Our property in WY is at 8000’ atop Casper Mountain and looks
southward with a beautiful view from SE to SW. Far to the SE, one can
see two high mountains and to the SW is a distant range of mountains
while near to the south is Muddy Mountain. I was sitting on the porch
with a neighbor and we were discussing what mountains these were. He
said the high one top the SE was Laramie Peak and the range to the SW
was the Seminoe Range but I was doubtful. He picks my Garmin 76 GPS
up offa the table and turns it on and we begin to wait for it to
acquire satellites. Meanwhile, I get my old Silva hand compass and
take bearings on the mountains. With the bearings, I draw lines on
the topo map from my known location in the directions my compass
indicates. Finally, my neighbor takes the GPS to a place with a
clearer view of the sky out from under the thin Aspens. By the time
the GPS had the bearing to the mountains, I had already plotted the
lines from my hand compass and had decided that my neighbor was wrong
and I correctly identify the mountains.
The moral of this story? Often GPS is simply too high tech to be
useful and a simple hand compass is more useful. Two more times on
this trip the GPS was too slow to start working and I used my hand
compass to more easily get the right info. Unfortunately, the Garmin
GPS76 eats batteries so one cannot simply keep it on unless you have
many more batteries ready.
So, I’d like to see a simple GPS with a built in needle type no
battery hand compass. It would also have a straight edge with a scale
and even a protractor for measuring angles.

On 7/21/10 12:38 PM, Frogwatch wrote:

So, I’d like to see a simple GPS with a built in needle type no
battery hand compass. It would also have a straight edge with a scale
and even a protractor for measuring angles.

There are at least a dozen compass apps for Android cell phones, plus
some that seemingly incorporate GPS, too. My Android phone happens to
have GPS. I use the phone a lot, running any number of apps, and i
usually get two full days out of it before the battery runs down to 20%.

You're on your own for the straight edge and protractor.

On Jul 21, 12:49Â*pm, Harry  wrote:
On 7/21/10 12:38 PM, Frogwatch wrote:

So, I’d like to see a simple GPS with a built in needle type no
battery hand compass. Â*It would also have a straight edge with a scale
and even a protractor for measuring angles.

There are at least a dozen compass apps for Android cell phones, plus
some that seemingly incorporate GPS, too. My Android phone happens to
have GPS. I use the phone a lot, running any number of apps, and i
usually get two full days out of it before the battery runs down to 20%.

You're on your own for the straight edge and protractor.

My son has an Android and he turned the compass app on. I held it
near a steel object and I was amazed that it deflected as a magnetic
compass would. The built in compass is NOT GPS based but seems to have
a solid state flux gate sensor that responds to the earths mag field.
I am very impressed by the Android.

On 7/21/10 12:58 PM, Frogwatch wrote:
On Jul 21, 12:49 pm, Harry wrote:
On 7/21/10 12:38 PM, Frogwatch wrote:

So, I’d like to see a simple GPS with a built in needle type no
battery hand compass. It would also have a straight edge with a scale
and even a protractor for measuring angles.

There are at least a dozen compass apps for Android cell phones, plus
some that seemingly incorporate GPS, too. My Android phone happens to
have GPS. I use the phone a lot, running any number of apps, and i
usually get two full days out of it before the battery runs down to 20%.

You're on your own for the straight edge and protractor.

My son has an Android and he turned the compass app on. I held it
near a steel object and I was amazed that it deflected as a magnetic
compass would. The built in compass is NOT GPS based but seems to have
a solid state flux gate sensor that responds to the earths mag field.
I am very impressed by the Android.


I didn't say "the" compass was a GPS. I said there were some compass
apps that incorporated GPS. That presumes one's Android phone has a GPS.
Mine does. But I've never bothered with a compass app. It's a pretty
neat phone...there supposedly are 100,000 apps already. I only have a
handful of apps.

BTW, there's a marine nav package out now for the Android phones. Pretty
good one, or so it has been described.

