Guide on GPS

Calibrating the map

2011-05-31T22:19:00.000-07:00

After you scan, edit, and save your map, one more step is left before you can start using the map with OziExplorer. At this point, your map is simply a graphics file. You can use Microsoft Paint or any another graphics program to view, edit, and print the map, but you want to turn the image into a smart map to take advantage of OziExplorer’s features.
This involves calibrating the map, which involves linking georeferenced data with the map image so that each pixel in the map has a geographic coordinate associated with it. When a map has georeferenced data, you can

Move the cursor on the map, and OziExplorer will accurately report the coordinates of the cursor in latitude and longitude or UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator)
Draw lines on the map to measure distance.
Calculate the size of areas.
Track and display your current position on the map when the computer is connected to a GPS receiver.
_ Transfer GPS waypoints, routes, and tracks between the map and a GPS receiver.

When you calibrate a map with OziExplorer, the georeferenced data isn’t embedded directly inside the image file. OziExplorer creates a separate MAP file (.map) that contains the following information:

The location of the map image file
The map datum
The map projection
Map calibration data

Inside a MAP file, the file is in text format and can be viewed with any word processor.
Calibration requires you to identify a series of points on the map with known coordinates. Depending on the number of points that you select, as well as the map datum and projection, OziExplorer performs different mathematical calculations to link coordinate information with the map image. To demonstrate the process of calibrating a map with OziExplorer, use a scanned copy of a 1:100,000 scale USGS topographic map Some digital maps have georeferenced data embedded directly into the map image as tags or come with associated files that contain the reference data. (A common example is a DRG map.) OziExplorer can use these maps without going through the calibration process that I describe next. Check the OziExplorer Web site or the program’s online help for a full list of these supported map types.

Edit the map

2011-05-31T22:17:00.000-07:00

After you successfully scan the map, make any last-minute changes to the image. This could include

Adjusting the brightness and contrast to make the map more readable.

Adding symbols or text information.
Removing the white space (or collar as it’s known in map-speak) that surrounds the map.

Use your favorite graphics program to make any final edits to the map image. After you’re through, save the map as a TIFF, PNG, or JPG file to reduce how much disk and memory space the image takes up. (These compressed file formats are more space-efficient and memory-efficient.) The shareware version of OziExplorer can load only BMP images. Because bitmaps aren’t compressed, the entire file must be loaded into memory, which can slow down the performance of computers that don’t have much RAM.

OziExplorer and World War I

2011-03-31T11:05:00.000-07:00

The 1980s movie Gallipoli recounted the Australian experience of fighting the Turks during World War I. Although long before the time of computers and mapping software, WWI also has a link to OziExplorer.
Howard Anderson wrote a fascinating article on using OziExplorer to locate old World War I trench lines in France and Belgium. The remains of the trenches are long gone, but by using old maps from the period, scanning them, and adding georeferenced data, Anderson was able to clearly determine where the trenches were dug during the early 1900s.
After he had scanned and georeferenced the old military maps, Anderson used OziExplorer to draw GPS tracks on personally created digital maps to trace the outlines of the trenches. He also used waypoints to identify military and land features. Anderson then took the tracks and waypoints and overlaid them on a modern map in OziExplorer. This revealed where the longago war emplacements once stood. Anderson’s last step was to visit France with a GPS receiver and his old and modern maps. He found that, with relative accuracy, he could stand on the site of a trench where his grandfather had fought over 85 years ago.

Scanning a map

2011-03-31T11:03:00.000-07:00

The first step when converting a paper map to a digital map is to scan the map and turn it into a graphics file. You don’t need an expensive, high-end scanner to accomplish this task; most any color scanner will work. If you want to scan a large map — say, anything bigger than a legal size piece of paper — consider literally cutting it up into pieces that will fit on your scanner. (8.5 x 11 inches works well.) Instead of using a pair of scissors, use a paper cutter, such as those found at copy centers, to ensure that you end up with straight cuts. The straight cuts are important for accurately aligning the map on your scanner. Although you can scan a large map one portion at a time without cutting it, it’s more of a challenge to get the edges lined up when you stitch them together as I discuss next.
Here are some tips to improve your map scanning:

Use medium dpi: Scanning the map between 125–200 dots per inch (dpi) is good enough; you don’t need to scan at higher resolutions typically used for reproducing photos.
Use color photo scanning: Most scanning software has different settings for different types of documents you want to scan, such as text, line drawings, and photographs. Select the color photograph option to retain the most detail. However, remember that most maps don’t have millions of colors like photographs, so if your scanning software supports it, use a 256-color setting.
Watch edge alignment: Place the to-be-scanned map directly on the scanner, ensuring that the edges are aligned directly against the scanner bed with no gaps. You need to keep the paper map as square as possible to reduce distortion during a scan.
Prevent edge distortion: To help keep the map edges pressed flat, leave the scanner cover open and use a book or something heavy to set on top of the map. The edges are typically where the most distortion occurs during scanning because they tend to lift up.
Experiment with settings: Try a couple of experimental scans first, changing the brightness and contrast settings. If you’re going to be scanning a number of maps over a period of time, write down the settings that gave you the best output so you can use them next time.
Save the final scan as BMP: When you’re ready to produce a final scan of the map, initially save it as bitmap (BMP) format file. This produces an image that’s as close to the original map as possible; bitmap files aren’t compressed like JPG and other graphics file formats.

Bitmap files do take up a lot of memory and disk space, but after you edit a file, you can save it as another graphics format that’s smaller in size. If you have a map that’s made up of multiple image files, such as a large map cut up into a series of smaller maps, you’ll need to stitch them and a single, large image. Commercial graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop and Jasc Paint Shop Pro have commands for combining files. You can also manually stitch together images with Microsoft Paint by using the Paste From command of the Edit menu. Here’s a link to a great tutorial on stitching together scanned images: www.sibleyfineart.com/index.htm?tutorial—join-scans.htm.

Moving from Paper to Digital Maps

2011-03-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

OziExplorer supports a number of different digital map types that use georeferenced data (information that allows a program to precisely identify locations and coordinates on a map). But one of the program’s most powerful features is its ability to turn your own graphics files into georeferenced maps. This means if you have a paper map, you can scan it, load it into OziExplorer, and effectively make it an electronic (digital) map. This is a three-step process:

Scan the map. Use a scanner to create a digital image of the paper map. Stitch individual map pieces, if necessary.
Edit the map. Make changes to the scanned map before it’s used.
Calibrate the map. Load the edited map into OziExplorer and associate georeferenced data with the map image.

The following sections explore the above three steps in further detail. Scanning and calibrating your own maps can be fairly time consuming and sometimes frustrating if you can’t seem to get the map coordinates to match up with reality. Some maps are definitely easier to calibrate than others. If you’re not technically inclined or are somewhat impatient, you’ll probably want to stick to importing maps that are already georeferenced, such as freely available United States Geological Survey (USGS) DRG topographic maps.

Discovering OziExplorer Features

2011-02-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

OziExplorer is a powerful and versatile mapping program developed by Des Newman. (Newman hails from Australia, and Ozi is slang for Australia — get it?). Newman originally wrote the program for personal use during four-wheeldrive trips in the Australian outback. He released OziExplorer as shareware, which has evolved into a sophisticated mapping tool that’s constantly updated.
Some of the program’s key features are that it

Interfaces with GPS receivers: OziExplorer can communicate with just about every GPS receiver on the market, allowing you to upload and download waypoints, routes, and tracks to and from GPS receivers and PCs.
Works in many languages: Localized versions of OziExplorer are available in a number of different languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian.
Provides real-time tracking: If you have a laptop connected to a GPS receiver, OziExplorer displays a moving map with your real-time, current position and other travel information.
Is easy to use: OziExplorer boasts a large number of features, such as annotating maps and extensive import and export capabilities, all of which are easy to use.
Supports an extensive number of map formats: OziExplorer can access many popular digital map data formats (such as DRG, a Digital Raster Graphics map) and can associate georeferenced data with common graphics file types. For example, you can take a file that you created in Paint or some other graphic program and turn it into a smart map (a map where geographic coordinates are associated with individual pixels). The best way to find out about OziExplorer’s features is to download the program and try it. (OziExplorer works with PCs capable of running Windows 95 through XP.).

