Does anyone have any experience using a GPS hooked up to a PDA? I have always thought that this would be a great use for a handheld.

I know that there are solutions for this, but wonder if anyone has any direct experience.

From Dave Barry's column today: ( long link )

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I became aware of how useful a GPS can be when I was on a plane trip with a literary rock band I belong to called the Rock Bottom Remainders, which has been hailed by critics as having one of the world's highest ratios of noise to talent. On this trip were two band members whom I will identify only as ``Roger'' and ``Steve,'' so that you will not know that they are actually Roger McGuinn, legendary co-founder of the Byrds; and Stephen King, legendary legend.

We were flying from Chicago to Boston, and while everybody else was reading or sleeping, ``Roger'' and ``Steve,'' who are both fully grown men, were staring at their GPS devices and periodically informing each other how far we were from the Boston airport. ``Roger'' would say, ``I'm showing 238 miles,'' and ``Steve'' would say, ``I'm showing 241 miles. Then ``Roger'' would say, ``Now I'm showing 236 miles,'' and ``Steve'' would come back with another figure, and so on. My wife, who was confident that the airplane pilot did not need help locating Boston, thought this was the silliest thing she had ever seen. Whereas I thought: I NEED one of those.

So I got a GPS for Christmas, and I spent the entire day sitting on a couch, putting it to good use. Like, I figured out exactly where our house is. My wife told me this was exciting news. I think she was being sarcastic, but I couldn't be sure, because I had to keep watching the GPS screen, in case our house moved. I also used my GPS to figure out exactly how far my couch is from LaGuardia airport (1,103 miles). There is NO END to the usefulness of this device! If you're a guy, you need to get one NOW, so you can locate yourself on the planet. While we still have one.

Well, I ended up getting one for Christmas, which was incredible. I have a Garmin III+ and absolutely love it. I also hook it up to my laptop and already have about 30 waypoints, some of which are airports, in it. I also have my two homes (LA/Seattle) and more. This device is absolutely incredible. And its fairly accurate. I was on a DL flight last week that had the moving map display. I set it up so it would track while I worked on my computer. Every so often, I would glance at the speed, and it matched what the moving map display said every time. It's the best Christmas present I have ever received.

I used a GPS for a recent project...It was the garmin GPS-12XL, which I can heartily reccomend. It has an external antenna connector, and a serial connection for uplink to computer. With an external antenna and a half hour to stabilize , accuracy was great!

[This message has been edited by terminalcity (edited 01-25-2001).]

I picked up the small Garmin ETREX: it only weighs around 6oz, and connect it to my notebook and watch my own inflite moving map... It works really well, but you can not connect an external antenna.
I use microsoft streets and trips, but the DeLorme Road Warrior with voice seems interesting to try for use in the car.
I tried the Sony Skymap for use in the car, but it does not correct itself if you make a wrong turn: it has since been "e-bayed".

I enjoyed the Dave Barry column. I bought my husband a GPS for Christmas and it reminded me of him quite a bit. Between he and my son, they have so far used the GPS to:

* park the car in the garage in the exact same spot it was removed from

* plot out our property lines, even though there are survey stakes all over the place

* from the backseat of the car, tell us exactly how fast we're traveling

* backtrack to the marina the same course we left the marina on in our boat. If the Coast Guard had been around, we would have been boarded for sure.

Don't know how we ever got along without it.

does anyone know if there are...

any standalone units that actually work, to give you right and left turn street level type directions? Comparable to those fouond in new Acuras, BMWs, etc.?

I don't like to connect stuff to my laptop during travel because I find it cumbersome.

According to AA's American Way inflite magazine, GPS are not allowed to be used inflite
(This is the latest issue, with Anthony Hopkins on the cover: sorry, I did not get the issue date.)

If any airline or pilot allows the use of GPS, then why don't they allow the use of FM or AM
radios, shortwave radios, TV's or anything else with a local oscillator?

Personally, banning receivers might be a little too much on the careful side, but I would certainly
be upset if any one thought they could use a tranmitter, such as a cell phone.

I do wish that the FAA would change the official 'verbage' from "put away your cell phone"
to something like "make sure it is powered down and fully turned off", or "turn it off so that
the display is balnk". I'm sure a lot of non-technical travellers think it is OK as long as
they are not actually talking into the thing.

It looks like GPS has temporarily 'fallen into a crack' and forgotten by some airlines, but
as some posters have mentioned, airlines are including them in their prohibited from use list.
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Admittedly drifting off-topic, but US allows radio receivers.

I have been real happy with my Magellan Meridian Platinum.

It worked well on the Concorde. The downside is that the speedometer did not work beyond 999 mph. - or at least I did not know how to expand the field.

Nothing like looking out the window and knowing exactly where you are. A short while back on a flight back from San Diego I was able to follow some back roads I took in the Four Corners region. It has been two years too long since I have been there.

That's a good question. I don't know the real reason, but I can tell you that a GPS signal is a 50 watt signal from a satellite 20,000 miles in space. The am/fm radio bands are 50,000 watt signals, or much greater, from a much shorter distance.

By the way, thanks for bringing this thread back up. I got my GPS shortly hfter I posted it and have loved using it on board flights for a long time.

There are many threads in the AA and DL forums if you search "GPS"

My car is the second Acura I've owned with a nav system. It is basically a GPS, gyro, color screen, and DVD, integrated with the car. It is marvelous to never get lost. I don't bother with the coordinates.

I suppose there is a GPS in my cellphone. I have it turned off except for 911 calls, you can't disable GPS for 911 calls anyway.

The GPS systems that I am interested in have street maps associated with them although a handheld GPS such as those discussed here would be a fun toy!

jeffreyt:
"I can tell you that a GPS signal is a 50 watt signal from a satellite 20,000 miles in space. The am/fm radio bands are 50,000 watt signals, or much greater, from a much shorter distance."


FYI, the problems with operating electronics inflight are the emissions from the device (in
this case, the receiver). Quoting the transmitter power does nothing to relate to the problems
with the emissions from the receiver (usually due to the local oscillator).

So, unfortunately, your figures do not relate to this situation.

As the GPS site link (earlier in the thread) says, there are documented cases of interference
from AM/FM radios. My concern is about the LO (local oscillator) emmissions in GPS receivers ,
which are much higher in frequency than for AM/FM radios, and may be more problematic.
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