GPS Info required

You are right on the money there...........however we are doing some part-time contract work for DEC and I am sure they would soon get 'peed off' if we were to spend the day happily wandering in cirles - minds in neutral - through the scrub in the NE Goldfields. Plus I need it to find my secret fishing spots when we get back on the coast.

Have a good one

J&J

We have used the sun and dead reckonings all along - reasoned that $600 plus hard earned was better off else where.
I have been known to drive "city slickers" a bit mad when going out bush with them as I refer to the Southern Cross etc at night for the comforting fact that south is still where it was all along!
We have maps and use them of course when required - harder on the brain, but we don't need to be told where we are when we have planeed to get where we are!
MIND YOU WE ARE VERY TEMPTED to get of those city ones before we try to negotiate inner "Sydeney" or for that matter "Brisbayne" or "Melbooorn" - :-)
Cheers - Ian & Sally

We use ours ALL the time when we are driving as it gives us our CORRECT speed that we are travelling at. Both the Ford and the Magna speedos have errors and both are in different directions.

It appears that the latest mapping covers most Australian towns now, so it will make it easy to find peoples addresses in these smaller towns that are not covered by most street directories.

A close friend of ours was trying to get her husband to a country hospital quickly and made some silly mistakes because of her panic, but had they had one of these new GPS Navigation units that show you Hospitals, Service Stations and many other places, she would have been able to go directly there. She was lucky as the full heart attack happened just after they arrived and he was then flown to Melbourne.

For me, Now that I have used one for nearly 3 years, I will always continue to use one.

Brian

We have a unit that we built up from a Hewlett Packard hx4700 handheld computer [has 4 inch VGA screen] and an Emtac TRINE Bluetooth GPS. The advantage of this approach is that it will run Route planning software such as Co-Pilot, which gives you turn by turn directions [voice + map] for built up areas and most country roads in Australia, plus will run OziExplorer mapping software with maps of anywhere including being able to use the natmap series.
We have used this in Australia, have all NSW and Vic at 1:25,000 and 1:100,000 scale, and am searching for other states [at similar scales] at present.
We also use the Co-Pilot software when overseas and having just returned from a tour of Europe & UK, used it all the time to navigate the backstreets and country lanes of Western Europe. Didn't bother with a hard copy map at all during the trip. The system never once let us down.
Of course you can also use the Oziexplorer software with overseas maps as well.
It is a more expensive option than you are considering , but if you want the flexibility to travel overseas and have a familiar system, then this is a recommended approach.
Can give you details if interested.

Wow! The input by Bushtrek seems quite a technical set up - would you be able to furnish more details (maybe even pics) to show us? Please? The fact that it appears to be so universal is quite intriguing.
Plus Brians point regards ACCURACY of speed is quite a moot point with officialdom wanting to apply fines for speed errors not catered for under ADR speedo specification parameters. But I guess that is a whole subject in itself! (IE 3KPH over when the speedo could be legally up to 10KPH out!) I have always had to rely on RAA Speedo test strips and a stop watch to check mine! Or timed against the road distance signs between towns!
Mind you with our rig we would scarcely go near the limit! We spend a lot of time off the side when safe to do so, thus allowing following vehicles a better passage.
Cheers - Ian & Sally.

Sorry, do not appear to be able to post pictures on the site, but if one of the members would like to receive an image from me and post it, would be happy to forward some photos.
The system is not particularly complex, after selection of the handheld computer [PDA] and the GPS, it is the software choice that provides the flexibility, and that really only relies on obtaining the Co-Pilot and OziExplorer software.

When I thought about it, the Magellans and Garmin units are really just handheld computers [PDA] that have been dedicated to a particular application, so why not get a PDA and add your own choice of software??

The PDA I have [model hx4700] has been discontinued by Hewlett Packard, however they have other models which are around $500 and which would appear to fit the bill. These models have bluetooth capability which is better than a cable connection for communication between the GPS and the PDA. it is easier to set up, more reliable for connection when first booting up the system, less messy in terms of the wire/leads everywhere and of course you can mount the GPS or its attached aerial on a velcro tab on top of your backpack or on the dashboard.
Although the GPS has its own aerial built in, I prefer to attach a separate aerial as it keeps the GPS unit out of the sun.
The Emtac TRINE bluetooth GPS unit is a multi link device which means you can connect the PDA and a laptop up at the same time [can connect a total of 4 devices at once]. It is quite small 90mmx45mmx18mm and has a battery [1000MampHr] which lasts about 7 hours between charges, and is supplied with a connection to a 12V socket for charging. You can also charge it from the PDA 240V charger.
The Co-Pilot software is similar to the applications supplied with the Navman and TomTom voice directed navigation systems. The advantage of buying the Co-Pilot system is that you get the PDA copy and the PC copy and can then plan "trips" on the PC and upload to the PDA storage card. This was particularly useful in Europe as I had no idea where roads were in relation to towns, so was able to avoid going in to town centres when on some of the backroads and wanted to bypass particular congested areas.
Of course you can also just enter addresses and add stops if you like straight into the PDA, then press start driving and you're away.
Co-Pilot has a raft of features some including "avoiding toll roads", "RV or Automobile route" choice, display speed, elevation, ETA, or Heading etc. The Points of interest list is extensive from Auto maintenance to Visitor Attractions and there appears to be a fairly large number of POI's logged for Australia.

The OziExplorer application would probably be familiar to many members. It is not a route planning app. in the same sense as the Co-pilot but you are able to set up routes and tracks on the laptop and transfer them to the PDA. Ozi shows speed, altitude, heading and a whole bunch of other useful features and also logs your speed, and other trip features, so you can actually recall your speed at a particular location. It is more accurate than my speedo on the LC/TD100, showing 94.6kph on cruise control when the speedo indicates 100kph [I am still running OE tyres].

Hope this is of interest.

The verson 7 Sensis maps has recently been released and this covers a lot more detail than what is in our Street Pilot III that we bought 3 years ago. When we bought it we upgraded to 128 meg card so that city navigator & metro guide could both be entered, If I want to upgrade my software to version 7, I would have to have a 256 meg card and that costs over $200 without the software program as it is a Garmin proprietory card and then the system would be limited to the slow processor of the old GPS compared to the new ones.

Technology is advancing very quickly.

Brian