Larry wrote:
Jeff wrote in :


Ah! So you're claiming that a GPS isn't really a GPS unless it has a
chartplotter, or two. Sorry, I didn't understand. And you know
you're being set because that little picture of a boat keeps drifting
off to one side. This is completely different from using RDF and
compass, where the compass bearing will keep shifting to one side.




Any GPS that has a DISPLAY is, by definition, a chart plotter. I don't
know of a single, cheap, even handheld GPS that doesn't have a plotter I
can put a waypoint into. There's none on the Raymarine Raystar 120, as
it's a feeder GPS for the Seatalk network, which has a display, which is a
chartplotter.....

This is fairly true today, though it wasn't even a few years ago. Not
everyone updates all of their electronics every year. And a two inch
screen is not always that easy to read, so my comment about
understanding x-track still stands. "Spirally in" can happen even
with GPS; in fact that could be how the boat ended up on the Miami jetty.


NO RDF has any kind of a plotter I ever saw. It points to the station on
the null, duhh..

No RDF (certainly not the RayJeff genre) was intended to be an
all-in-one solution like the modern GPS. In fact, none of the
traditional techniques could be used in isolation; they all required
an understanding of multiple methods. RDF only gives an LOP, no one
would simply "home in" on beacon, especially if there's a cross current.

No one would claim to be a competent navigator if all the knew was the
RDF. Nowadays, anyone how has a jetski with a gps claims to be a
"navigator."


Why are we having this stupid troll? RDF is useless, now, a waste of
space. Use it to weight down the trash when you dump it overboard.

I never claimed we should return to the RDF. All I did was point out
the error in your understanding of traditional navigation. Your
"spiral in" comment marks you as a n00b.

Ironically, your lame attempt to trash traditional navigation has
shown the great weakness of GPS: if you were alone at the helm and a
loose wire shut down your gps, you probably wouldn't be able to follow
a compass course!

No, I don't have an astrolabe aboard, either!
What good would that do you? You've probably forgotten how to use a
compass by now!