[alberg30] GPSs

[Gordon White]

   I have used my Magellan NAV 5000 very happily for several years but
yesterday saw some $119 Magellans and Garmins at West Marine. Bought,
actually, a $155 Magellan # 315 + $18 for the power cable, as a backup
to the older one.

    When I tried using it I was quite bothered by the operation of it.
It has loaded into it waypoints for 500 cities. Who needs a waypoint for
Oklahoma City? Even hikers, it seems to me, would not care for downtown
lat/longs.

    I wanted a unit that I could put in waypoints I selected for buoys,
turning points, my courses, etc.

    I found it tedious at best, with having to make a lot of
non-intuitive keystrokes, having to scroll through the entire alphabet
to put in each letter of a waypoint name, etc. Never found a clear
description as how to enter a lat/long figure.

    I returned the thing to West Marine (they refunded my money, no
problem) but found, according to the store manager who is a deep water
sailor, that apparently all current hand-held GPS are like this with no
keypad/number pad unless you get a $1,200 GPS map/plotter. "Everybody"
enters lat/long using a PC or laptop with a chart program.

	West Marine has a "great" CD that gives you National Parks and theme
parks. Not useful.

    As my laptop has no CD drive and I really do not want to try to use
either a PC or a laptop under way, single-handed in bad weather, just to
put in a lat/long waypoint, I am bamfoozled.

    Anyone know of a low-buck GPS which is SIMPLE? No extra bells &
whistles, just a way to enter waypoints in lat/long in less than 15
minutes each and lay out a course ?

                        - Gordon White, A-275

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