Trial: The trial version is a limited version of OziExplorer that has all the program features enabled, except the program can’t

• Communicate with GPS receivers
• Save or load waypoints, routes, or tracks
• Save maps as image files
• Run for more than an hour at a time

Shareware: The shareware version has a number of features disabled and has the following limitations:

• Only bitmap (BMP) images can be imported as maps (as opposed to many graphics file types in the registered version).
• Only two points can be used to calibrate a map, reducing the potential accuracy. (Up to nine points are available in the registered version.)
• Limited support is available for map projections, grid systems, and datums (compared with extensive support in the full version). Between these two programs available in the install package, you’ll be able to get a feel for all OziExplorer’s capabilities. And when you register the shareware version, the full monty of features is enabled. The $85 registration fee is a nominal investment considering the many features that the full version of OziExplorer offers.
If you’re looking for a street and road navigation program, OziExplorer isn’t the best choice. Ozi is more suited for adventures off the beaten path. If you need a program that helps you find the best route between two addresses on streets and highways, you’re much better off using some of the commercial mapping programs .
For more practical information on OziExplorer, including troubleshooting tips, check out the popular Yahoo! Groups e-mail list and forum devoted to the program at groups.yahoo.com/group/OziUsers-L.
In addition to OziExplorer, Des Newman also has two other related mapping programs:

OziExplorer3D: This program is used in conjunction with OziExplorer to display maps in three dimensions. OziExplorer writes elevation data to a file, which OziExplorer3D uses to display a 3-D representation of the map. OziExplorer3D is priced at $30.
OziExplorerCE: OziExplorerCE is moving-map software for Pocket PC (formerly known as Windows CE) PDAs. You create maps and plan trips with OziExplorer on your PC and then download the map data to your PDA to use with OziExplorerCE. When you connect your PDA to a GPS receiver, the program retrieves GPS data and displays your current location on a map. The PDA version of Ozi costs $30.

To discover more about the features of these two programs and download demonstration versions, go to www.oziexplorer.com.

QuakeMap

2011-02-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

QuakeMap is written by Sergei Grichine and was originally designed to download worldwide earthquake data from various Internet sources and display the information on maps. The program has since evolved into a general purpose, mapping utility that uses TerraServer-USA data. You can use GPS data with QuakeMap, and if you’re a geocacher, the program has several specialized features designed for the sport.

ExpertGPS

2011-02-28T18:53:00.000-08:00

TopoGrafix is a software company that produces GPS and mapping programs. ExpertGPS is an extensive waypoint, route, and track management system with mapping capabilities grafted on top of it.
ExpertGPS has a large number of features. In fact, at first glance, the extensive features and user interface can be a little intimidating. However, if you’re a GPS power user with a large collection of waypoints and route data, it’s definitely worth spending some time working with the program to see whether it meets your needs.

TopoFusion

2011-01-31T20:22:00.000-08:00

Scott and Alan Morris, brothers and computer science graduate students, weren’t satisfied with the various Windows mapping programs on the market, so they wrote their own. Both are avid mountain bikers, GPS users, and outdoor recreationists; the features in their program reflect this. Some of TopoFusion’s features include

Optimized graphics routines for fast map display
Terrain profiles of GPS tracks
Multiple track file support for constructing trail networks
Map digital photo support by determining the location where a photo

was taken by correlating the photo time-stamps with those of the track points

Trip playback mode that replays your travel route and provides statistics
Combining aerial photos with topographic maps for composite images

The Morris brothers are constantly adding new and useful features to the program and have an online support forum. If you’re using a GPS receiver as part of a trail-mapping project or you are a serious outdoor enthusiast, the advanced features of TopoFusion should put it high on your list

TerraClient

2011-01-31T20:19:00.000-08:00

Bill Friedrich’s TerraClient is a free, easy-to-use Windows program that displays TerraServer-USA aerial photos and maps. It doesn’t interface with GPS receivers or use GPS data, but it does have two features that make it ideal for beginning map users:

Easy location lookup: Instead of knowing the exact coordinates of the area you want to view, enter a place name and watch TerraClient return a list of possible matches. To view the aerial photo, click the one you’re interested in.
Superimposed maps: This is a very slick feature that allows you to superimpose a topographic map on top of an aerial photo. You can control the transparency of the overlay so that only a faded, ghostlike image of the map appears on top of the aerial photograph. This is very useful for quickly identifying features on aerial photos.

TerraClient has an extremely user-friendly interface, and you can be up and running the program in a matter of minutes.

Interfacing with a GPS receiver

2011-01-31T20:15:00.000-08:00

Downloading and viewing free aerial photos and maps is pretty cool, but if you have a GPS receiver, USAPhotoMaps has even more features that you can put to use, including

Downloading waypoints, routes, and tracks from a GPS receiver to overlay on aerial photos and maps.
Uploading waypoints and routes that you’ve created with USAPhotoMaps to your GPS receiver.
Interfacing USAPhotoMaps to a GPS receiver for real-time updates of your current position shown on an aerial photo or topographic map. USAPhotoMaps has a separate help file that covers only GPS-related topics. You’ll find comprehensive information on interfacing your GPS receiver to the program and descriptions of GPS-related features. To display the help file, choose Help from the GPS menu.

Click the mouse to add a waypoint wherever the cursor is currently positioned. You’ll be prompted to enter a description and a name (to identify the waypoint if you upload it to a GPS receiver). The waypoint will be displayed as a dot on the aerial photo or the map. Right-click the mouse button to display a list of waypoints.

Saving Aerial Photos

2010-12-31T22:28:00.000-08:00

After you have an aerial photo or map displayed onscreen, you can save the image to use with other programs:

From the File menu: Choose Copy to Screen.jpg. This saves a copy of the aerial photo or map currently displayed onscreen to a file named Screen.jpg in the same folder that USAPhotoMaps is installed in.
Print Screen: Press the Print Screen key to save the current image to the Clipboard. If you want to save only a portion of the map or aerial photo that appears onscreen.
BigJpeg: Use the BigJpeg utility. Doug Cox has a free utility that creates a single, 1-meter resolution, JPG format graphics file from a photo or map. You define the boundaries of an area you want to save in USAPhotoMaps and then run BigJpeg to create the graphics file. You can download BigJpeg, with complete instructions, at http://jdmcox.com.

Creating and Using Multiple Map Files

2010-12-31T22:27:00.000-08:00

USAPhotoMaps uses a map file to name areas that have downloaded aerial photo or map data. A map file is a bookmark for a general vicinity or location. For example, you might have downloaded aerial photos for the entire Grand Canyon. Instead of scrolling to view photos at each end, you could create two map files, one called North Grand Canyon and the other South Grand Canyon.
To create a map file bookmark

From the File menu, choose New Map File.
In the New Map dialog box that appears, enter the name of the map file and the coordinates that you’d like to bookmark.
Click OK.

After you create a map file, select it, and USAPhotoMaps displays the aerial photo or map associated with that area.
To select and display a new map file

From the File menu, choose Open Map File.
Select the name of the map file to load.
Click OK.

The area that you bookmarked is now displayed onscreen. Map file bookmarks are used to identify a general location. They shouldn’t be used for marking a very specific set of coordinates, such as a GPS waypoint.

Entering text in USAPhotoMaps

2010-11-30T18:38:00.000-08:00

After you have an aerial photo displayed, you can add text labels to different
features when the image is displayed at the 1- or 2-meter zoom levels. To enter
a text label
1. Move the mouse cursor to the location where you want the text to start.
2. Hold down the Shift key.
3. Move the cursor in the direction you want the text to be aligned. A line is temporarily drawn as you move the cursor. For example, if you draw a line at a 45-degree angle, the text will flow at a 45-degree angle.
4. Release the Shift key.
5. In the dialog box that appears, type in the text label and click OK.
A list of all the text labels is displayed.
Text in a label is limited to 60 characters and can be edited or deleted by choosing Text➪List.
You can set the text color by choosing File➪Preferences➪Colors. The Color Preference dialog box, which isn’t all that intuitive, uses a series of radio buttons that correspond to red, green, and blue values. Your best bet for choosing a color you’d like is to enter some text and then display the Color Preference dialog box. When you select different combinations of color radio buttons, the text you entered changes color.

Enhancing contrast in USAPhotoMaps

2010-11-30T18:30:00.000-08:00

One of the things you’ll notice as you start to view aerial photos is that the contrast might be lighter or darker with certain images. This has to do with the amount of sunlight when the photo was taken and the background color of the terrain.
To enhance less-than-optimal contrast, USAPhotoMaps has a nifty feature that lets you adjust the contrast of the photos displayed onscreen by either lightening or darkening them. This can really enhance detail in a photo.
You can control the contrast of a photo by using these keys:
_ Lighten: Press the B key.
_ Darken: Press the D key.
You can also set contrast by selecting Brightness from the View menu, including restoring the contrast back to its default setting.

Zooming in and out

2010-10-31T11:30:00.000-07:00

You can zoom in and out on an aerial photo or map to see more detail or get a larger, big picture view. For zooming, use these keys:

Zoom in: Press Page Down or the plus (+) key.
Zoom out: Press Page Up or the minus/dash (–) key. The current zoom level appears in the window title bar, so you always know how far you’ve zoomed in or out.