"Harry " wrote in message
...
On 7/21/10 12:58 PM, Frogwatch wrote:
On Jul 21, 12:49 pm, Harry wrote:
On 7/21/10 12:38 PM, Frogwatch wrote:

So, I’d like to see a simple GPS with a built in needle type no
battery hand compass. It would also have a straight edge with a scale
and even a protractor for measuring angles.

There are at least a dozen compass apps for Android cell phones, plus
some that seemingly incorporate GPS, too. My Android phone happens to
have GPS. I use the phone a lot, running any number of apps, and i
usually get two full days out of it before the battery runs down to 20%.

You're on your own for the straight edge and protractor.

My son has an Android and he turned the compass app on. I held it
near a steel object and I was amazed that it deflected as a magnetic
compass would. The built in compass is NOT GPS based but seems to have
a solid state flux gate sensor that responds to the earths mag field.
I am very impressed by the Android.


I didn't say "the" compass was a GPS. I said there were some compass apps
that incorporated GPS. That presumes one's Android phone has a GPS. Mine
does. But I've never bothered with a compass app. It's a pretty neat
phone...there supposedly are 100,000 apps already. I only have a handful
of apps.

BTW, there's a marine nav package out now for the Android phones. Pretty
good one, or so it has been described.

GPS was required by the government. So 911 would have a much better fix on
your location. The flux gate compass was added for some apps. Was cheap
addition as well as the crude GPS silicon. I worked on one of the first
apps for GPS and compass in a phone in 2001. Customer was going for a group
that would use the phone as a search device. Point the phone in the
direction you wanted info for and ask for history, dining, etc. This was
when I was with the major supplier of silicon to the cell phone industry.
Was fun as we had the first GPS in a phone chip set, etc.

On 7/21/10 4:36 PM, Califbill wrote:


"Harry " wrote in message
...
On 7/21/10 12:58 PM, Frogwatch wrote:
On Jul 21, 12:49 pm, Harry wrote:
On 7/21/10 12:38 PM, Frogwatch wrote:

So, I’d like to see a simple GPS with a built in needle type no
battery hand compass. It would also have a straight edge with a scale
and even a protractor for measuring angles.

There are at least a dozen compass apps for Android cell phones, plus
some that seemingly incorporate GPS, too. My Android phone happens to
have GPS. I use the phone a lot, running any number of apps, and i
usually get two full days out of it before the battery runs down to
20%.

You're on your own for the straight edge and protractor.

My son has an Android and he turned the compass app on. I held it
near a steel object and I was amazed that it deflected as a magnetic
compass would. The built in compass is NOT GPS based but seems to have
a solid state flux gate sensor that responds to the earths mag field.
I am very impressed by the Android.


I didn't say "the" compass was a GPS. I said there were some compass
apps that incorporated GPS. That presumes one's Android phone has a
GPS. Mine does. But I've never bothered with a compass app. It's a
pretty neat phone...there supposedly are 100,000 apps already. I only
have a handful of apps.

BTW, there's a marine nav package out now for the Android phones.
Pretty good one, or so it has been described.

GPS was required by the government. So 911 would have a much better fix
on your location. The flux gate compass was added for some apps. Was
cheap addition as well as the crude GPS silicon. I worked on one of the
first apps for GPS and compass in a phone in 2001. Customer was going
for a group that would use the phone as a search device. Point the phone
in the direction you wanted info for and ask for history, dining, etc.
This was when I was with the major supplier of silicon to the cell phone
industry. Was fun as we had the first GPS in a phone chip set, etc.


Yup...I'll take your word on their history and technology. The phone GPS
does just about the same thing as the stand-alone Garmin NUVI gps
devices and probably the Tom-Toms, too. Gives you an on-screen
"printout" of where you want to go, shows a moving map, voices out turn
by turn directions. Other apps use the locater to display restaurant,
train stations, gas stations, whatever....the whole megillah.

My Dinc phone is pretty nifty, and certainly the equivalent in features
as the apple iphone, as far as I can tell. There are lots of Android
phones out there from which to choose, too. Some have slightly different
feature sets.

On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:58:39 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

My son has an Android and he turned the compass app on. I held it
near a steel object and I was amazed that it deflected as a magnetic
compass would. The built in compass is NOT GPS based but seems to have
a solid state flux gate sensor that responds to the earths mag field.

