Recommend a GPS handheld...

[Steve(MS)]

Hi all, I posted this on another forum so will basically paste it here for hopefully some feedback on acquiring a GPS.
One thing though I see the prices on some of these, please keep in mind what I really want is a functional GPS that
gets the job done, really not all the extra bells and whistles that would not be directly used for my intended purpose.
Regards,
Steve(MS)

"Don't know nothing about the GPS scene, this is what I am looking for, don't know whether it exists or not.
My family land is in hill country and back in 1950 there were iron pins placed down at 1/4 mile distances.
I know where one pin is so I need to mark that point and move in either North, South, East and West
directions and go exactly 1/4, etc along major compass points.
I really don't want to get into translating latitude and longitude into compass readings/ distances if I can help to get out of that.

Ya'll let me know something about these devices and whether I can get something to help me locate the other pins.
I'll have to take my metal detector along as some of the pins maybe laying on the ground, covered over with some dirt. "

 

[edjcox]

Land is usually surveyed and then pinned. Your county tax office will have a survey plot of your land. The corners of the property will be identified with precise lat long coordinates. You can simply plug those inot any GPs and it will take you to within a reasonable distance of a corner. You might also be able to identify the one you know of and go from it.

Any Garmin ,Magellan, or Delorme GPS will do what you want. Remember GPS is not precise but will get you within a few feet so long as the GPS can see the sky and the arry of GPS satellite without obsruction.

Good luck

GPS recievers come in a range of prices... What do you want to spend on one.

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

Some higher end receivers and even cheap old Eagle / Lowrance receivers have the "project waypoint" feature and this is what you need. Basically, once you set a waypoint, you can set another waypoint at the distance and direction you specify. That would do precisely what you want.
Without that feature, projecting the position is also easily done. Once you are at the initial position, just scroll the map cursor to new position - receiver will tell you how far and in what direction the cursor position is. Once the cursor is at desired distance and direction, just mark a waypoint there.
Bottom line; edjcox is right. (just about) any receiver can do that. For a single use like that, I'd get a used, cheap receiver on eBay.

 

[Steve(MS)]

Andrew, I see Eagle Explorers over on the ebay, will that do what I want?
I definitely would like to set point(s) in a straight line and preferably in yards to get to next destination.

If this one won't do that, give me some make, model numbers.

Thanks for the info
Steve(MS)

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

Andrew, I see Eagle Explorers over on the ebay, will that do what I want?
I definitely would like to set point(s) in a straight line and preferably in yards to get to next destination.

If this one won't do that, give me some make, model numbers.

Thanks for the info
Steve(MS)

Yes, Eagle would do. I used to have an explorer but now, I don't remember if it has the project feature. I think it did. In any case, if it does not, just send me co-ordinates of the point, distances and directions for the others and I will give you the co-ordinates of other points.

 

[NM5K]

I've done the same thing he wants to do.. But.. I still haven't found my two back pins,
even though I know I'm getting fairly close. I might oughta try getting those coordinates
and trying that myself. I might already have them on some plat map somewhere.
But it worked fine finding the two front pins using other peoples marked pins as a reference.
I found that if you have good sat coverage, and work fast to ensure the drift isn't too much,
it can be quite accurate. IE: I can let the thing get good and stable, and then set a waypoint
at one pin, and walk down to the other, and often it's right on the money.
But then it will drift around. You can sit there and watch what it thinks is the X move around
you to and fro a few feet.
So it's a good idea to use as fresh a waypoint as possible, and try to get to where one
thinks the other is, as fast as possible. One problem I have is my two back pins are in
dense woods, and lots of tree trash has grown up. They seem to be covering up the small
rock piles that should mark the pins. And I've hunted several times, and take the detector
with me. But, I hope to finally luck out one of these days.

BTW, I'm using an old "Yellow" Magellen Meridian, which is the first monochrome version,
and it's perfectly capable of this type of thing, as I'm sure many are. And you can find those
on fleabay pretty cheap if you prowl. If I was to buy one now, I'd get the newer color version
that has the non motion compass. I think that is the "Platinum" version.
They are pretty powerful little units, and you can grab em for less than a C note.
I paid $60 for mine about 6 years ago.. I've got a mem stick in it loaded with street maps for
the whole country. It can take topo maps, but I don't have those.

 

[fongu]

Sometimes when I do research I find latitude & longitude numbers for a site and can't find the area when I go looking for it. Would a GPS help me find the site? Usually the location is wasted away due to age and weather. I'm looking for a particular ferry location and it is on private property near a river and could I put those numbers in a GPS and know when I was in the right area in the public river below the high water mark? I haven't been able to locate the owner and don't want to tresspass on his property, but the river is public because it is navigatable.

 

[edjcox]

Really depends on the acuracy of the Lat Long your entering. Honestly if it's an older set of Lat Long and wasn't surveyed it's probably not going to get you to close. GPS units will work but the key is the original coordinates datum and origin...

Where did you get the coordinates and how old are they?

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

Sometimes when I do research I find latitude & longitude numbers for a site and can't find the area when I go looking for it. Would a GPS help me find the site? Usually the location is wasted away due to age and weather. I'm looking for a particular ferry location and it is on private property near a river and could I put those numbers in a GPS and know when I was in the right area in the public river below the high water mark? I haven't been able to locate the owner and don't want to tresspass on his property, but the river is public because it is navigatable.

Sorry; somehow I missed this post and haven't replied earlier.

For a ferry crosing, if the lat / lon may be accurate enough to get you reasonably closet with GPS but, as edjcox stated, beware of source and datum.
When entering coordinates into the GPS, make sure that your GPS is set to the same datum that your map is referenced to. Most USGS topo maps are referenced to NAD 27 (1927 North American Datum), but some of the newer ones use NAD 83. This information is printed in the lower left corner of the topo maps. Failure to match the datum could result in error of 200 yards or more!

As for the exact position of the private property border, your handheld GPS, at any given moment, can be easily few yards off so; even if you know exact legal coordinates of this border, GPS can put you on the wrong side of it...

HTH

 

[fongu]

I got these coordinates from a map I found online, but lost all the information except the general location and I had wrote down the lat and lon in a notebook.
Thank you and edjcox for your replies. I need a simple GPS unit that can also have topo maps loaded on it. There was an article in W & E tresure magazine a few months ago about using a smart phone like this, but I'd rather have a GPS.

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

I got these coordinates from a map I found online, but lost all the information except the general location and I had wrote down the lat and lon in a notebook.
Thank you and edjcox for your replies. I need a simple GPS unit that can also have topo maps loaded on it. There was an article in W & E tresure magazine a few months ago about using a smart phone like this, but I'd rather have a GPS.

If that was a scan of an older map and you got the co-ordinates by plotting them on the map than, the chances are, it's in NAD27
If the map was digitised and co-ordinates displayed under the cursor, the chances are that it's NAD83
Well, what you could do is; make two waypoints. One by entering as NAD27 and the other entering as NAD27 and check both places.
For the GPS, if you want topo maps on it and you want to make use of these maps than screen size makes a huge difference. I'd look at Garmin Montana or Oregon series.
HTH

 

[fongu]

Thanks