GPS- I'm Lost!!! Please Help!!

[Tim The Lippa Rippa Mon]

Ok everyone, I am planning to buy a sonar/GPS unit soon. I have been looking for some time, and have it narrowed down to either of these two:

Choice #1


Choice #2



What confuses the crap out of me is whether or not I will be able to mark & record brush piles & structure locations on these without an added memory card or a Hot Spots plug in??

Are the base maps good enough alone to mark structure and find it back easily?

In the map create option, will I have the capability to add in savable topo depth lines on to the base map without aditional memory plugins?

What extras do these not come with that I should buy as well??

I really need an education on this stuff. Please help the unexperienced, and uninformed fat guy! Thanks tons! <,"}/>{ Rippa :rolleyes:

[TAE73]

Tim,

I dont know anything about the lowrances. But the garmins just come with a basic map. No lake contours or any other type of reference. The map part is totally up to you if you think you need it. It can be helpful, but if you are just marking brush piles and using it to get back to them. Then no a map is not needed. This is the unit that I am thinking about buying a little more money and its color and a garmin.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...276&hasJS=true

[Moose1am]

Tim:

As long as your GPS has WAAS signal receiving capabilty and can get the WAAS satellite Signal ok then you can mark and return to waypoints. A way point is any location on earth that you save on your gps. It can be on land or on the water as it does not matter. As long as you can receive the 12 regular GPS satellite Signals AND THE WAAS satellite signal you should be ok.

I know that the Garmin Base map that is built into the unit's memory only shows the major highways. Interstates and major State Highways are show. You can't see the contour lines of a lake UNLESS you purchase and Install the Software Garmin MapSource Fishing Hot Spots CD or cards that plug into your garmin unit. It depends on the model as to wheter you need a card or the computer CD. With the CD you load the program on your home Computer or a laptop computer running Windows9x or WindowsXP. They you hook up your GPS unit to your computer via the garmin cable (garmin connection on one end and either a computer serial connection or computer usb connection on the other end of the garmin cable) Once you are hooked up you can start up the computer and start the Garmin Mapsource FHS program on your computer. From the program on your computer you go to the file menu and chose an option to either upload or download the data. Chose your connection speed also before you do this. I set the data rate when I first hook up the gps to the computer. Baud rate is what I am talking about. Some units may do this automatically. But you must be able to get the computer to talk to your gps unit as the same speed or baud rate. It's pretty easy to do with the Garmin Mapsource FHS software as that is where you do this job.

If you are hooked up ok and ready to go the download is perform automatically. The download will download the FHS map to your garmin unit. It will also download any tracks that you may have acquired or any waypoints that you have marked using your GPS unit. These tracks and waypoints and even routes then are installed on your computer and you can save them onto your hard drive.

Also if you used the computer and the Garmin Mapsource FHS program to do some waypoints or routes using the computer program you can save those wp and routes to your gps. Data can be transfered in either direction depending on which option you chose in the Garmin MapSource FHS program's FILE menu. You will have to play with it to see how this work.

Once you have a FHS map downloaded and installed on your GPS unit you can view that map on the screen if your Garmin Unit allows you to see maps. Some garmin units may not have enough memory to hold the maps but that does not mean that you still can't mark a waypoint using the garmin gps unit. But the Garmin Units that do display maps (eTrax Vista and Legeond and some of the more expensive unit's like the Sounder/gps 168 can display the FHS map on the gps's display screen. So if you have a map view on your gps you can see the waypoint And the Lakes Contour Lines and other neat stuff like where the secondary roads are around the lake and the restroom facilities or the boat ramps etc. Some FHS maps will show different fishing areas of the lake and give some tips on how to fish that area. These areas are usually big general areas an nothing really specific. But they help give you some ideas on where to start your search for fish. Note: not all the Garmin MapSource FHS maps are the same. Some have better resolution and more detailed contour lines. Reelfoot lake for example has 1ft interval on it's contour lines as it's very shallow. While Dale Hollow uses 20ft contour lines as it's very deep. The FHS map of Kentucky lake uses 10 or 5 ft contour lines while the FHS map of Patoka Lake uses 10 ft contour lines. By contrast I have a paper map that has 2.5ft contour lines and 5 ft contourl lines. The smaller the contour lines are the better your resolution and the more you can tell about the underwater topography.

I don't know squat about the Lowrence units other than that they are made in FRANCE. And who wants to support the French? Garmin is an American Product so that is why I went with them.

And most of the Garmin units can use downloaded software from the Garmin web site to update the software inside you garmin gps unit. You use the same garmin to comptuer cable to do this.