You can get a GPS based compass system from Furuno among others but
they require multiple GPS antennas seperated by some short distance.
They require no compensation or deviation tables, even on steel hulled
boats.

http://www.boatersland.com/sc50.html

Garmin makes several different handheld GPSs with built flux gate
compasses. I have their 400C but the fluxgate is only 2-axis which
requires that you hold it level to get an accurate reading.

DeLorme has a new GPS with a 3-axis fluxgate and you can couple it
with a SPOT satellite uplink module.

http://www.delorme.com/about/pressre...mmunicator.htm

wrote in message
...
On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:38:08 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

Our property in WY is at 8000' atop Casper Mountain and looks
southward with a beautiful view from SE to SW. Far to the SE, one can
see two high mountains and to the SW is a distant range of mountains
while near to the south is Muddy Mountain. I was sitting on the porch
with a neighbor and we were discussing what mountains these were. He
said the high one top the SE was Laramie Peak and the range to the SW
was the Seminoe Range but I was doubtful. He picks my Garmin 76 GPS
up offa the table and turns it on and we begin to wait for it to
acquire satellites. Meanwhile, I get my old Silva hand compass and
take bearings on the mountains. With the bearings, I draw lines on
the topo map from my known location in the directions my compass
indicates. Finally, my neighbor takes the GPS to a place with a
clearer view of the sky out from under the thin Aspens. By the time
the GPS had the bearing to the mountains, I had already plotted the
lines from my hand compass and had decided that my neighbor was wrong
and I correctly identify the mountains.
The moral of this story? Often GPS is simply too high tech to be
useful and a simple hand compass is more useful. Two more times on
this trip the GPS was too slow to start working and I used my hand
compass to more easily get the right info. Unfortunately, the Garmin
GPS76 eats batteries so one cannot simply keep it on unless you have
many more batteries ready.
So, I'd like to see a simple GPS with a built in needle type no
battery hand compass. It would also have a straight edge with a scale
and even a protractor for measuring angles.

I have 2 GPS's A Cobra and a Magellan. They both work OK in the boat
but they are useless in the woods. You have to climb the tallest tree
you can find to see satellites.
Once you get to the to of the mountain, above the tree line they are
fine. In the valley they never work.

And the same problem with the Silva Compass in the woods. Can not see to
get a bearing.

On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:45:34 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:38:08 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

Our property in WY is at 8000’ atop Casper Mountain and looks
southward with a beautiful view from SE to SW. Far to the SE, one can
see two high mountains and to the SW is a distant range of mountains
while near to the south is Muddy Mountain. I was sitting on the porch
with a neighbor and we were discussing what mountains these were. He
said the high one top the SE was Laramie Peak and the range to the SW
was the Seminoe Range but I was doubtful. He picks my Garmin 76 GPS
up offa the table and turns it on and we begin to wait for it to
acquire satellites. Meanwhile, I get my old Silva hand compass and
take bearings on the mountains. With the bearings, I draw lines on
the topo map from my known location in the directions my compass
indicates. Finally, my neighbor takes the GPS to a place with a
clearer view of the sky out from under the thin Aspens. By the time
the GPS had the bearing to the mountains, I had already plotted the
lines from my hand compass and had decided that my neighbor was wrong
and I correctly identify the mountains.
The moral of this story? Often GPS is simply too high tech to be
useful and a simple hand compass is more useful. Two more times on
this trip the GPS was too slow to start working and I used my hand
compass to more easily get the right info. Unfortunately, the Garmin
GPS76 eats batteries so one cannot simply keep it on unless you have
many more batteries ready.
So, I’d like to see a simple GPS with a built in needle type no
battery hand compass. It would also have a straight edge with a scale
and even a protractor for measuring angles.

I have 2 GPS's A Cobra and a Magellan. They both work OK in the boat
but they are useless in the woods. You have to climb the tallest tree
you can find to see satellites.
Once you get to the to of the mountain, above the tree line they are
fine. In the valley they never work.

Some of the golf courses, with lots of woods, do a job on the golf gps's. They
get some screwy readings.
--

John H