The zoom level on the window title bar displays the resolution of the image. If the resolution is 4 meters-per-pixel, each pixel (picture element) onscreen represents an object 4 meters in size. (Remember that a meter is roughly a yard.) Smaller numbers mean higher resolution and greater detail. For example, 1 meter-per-pixel resolution means that you can distinguish objects on the ground that are one meter in size. How far you can zoom in and out on an image depends on what type of map you’re viewing.

Topographic maps: 4, 8, 16, or 32 meters-per-pixel
Aerial photos: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64 meters-per-pixel If you’re switching back and forth between aerial photos and topographic maps, use either a 4 or an 8 meters-per-pixel zoom level. This will give you close to a one-to-one size representation of features on the aerial photo and the topographic map.

Moving around the USAPhotoMaps

2010-10-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

You’ve probably noticed that USAPhotoMaps doesn’t use scroll bars like other Windows programs. Not to worry; you can still move around in a photo or map by using the keyboard navigational arrow keys:
If you see gray squares while you’re scrolling, map data has yet to be downloaded for that particular area. Figure above shows gray squares with aerial photo data that hasn’t been downloaded. Here are two ways to fill the squares with map or photo data:

From the File menu, choose Download Map Data➪Fill Screen.
Press the F key.

USAPhotoMaps connects to TerraServer-USA and downloads the map data for that area.
Instead of scrolling, you can also go directly to a location that you know the coordinates of. Just choose the Go To Lat/Lon item in the View menu and enter the coordinates.
USAPhotoMaps has two display modes: aerial photo and topographic map.
When you download data to fill in the gray squares, only data for the particular
mode that you’re in is downloaded.

Switching between aerial photos and topographic maps

2010-10-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

After you know where you are in a photo, look at the commands that you can use to move around. As I mention earlier, TerraServer-USA provides both aerial photos and USGS topographic maps,and USAPhotoMaps lets you switch between the two types of images. (Figure above shows a topographic map.) This is useful because you can look at a topographic map and then immediately see what the same location looks like as an aerial photo. This is a big advantage because aerial photos often show more feature detail than topographic maps.
Here are the two ways (in USAPhotoMaps) to display a topographic map version of an aerial photo you’re viewing:

From the View menu, choose Map Type➪Topo.
Press the T key.
If gray squares appear onscreen, you haven’t downloaded map data for that area yet. To download the map, press the F key. To switch back to an aerial photo view of the location
From the View menu, choose Map Type➪Photo.
Press the P key.

Getting the Most from Aerial Photos

2010-09-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

After you have an aerial photo displayed, navigate inside the image. USAPhotoMaps has a number of different commands to view and manipulate the photo.
The datum used for all TerraServer-USA maps is NAD 83. This is nearly identical to the WGS 84 datum used as a default by GPS receivers. If you plan on using your GPS receiver with USAPhotoMaps, be sure that the datum settings match.
The first thing you’ll notice is that when you move the mouse cursor around the screen, map coordinates appear in the window title bar. This feature allows you to move the cursor over a feature that’s shown on the aerial photo and get its precise coordinates.
You can change how you want the coordinates displayed from the View menu. Choose the Lat/Lon item and then specify whether you want the coordinates shown in decimal degrees, degrees and decimal minutes, degrees/minutes/ seconds, or UTM formats.
Press the X key to display a dialog box with the coordinates that the cursor is currently over. You can copy the coordinates from this dialog box and paste them into another program.

Downloading Aerial Photographs

2010-09-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

The first time you run USAPhotoMaps, a dialog box appears that prompts you to create a new map. You need to enter the following:

What you want to name the map.
The coordinates of the area you’re interested in viewing. The coordinates can be in either

• Latitude and longitude
• Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)

If you don’t know the latitude and longitude coordinates of the location you’re interested in seeing, quickly skip over to Chapter 11 to read how to find coordinates of place names.
As an example, create an aerial photomap of Seattle, Washington.

1. Enter the name, latitude, and longitude in the New Map dialog box.
• Name: Seattle
• Latitude: 47.61431
• Longitude: 122.32898

2. Click OK.
A series of gray squares appear onscreen.

3. Download aerial photos from TerraServer-USA for the area that you specified (with the latitude and longitude coordinates). Make sure that you’re connected to the Internet and then press the F key.

A mosaic of aerial photograph images replaces the gray squares as the screen is filled with data from TerraServer-USA. The final result is shown in Figure below.

If you’re using a firewall, your computer might complain when USAPhotoMaps tries to connect to TerraServer-USA. Because the program is just downloading map data, you can give permission for USAPhotoMaps to access the Internet. If you plan to use USAPhotoMaps to build an extensive aerial photo collection, a high-speed Internet connection will make your life much easier. Each individual aerial photo or topographic map image in the displayed mosaic is roughly 50–200K in size. (The actual size depends on how much unique terrain is shown in the image.) At 2 meters-per-pixel resolution, it takes 70 images to fill the screen of a 1024 x 768 monitor; that’s anywhere from 7–17MB of data to download.

Enhancing TerraServer-USA with USAPhotoMaps

2010-09-30T22:52:00.000-07:00

TerraServer-USA is a popular Web site that displays free aerial photographs and topographic maps of the U.S. that are produced by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
And although TerraServer-USA is a great Web-hosted mapping service, it has several limitations:

Only a relatively small geographic area can be displayed.
You can’t edit downloaded photos and maps.
GPS receiver data can’t be used with the photos and maps.

To address these issues, several developers have created programs that download TerraServer-USA aerial photos and maps so you can put the data to more versatile use. Instead of relying on a Web browser, you use these standalone programs — like USAPhotoMaps — to create scrollable, aerial photos of just about anywhere in the United States that can be customized and saved and optionally overlaid with GPS data.

From the Air with USAPhotoMaps

2010-08-31T23:16:00.000-07:00

Aerial photos complement other types of maps because they give you a snapshot of reality. Programs that display aerials (map-speak shorthand for aerial photos) are both inexpensive and easy to use. In this chapter, I review mapping programs that can exploit aerial photos, primarily focusing on the popular shareware application, USAPhotoMaps. To better illustrate the capabilities and functions of this program, I walk you through downloading an aerial photo, scrolling and zooming, interfacing the program with a GPS receiver, and saving map data. To get the most from this blog section, download and install USAPhotoMaps (http://jdmcox.com) and then use the program to work through the examples in the following pages. Unlike some shareware programs, USAPhotoMaps isn’t crippled; that is, all its features work when you download the program. If you find the program useful, you can make a donation to the author’s PayPal account.

National Geographic mapping products

2010-08-31T23:14:00.001-07:00

Many children got their first introduction to maps from National Geographic magazines. Each month, a carefully folded paper map of somewhere foreign and exotic came nestled inside the magazine. National Geographic is still in the map business, now producing several topographic map programs. I was one of those kids that got hooked on National Geographic maps when I was growing up, and I still like them today. The company’s map software is easy to use and strikes a nice balance of having just the right number and types of features, without having too many whistles and bells. National Geographic software has all the same basic features as other mapping programs, such as GPS support, route planning, printing maps, and searching for locations. The only exception is that National Geographic programs currently use only relief shading to show elevation and don’t render 3-D map images.
National Geographic has a number of paper and electronic map products available; visit www.nationalgeographic.com/maps. The two digital map products that you’ll find the most practical for backcountry use are Back Roads Explorer and TOPO!

Back Roads Explorer
Back Roads Explorer contains 1:100,000 scale topographic maps and larger overview maps of the entire United States. In addition to terrain data, the software also has road and street data that you can overlay on top of a map, including paved and unpaved roads.
Unlike DeLorme’s Topo USA, Back Roads Explorer uses raster maps (scanned versions of paper maps), which contain more detail. If you prefer more of a traditional looking map to one that looks like it was computer-generated, you’ll like Back Roads Explorer.
Raster maps take up more disk space than vector maps because they’re scanned images of paper maps. Vector maps are smaller because they’re composed of lines and shapes. For example, the raster map data for the entire United States that comes with Back Roads Explorer fits on 17 CDs, but the same vector data in Topo USA comes on 6 CDs.
With the option of overlaying up-to-date roads over topographic maps, Back Roads Explorer is ideal for basic navigation and is especially well suited for 4 x 4 enthusiasts who use a laptop and GPS receiver.

TOPO!
National Geographic’s TOPO! line of software provides 1:24,000 maps for each of the states and is comparable with Maptech’s Terrain Navigator and DeLorme’s 3-D TopoQuads products.
One feature that I especially like in the TOPO! products is mapXchange. You can visit the National Geographic Web site and select the state you have TOPO! maps for. A list of hikes and other outdoor activities is displayed with descriptions, and you can freely download files that contain waypoints and routes you can use with TOPO! If you like, you can also upload your own files of places you’ve been to share with other outdoor enthusiasts.

