When are we going to have some classes on GPS's? I know Bellman is thinking about learning about these little complicated things.

I know that most peep's know there way around the Park, but for those that have GPS Systems and want to know how to use them, to mark certain spots and share the info with others. Do we need a GPS talk site? Something to think about. Kick it around and think about it.

EZ-GO

HEY EZ GPS not at all hard to learn I have 5 boy's in the Troop that are very good with them...

Hey EZ,
I don't know how old you are, but it's a little like some of us may have felt when computers came about. But after messin with em for a while...well look at us now!!
Same with the GPS. Once you play around with it for awhile it really seems much less complicated, and opens your eyes to the possibilities. I the RR's and the locals already know the trails, but just think about the mapping benefits for creating connector trails, or planning new trails altogather. Plus I and more to come are going to be hopeing to get GPS tracks prior to ariving in town.
Still waiting on Gut to post whatever he has....when he gets it figured out!!

We are working on that right now..........have a member that is putting some time and effort into it big time........so hang on.

A couple of our club members here in knott county have purchased GPS's after seeing the tracks and such I have made with mine.

I'm going to have to teach a little class up there some day on the how to's of operating them.

I've been working mine hard the past couple weeks marking trails, making maps, and marking points of interest.

I also use mine to go geocaching, so it's always getting used for something or another.

It has been one of the handiest little items I have picked up in a long time.

I suggest using a RAM mount with it for your ATV, I have one and it does a great job holding on to the GPS. Not to mention, you can buy other RAM accesories to use when not using a GPS in the mount.

You can search on google on "How to use a GPS" and a number of sites comes up.

One of my favorites is
http://www.gpsprimer.net/ it tries to keep things simple, and has some good explanations.

Also just looking around on the geocaching website http://www.geocaching.com will help to find out a lot about how to use a GPS as well.

Saw this thread,.like Bellman said they are couple others who were interested in GPS's ,,.. So here's a forum just for GPS's Recievers & Mapping

Thanks Jim, If it makes sense, maybe you could pull a couple of the previous GPS string that were started and post them along with this one.
Looking forward to seeing some of the results of y'alls work. Thanks in advance.
In my previous post I did not mean to say that I know the park trails as my typo suggest. I've been there to visit, but have never rode Black Mtn. Sorry bout that. If ya ever saw me on the trail, I'm sure I would look more lost than the average guy!!

Scoutmaster, You know that the younger boys know all about electronic, when You get to be 68, learning is just a little harder.

Thanks Jim for starting a GPS Forum and thanks to Archer for the web.sites.
Been doing a lot of reading and messing around with a Garmin Legend CX, & Magellan Crossover. The Magellan is great for the roads and easy to use.
Would like to to get the waypoints for Martins Fork Ride. I got the Waypoints for the Park off the Park Map. Learned quit a bit today.
I guess after You have Retired, You have nothing but time to read up on GPS'S.

EZ-GO

Hey EZ, I have the brother to the Garmin Legend Cx.

I have a Garmin Venture Cx. They are actually the same GPS, but the legend comes with USB cable and some other things when you buy that the venture doesn't come with.

I know that thing pretty much backwards and forwards if you ever need any help with it.

Thanks Archer, I have been on the net reading and printing a lot to read.
I am going to learn the Garmin if it kills me. What is the best program to use for saving waypoints and tracks? I am using Mapsource Ver. 6.12.2.

Mapsource is a pretty good program for managing both waypoints and tracks. It doesn't seem to be the best at either one, but works good for both.

It is good with the waypoints because you can save them as the type of icon you want to use, like a picture of a house for home, or a treasure box for geocaching. You can upload them and download them from your GPS like that too. I always use Mapsource to save everything to, it's easiest to work with for getting things on and off the GPS.

I do use other programs for other things though. Programs like Easy GPS, and GSAK, are great waypoint management programs. Although, they are mostly designed for geocaching, they can be used for other things as well. They also preserve the use of seperate icons for different types of waypoints. I think there is a program called Expert GPS now, and it will show you were your waypoints are on aerial photograps, I think, I haven't used it so I'm not real sure.

I use some other Mapping programs to download my tracks into. One is National Geographic's TOPO! series, and they have too different versions they sale. The one I bought includes topo maps of all the United States, and gets down to 1:100,000 detail on USGS maps. You can by a state series program too, if you know you won't need all those other maps, and it gets to 1:24,000 detail. For general tracks and mapping, I have found the 1:100,000 scale maps to be just fine. I should also mention that you can get online and find some hiking trails and such that can be downloaded and put on with these maps. These programs also should updated road overlays, so you can get a better view of where highways and such are.

Another program I use is Maptech terrain navigator. It is like the state series program mentioned above. I have only the state of kentucky to use with it, and they are very detailed USGS 1:24,000 scale maps. It doesn't include the road overlays like that Nat. Geo. maps do. It has better waypoint functions tho, were nat. geographic only has one way point symbol, this one has many, but I haven't tried sending them to GPS to see if the support still remains.

