RCE wrote:

"Dan Krueger" wrote in message
nk.net...

RCE wrote:


"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...


You bought that Tom-Tom GPS system right?

What's your personal opinion?


I like it. Easy to use and very intuitive once you learn the basics.
I use the cheapie - TomTom 300 (I think) with the SD memory card.

I just bought Mrs.E. the TomTom 700 with the mini hard disk drive. She
loves it.

It's a great little GPS - probably similar to the similarly priced
Garmin, but the TomTom has a bit of a sense of humor to it. You can
program things like fuel stations within a programmable distance and
assign it a sound. I use a cow, going MOOOOOO.....

I used it to travel to Norfolk last week. It walked me right up to the
front door of my kid's house on a government housing development.

Has a few quirks, but nothing that common sense does not correct.

RCE

How do they handle updates? Free or by subscription?

Dan


I think .... they are free for a year, but don't hold me to that. You get a
card - like a credit card - and the GPS somehow will connect to your cell
phone (bluetooth?). There are other travel services you can subscribe to.
I haven't used any of this yet and probably never will. It's interesting
though - when I first bought it back in November, I tried entering my son's
address in Norfolk and it didn't have the street name in the stored memory.
I assumed this was because it is a military housing area. Yet, when I drove
to his house from Florida that month, it showed the road on the display.
Last week when I drove down there again I tried putting his address in as a
destination before I left and it recognized it and calculated a route right
to his front door. How it updated the data, I have no idea.

Those that are looking for a heavy duty sophisticated GPS system won't be
satisfied with the TomTom. It's beauty is it's simplicity and ease of use.
You can set it for a "3D" display or a "2D" and display the map in several
orientations.... North up, direction of travel, etc.

RCE



I have the Garmin c330 and it has worked very well. I looked at the Tom
Tom briefly but went with the Garmin since I have owned three of them
for boating and one that resides on the little woman's bicycle.

That update is interesting. These all use government GPS satellites so
there must have been another way for that info to get into the machine.

Dan

thunder wrote:

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 09:07:18 -0500, JohnH wrote:



Did you mount it to your windshield? Is it removable and remountable in
another auto?


Just to make you aware, in some states, mounting anything to your
windshield, or your rear-view mirror, is a ticket, impairing driver's
vision, or some such nonsense.

That should be interesting since there are so many people adding GPS and
satellite radio receivers to their car's windshields. I guess my state
is not one of them since they sell windshield mounted transceivers for
the toll system.

Dan

"Dan Krueger" wrote in message
link.net...

That update is interesting. These all use government GPS satellites so
there must have been another way for that info to get into the machine.

Dan

I don't know how it worked. I am quite sure that the first time I tried to
program the address it simply did not have it in the data. I tried several
times. Yet, on this recent trip, I tried again before I left MA and it had
the name of the road and address.

It offers weather, traffic conditions and will re-route you around heavy
traffic congestion, but I think you have to have your cell phone connected
to it via bluetooth for these real-time services. The data comes from the
Internet. I haven't used any of this stuff.

I almost bought the Garmin because it's a good product with excellent
customer service. They were out of the model I wanted, so I decided to try
the TomTom. So far, I like it.

RCE

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:42:40 +0000, Dan Krueger wrote:

That should be interesting since there are so many people adding GPS and
satellite radio receivers to their car's windshields. I guess my state is
not one of them since they sell windshield mounted transceivers for the
toll system.

Now that you mentioned it, they do here also. To be honest, I don't know
of anyone who has been ticketed for "impaired vision". I only mentioned
it, as I was pulled over this week. The cop saw my radar detector
attached to the windshield and said doing so was illegal. He also
mentioned anything hanging from a rear-view mirror was also illegal.
"Impaired Vision", he called it. Hell, who knew? Thankfully, he didn't
write any tickets.

"thunder" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:42:40 +0000, Dan Krueger wrote:

That should be interesting since there are so many people adding GPS and
satellite radio receivers to their car's windshields. I guess my state
is
not one of them since they sell windshield mounted transceivers for the
toll system.

Now that you mentioned it, they do here also. To be honest, I don't know
of anyone who has been ticketed for "impaired vision". I only mentioned
it, as I was pulled over this week. The cop saw my radar detector
attached to the windshield and said doing so was illegal. He also
mentioned anything hanging from a rear-view mirror was also illegal.
"Impaired Vision", he called it. Hell, who knew? Thankfully, he didn't
write any tickets.

Cops never complain about my eye patch. Arrrrgghh.

RCE

thunder wrote:

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:42:40 +0000, Dan Krueger wrote:


That should be interesting since there are so many people adding GPS and
satellite radio receivers to their car's windshields. I guess my state is
not one of them since they sell windshield mounted transceivers for the
toll system.


Now that you mentioned it, they do here also. To be honest, I don't know
of anyone who has been ticketed for "impaired vision". I only mentioned
it, as I was pulled over this week. The cop saw my radar detector
attached to the windshield and said doing so was illegal. He also
mentioned anything hanging from a rear-view mirror was also illegal.
"Impaired Vision", he called it. Hell, who knew? Thankfully, he didn't
write any tickets.

Selective enforcement is my guess. A radar detector works against them.

Dan

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...

Simple fact - there is no, and I'll say this again, no - prohibition
to the reception of public radio signals of any kind any where. You
have every right to receive a signal broadcast by a public agency as a
citizen.

The fact that it's a radar signal for law enforcement is beside the
point - you have a right to receive it.

LOL. That's certainly an interesting interpretation of an FCC law.
Your right .... you have every right to receive the radar signal and bounce
it back.
And you also have the right to remain silent, and have a court appointed
attorney to represent you when you refuse to pay the fine.

RCE

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...


Minor issue anyway. Anybody with a reasonable knowledge of how radar
works can beat a ticket if it's radar - laser is another who story.


Yeah. I've been doing some reading on a system called the "Blinder".
You have two high powered LEDs mounted on the front and two on the rear of
the car along with two laser detectors.

When a laser is detected, the LEDs fire and the laser gun's reading goes to
garble.

But, I was thinking. Some of the new cars have a laser based system, at
least I think it is laser based, that detects how closely you are following
behind a car with the cruise control on and will slow the car if you get too
close.

I am wondering if the Blinder would screw that system up. Could lead to
some interesting situations on the highway.

RCE