DeLorme mapping products

2010-08-31T23:11:00.000-07:00

DeLorme, well known for its Street Atlas USA road navigation software, also makes two topographic mapping programs: Topo USA and 3-D TopoQuads. DeLorme uses the same user interface for its entire line of consumer mapping products, so if you’re a happy user of Street Atlas USA and are looking for a map program for off-road use, it makes sense to keep things in the DeLorme family. DeLorme was one of the first vendors to offer customers a choice of map data on CDs or DVDs. If you have a DVD player on your PC, DVDs are far more convenient because you don’t have as many discs to keep track of, and you don’t have to swap discs as often to view maps of different areas. DeLorme topographic mapping products can interface with GPS receivers, display 3-D maps, search for locations, provide elevation profiles, and plan for trips just like other map programs. These two unique features in the program are especially useful:

_ Satellite imagery: DeLorme sells 10-meter resolution color satellite data for each state. When you use the images with DeLorme mapping products, you can view the satellite photos side by side with topographic maps in 2-D or 3-D.
_ Mural printing: If you need to produce a large map for a presentation, the programs support printing mural maps that are up to three pages high by three pages wide that you can join to make a large map. To read more about DeLorme’s mapping programs, visit www.delorme.com.

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In addition to Maptech and its topographic mapping programs, DeLorme and National Geographic also offer software that’s suited for off-road use. As previously mentioned, most topographic map programs have the same basic features; the biggest difference is their user interface. Because I don’t have the time to cover the other mapping programs in detail, this section provides a brief description of a few popular programs, shows some screenshots to give you an idea of what the user interface is like, and provides manufacturer Web sites to get more product information. When it comes to choosing a topographic map program, you really can’t go wrong with any of the programs mentioned in this chapter.
You can’t upload detailed maps to your GPS receiver from any of the programs discussed in this chapter. GPS receivers that display maps can use only proprietary maps (sold by the GPS manufacturer), and these tend to show considerably less detail than maps you can display on your PC. Several topographic map software companies do offer products that you can use with a Pocket PC/Palm PDA and GPS receivers that can display detailed topographic maps just as they appear on a PC screen.

Charting elevation profiles in Terrain Navigator

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Although the 3-D map view gives you a visual sense of how steep your hike is, you can get even more detailed information by using the Terrain Profile tool. This feature shows you the elevation gain/loss of your hike in pictures and numbers. Here’s how to use this tool:

1. Make sure that the map is displayed in 2-D.

2. Click the Information tool on the toolbar (an arrow with a question mark).

3. Right-click the track and select Profile from the pop-up menu.
A Profile dialog box opens that displays an elevation chart of the trail as well as how many feet you’ll be climbing and descending over the course of the trip.

Vertical profiles may have a lot of vertical exaggeration to show relative steepness. This can make terrain appear steeper than it actually is.

Using a 3-D map image in Terrain Navigator

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Use Terrain Navigator to display 3-D, shaded relief images of a map to help you better understand the terrain. To show a 3-D image of the map that’s currently displayed onscreen, click the 3-D View button on the toolbar. (It looks like mountains with a small bar underneath.)
The topographic map of Fuji Mountain ) is displayed in 3-D.
A red rectangle appears on the overview map, showing you the general location of the terrain, based on the current 3-D view of the map.
To control the view of the 3-D map

Click and drag the cursor on the map to rotate the image.
Use the trackball control to the left of the map to rotate up, down, left, and right. You can also use the keyboard navigation arrow keys.
Use the Elevation slider bar control (it has a picture of a truck, a helicopter, and an airplane) to adjust the height you’re viewing the map from.
Use the zoom arrows above the Elevation slider bar to control how close forward or backward your view of the terrain is.
Use the Vertical Exaggeration buttons beneath the trackball control to increase and decrease the vertical scale so elevation differences are easy to distinguish.

To toggle back to a 2-D version of the map, click the 3-D View toolbar button. If you want a true 3-D experience, Terrain Navigator comes with a special pair of red-and-blue-lens, stereoscopic glasses. If you click the 3-D Glasses icon, the map is colored so it appears to have three-dimensional depth when you’re wearing the glasses.

Other Maptech products

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In addition to Terrain Navigator, Maptech has several other topographic map products that you might find useful, including

Terrain Navigator Pro is Maptech’s high-end version of Terrain Navigator targeted toward professional map users and is priced around $300 per state. Use its enhanced features to
Display aerial photographs downloaded from the Maptech’s Internet servers.
Locate street addresses.
Link digital photos, spreadsheets, and other files with locations on maps.
Export maps for use with Geographic Information System (GIS) programs such as ArcGIS and AutoCAD.
National Park Digital Guide has topographic maps of all the National Parks in the United States, including photos and information about sights and services both inside and outside the parks. The guide costs around $50.
Appalachian, Continental Divide, and Pacific Crest Trail products contain topographic maps for the areas around each one of these classic trails and cost under $100. The Appalachian Trail software, priced around $50, has extensive guidebook information along with maps.
Outdoor Navigator is a mapping program for Pocket PCs and Palm PDAs that lets you load detailed topographic maps on your PDA. The product is priced around $100.

You can find more about these products and their features by visiting: www.maptech.com

Planning a Trip with Terrain Navigator

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Suppose that your friends gave you some vague directions about taking a series of logging roads to get to the trailhead. The trail wasn’t very well marked, but when they found it, it climbed steeply for a couple of miles to the summit. However, the last time you listened to your friends, the short pleasant hike that they described turned into an eight-hour death march through thick underbrush and straight up a rock face. This time, you decide to use Terrain Navigator to get a better picture of this little outing.

Look on the map for a trail. You want the one that goes to the summit of Fuji Mountain. (Only one trail goes to the top.) As you follow it down, you see that it intersects with an unimproved road — probably the logging road your friends told you about. The symbol for a trail on USGS maps is a single dashed line. Lines with two sets of dashes indicate an unimproved road.
Click the Marker tool on the toolbar, move the cursor to where the road intersects the trail, and click to create a waypoint for the trailhead (the beginning of the trail). The Marker tool looks like a pyramid. This creates a GPS waypoint at that location named Mrk1. Click the name and rename it Fuji Trailhead.
Use the Marker tool to create another GPS waypoint at the end of the trail. This marks a waypoint at the summit of Fuji Mountain. Rename this one Fuji Mountain (see how in Step 2). With these two GPS waypoints set, you now know where the trail starts and ends. If you’re using a GPS receiver, the first waypoint will help you find the trailhead, and the second waypoint will help you reach your final destination. You can manually enter the waypoints in your GPS receiver or have Terrain Navigator upload them for you. Be sure that the map datum matches the datum your GPS receiver is using.You can set the map datum in Terrain Navigator by choosing File➪Preferences➪General.
Click the Track tool on the toolbar to draw your planned course of travel on the map. The Track tool, which looks like a pencil, works by drawing a line from the last place you clicked. However, it doesn’t allow you to freehand draw like with a real pencil.
Follow the trail by clicking the mouse (like playing connect-the-dots). Trace the trail that heads up Fuji Mountain, starting at the road intersection. After you click, the current length (in feet or miles) of the track is displayed in the status bar below the map.
When you’re finished, right-click and choose Finish Track from the pop-up menu.
Edit the track, giving it a name and changing its color if you like. Move the cursor on the track that you just created, right-click, and choose Edit from the pop-up menu. You can now name the track (use Fuji) and change its color if you like. You can upload the waypoints and track data to your GPS receiver before you leave on the hike to help with your navigation. Use Terrain Navigator to turn a track into a route. A route is a course of travel that’s broken up into a series of waypoints that define segments of your trip. You navigate between the route waypoints to reach your final destination. Typically the number of track points is reduced when you convert a track to a route. Thus, there’s not as much detail, and you end up with straight lines instead of curves. If you want to upload a course of travel to your GPS receiver, it’s more efficient to use a route than a track. To convert a route, right-click a track and choose Create Route from the pop-up menu. Even if you don’t have a GPS receiver to which you can upload waypoint, route, or track data, you can use Terrain Navigator to find a trail, print a map of that trail to take with you, and determine the distance of your hike. Just remember to bring your compass!

You can upload data from topographic map programs to your GPS receiver or download waypoints, routes, and tracks from your GPS receiver to the map program. For example, you could overlay a track you recorded with your GPS receiver on the electronic map to see where you had been. Check the map program documentation or online help to find out how to interface your GPS receiver.

Changing the map size

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Terrain Navigator offers two ways for you to change the size of a map and show more detail or area.

Zooming: The toolbar has two icons bearing a magnifying glass: one with a plus sign and the other with a minus sign. When the plus sign magnifying glass is selected, you zoom in when you click the map. When the minus sign magnifying glass is selected, clicking zooms you out.
Changing the scale: Maps can be displayed in either 1:24,000 (more detail, smaller area) or 1:100,000 scale (less detail, larger area). Note the map scale command in the toolbar that displays a menu for selecting the scale of your choice.

