[Talk-us] Currently available good GPS for use with OSM mapping in the USA?

[Kevin Kenny]

On 11/26/2013 12:07 PM, Richard Welty wrote:
> there are USB battery supplement thingies out there, probably best
> to have one or more if you're going to do this away from a car
> with a lighter socket or USB power port.
I find that as long as I keep it in airplane mode and don't overuse the 
screen backlight, my smart-a**-phone will go for a day and a half 
recording tracks without a recharge. I use the Backcountry Navigator 
app, which has full custom-map features, the "don't record when stopped" 
functionality, decent track recording features, and good ability to 
function off the net (for instance, preloading maps for where I'm 
planning to be). I do my own maps for it, based on Lars Ahlzen's fine 
TopOSM, but with a number of additional layers of data (government data 
sets that have not been or cannot be imported, private data sets from 
various sources). It means that my map has something of a cubist 
appearance, since occasionally trails are covered two or three times in 
the data that I have access to - but that's an advantage: if the map 
takes on that kind of appearance, that's a sign that navigation may be a 
challenge.

On a multiday trip, I can recharge overnight from two lithium AA 
batteries using the MintyBoost: http://learn.adafruit.com/minty-boost . 
It's ultralightweight, compact (barely larger than the batteries), and 
cheap (if you're handy with a soldering iron, the kit of parts is twenty 
bucks).

I'm still getting used to the art of GPS management - I learnt land 
navigation the old-fashioned way - so I've been only occasionally able 
to upload trails. (I have a bad habit of turning track recording off 
inadvertently.) But that's how the Black Dome Range Trail got onto 
http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/42.2698/-74.1421 . (And several 
other trails in that part of the world.)

-- 
73 de ke9tv/2, Kevin