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Which GPS?
On 27 Oct 2003 18:49:55 -0800, (Parallax)
tempted fate with:
Being a psuedo-Luddite who still has a slide rule (and knows how to
use it), I still use paper charts and think that navigation and
position plotting is aesthetically pretty, but I also admit to being a
geometry/trig geek.
In one of his books written in the 50's Robert Heinlein said that
anyone who couldn't use a sliderule was a cultural illiterate. I
guess the equivalent nowadays would be the PC. Interesting thought,
that. The one was mostly used to solve amazingly complex mathematical
problems with just a couple of sticks. The other is mostly used to
download porn.
I have even been tempted to forego GPS completely but I spose
it is a safety thing. Any ideas?
I've always been something of a luddite, myself. I love plotting. I
find it scary how quickly you can become dependent on electronics if
you let yourself. That said, your primary navigation tool is always
your brain. As long as you don't let it get rusty, using the best
secondary tools available is only common sense. These things are
insidious, though. It's very easy to find yourself navigating by
looking at the screen, instead of looking around you. Not trying to
lecture here, this is just a subject I'm interested in.
I use a Garmin GPS 48, for my money the best handheld ever made for
marine use. It has an excellent antenna, so it even works down below
on rainy days. They aren't made anymore, but you often see them pop
up on Ebay, as well as cables for attaching to 12v and computers. I
don't have much use for mapping handhelds, the screens are just too
small. I get frustrated trying to keep the big picture in focus even
on fullsize chartplotters.
__________________________________________________ __________
Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at worldwidewiley dot com
To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious.
Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and
logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/
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