Worldwide GPS?

[Maljonic]

This might be a stupid question, I know virtually nothing about these things, but is there such a thing as a personal GPS device that works anywhere in the world out of the box available in the shops? I don't mean a satnav thing like in a car, but something you can carry around that shows where you are, even if it's up a remote mountain or in the middle of the ocean.

 

[DaGaffer]

Loads. Try Garmin for instance.

 

[Cadelin]

Which bit of Global Positioning System did you not understand?

On a more serious note there are lots available however most of them are designed with a specific purpose in mind. As you said sat nav systems for cars normally come with a built in route finder and can also give you information on the location of congestion. A GPS system for hiking will be designed to be lightweight, waterproof and with a long battery life.

 

[Maljonic]

Loads. Try Garmin for instance.

Thanks, I see there is loads. The only ones I've seen are car satnav things with maps of Europe or the UK installed. I'm going on a ship so I thought it would be quite cool to see where I am each day.

 

[TdC]

do be aware that most Garmins require you to purchase software in the form of maps that you load on to your GPS. Without the maps the thing will just give you a latitude and longitude fix, and perhaps a vector and velocity depending on your model .

I have a Garmin 60Csx which I am pretty pleased with, though I must add that it's certainly not all-knowing and the maps differ vastly depending on who made them. For example I have a Belgium map by Garmin, and a Netherlands map by TOPO-NL and the Garmin one allows non routed travel while sticking to roads, while the TOPO-NL one will only allow routed travel and not freerange (aka it sucks on a bike), though ofc at all times I can see where I am.

 

[Chilly]

iphone

 

[Maljonic]

do be aware that most Garmins require you to purchase software in the form of maps that you load on to your GPS. Without the maps the thing will just give you a latitude and longitude fix, and perhaps a vector and velocity depending on your model .

I have a Garmin 60Csx which I am pretty pleased with, though I must add that it's certainly not all-knowing and the maps differ vastly depending on who made them. For example I have a Belgium map by Garmin, and a Netherlands map by TOPO-NL and the Garmin one allows non routed travel while sticking to roads, while the TOPO-NL one will only allow routed travel and not freerange (aka it sucks on a bike), though ofc at all times I can see where I am.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was getting at. I was looking at this one last night after DaGaffer suggested looking at Garmin: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=145&pID=14902 , not sure if you can buy it yet though going by what it says. I'll go and look in some camping shops today.

 

[TdC]

looks nice. tbh depending on what you think you'll be using the thing most for defines the set of stuff it should be capable of. if you think you'll fit it in your car or something like that, perhaps a strong route finding engine is what you will benefit most from, whereas if you're more an out-doorsy type perhaps lots of waypoints and a stronger compass/altimeter would be more your thing.

the maps are quite detailed, for example you can tell the GPS to take you to the nearest restaurant, petrol station, hotel, hospital or a user-defined waypoint of your choice (eg I have a waypoint set to my house's coörds, so when I am biking and get lost (as far as that is possible in Holland) I can tell the unit to take me home and it will.

 

[Maljonic]

Mostly the same as you really. I don't need it for the car, don't get lost following roads really, but more for out in the wilderness where's there's not too may reference points.

 

[TdC]

one thing I like about the unit, of you're into that kind of cross-country that is, is line-of-sight navigation: you sight the unit to a landscape feature you want to go to, like a big rock or a tree or a building, and the unit will generate an arrow on the display that always points towards the direction of your landmark. Meaning that walking in the woods or any other place that makes you lose sight of your destination, you will still have your reference in the form of the arrow pointing where you wanted to go.

ofc the arrow doesn't care about rivers or that kind of stuff

 

[Tom]

N95 8GB will do all those things. Country maps are downloadable for free from the nokia site. Built in GPS (not great but good enough), you can also buy navigation.

You can also run something like Viewranger on it, and have OS mapping capability. I do that.

 

[Maljonic]

ofc the arrow doesn't care about rivers or that kind of stuff

That's cool, me neither. I simply fashion a pontoon bridge from local materials, skip across then scupper it to confound my enemies!