPS idea sounds like great idea. I've spent hours mapping locations over the years and guessing distance as a means to record my finds, but your idea is sure much simpler. As a lot of us hunt fields, some times the same ones for years, the gps would be fantastic as a tool to figure out patterns of lost items; groupings for instance that might indicate a dropped purse or something of that sort. When we're walking a field we often tend to walk row by row, and patterns become less obvious, and coins and artifacts are constantly being shirfted into detector range by the plow every year, making a pattern even less obvious. Anyway, great idea! I think I'll start saving up for one myself.
40golf_zulu
New member
My Garmin CX60 has a "bread crumb" type feature that lets me back track. ive used that while Geocaching or hunting through heavy woods with little or no trails. im sure it will work for gridding off an area. its fairly accurate and it will measure off as little as 5 steps in either direction.
BarnacleBill,
I have to say that was some good information. I used to run a charter boat on the salt, it was quite awhile ago. We migrated from Loran to GPS. Our first GPS tracked 4 satellites. It used 3 of them and the 4th was for backup if one were to go down. I recall once when they shut down the GPS system. Atleast I think they did, we had 3 gps's on the boat at the time and they all 3 just went to 0's. It lasted about 5 minutes and we just went by radar and compass for a short while until they came back online. GPS was brand new at the time.
My whole point in that is that I have used my fair share of gps's and been using them since the beginning. But your points that you brought up are really good and I will be taking them into consideration next time I buy a GPS.
Txrpls, we are really down to 3 meters accuracy now? thats amazing! When I was living on the salt I think we were lucky to be within a couple hundred feet!
I have to say that was some good information. I used to run a charter boat on the salt, it was quite awhile ago. We migrated from Loran to GPS. Our first GPS tracked 4 satellites. It used 3 of them and the 4th was for backup if one were to go down. I recall once when they shut down the GPS system. Atleast I think they did, we had 3 gps's on the boat at the time and they all 3 just went to 0's. It lasted about 5 minutes and we just went by radar and compass for a short while until they came back online. GPS was brand new at the time.
My whole point in that is that I have used my fair share of gps's and been using them since the beginning. But your points that you brought up are really good and I will be taking them into consideration next time I buy a GPS.
Txrpls, we are really down to 3 meters accuracy now? thats amazing! When I was living on the salt I think we were lucky to be within a couple hundred feet!
In2Deep said:
Actually in some test I have done with handhelds with WAAS enabled, I have been able to repeat 1 meter accuracy. I don't know if any handhelds support the GLONASS system, but our with our survey grade instrument with GLONASS enabled I get in excess of 16 birds sometimes. With the new Galileo system coming on line, It is only a matter of time until we get sub-meter accuracy with a handheld.
Willee - Texas
Well-known member
Acbp213 said:
Since the GPS unit is a receiver, it would be more likely the detector would interfere with it.
But I doubt it would.
Frequency difference is huge.
I use a Delorme Earthmate.
It provides me complete tracking, coordinates, able to go right back to spot. Delorme's GPS units also have regular mapping, topographical mapping and the ability to display overhead imager you can download and install on the unit. Now you've got it all
Here's a link
http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10460&minisite=10020
There are many good GPS units, I also own MAgellan MEridian and Triton and their 4250's for two of our cars....
All around for what you want to do the Earthmate is me recommendation
Good luck..
It provides me complete tracking, coordinates, able to go right back to spot. Delorme's GPS units also have regular mapping, topographical mapping and the ability to display overhead imager you can download and install on the unit. Now you've got it all
Here's a link
http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10460&minisite=10020
There are many good GPS units, I also own MAgellan MEridian and Triton and their 4250's for two of our cars....
All around for what you want to do the Earthmate is me recommendation
Good luck..
Ya know last time I was looking at buying a GPS, I was settled on the Delorme. They had a feature that no other GPS at the time had. Might still be that way, I dont know.
They had an overlay that you could get that actually mapped the GMU's. Game Management Units for hunting. Problem was that Washington state was not one of the ones on their list. I have not gone back and looked in atleast a year. For guys that hunt in them small gmu's like me, i thought that was the best feature ever.
If memory serves me correct, doesnt Delorme do a bunch of mapping stuff outside of the gps world? Its been a year, but I remember thinking that Delorme was going to be what I ended up with because of all of its great features
They had an overlay that you could get that actually mapped the GMU's. Game Management Units for hunting. Problem was that Washington state was not one of the ones on their list. I have not gone back and looked in atleast a year. For guys that hunt in them small gmu's like me, i thought that was the best feature ever.
If memory serves me correct, doesnt Delorme do a bunch of mapping stuff outside of the gps world? Its been a year, but I remember thinking that Delorme was going to be what I ended up with because of all of its great features
BarnacleBill
New member
Yes, before GPS they made terrific maps, especially their state atlas maps in a large book format with the state broken into small sections.
HH
BarnacleBill
HH
BarnacleBill
Crash620
Member
Overlaid in google earth.... For those looking for software to calibrate maps, both Oziexplorer and ExpertGPS both fit the bill allowing calibration of old maps. Ozie allows calibration with as few as 4 points allowing you to mouse over any point on the calibrated map to determine its coordinates. (works great with the maptech historic topo maps)
Also with Oziexplorer you can save your tracks and display them on the map. That way you can see where you walked and what areas need more attention.
I used it when I culled feral animals for National Parks here in Australia. At the end of the cull I would present the ranger with a 3D map showing the location of all kills and the tracks of all the hunters....made us look very professional.
I great peice of software.
I used it when I culled feral animals for National Parks here in Australia. At the end of the cull I would present the ranger with a 3D map showing the location of all kills and the tracks of all the hunters....made us look very professional.
I great peice of software.
Funny story..
My mom comes home (I am visiting her) and asks me to go to a garage sale.. I generally dont do the garage sale thing, but it was a special occasion being with my mom and all. Turns out it was a good garage sale.. A mans sale! Power tools, GPS and a digial camera for 20 bucks.
We bought a GPS, its a Magellon Sport trak (I think that what it caled). 20 bucks, it came in box that was only opened once. We bought the digital camera for 20 bucks.. Looked it up, the camera sold for 900 bucks when it was new. My son got the camera, he was very very excited about having his own camera to take pictures for me...2 hours later I droppd his camera and shattered the lense
Lucky for me, Grandma has a digital camera that she did not like and she gave it to him.
Long story, but atleast I got a GPS now.. even if its not top dog, it was good enough to make a line when i walked around my moms house in circles
My mom comes home (I am visiting her) and asks me to go to a garage sale.. I generally dont do the garage sale thing, but it was a special occasion being with my mom and all. Turns out it was a good garage sale.. A mans sale! Power tools, GPS and a digial camera for 20 bucks.
We bought a GPS, its a Magellon Sport trak (I think that what it caled). 20 bucks, it came in box that was only opened once. We bought the digital camera for 20 bucks.. Looked it up, the camera sold for 900 bucks when it was new. My son got the camera, he was very very excited about having his own camera to take pictures for me...2 hours later I droppd his camera and shattered the lense
Lucky for me, Grandma has a digital camera that she did not like and she gave it to him.Long story, but atleast I got a GPS now.. even if its not top dog, it was good enough to make a line when i walked around my moms house in circles