Moving around in a map with Terrain Navigator

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More than likely, you’ll want to move around the map and check out the countryside that currently isn’t being displayed onscreen. Here’s how:

Move the cursor to one of the edges of the map. The cursor turns into an arrow; click to scroll the map in the direction that the arrow points.
Click the Drag tool on the toolbar. (It’s shaped like a hand.) Move the cursor to the map and hold down the left mouse button; then scroll the map by dragging.
Click the Center tool on the toolbar. (It’s shaped like a bull’s-eye with crosshairs.) With this tool selected, wherever you click the map, the map is drawn so it’s centered at that location.
Move the rectangle in the overview map. A small overview map appears to the left of the main map. A blue rectangle shows what part of the map is currently displayed onscreen. You can drag the overview map rectangle to show a new location onscreen.

As you move the cursor around the map, the coordinates and the elevation under the cursor location are displayed in the toolbar. This is useful for determining the exact locations of features on the map.

How to Zero-in a Location with Terrain Navigator?

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Suppose you vaguely remember hearing about a real cool hike to the top of a mountain that has an amazing view. You know it’s somewhere around Waldo Lake, Oregon, but the name of the mountain just isn’t coming to mind. You think it might have something to do with apples: Gala, Granny Smith, Braeburn, maybe Fuji. Even with fuzzy information like this, Terrain Navigator can help you zero in on the location. Here’s how:

Under the state map, click the Find button. A pop-up menu appears.
Choose the Search All Place Names menu item. The Search All Place Names dialog box opens.
In the Keyword text box, enter the place name you want to search for. In this example, enter Fuji.
Click the Find button. A list of places that match your search text is displayed. Ah, ha! There’s Fuji Mountain. That rings a bell.
Double-click the place name that you want to view.

For this example, double-click Fuji Mountain. The map that corresponds to the place name is displayed with the location circled — in this case, exactly the place you were looking for, Fuji Mountain, a couple of miles southwest of Waldo Lake. After the search map is displayed, you can search for other place names or coordinates by clicking the Find Place button (with the binoculars icon) on the toolbar.

Displaying Maps and Finding Places with Terrain Navigator

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When Terrain Navigator starts up, a map of the state or region that you’ve installed on your PC is displayed. Here are the basic rules of engagement:

If you know the general area you’d like to view, click there on the map. A grid appears in the vicinity of where you click. Each of the rectangles in the grid represents a 1:24,000 USGS topographic map.
Moving the cursor over the grid displays the map name at the top of the window that’s associated with a rectangle.
Double-click a rectangle to display a map.
If you know the USGS map name, you can select it from the Map Name drop-down list, which displays all the map names associated with the currently selected grid.

If you click different parts of the state map, you’ll notice that grids appear and disappear. When a grid is displayed, it shows all the maps that are on one of the CDs that came with Terrain Navigator; the name of the CD appears in the window title. This helps you know which disc you need to insert into your CD-ROM drive to display maps for different areas.
Double-clicking a grid rectangle is one way to display a map, but here are quicker and more precise ways to view a specific location. You can display a map by searching for

City or town name
ZIP code
Coordinates
Place names
Features you’ve previously marked on the map

Discovering Terrain Navigator

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Maptech’s Terrain Navigator (www.maptech.com) was one of the first commercial, Windows topographic map programs. (In the old days it was known as TopoScout.) Over the years, Terrain Navigator has evolved into a sophisticated, powerful, electronic mapping tool.
You can purchase different versions of Terrain Navigator. The program that accesses map data is the same, but the maps that come bundled on CD-ROMs are different. Different versions of Terrain Navigator provide topographic maps for individual states and different regions of the U.S. The majority of commercial map programs are also sold this way. Plan on spending around a hundred dollars for a complete set of Terrain Navigator digital maps for a single state. You use Terrain Navigator’s main features — which most other topographic map products share — to help you

Quickly find locations by name or coordinates.
Accurately measure distance and area.
Display terrain three-dimensionally.
Show elevation profiles of routes of travel.
Customize maps with labels, markers, and routes.
Interface maps with GPS receivers to upload and download waypoints, routes, and tracks or use for real-time tracking.

Read on to take a look at some of Terrain Navigator’s basic features and see how to use them. Whether you put on your boots and backpack is completely up to you.
Maptech has a free demo version of Terrain Navigator that comes with a single map of a wilderness area in Colorado. You can download the demo at www.mpatech.com/support/downloads.cfm. Be sure to read through the online help and tutorial because it describes a number

Using Maptech Terrain Navigator

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If you spend a lot of time off the beaten path in the mountains, hills, deserts, and plains, you should consider using topographic mapping software. These programs come bundled with United States Geological Survey (USGS) digital maps and are a perfect companion for any outdoor enthusiast. Before you head off into the wilds, you can print a topographic map of an area you’re interested in visiting and even plan your trip on your PC. If you have a GPS receiver, you can interface it with the map program to see exactly where you’ve been or upload waypoint and route information entered on the electronic map to your GPS receiver.
Commercial topographic software packages are easy to use, convenient (you don’t need to find and download maps to use them), and economical. Most of the map products on the market cost under $100 and give you 1:24,000 scale map coverage of a state or region; for the same price, other software provides less-detailed 1:100,000 scale maps of the entire U.S. This is a bargain considering that a paper version of a USGS topographic map costs around $7, and you might have to buy up to a thousand maps to fully cover a single state. In this section, I discuss commercial software packages that offer topographic maps of the U.S. I focus primarily on Maptech’s Terrain Navigator to illustrate these programs. Although they sport different user interfaces, most commercial topographic map programs share the same basic capabilities and features. At the end of this section, I briefly review some other popular topographic map programs.

Other Street Navigation Software

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In addition to Street Atlas USA, here are two other popular street navigation programs available for navigating the roads of America. I don’t have enough space to fully describe them, but here’s some general information in case you’re shopping for software.
New versions of street navigation software are usually released annually with new street and POI data as well as new features. If you travel in an area that doesn’t experience much growth or change, you probably don’t need to upgrade every year. On the other hand, because all the street navigation software packages retail for under $50, it’s not that expensive to stay current.

Microsoft Streets & Trips
Microsoft’s Streets & Trips is a popular alternative to DeLorme’s software. The program has all the basic street navigation features, including some advanced features such as saving a map as a Web page, downloading current road construction information from the Internet, and creating drive time zones (such as show me all the places I can drive to from a certain location in under an hour). The software is easy to use and comes bundled with Pocket Streets, the Pocket PC version of Streets & Trips. streets.

Rand McNally StreetFinder & TripMaker Deluxe
Rand McNally, in the map business for over 130 years, is one of the main providers of U.S. paper street maps and road atlases. The StreetFinder & TripMaker Deluxe software package provides all the features you’d expect in a street navigation program, along with Mobile Travel Guide ratings for hotels and restaurants and suggested scenic tours and one-day driving trips. To read more about the product, go to www.randmcnally.com.

GPS car navigation systems

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Street navigation software coupled with a laptop and GPS receiver isn’t your only option to stay found while driving through the asphalt jungle. GPS car navigation systems are starting to become popular as factory-installed options and third-party add-ons for cars and trucks. These systems are streamlined versions of street navigation programs, offering basic navigation features such as real-time map display, address searches, and route planning.
Car navigation systems range from portable, handheld GPS receivers that are equally at home on the trail or the road to systems permanently installed in a vehicle. Some of the more sophisticated products use gyroscopes, connections to the Vehicle Speed Sensor (car-speak for a speedometer), and three-axis accelerometers to provide speed and distance information when a GPS signal is temporarily lost; such as in tunnels or urban areas with tall buildings. I have to admit I’m not a true road warrior and don’t spend lots of time in my car. However, I did have a chance to try out a Magellan RoadMate GPS navigation system (www.magellangps.com) for a while and was pretty impressed.
RoadMate mounts on your dashboard (as shown here) and is portable so you can easily transfer it from one car to another. The version I tested had an internal hard drive that was preloaded with street maps of the entire U.S., so you can just plug it into your cigarette lighter and go. This is perfect for a business traveler who just flew into a city he’s never been to before and has to spend the next couple of days in a rental car trying to find his way around. Routes are calculated in a matter of seconds, and a large, high-resolution map screen keeps your progress updated. And with a touch screen, voice prompts, and a simple user interface, even my nontechnical friends and family members were able to figure out how to use it in no time.
Granted, the RoadMate is a single purpose device, costs about as much as a low-end laptop, and doesn’t have all the features of a street navigation software package. However, if I were regularly spending a lot of time on the road or visiting cities I didn’t know very well, I’d give some serious consideration to it or a similar GPS navigation system. My crystal ball tells me it won’t be too many years into the future when in-car navigation systems start to become standard in most new cars and trucks.

