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Cacher in the RyeGPS Units are taking the Sporting World by StormBy Patricia KutzaWhat device is becoming a must-have product for mariners, hunters, hikers, bikers and geocachers? If you guessed GPS units, you are not only right. You probably also know that whether handheld (hiking/biking/geocaching) or stationery (boat/terrestrial vehicles), they are becoming as ubiquitous as cell phones. And for good reason! Its no fun getting lost and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology uses satellites to hone in your location and guide you back on track to your destination. Want to cut a new path through the backcountry and make sure you follow the same track back to your campsite? GPS will do that for you too. Smitten with the recent treasure hunt game called geocaching? You’ll need a GPS unit to participate. I first paid attention to this technology when I bought a new truck a couple of years ago. Outfitted by On-Star, a popular GPS provider to carmakers, my truck was on their radar. So if, let’s say, I locked myself out of the car (you’ve seen those commercials), On-Star could magically solve my dilemma. I didn’t think more about this technology until lately when cruising in Delta waters on a very foggy afternoon. Suddenly all my familiar landmarks (and there were few to begin with), a series of buoys, disappeared from view. I muttered: I should be using GPS right about now. That incident spurred me to enroll in a short Coast Guard hosted GPS course where I learned the theoretical side of it, and became acquainted with its vernacular, such as waypoints ( Geographical points stored in the memory of a GPS receiver). But it wasn’t until I got my hands on an actual unit that the depth of its usefulness started to sink in. When the winter storms finally took a short holiday, Captain Hippie and I ventured out on the JazzOne in search of some good sturgeon. I brought along a new offering from Magellan’s robust assortment of units, the Meridian Color GPS Value Pack.
For fun and education, we navigated up and down the Mare Island and Carquinez Straits, using the preloaded database waypoints. There are two ways to find them: Either by scrolling through the database menus or pinpointing them on the map screen. With a 2.2” by 1.75” screen display, it became readily apparent to me why many of our sea-faring cohorts integrate their GPS receivers with chart plotters or their laptops so that they have a larger display. It’s really a matter of creature comfort though and for a short haul trip, I like the mobility of a handheld unit. The other tradeoff that comes with mobility is the same one I encounter with my digital camera. These devices are battery hogs! I love the Magellan’s color and backlight intensity but keeping that intensity at full strength means I will be replacing its two AA batteries every six or so hours. That’s where the value of the cigarette lighter (12V) plug kicks in. However, tethering the unit to the plug saves on batteries but provides a screen that is less bright. This is one powerful puppy and not unlike your VCR or cell phone, you will maximize its power by reading the manual first. Magellan has created a decent user’s guide that is actually the vanilla version for their entire series of receivers. I like the layout with its good table of contents so that I can quickly find what I need to know, when I need to know it. Every sport has its unique challenges and I expect that each niche will eventually be offering tailor-made texts that leverage GPS. Magellan’s manual along with my class text, GPS for Mariners, from McGraw-Hill’s International Marine book line, will be a valuable companion as I develop my GPS-aided navigation expertise. Image courtesy of Magellan Contact information:The Magellan Meridian Color GPS Traveler Value Pack GPS for Mariners, Author: Robert J. Sweet |
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The
Pack consists of the handheld receiver with a 16MB built-in map, a Secure
Digital (SD) memory card, an external power cable (9-16 VDC), a PC interface
cable, mounting brackets and MapSend Direct Route software. The built-in
map contains a robust database of both terrestrial and marine waypoints,
everything from nationwide airports, parks and highways to marinas, buoys
and fixed water-based objects. The memory card is needed for drilling down
to the macro level for such details as street addresses (which the Direct
Route software provides) or chart details that their MapSend BlueNav
software offers with the Marine Value Pack version.