I think that the plug ins are actually just memory modules that add more memory to your gps and that the memory is pre loaded with the maps or software on the cartridges. That way you don't have to use the computer to download the maps to the gps unit. But if you want to install a new map you may have to buy another cartridge for your gps.

My personal opinon is that the FHS maps are good in some ways but they could be a lot more detailed as far as the topo contour lines. But I am VERY VERY demanding and pickey. LOL

Hope this gives you some useful information. GPS is the best thing to happen to fishermen other than hiring a professional guide who fishes a lake 300 days per year at a min.

Note: The smaller GPS units screens are very small and the amount of detail that you can see is not very much. And in low light they are even harder to see. They work great to help you find a spot but using them to follow a drop off or a contour line would not be practical. They show the old river channels pretty well though. And some of the prerecorded waypoints on the FHS maps are not very accruate and are hard to find when you get out on the lake and try to use the GPS's map view to find a know fish attractor. They can be off as much as 100ft or more from what I have experience. It took me a very long time to find a marked brush pile on the Garmin Mapsource FHS map of Kentucky lake in the back of Sulfur Creek. And a lot depends on how accurate the gps is at the time you use it. Accuracy can vary with time of the day and change minute by minute too.

Ok everyone, I am planning to buy a sonar/GPS unit soon. I have been looking for some time, and have it narrowed down to either of these two:

Choice #1


Choice #2



What confuses the crap out of me is whether or not I will be able to mark & record brush piles & structure locations on these without an added memory card or a Hot Spots plug in??

Are the base maps good enough alone to mark structure and find it back easily?

In the map create option, will I have the capability to add in savable topo depth lines on to the base map without aditional memory plugins?

What extras do these not come with that I should buy as well??

I really need an education on this stuff. Please help the unexperienced, and uninformed fat guy! Thanks tons! <,"}/>{ Rippa :rolleyes:

[Tim The Lippa Rippa Mon]

Tim,

I dont know anything about the lowrances. But the garmins just come with a basic map. No lake contours or any other type of reference. The map part is totally up to you if you think you need it. It can be helpful, but if you are just marking brush piles and using it to get back to them. Then no a map is not needed. This is the unit that I am thinking about buying a little more money and its color and a garmin.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...276&hasJS=true

Hey Ted, I was looking at that particular unit too. I even have a friend who has a 168(not color), and he loves it's GPS funtions/accuracy. (I personally haven't had good results w/Garmin) The main thing that made me choose the other 2 over this unit was that the Garmin had less Peak/RMS(real important to me), and was way more $. I am sure it would work great if you do get it though. If you do get it & like it, you can put a sales pitch on me about it when we fish together! LOL Full baskets to ya Ted! :p

<,"}/>{ Rippa

[Tim The Lippa Rippa Mon]

Thanks for the info Moose. I will definitely touch further base with you once I get my unit concerning linking it up and running my computer to cinq with it. I appreciate your worn out keyboard! LOL :p

<,"}/>{ Rippa

[Moose1am]

My Keyboard is worm out. It needs a thorough cleaning and repair to the spacebar key. Everything is made out of plastic these days and when I tried to take the spacebar key off to clean the keyboard a plastic tab broke. I am on my second ergonomic keyboard and can't type on a regular keyboard anymore. I will have to take my MS egronomic keyboard with me whereever I go to still be able to type 40 wpm. LOL


Any help I can give to you on Garmin GPS just ask. I will try my best to help you.

Thanks for the info Moose. I will definitely touch further base with you once I get my unit concerning linking it up and running my computer to cinq with it. I appreciate your worn out keyboard! LOL :p

<,"}/>{ Rippa

[TAE73]

Tim,

Which transducer did u look at? If you get the dual frequency it has 500 RMS, 4000 watts 50/200 khz. The single frequency has 400 RMS 3200 watts 200 khz. Check out the post that I did yesterday on where to buy gps, I found a darn good price on this unit for 700 shipping included. They only thing that keeps me looking at garmin is that I have a legend handheld and my exisiting maps can be uploaded to this unit.

[Barnacle Bill]

Tim, once you getyour GPS, here is a freebee to help you manage your waypoints. http://www.easygps.com/download.asp

[Tim The Lippa Rippa Mon]

Ted, I only had noticed the 3200/400, I didn't see the 4000/500RMS. That does give your choice more clout.

IBNFSHN - thanks for the link! I book marked it, and will use it.

Thanks for all inputs from everyone I really appreciate the help.

<,"}/>{Rippa

[TAE73]

Tim,

If you do buy this one let me know what you think. I am hoping to get mine in January sometime. Here is the price of that unit with a 178c internal antenna, dual freq.- $702.50 out the door - shipping and insurance. This is the best price I have found so far.

http://www.gpsdiscount.com/