brief survey of USGS Topo mapping GPS units

So far as I can tell from my own on-line research, the Delorme PN-40 offers the best package combining 1:24,000 USGS quads at a livable price with a decent handheld unit. The Delorme does NOT have maps for Europe/UK, though, something the Garmin and Magellan units do seem to support.

My memory is a bit shaky on whether the Delorme unit has downloadable maps for the handheld unit covering Canada, though my recollection is they do not.

A mapping gps is absolutely not necessary. We can now end that debate..hehe.

1. Nobody needs a ruler to find their location on a UTM map. You can eyeball it in seconds since it is metric.
2. I hike in the Arkansas forest and have never needed a high sensitivity receiver.

Garmin Foretrex 101 for me.

A question to both Johns.

John Carter – When talking about the need for a ruler are you talking about the USGS maps that don't have the 1000 meter grid printed on them?

John Shannon – I don't believe that all USGS maps have the 1000 meter grid overprinted on them yet.

I agree that if the 1000 meter grid is on the map most folks should be able to learn how to "eye ball" a six or eight digit UTM coordinate.

I want a GPS that I can load a real picture of the waypoint into.

Bill,

Sorry, I meant more of a straight edge or UTM grid overlay. As far as this being more cumbersome, I suppose I haven't given enough effort into reading UTM data from a GPS onto a paper map. I just spent last night reading up on it, and I might give non-mapping GPS a try, at least until the mapping solutions mature a bit more. Seems like one has to buy into a company's system, and right now no single company has dominated the market.

Sure wish there was a high-sensitivity GPS out there that was lighter and smaller than the Garmin eTrex H to help justify the 'downgrade.' Since many of my hikes begin in thick douglas fir forests, I find this pretty necessary vs. a Geko/Foretrex. I also have an iPhone with an okay GPS, so if I were to purchase a dedicated outdoor GPS I would want to justify it by getting a high sensitivity one. Otherwise I might as well find a clearing as use my iPhone.

One last thought: why does the eTrex H claim a 17 hr battery life, while the eTrex HCx claims a 25 hr battery life? They both use 2 AA batteries, but the HCx is color. Is the eTrex H less efficient, or is Garmin fudging the numbers by assuming the HCx backlight will be off most of the time?

Bill Fornshell, did you ever experiment with using your IPHONE to show maps? You had talked about it in the past I thought.

Not to completely downplay your research but I haven't found the vector based maps much of a problem since I print my own maps from the same software.

It saves a lot of cash on maps and with Delorme Topo 6 (no idea if other software has it) I've been making up to 3×3 page maps on riteintherain laser paper using it's built in options to do so. Simply cut the margins and apply quality water resistant tape to make a large folding map very similar in size and quality of traditional waterproof USGS maps and it automatically includes whatever features I want to print such as UTM grid overlays only for less confustion or changing colors of backup trails that I might deviate onto depending on snow conditions.

For the receiver I've got a Garmin Oregon 400T (gift from the wife). Performance wise, it's stellar. As noted by practically every review, only the brightness is problematic but as long as I put my hand where it can shade the screen in direct sunlight there isn't a problem at all. My friend who works for Garmin said it came down to a decision on battery life. They could have made it brighter but battery life went down unacceptably fast since they were already using so much juice for the rest of the new features unit.

Since the Garmin vector maps are pratically identical to Delorme's vector maps, it's been easy to match up with paper. Of course with the quick & easy touch screen panning, I find myself needing to reconsile to paper for the big picture much, much less.

My largest problem with the Oregon is actually software integration. I haven't it mentioned in reviews but apparently it is not natively supported in the "send to gps" or "receive from GPS" waypoint and trail features for most software other than Garmin's software. There is a fairly simple workaround but it took me 4 hours to find.

Simply export it as a GPX file (or download the GPX files from the web) and just copy them to the correct folder on the device like a flash drive. I wrote a quick batch file in command prompt to automate the process. So I export my track layer, route and waypoint data and close the app. Then I click the batch file and it copies the full info to the device as well as downloads any info to my PC that is new on the device. I have no idea if Delorme will patch setup native integration in their next release or not but at least it isn't a show stopper.

