GPS units

Regarding software - stick to the one you know. Both Basecamp and Mapsource do the same things. It is mainly the interface that is different. I prefer the newer looking interface of Basecamp and have been using it for a few months now.
One bonus is that you do not have to jump through hoops to install Basecamp like you have to with Mapsource - just download, install, use.

Hell!

9 pages of GPS's.

Tried one once. We got lost...well lost.

Up until then I had never really believed in being lost, just temporarily disorientated.

Sorry. Can't show. Don't have. I follow my nose.

***don't follow me.

Hi guys and girls

So far I have not extensively used GPS in the Berg, I have used trail app on my iPhone to place markers during hikes and to access some waypoint coordinates created of GE etc. Whilst the iPhone is certainly no slouch I'm sure it will not compare to a proper fit-for-purpose GPS device.

So I was thinking it may be a good investment for the future, and this topic was therefore started to try and get some recommendations on GPS devices. Haven't set a budget at this stage so shoot away with recommendations in any price range please.

Thanks in advance!

My conclusion on my Garmin E-Trek H - its very accurate at telling you where you are and is good for confirming where you are going. Its also very accurate on altitudes, it was within a metre on top of both Thumb Spur and Thaba Ngwangwe. Its also good at giving you stats on your hike, average speed, distance remaining etc. Its battery consumption isn't too bad either.

For any other purpose its useless. Its a mission to capture detailed tracks, you can't load tracks from your computer, and the memory only records about 20km of hiking - so you can't really keep detailed tracks of routes other than what you are currently doing (it can take up to 20 rough tracks with 20 way points - so basically just the general direction).

Just some feedback from my side after posting a question in this topic a while ago.

I decided to try and push the potential of my iPhone a bit further. Tried an app called Motion.X.GPS, and have to say it's good. You can pre-load maps, utilize Bing's or Apple's satelite imaging, and it tracks as well as anything I've used before. Even for cycling or running it provides great tracking ability. I recently tried the app during some trial runs in the Robbers pass area in Mpumalanga and found waypoint tracking etc to be really good.

The only potential limitation is offcourse the hardware, with iPhone GPS accuracy not as good as a purpose made GPS. It's however quite decent, during a cycling trial the recorded track followed the road exactly, so I think it should be good enough for 99% of the time.

Highly recommended iPhone app.

That would mean you would have to preload all the maps that you are going to use on your route? Are you able to use this feature when there is no gps signal and just rely on the gps receiver in the phone plus the cached maps? I am not sure when they say gps it really is a gps off satellites. All info welcome.

Generally you would have a backgroud map on your gps that covers a wide area, and your own tracks and waypoints are displayed on top of it, eg. Garmin receivers have data called Topo and Rec (made by Garmap) available, which displays contours, roads, rivers, POIs (points of interest) and more, and covers southern Africa up to Malawi, maybe more, I haven't investigated this thoroughly. Most of this South African spatial data is the same as we see on the Ezemvelo Berg maps and the Slingsby maps, ie. it is originally from the Surveyor-General.
If there is no gps signal your receiver will not do anything constructive and you will probably just see the background map at an arbitrary position, but if you are outdoors, there is always a gps signal, and sometimes even indoors, with the highly sensitive receivers available nowadays. All this applies to a certain extent to Smartphones, iPads, etc, but they will probably show Google Maps or OpenStreetmap data.

Reply to myself - just purchased an iPhone 4s - with GPS. No WAAS but it actually uses both US and Russian GPS satellites (doubles the number of satellites). Now to figure how to use it for waypoints (including altitude) only.

What I know at this time is to set it for Airplane mode (ie phone disabled) to save battery. Probably need 2 aps - one for GPS and one for ALT.

I am an expert in GPSBabel. Can convert any format into any format.

Anyone using the Garmin Etrex 20?
Is it worth getting, or should i fork out the extra cash for a better model?