[Ham-Mac] map source on a mac

[George Oswald]

I've used Route 66 and agree, it's limited; however, I use my iBook for 
marine navigation via GPSNavX.  GPSNavX has taken me from Seattle to 
Sitka and points in between several times and I like it better than the 
PC navigation programs and I've used several over the last 9 years

When thinking about GPS units, consider those made by USGlobalSat. They 
are WAAS enabled, Sirf III compliant, can read 20 satellites and  be 
USB or  Bluetooth connections. Price is less than $100 for many models. 
  I did the test of several small GPS receivers for a software company  
that makes  aviation moving map software for Motion tablets.  The 
simple units from USGlobalSat were far superior to the Garmin 10, any 
Emtec or Pharos. Cold start time is no more than 5 seconds.  The 338 
model even picked up a credible signal inside a wood roofed building 
with out windows! A little $88.00 USGlobalSat GPS (about the size of a 
silver dollar) outperformed the $$$$ Garmin GPS I have on my yacht-and 
it's USB, I don't need the Keyspan connection any longer. Now the 
little guy is in charge and Mr. Garmin will sit and gather dust.

For what its worth.

Mike Oswald
KB7HFS


On Apr 18, 2006, at 10:25 PM, John Rollins wrote:

>> Just to add another bean into this GPS pot.  Myself I use my Mac 
>> laptop and 2004 Route 66 software to provide the Maps and directly 
>> connect a USB GPS to provide the tracking.  Works great in the car 
>> for tracks driving directions at least here in Canada and USA.  It 
>> maps are a bit dated but it hasn't been a big issue for me 
>> personally.  Even run under Rosetta on new Intel Macs.
>
> I use Route 66 also, it works well enough most of the time. Definitely 
> room for a lot of improvement there. The interface doesn't meet Mac OS 
> standards that have been around forever, location searches are slow, 
> routing isn't too bad but could be a little faster and more accurate, 
> toll avoidance routing would be nice, and a lot of things need to be 
> streamlined to make operation faster in general. But there's not much 
> else out there that is anywhere close to current. The last copy of 
> anything I have from DeLorme won't even run in X, and I don't use 
> Classic anymore.
>
> As for connecting the computer to GPS... I have an old Garmin eMap 
> with serial/power cable and a Keyspan, and I usually let APRS software 
> handle the map part. Won't help for routing, but it shows you where 
> you are. Xastir works nicely for that.
>
> Garmin has certainly left us hanging dry for a long time, let's hope 
> that they give us something worthwhile. Once their Mac products come 
> out maybe the other guys will take notice and start developing for the 
> Mac again.
>
> ------------
> John Rollins  |  KD7BCY  |  http://www.kd7bcy.com
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