Be careful of the Delorme PN-40 for now. They are working on firmware ver 0. Early firmware versions are notoriously buggy. It took Garmin several version upgrades to get either the Colorado or the Oregon series working as they should.

As to the improved battery life in the current eTrex series, more efficient GPS chip sets. Look what they have done with cell phones and laptops. When you are using a GPS, it is running all the time. The older ones simply used more juice to track satellites and plot the results. A color screen, when used w/o back lighting these days do not use much more power that monochrome LCD displays.

I have a geko 301 so I don't have any experience with onboard maps. But I have Topo on my mac and also use MacGPSpro for scanned maps (mainly for canada). I don't understand the problem with the vector maps onboard? Is it just that most are at 100k resolution?

Do your scanned maps scroll from one to the next seamlessly? When I have planned trips using scanned/downloaded maps, it seems like I am always going from one corner to another, so not having seamless maps is a pain if you are between maps (I have stitched adjacent maps together, but that is alot of work). The seamless maps of topo are much, much nicer to work with than a bunch of downloaded quads.

Thanks all for the comments. A few notes:

Michael B: I'm pretty sure both NG Topo and Topo USA offer seamless USGS 24K quads, so you don't run into the edge of the map.

Michael L: Actually, DeLorme just released firmware v2.4, and the PN-40 is the upgrade to the PN-20; definitely not beta software. And user reviewers claim it is much more stable and fast than the Magellan Triton units, which have been around for several years now. But I agree that it's becoming the industry standard for initial releases to feel more like a beta release.

Joe: The main problem I have with vector maps is that they don't include all the data that USGS quads have. Things like mines, buildings, and springs are often left out. I want as many possible visual markers on my map. On the other hand, the vector maps usually have more recent data. One of the nice things about the PN-40 is you can have multiple layers of maps at once; the Topo USA vector maps, USGS scanned quads, and satellite images (all available under their $30 annual service). You can quickly switch between the maps, and waypoints and tracks remain superimposed. This way you can have the USGS landmark detail AND have the more current POI database in the vector maps. Geocachers appreciate the Satellite imaging. If you find the vector maps adequate, you will be pleased to know Garmin is creating 24K vector maps of the entire US, and has several states out. These will look great on the Oregon, since the Oregon takes advantage of the shaded relief capabilities. It's nice to know you can read the screen with your hand covering the sun, but it's too bad they prioritized a touchscreen over brightness; I still stand by my statement that I wold rather have a brighter but smaller non-touch screen if it improves battery life. That said, I do like the concept of a touchscreen for menu simplicity; after using my iPhone I find it cumbersome to go back to using my computer mouse!

John: re. iPhone maps: there is now a program called GPS kit that downloads Google Terrain maps and can store them in cache for offline viewing. Still no dedicated offline-map topo GPS program out yet. The bigger problem, though, is that there is no way to turn off the phone radio and keep GPS on. So to use GPS, you have to turn on the Phone radio. The iPhone may be useful for occasional checking of one's location in areas with a good view of the sky (not a very sensitive receiver without cellular triangulation), but doesn't allow battery saving features like running in the background while the screen is turned off, so it's not useful for tracking. On a side note, PocketPCs (now called Windows Mobile) have had USGS 24K scanned map GPS programs around since around 2001 or so. Kind of pitiful to me that the outdoor GPS companies are only now catching up.

“It’s nice to know you can read the screen with your hand covering the sun, but it’s too bad they prioritized a touchscreen over brightness; I still stand by my statement that I wold rather have a brighter but smaller non-touch screen if it improves battery life.”

Honestly, having used it, it’s actually only a minor inconvenience and the touch panning is so smooth that I wouldn’t make the compromise to go back to a non-touch screen.

For those who are interested in getting the unit, there are some settings to greatly improve it’s visibility: Garmin Oregon Wiki – Brightness

For those of you who prefer map & compass as your main navigation tools, and only want a GPS to spit out coordinates for map verification, I came across this Holux M-241 data logger this morning:

It's a 32 channel MTK reciever (-159 dBm), has a 12 hour battery life using a single AA battery, weights 1.35 oz, and is available for $70 US on Amazon.com.

