On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 21:55:47 +0000, Ian Malcolm wrote:

Chuck Bollinger wrote:

At the Work Boat Show (Seattle) on Friday I was looking for a fixed mount
GPS to replace my beloved Micrologic Mariner which is showing some senility.
I found the Garmin GPS 152 and the Furuno GP-32 and 37. They'd probably do
the job.

Thing is, though, neither of them has a keypad. So I'd like to know from a
user just how, and how quickly, a waypoint can be entered. Ever since I had
a laptop disaster I've taken to putting waypoints in manually as I need them
rather than storing more than a couple. It takes less than 10 seconds on my
Mariner. How about either of these two units.

Alternatively, can someone recommend perhaps another unit, like these two,
that does have a keypad entry?

Thanks

Chuck Bollinger wrote:

I appreciate the thoughtful replies. It confirms what I had suspected. As
far as entering info from the laptop: I go through this 'entering numbers'
thing on the GPS to stay aloof from the laptop. I've had a series of evil
things happen at bad times, which is why we have the chart-pack out when in
non-home waters. If the laptop goes I lose a toy, but not my position or
ability to navigate.

This is a good group.

I can recommend the Yeoman plotter. It is a specialised digitising tablet with
a NMEA0183 interface designed for marine charts that lets you quickly and
easily read off the current position directly on any normal paper chart using
your GPS, (you just move the puck in the direction of the illuminated arrow or
arrowson it, and your position is under the hole in the crosshair for the tip of
a pencil when all the arrows have gone out. It also reads off range and bearing
to any feature on the chart, and SENDS WAYPOINTS DIRECT FROM IT TO YOUR GPS with
only a few button clicks.


Oh, good grief: Technology Gone Mad. You mean you can't read lat/long off a
chart? And if you can err reading the chart, you can err even worse setting it
up.

Lloyd Sumpter
"Far Cove" Catalina 36 c/w lots of paper charts.