[OSM-newbies] looking for a good introductory GPS unit

[john whelan]

The Garmin Legend HC X is a sensitive receiver with WAAS accuracy.  It also
gives a signal strength so you get a feeling of how well you can trust the
reading.  Reality these days is with the Bing aerial photography now
available many mappers use that.  Tall buildings play havoc with GPS
devices, many trucks carry GPS signal blockers so they can't be traced on
the logs if they stop for a while or speed etc.

Even with a fairly accurate device like the Garmin Legend the GPS trace will
give you an approximate path only.  To get better accuracy average two or
more traces.  You may wish to download both an area of the map in JOSM and
the GPS traces for the same area this will give you a fairly good indication
of accuracy.

If you are using one in a vehicle remember that satellites are in the sky so
any metal above the GPS unit will not help the signal strength.  I seem to
recall the Legend will keep tracing for about three days continuously and
retain the traces at one reading per second.

Cheerio John

On 1 May 2011 18:11, Andrew Salzberg <andrew.salzberg at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm looking to contribute to OSM and looking for the cheapest, reliable
> unit that has a USB interface.  I'm also wondering what the difference is
> b/w using a mobile phone GPS unit (can that be done while 'offline' - ie, in
> a country where i don't have cell service) and something like a Garmin
> handheld - accuracy? cost?
>
> I work in transportation so ideally I'd also like a unit that's great for
> storing a fair bit of detailed tracklog data that could be used for
> reconstructing things like speeds, times spent moving/not moving, etc.
>
> thanks for any advice.
>
> Andrew
>
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