It is advertised as a data logger, but unlike most data loggers it has an LCD screen that displays coordinates, speed, altitude (GPS-based), and time. You can also press a button to record tracks/waypoints.

The one major drawback is that is only displays Lat/Lon, not UTM. And I don't think it's waterproof. Still, at half the weight of the Gekos with presumably a more sensitive receiver, this is getting close to an ideal backup GPS IMO.

Why can't Garmin give us one of these? I don't want to spend $500 for a watch without field-replaceable batteries that does se same thing as this!

Holy crap, I wrote up a thread on here about 4 months ago talking about building exactly that out of a Holux Slimline bluetooth reciever! Granted, I was hoping for UTM.
Thanks for the find!

By the way, if it's anything like my holux slimline receiver for my car / pda I've ran it through the washer a half dozen times on accident and it still works fine.

John,

Your post prompted me to do a bit of research and it turns out there is a large world of free Garmin based maps out there, including software to convert USGS maps into a map usable by mapping garmin units.

Put USGS topo maps on Garmin Handheld Units

Of course, I also found a far easier solution that I think will fit my needs. Uploading custom POI (Points of Interest) from lists available on the web or making my own so things line Mines, visitor centers and springs show up on your vector based maps.

Custom POI

I’ve begun playing around with the other maps and it almost seems like one could buy the cheaper model of Oregon without basemaps and load these maps for free as long as your needed areas had maps created.

I own a DeLorme PN-40. They recently updated the firmware; the update was mainly for geocaching but included some bug fixes. I consider it "ready for prime time". I've loaded USGS maps onto it as well as aerial photos. I love it.

– JV

Joe,

Thanks for the link to Moagu! Your post prompted me to try this out, but I've found the redraws quite slow.

Does anyone know how well Garmin's 24K vector map contour lines match the usgs quad contours? The vectors don't have the poi detail of the usgs quads, but it occurs to me that all I need are the contours to quickly find my spot on a paper map. If they do match, I can use the contours to find myself on the paper map without having to read the usgs coordinates. I would then enjoy the benefits of a raster map (routable trails, whole states on SD card, etc).

Here is another option for mapping (vector and raster) GPS.

I’ve been using TrekBuddy GPS software on my Blackberry phone. Because I usually have my cell phone with me anyway, I can add GPS functionality without any weight penalty.
TrekBuddy is a free program for Java based mobile devices. It can utilize any map in JPG, BMP, GIF or PNG format. Separate desktop programs calibrate and cut the pictures into smaller tiles for TrekBuddy to display.
TrekBuddy has a traditional GPS compass, waypoints, tracks, and navigation data screens. Most or all of the NMEA data streaming from the GPS receiver can be captured and displayed on custom screens. The custom screens are created using XML. I had no previous experience with XLM or HTML programming, but was able to copy and plagiarize sample screens posted on the TrekBuddy forum website.

Pros:
Free, weighs nothing, uses any map (Delorme, National Geographic Topo, Magellan, Google Maps, any map you can scan and calibrate, even a napkin drawing!) Very long battery life.

Cons:
Steep learning curve. Creating maps is tedious. Some measurements are metric only.

Left – Blackberry 8110 with built-in GPS – 3.25 ounces.
Right – Blackberry 8220 – 3-5/8 ounces & Freedom 2000 GPS receiver – .75 ounces

Compass screen, 8110 on the left, 8220 on the right.

Map scanned from State Park Brochure and calibrated. GPS tracked along well. Accuracy was off some because map wasn't quite to scale.

Delorme 24000:1 vector maps. I didn't bother trimming borders.

Delorme 8000:1 and 24000:1 vector maps.

National Geographic Topo 24000:1 maps

Navigation Screens

Even without third party software, the Blackberry Operating System can display limited GPS information. It is not dependent on cell tower triangulation. It works out of cell tower range or with the phone radio turned off. This picture is of the GPS screen built into the Blackberry OS.

