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Low Cost GPS Receiver and Moving Map PC Software Reviewsby Joe Mehaffey and Jack YeazelRevised: 20 June, 2000 (Corrected for SA elimination and other details) Quoted prices are US$ DELORME RECEIVERS Delorme EarthMate GPS Receiver: This $150 receiver (can come bundled with Street Atlas 7) is a 12 channel receiver/antenna combination, but has no display. It is "rain resistant" and so may be itself mounted on your car's roof. The EarthMate GPS receiver is designed specifically to work with Delorme's Street Atlas 4/5/6/7 software and unless connected to a laptop with SA running, the EarthMate shuts down and provides no data. This unit acquires reasonably quickly and maintains lock not quite as well as most other 12 channel parallel recievers. Overall, it is among the lowest cost GPS receiver/software packages, but its lack of a stand alone display, and the fact that it only works with Delorme Mapping software products makes it less desirable than others. Speed capability is reported as 900 kph. The Earthmate and Tripmate have been reported to be among the least accurate of the low cost GPS receivers. GPS to MAP Intermediate Software: Third party software is essential to realizing the full potential of integrating the Garmin receivers with the Delorme Street Atlas maps. These auxiliary programs allow you to download routes, tracks, and waypoints to files that can be shown on the Delorme maps, white paper maps, or saved for future uploads back to the Garmin receivers. G7ToWin is a (free) Windows/NT program by Ron Henderson. The program will download in one operation from the Garmin receivers, waypoints, routes, proximity points, tracks, and symbols (if they exist) to text and Street Atlas 3/4/5/6/7 files in all the various ways Street Atlas can present these data. G7ToWin has been updated to support the Garmin StreetPilot (and ColorMap) with all the symbols Garmin has of this date. It now supports the Street Pilot's 10-character waypoint and routepoint names for down/uploading and display and will interface with the new Street Atlas 7. Upgrades will be available at G7ToWin above. You have complete control as to how any downloaded track or route LOOKS in Street Atlas. It can be solid, or 'highlighter', and be any SA color or thickness. Routepoints can have Route No., names, comments, or none. Waypoints can have names with or without comments. SA4/5/6/7 Tracks are lines instead of dots; SA3 tracks remain dots. Check: The latest G7TO (DOS) Instructions. WAYPOINT+ Ver. 1.7.08 (free) by Brent Hildebrand is a very sophisticated Win 95/Win-NT (only) program for use with the SA 3/4/5/6 Delorme maps. This version has had an extensive upgrade in the user interface and will now print the 'white-paper' maps. The program will down/upload Tracks, Routes, Waypoints, Proximity Waypoints, and Symbols of thirteen different Garmin receivers. Once downloaded, a click on the file, created (in Windows Explorer) will invoke the Delorme map program associated with it and display file data on the map automatically. The program presents the waypoints and routes in three ways:
A handy feature of the program its ability to COMBINE all of the data stored in the Garmins into one file. This combined file can either be displayed on the white paper map or on an SA3/4/5/6 map. Route 00 (the active route) will be displayed on SA6 as gold circles connected by "railroad track" lines. Proximity waypoints are shown with limit circles around them. Tracks on SA4/5/6/ can be shown as continuous lines in color or as points. Saved files can be edited to remove or add waypoint and track information. SINGLE waypoints can be 'Sent' to the receiver from a list of waypoints with Ctrl-S. Garmin PCX5 program ($75). This program is being discontinued by Garmin in favor of a free program, MapSource 3. Contents
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