Moving Maps with Earthmate

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In addition to its mapping software, DeLorme also offers the small Earthmate GPS receiver that’s designed to work with Street Atlas USA and other map programs that use GPS data. (You can use other types of GPS receivers with Street Atlas USA, too, but the Earthmate is designed to work with the program with a minimal amount of setup.)
You can connect the Earthmate to a laptop via a Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable, serial cable, or a PowerPack that supports Bluetooth wireless communications. After you have the GPS receiver hooked up and Street Atlas is running, the two general modes of operation are

General navigation: Street Atlas USA processes the received GPS data and displays your current position on the map with a series of dots that shows where you’ve traveled. As you move, the map automatically moves to show your position. In addition, your speed, direction of travel, and GPS satellite information is shown in the program’s GPS tab8.
Route: After you create a route in addition to the general navigation features, Street Atlas USA displays turn-by-turn directions onscreen, informing you how far your destination is and the travel time to your destination. If you have the voice feature enabled, Street Atlas USA announces the directions; you can choose from several different types of voices. If you’re driving by yourself, be careful when using the GPS features of Street Atlas USA with your laptop sitting next to you on the passenger seat. Fight the tendency to get distracted from your driving while you look at the screen and use the mouse and keyboard to enter commands. I recommend someone riding shotgun — that is, a navigator who’s in charge of running Street Atlas USA. If you drive solo a lot, get a laptop-mounting bracket that places your computer in a more visible and easy-to-use location.

Printing and saving directions

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After you have a map and driving directions (read earlier sections to follow me to Sam Wo’s), you may need to make copies. Street Atlas USA has a number of options for getting the information off your computer screen and printing it to paper or saving it to a file.
To print or save maps and directions, click the Print tab. You see two buttons:

Click the Map button for options to print or save the current map.
Click the Route button for print and save options of the current route.

Saving and printing maps
All the Print and Save command buttons are next to the Overview Map on the
far right of the Print tab area. You have buttons for

Printing the current map
E-mailing the print area as an attachment
Saving the print area to disk as a graphics file
Copying the print area to the Clipboard If you select the Print Preview check box, the map is reduced in scale, and a rectangle is displayed around the print area.

Saving and printing routes
You can also save and print route information in a number of different formats, including an overview map with directions, turn-by-turn details, and as strip maps (detailed maps that follow a route with directions in the margins). Check the type of directions you’d like to create, using the Save and Print command buttons at the far end of the Tab area to output them. Figure shows a preview of a Travel Package, which is a format that prints the route map with directions at the bottom of the page.
If you want only a text version of the route directions, click the Route button in the Print tab and then mark the Directions check box. You can then either save the directions as a text file or e-mail them to a friend.
If you end up in Chinatown, the entrance to Sam Wo’s restaurant is through the street-level kitchen, so don’t think you’re in the wrong place. Head up the narrow stairs to the second floor and don’t disturb the cooks on your way up. Bon appétit!

Creating a route with DeLorme Street Atlas USA,

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If you’ve followed the chapter to this point, you can use the example map created in the earlier section, “Finding an Address with Street Atlas USA.” Suppose I want to give my friends this map of Chinatown, showing where Sam Wo’s restaurant is located. Great, but that’s not going to be much help if they’ve just arrived at the airport and are driving into the city. For their needs, I use Street Atlas USA to create a route for them to follow to noodle nirvana.

Click the Route tab.
In the Start text box, enter your starting address. I use a cool Street Atlas USA feature that lets you use the three-letter code of an airport. I enter SFO, which is the code for San Francisco International Airport.For the destination, enter the address in the Finish text box. Here, I enter Sam Wo’s address: 813 Washington Street, 94108. When you enter a ZIP code as part of the search, Street Atlas USA removes the ZIP code from the Finish text box when the calculated route is displayed. The ZIP is required for the search but isn’t shown with the route.
Click the Calculate button.

Presto! A map appears with an outlined route from the airport to Sam Wo’s.The route distance is shown as well as an estimate of how long it will take to get there. Remember that your Calculate result is based on driving the speed limit with a normal amount of traffic. You can zoom in on the map to get more detail. On all street navigation software, you’ll find that the travel times for routes tend to be conservative estimates. Nine times out of ten, you end up taking less time to reach your destination.

Getting from Here to There with Street Atlas USA

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Knowing the address of someplace and where it’s located is a start, but getting there in a timely fashion without getting lost or frustrated is the true test of a driver (or his or her navigator).
One of the benefits of street navigation software is that it can automatically generate a route between two or more points. The software examines the roads between your starting point and destination, measuring distance and factoring in speed limits to select either the shortest or fastest route. Street navigation software can give you only its best guess when it comes to a route. A program can’t account for new roads that were built after the map data was compiled or local traffic patterns. You’ll probably be able to find faster and more direct routes in cities based on your own local knowledge and experience. Although routes from software might not always be perfect, they’re much more accurate than guessing or driving around aimlessly.
Street Atlas USA has a number of powerful options for creating routes. To give you a better idea of how route finding works, start off simple.

Finding an Address with Street Atlas USA

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Whenever I’m in San Francisco, I always try to visit Sam Wo’s, my favorite authentic, Chinese noodle joint, located smack-dab in the middle of Chinatown. Anytime I hear about friends or acquaintances heading to San Francisco, I always tell them to head downtown and check out this famous Chinese fixture. It’s been around for 100 years, Kerouac and Ginsberg hung out there, and it was home to arguably the rudest waiter in the world. If you don’t know San Francisco, finding this restaurant can be challenging. And even if you can get around the City by the Bay fairly well, giving precise directions to visitors can also be a little demanding. This is where street navigation programs like Street Atlas USA really shine. As an example of finding a location and creating a map to get to it, here’s how to find Sam Wo’s restaurant:

Click the Find tab and then click the QuickSearch button. You can perform several different types of searches, but this is a simple QuickSearch. (I talk about Advanced searches and Radar in a minute.) The Find tab options and commands are shown in Figure.
In the Search For text box, enter the address you want to find. Sam Wo’s restaurant is located at 813 Washington Street, 94108. You can enter the city and state along with the address, but if you know the ZIP code, it’s quicker and easier to use it instead.
Click the Search button. Street Atlas USA searches through map and street data; if the address is valid, a map of the location is displayed. In this case, Sam Wo’s is exactly where I remembered it to be.

In addition to a QuickSearch, which is great for basic searches involving places, addresses, ZIP codes, and coordinates, you’ll find two other options in the Find tab:

Advanced searches: As the name suggests, this option performs more detailed, advanced searches. You can search by categories (such as rest areas, schools, and parks) as well as specify searches take place within a certain area (such as a ZIP code, county, or the current displayed map).
Radar searches: This is cool feature that lets you search for travelrelated POIs within a certain distance of the current center of the map — or if you’re using a GPS receiver with Street Atlas USA, from your current location.

For example, you could request, “Find me all the restaurants within one mile,” and a list of nearby restaurants would be displayed. When you click a restaurant in the list, Street Atlas USA draws a route on the map showing you how to get to the restaurant and tells you the address, how far away it is, and how long it will take to arrive.

Getting POI information

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Getting Point of Interest information from Street Atlas USA is a snap.
Here’s how.
When you zoom in to level 15, you start to see POIs on the map, such as restaurants, gas stations, theaters, hotels, and other businesses and services. At Zoom Data level 16, symbols appear that let show you what the POI is. For example, a plate with a fork and knife means a restaurant. If you don’t know what a symbol means, click the HELP button in the window title and choose Map Legend from the menu to display a list of all the map symbols and their meanings.
When you move the cursor over a POI, the business or service name, its phone number (if available), and the type of POI are shown at the bottom of the map. You can also get more information about a POI (or any map feature) by moving the cursor over the POI, right-clicking, and choosing Info from the pop-up menu. Information about the POI appears in the Tab area, which you can view by clicking the Info tab, as shown in Figure. Don’t treat the POI database like an up-to-date phone directory. If you look up restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses in your city, you’ll probably find a few listed that are out of business and others that are missing. DeLorme and other map companies try to keep POI data as current as possible, but because businesses come and go so often, it’s difficult to keep up with all the changes.

Moving around in Street Atlas USA

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Mouse around a little inside a Street Atlas USA map. Notice that as you move the cursor around, information appears on the lower edge of the map. Anytime you move the cursor over a map feature, whether it’s a road, river, or even some open space, a line of text appears at the bottom of the map with a brief description of the feature.
The numbers in parentheses that appear before a street name description show the range of street addresses in the general vicinity of the cursor. This is handy for getting a quick idea of addresses on a particular street. You’re probably going to want to see more map than what appears on the screen, and Street Atlas USA has several ways to move the map, including

Centering: Click a location to center the map over the cursor.
Dragging: Whenever you move the cursor to the edge of the map, it turns into a hand icon. Hold the left mouse button down and drag the map to scroll.
Arrow keys: You can use Alt+ the keyboard arrow keys to move the map in the direction of the arrow key you pressed.
Compass Rose: In the Control Panel, beneath the zoom tools, is the Compass Rose. This is a series of nine buttons with yellow arrows. Click a button to scroll the map in the direction of the arrow. If you click the middle button in the Compass Rose, the previously viewed map is displayed. You can view up to the last 256 previously displayed maps by clicking this button.