When converting and loading maps is too inconvenient, waypoints in GPX format are easy to transfer from desktop to TrekBuddy.

For Windows Mobile phones, a product called GPSTuner looks promising.

Happy Hiking.

Garmin's vector maps line up more than well enough to match up to a USGS map. If you want Points of Interest you can download the POI packs that would be on your USGS map and load them to your device. That takes care of most of the issues mentioned above.

Yes, raster maps are slower to redraw, but try them from multiple sources, you may find one that is faster as they have all sorts of voodoo and it is possible to convert the USGS maps into vector for faster redraw, but it's over my head at present time.

Despite having gps and some mapping software on my HTC Fuze, I won't take it backpacking with me. I just literally don't want a phone with me and the thing is still heavier than my GPS with more limited battery life and much worse positioning and the software is no where near as refined as the Oregon's.

Lance,

It's nice to see Blackberry devices gaining this capability. I have been a big fan of PDA-phone GPS's for the past 6 years, and have been rather disdainful of the outdoor GPS manufacturer's (Garmin in particular) for what feels like being years behind the best technology available for mapping. I remember using scanned 24K maps on my pocket pc gps phone back in 2002, and on my windows mobile smartphone in 2005.

It wasn't until this year that it finally dawned on me that this limitation is a result of power requirements. Garmin has created devices that can run for 25 hours on 2 AA batteries. When is the last time you've read about a cellphone with that kind of battery life, and with that kind of battery?

So I've turned full circle and decided that battery life (with a battery you can buy at any gas station), durability/waterproofness, and stability (my Pocket PC crashed all the time), trump the technological features of current GPS phones, which are designed from the bottom up for a completely different market.

Think carefully before you decided to depend on your Blackberry for navigation in whiteout conditions in 20 degree weather, or in dense fog, which are the only times you really NEED a gps.

As a side note, I have decided to carry BOTH my iPhone and a Garmin eTrex. This is a big concession for me, as I have been a staunch advocate of all-in-one devices for most of this decade. But I do like having an mp3 player, and the only outdoor GPS with a headphone jack and mp3 capability is the new Lowrance Enduro GPSs. Still, I like having my cellphone with me, if only to call for assistance if I need to take an alternate route out of the mountains, or my car is stolen/can't start at the trailhead. And I don't like leaving my cellphone in the car when backpacking.

So I've come to view GPS on my iPhone as a nice backup GPS feature. This has helped me justify both the Garmin and the PDA phone in my pack. This way, in terms of critical navigating, I've got a reliable GPS, a backup GPS, a baseplate compass, and paper topo maps.

I've been testing both the eTrex H and the eTrex Vista HCx this weekend, and was surprised by the weight discrepancy. Garmin's website leads you to believe there is only a 0.2 oz difference. Here's what my digital postal scale determined (no batteries):

eTrex H: 3.5 oz
eTrex Vista HCx: 4.1 oz

That's quite a bit more difference than 0.2 oz! The BPL measured weight of the Geko 201 is 3.2 oz, making the eTrex H closer in weight to the Geko than the Vista HCx!

I find this particularly interesting, since in BPL's review of the eTrex HCx, Alan bemoans the lack of high-sensitivity receiver in Garmin' AAA Geko units.

Also, consider that 3 AAA Li batteries weigh .9oz and 2 AA Li weigh 1oz. Then you've only got a .4oz difference between the Geko 201 and the eTrek H with batteries.

But then consider that the eTrex H has a listed battery life of 17 hours, whereas the Geko has a 12 hour battery life, and you realize you have to carry more batteries for the Geko on a longer trip, therefore making the eTrex the lighter GPS in the field.

The more I test the eTrex H and the Vista HCx, the more I like the eTrex H.

– – –

EDIT: btw: one of the big barriers to the eTrex H is the expensive cable and USB adapter you must buy to connect to the computer, thus negating the price savings of teh eTrex H. Well, I found a cable for $10.99 that goes directly from the eTrex H to USB (no serial adapter needed!), and I can confirm it works. Found it here:

http://www.rnrplace.com

They also have a cable that will power the device for around $14.