[ale] OT: GPS/nav units?

[Charles Shapiro]

Hmm. I have a Garmin eTrex Legend (
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=173 ), an inexpensive hiker-type
unit.
It comes with large-scale maps of  the continental US (e.g. major highways
with exits and a few arterial streets).  It connects to a PC through a
serial (RS-232) port with a proprietary cable. Allegedly you can take
waypoint information off of it with linux, but I've only spent about 15
minutes trying with GPSBabel ( http://www.gpsbabel.org/ ) with no joy.
Detail maps are available in some DRM format that you can only download
through Winders. I got it in order to provide precise locations where I'd
taken specimens as part of the Great Smokies ATBI.

Since I got it I've used it occasionally to find my way. It's pretty fun,
although it won't work inside an automobile. You have to hang the gadget out
the window for its antenna to pick up the magic sky birds. I used it on last
year's BRAG ( http://brag.org ) to chart my progress though.

You can't easily do a global purge. For the $200 or so, I'd say that if the
gendarmes are lookin' for you you can simply burn it.

-- CHS

On 2/25/08, Sid Lane <jakes.dad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> hey,
>
> am thinking about getting one of these but thought this might be a good
> group from which to solicit advice.
>
> basically I'd like to know if one brand generally better than any other,
> are the more expensive models worth the cost, etc.
>
> also, does anyone know about the "tinfoil hat" factor w/these?  are there
> models that can they be "flushed"/purged by the owner?  I remember seeing
> that the FBI used one against someone in a murder case and while I certainly
> have no such plans I figure in post-9/11 Soviet USA the less info the govt
> has access to the better...
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20080225/e45cd69b/attachment.html