Zooming in and out

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With Street Atlas USA, you can view the entire United States and then zoom in for street-level detail. As you zoom in, the Data Zoom level, which is displayed at the top of the Control Panel, increases. Data Zoom level 2–0 shows the entire U.S., and Data Zoom level 16–0 shows the maximum amount of detail for a location.
Beneath the Data Zoom are three buttons that control zooming. These buttons, each with red arrows and pictures of the Earth, are from left to right

Zoom out three levels: Click the button with three arrows pointing away from Earth.Zoom out: Click the button with the red arrow pointing away from Earth.
Zoom in: Click the button with the red arrow pointing toward Earth. In addition to the zoom buttons, DeLorme also uses Octave controls, which are up and down arrows next to the Zoom Data level value, allowing you to have finer control over zooming in and out. Click the up arrow to zoom out; click the down arrow to zoom in.

When you click an Octave control, notice that the Zoom Data level number changes. The number to the right of the dash next to the Zoom Data level is the octave value. For example, if the current Zoom Data level were 12-3, clicking the Octave down arrow would zoom in and change the value to 12-4. (Octaves range between 0 and 7, just like a diatonic music scale.) You can also zoom in on a specific area by holding down the left mouse button and dragging down and to the right. This draws a rectangle and will zoom in to that area when you release the mouse button. You can zoom out by holding down the left mouse button and dragging up and to the left.

Exploring the Street Atlas USA interface

2009-12-31T12:52:00.001-08:00

The Street Atlas USA user interface is made up of four different. They include the

Map: The main map takes up most of the screen and is where all the action takes place. You’ll find roads, bodies of water, parks, businesses and services, and other features displayed.
Control Panel: The Control Panel, located to the right of the map, contains commands for moving around in the map and zooming in and out.
Tab functions and options: Primary mapping commands and options are underneath the map in a series of tab items. For example, click the Find tab for searching commands and options. You can shrink the size of the Tab area to show more map area by clicking the down-arrow icon in the right corner of the Tab area. If the Tab area has been minimized, clicking any tab will automatically expand it.
Overview Map: The Overview Map appears to the right of the Tab area and contains a small map with a larger overview of the main map that you’re viewing. You can customize the Tab area by clicking the HELP button in the window title and selecting the Tab Manager menu item. Use the Tab Manager to show, hide, or reorder the tabs.

Navigating Street Atlas USA

2009-11-30T06:28:00.000-08:00

The first thing that you notice about Street Atlas USA is that it doesn’t use a familiar Windows, menu-based user interface. DeLorme uses a unique user interface with its mapping programs; after you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy to use. I walk you through the user interface and then show you how to move around inside a map.
Be sure to quickly browse through the PDF help file that comes with Street Atlas USA, which you can access by clicking the HELP button at the top of the window. Street Atlas USA has a rich set of commands, often offering you several different ways to perform a single task or operation.

Discovering Street Atlas USA Features

2009-11-30T06:25:00.000-08:00

Like other street navigation software, Street Atlas USA displays road maps of the United States, finds addresses, and creates routes between two or more points. Check out a few other program features that are important to know about.

POIs: All street navigation programs contain extensive databases of POIs. POIs refer to Points of Interest, not to Hawaiian side dishes made from taro root. POIs include restaurants (some of which might serve poi), hotels, parks, gas stations, and other locations you might be interested in while traveling. Street Atlas USA has a POI database that contains over four million businesses, services, and organizations.
Voice support: If you’re using a laptop and GPS receiver as part of a car navigation system, Street Atlas USA can give you voice instructions when you need to turn to reach your destination. You can also use a voice recognition feature to give Street Atlas USA commands instead of using a keyboard or mouse.
Routable roads: A big issue that all map companies face is ensuring that their road data is accurate, which can be very challenging considering the number of new roads that are built every year. Street Atlas USA has a feature that allows you to draw in roads that are missing on a map. After you create a road, Street Atlas USA can use it when calculating routes.
Customizable maps: Street Atlas USA has an extensive collection of drawing tools for customizing maps with symbols, shapes, and text annotations. Street Atlas USA has many more features than I can cover in the space of this chapter (such as measuring distances and trip planning that takes fuel consumption as well as the number of hours spent driving into consideration).

To find out more about all the program’s features, visit www.delorme.com. Street Atlas USA comes on two CD-ROMs: one with the installation program and files, and the other with map data files. By default, you need to insert the map data CD-ROM each time you use the program. If you have enough space, you can copy the map data files to your hard drive; see the online Help for instructions.

Using DeLorme Street Atlas USA

2009-11-30T06:18:00.000-08:00

In the pre-PC days, taking a trip across town, a state, or the country to visit someplace you’d never been before often involved planning worthy of a major expedition. You’d have to carefully check maps, trying to figure out the shortest and fastest routes, guessing when and where you’d need to stop for gas, scribbling down notes, and highlighting roads on paper maps. That’s all changed with inexpensive and easy-to-use street navigation software. Just run a program on your PC and enter the address of your starting point and the final destination. Then, a few mouse clicks later, you’ve got both a map and exact turn-by-turn directions for how to get from Point A to Point B. And as an added bonus, if you have a laptop and GPS receiver, you can take this software on the road with you, track your location in real-time, and get helpful hints in reaching your destination. (Most street navigation programs also have versions that run on PDAs for ultimate portability.) Several street navigation software packages are on the market that can keep you from getting lost. They all generally work the same, with the primary differences in the user interface and support of advanced features. If you’ve never used a street navigation program before, this chapter gets you moving in the right direction. I focus on DeLorme’s Street Atlas USA, showing you its basic features and how to use them.

Converting coordinates using online conversion utilities

2009-10-31T05:50:00.000-07:00

If you don’t need to convert coordinates on a regular basis, you can save some hard drive space by using a Web-based coordinate conversion utility instead of installing GeoTrans. Most conversion sites are pretty straightforward to use; just enter the coordinate values that you want to convert and click a button. These sites are a few of the most popular:

For simple datum, latitude and longitude, and UTM coordinate conversions: http://jeeep.com/details/coord
For latitude and longitude, UTM, and Township and Range conversions:nwww.esg.montana.edu/gl
For advanced online and standalone conversion tools, visit the U.S. National Geodetic Survey: www.ngs.noaa.gov/TOOLS

Understanding Graphical Locator

2009-10-31T05:48:00.000-07:00

The Environmental Statistics Group at Montana State University hosts a very powerful online tool called the Graphical Locator. It’s a cross between a gazetteer and a coordinate utility converter. Some of its features are

A map of the United States that shows coordinate information when you click a location. You can zoom in on regional and state maps. (The maps only show geographic features, not feature names.)
Coordinate conversion utilities for latitude and longitude, UTM, and township, range, and section.
Extensive information on selected locations, including latitude and longitude; township, range, and section; UTM; elevation; state and country; nearest named features and distances; and USGS 7.5 minute topographic map name.

The Graphical Locater is designed to work with locations within the United States. It’s fairly easy to use; its author, D.L. Gustafson, has extensive online documentation on the utility. I use the Graphical Locator for quickly getting rough latitude and longitude coordinates of a location. Because there are no place names on the online maps, I consult a paper map with place names to zero in where I want to get location information if I’m unfamiliar with the terrain.
To check out the Graphical Locator, visit www.esg.montana.edu/gl.

Using GeoTrans to Convert Coordinate

2009-10-31T05:38:00.000-07:00

GeoTrans is a popular, free Windows program developed by the Department of Defense (DoD). You can convert coordinates from many coordinate systems and datums. GeoTrans is available for download at http://earth-info.nima.mil/GandG/geotrans/geotrans.
htm.
Follow these steps to convert between coordinate systems with GeoTrans:

1. Select the map datum used with the coordinates from the drop-down
Datum list.

2. Select the coordinate system from the drop-down list below the datum.
Use Geodetic if you’re converting from latitude and longitude.

3. Enter the coordinates in the appropriate text boxes.

If you’ve converting from latitude and longitude, enter the coordinates.
If you’re converting from UTM, enter the Zone, Hemisphere, Northing, and Easting.