Both the last two programs mentioned are much better are seeing your tracks on topo maps than the mapsource program. You can create your own tracks/routes using these programs and send them to your GPS as well. I don't really think the waypoint features of them work as well though. I suppose it should be mentioned, that I think the printing functions of nat.geo work better as well.

So, Mapsource is a great in between program. It's great for sending maps to your GPS, actually the only program you can use to send maps to it I think. It works well as a waypoint management program too. It's not the best at waypoints, or tracks, but it's not an awful program to use. I've had pretty good success at using all the programs, and uploading the needed information into my GPS, then re-downloading it into Mapsource to create a good combined file with all the information I needed.

I don't know if that helps or confuses you any. Sure is a long drawn out answer to how good a program Mapsourse is.

I thought I'd add a couple pictures so you could see the mapping differences in between the two programs, for creating tracks.

This is from Maptech Terrain Navigator. The purple line in a trail ride we did once, before we knew we weren't allowed in the robinson forest. The Yellow is the Robinson Forest. The Blue is a Strip Mine. There is a dark brown line that is a suspected trail, we haven't found yet, but plan on looking for. I traced out the Strip, Robinson, and the unknown trail all on my own, and have since uploaded all information to my GPS so I know where we can and can't be.


This is the National Geographic Map. The red line is another trail we did before we knew we couldn't be in the Forest. It follows a lot of the same trail as in the previous map, with only minor difference. The blue is the same stripped area, but is only an educated guess as to it's location, I drawed that part in myself.


Anyway, this is just to give you an idea of what tracks look like using other programs.

Archer I have the National Geographic Maps 18 CD's I think. They are about 4 years old. I know that the POI Manager software that comes with The Magellan Crossover 2500T NA will only work with file formats of .asc, .csv, .gps, .rte, .wpt and .xml.

Hey Bellman, here are a couple samples of my recent 'test' GPS visit to the Black Mountain ATV park. These test pics have some extraneous stuff in them that won't be in the final versions. I plan on using colors to match the green/blue/red segments of the various trails just as they are on the paper maps now. Right now I'm hosting these pictures on my home web server so I still have some finer details to work out in regards to where to permanently store such data online for others to download.


.


And finally a link to the 3D kmz file that you can use in Google Earth 3D. If you have Google Earth loaded, simply save the kmz file below to your computer and then double click it. You should be able to see the ATV trails in glorious 3D complete wih tilt, roate, and zoom capabilities!

http://thecupps.homeip.net/3-31-07%20ride.kmz

OK Folks...looks like we have Archer, Radar, and GutBuster coming on board as mods to help get this forum up and running.....thanks for the help.......I think......Da bell does good to spell GPS right....now you got a 101 class started.

Thanks Bell, Looks like Archer and Radar know their suff. I, myself have learned a lot yesterday from what they have posted.
Would be nice to have someone on the off park rides to track and put in way point to be add and put on this site.
Peeps could look at them and see where they have been on the maps.
Radar's map are really Great. I may have opened up a can of Worms.

Can't wait to get back to Harlan County. I married a Harlan Girl. Best thing that every happened to me. I would move down there if I could talk the Wife into it.

ok guys whats a good gps that i can use for atv an truck i know nuting about them

Well, to me, you're talking about two different things...a GPS and a Navigation unit. Again, this is just my personal opinion. While the two devices have very many things in common, they're built with some specific uses intended. For an ATV you want a rugged GPS that can easily/accurately record where you've been riding or show you saved trails from previous rides. For the truck (assuming it's being mainly driven on the highway) you'll want a navigation unit that can provide you spoken, turn by turn, directions.

For an ATV, I'd recommend a portable Garmin (such as an Etrex Vista HCX) with a good/solid Ram mount for your handlebars. These are weatherproof and get REALLY good battery life. You'll be able to hook it up to your computer and download trails that you've riden as well as load tracks that others have created. You'll be able to easily carry it in your pocket when not in use. It can easily give you track back directions on the trail. Most of all though, it is intended to accurately/easily record and display uncharted terrain.

For the truck, I'd recommend a Garmin nüvi unit. These things are slick. Not only can they give you spoken, turn bu turn, directions to a destination, they also have LOTS of info on lodging,restaurants, schools, medical facilities, etc within their software. Say you get to a new town and want to go to dinner. You simply pull up restaurants and search for Pizza Hut. It'll show you every neaby Pizza Hut and the distance to each of them. Select one of the Pizza Huts and you'll see phone numbers and exact address for it. Choose GO for one and the unit will calculate driving directions from your exact location to the restaurant. Then when you get done eating, simply tell the unit to calc directions back to the hotel. I used to travel a LOT on business and these things are wonderful. While you're driving they'll tell you stuff like how far to your next turn, how long till you get to destination, what time you're expected to arrive at destination, etc. Heck, these things will even show you pictures of how an Interstate off/on ramp is layed out before you have to actually make your turn......as well as warn you about a mile ahead that you need to get in the left/right lane for the approaching turn.

While you could technically use one unit for both purposes, to some degree, you'd likely be unsatisfied doing so.