[Openstreetmap] Which GPS receiver to get?

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

[Andrew Birkett]
> I've been planning on making a Free street map of Edinburgh for a year
> or so now, and Steve pointed me towards this list.  I'm a developer, and
> can help with the software side of things.  I don't yet have a GPS
> receiver, and so I'm hoping that I can draw on the experience of others
> on this list.

I just bought a HAiCOM GPS HI-204E.  It support NMEA-0183 v2.20.  A
specification is available from
<URL:http://www.haicom.com.tw/gps204E.htm>.  It is said to support
WAAS and EGNOS.  I have no idea what that is, but paid some extra to
get it included. :)

It works fine with gpsdrive so far, but I do not know how to enable
the extra features yet.

> I am not clear whether I can pick up any GPS handset and expect it to
> work well in a city.  For example, my dad has a Garmin eTrex that I can
> probably borrow.  Will that work tolerably in a city?  Will it take
> minutes to log each datapoint, or can I just cycle along a street and
> expect it to get a reasonable number of datapoints?  Would a handheld
> set work any better than a CF card GPS receiver?  Or should I be looking
> at fancier sets to get decent reception?

I do not know what will work well in the city.  I do find it
convinient that the GPS is waterresistant, and is connected to my
laptop using a wire (and not part of the machine.  I normally carry my
laptop in my backpack, and the GPS outside the backpack on my
shoulder.