4. In the lower part of the window, select the datum and the coordinate system that you want to convert to.

5. Click the Convert Upper→Lower button.
The converted coordinates appear in the lower part of the window.
GeoTrans’ Help file covers these advanced features if you need them:

Converting datums used in foreign countries
Determining distance errors when converting between maps and scales

Advanced GNS Searches

2009-09-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

For GNS advanced searches, you can enter an extensive list of feature types as part of your search criteria. These include oil pipelines, refugee camps, and vegetation types. Other options limit searches by the latitude and longitude boundaries of a rectangle, use special character sets from foreign languages, and use government and military codes as part of the search. If you want to run these advanced searches, the GNS Web site has links with explanations. If GNS finds records that match your search criteria, the features appear on a new page. A number of pieces of information are. For the average civilian user, the most useful data includes

Name of the feature.
Region of the world where the feature is located. Click the link to get an explanation of the abbreviation.
Designation: The feature type (such as populated locality, farm, or reservoir). Click the link to get the definition of the abbreviation.
Latitude and longitude coordinates.
Area: Country and state or province information for the feature. Click the link for the meaning of the code.

You can also download tab-delimited text files from the GNS Web site for any country that contain features and information. This data can easily be imported into spreadsheets and databases.

Waypoint repositories

2009-09-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

A number of Web sites provide waypoints that you can upload to your GPS receiver. (A waypoint is a set of coordinates for a location.) With these waypoint repositories, you can search a region or for a feature name for its waypoints in a database. If a waypoint has been logged in the site database, you can download the waypoint and then upload the coordinates to your GPS receiver. Some of the waypoint sites include

http://wayhoo.com: This site converts GNIS and GNS feature information into waypoints. There are also coordinates for airports and a database where users can upload waypoints.
www.travelbygps.com: This site holds a collection of waypoints for interesting places all over the world, including photos and descriptions. The site has an extensive collection of links to Web sites with special interest waypoints.
www.trailregistry.com: This is a waypoint collection dedicated to hikers and backpackers.
www.trailwaypoints.com: This is a GPS repository site that collects recreationoriented waypoints from all over the world.

Using the GEOnet Name Server (GNS)

2009-09-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

The GEONet Name Server (GNS) searches for features around the world. GNS is located at http://earth-info.nima.mil/gns/html/index.html. The database contains over 3.5 million features and over 5 million place names for locations outside of the United States. The military relies on GNS for its operations, so the database is updated every other week. GNS is primarily designed for military use. Some of the search criteria and information in the database isn’t very useful to the average civilian. At best expect to find these types of information for a given feature:

Country
Type
Latitude and longitude

To perform a basic GNS search for a feature, follow these steps:

Go to the GNS Web site at http://earth-info.nima.mil/gns/html.
Click the Access GNS link.
Click the GNS Search link in the GNS Main Menu at the left of the page. You can enter search criteria by scrolling down the page.
In the Name text box, enter the name of the feature you’re looking for. A drop-down list box to the right of the text box lets you narrow your search with these options:• Starts With • Is an Exact Match • Contains • Ends With
If you know the country the feature is located in, select the country from the list.
Click the Search Database button.

Additional information on GNIS features

2009-08-31T00:13:00.000-07:00

After you pick a feature, click its Feature Name link to display more information. A new page displays additional information including:

Elevation: The elevation of the feature is displayed in feet.
TopoZone.com link: Clicking this link goes to the TopoZone.com Web site and shows the feature location on a USGS topographic map.
FIPS55 Place Code: Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 55 contains codes for named populated places, primary county divisions, and other locations in the United States. Click this link to display the FIPS55 code for the location; unless you know that you need this, the code isn’t very relevant for the average user.
Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) link: Click this link to display the feature location on a digitized version of a USGS topographic map; supplied by www.terraserver-usa.com.
Digital Orthophoto Quadrangle (DOQ) link: Click this link to display a black-and-white aerial photograph of the feature location, supplied by www.terraserver-usa.com.
Tiger Map Server: Click this link to display a road map of the feature area prepared from U.S. Census Bureau data.
Watershed: Click this link to visit U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maps and information about the watershed where the feature is located.

You need an Internet connection to access the GNIS database. In addition to the online search capabilities at the GNIS Web site, you can download text files of all the features and associated information for each state. The files are quote- and comma-delimited and can be opened with your own databases and spreadsheets. The files come in compressed and uncompressed formats; if you have a slow Internet connection, download the Zip files.
Ever wanted to name a mountain or another land feature after yourself or a loved one? The U.S. Board on Geographic Names is responsible for naming and renaming features that appear on USGS maps. If there’s an unnamed geographic feature, you can propose a new name for it (or suggest a name change for an existing feature). The Board even has an online form that you can fill out. Submitting the form doesn’t guarantee you’ll automatically get some peak named after Uncle Harry; this is a rather big deal. For instructions on filling out the online form see http://geonames.usgs.gov/dgnp/dgnp.html.

Performing basic search for a GNIS feature

2009-08-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Follow these steps to perform a basic search for a feature:

Go to the GNIS Web site at http://geonames.usgs.gov.
Click the Query GNIS: U.S. and Territories link.
Enter the feature name that you want to search for in the Feature Name text box.
From the State or Territory drop-down list box, select the state where the feature is located.
Click the Send Query button.

The more you narrow a search, the faster it is. For example, if you know the county where a feature is located, select it. If you don’t know much information about the feature, be patient. The GNIS server can be pretty slow.
If GNIS finds any records that match your search criteria, it lists all the
matching features. Figure 11-2 shows that a search for Horse Butte found
three matches. Information about the features includes

Feature name
State
County
Feature type
Latitude and longitude
USGS 7.5 minute map that the feature appears on

Using the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)

2009-08-30T23:56:00.000-07:00

The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is the federal repository of geographic name information. The database contains information on nearly 2 million physical and cultural geographic features in the United States and its territories: a city, dam, island, school, or any other designated feature type. You can search for feature information at the GNIS Web site: http:// geonames.usgs.gov.
The GNIS search page has a number of different data fields that you can use to narrow down your search, including

Feature Name: This is the name of the feature you’re looking for. This can be either the whole name or a part of the name. Feature name searches aren’t case sensitive.
Query Variant Name?: Some features have other names in addition to their primary name. If you select the Yes radio button, records with matched variant names are displayed.
State or Territory: From this drop-down list, select the state or territory where the feature is located.
County Name: If you click the County Name button, a drop-down list box shows all the counties in the currently selected state. If you know the county where the feature is located, enter it to speed up your search.
Feature Type: The Feature Type drop-down list box contains all the feature types, such as bridges, canals, lakes, and populated places. If you know what the feature is, select its type.
Elevation Range: The Elevation Range text boxes let you search for features that occur at a certain height range; use feet when entering the range values.
Topo Map Name: You can confine a search to features only found within a United States Geological Survey (USGS) 7.5 minute topographic map by entering the map’s exact name.

Finding Your Way with Online Gazetteers

2009-07-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you need a little bit more information about a location. _ You know a place name, but you don’t know exactly where the place is located.
_ You’ve heard about a place but don’t know whether it’s a mountain peak, a river, or a town.
_ You generally know where a place is, but you need the exact latitude and longitude or Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates. In these cases, you can turn to a gazetteer, which is a collection of place names with such useful data as geographic coordinates, elevation, and feature type. Gazetteers are usually published as books, but digital versions are available. The U.S. government has two free online gazetteer services:
_ GNIS provides information about places in the United States.
_ GNS has information about locations all over the world.

MapSource on the Web

2009-07-30T06:58:00.000-07:00

If you use a Garmin GPS receiver and are interested in seeing what maps from the different map products look like — or to check out the amount of detail and coverage for certain areas — visit www.garmin.com/cartography and check out the MapSource Map Viewer.
Choose any of Garmin’s map products from a drop-down list, and the selected map is shown in your Web browser. After the map is displayed, you can move around the map and zoom in and out. What you see on your PC monitor is what you can generally expect to see on your GPS receiver if you upload that particular map product. Remember that your GPS receiver screen is smaller; and, if it doesn’t support color, the map will be displayed in monochrome. Even if you don’t use a Garmin GPS receiver, this Web site is useful for getting a better idea of the types of maps that are available for GPS receivers, their general appearance, and what information they show.

Understanding Garmin MapSource

2009-07-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

Like the other GPS receiver manufacturers, Garmin offers a number of different types of maps for its products. Unlike Magellan and Lowrance, however, Garmin doesn’t use memory cards in its current line of handheld GPS receivers. Any maps that you upload must be able to fit into whatever fixed memory the GPS receiver has available for storage. (The amount of fixed memory depends on the model, with high-end, handheld GPS receivers sporting between 56–115MB of memory.)
Although Garmin doesn’t use commonly available SD or MMC memory cards in its GPS models, the company is using newer technology to make uploading maps quicker. Recent Garmin products feature USB connectivity, which is considerably faster than uploading a map to a GPS receiver through a PC serial port.
If you own a Garmin GPS receiver or are considering purchasing one, here are some of the mapping software packages that you can use. Detailed information about all is available from the Garmin Web site.

MapSource City Select: City Select contains street maps and points of interest and is designed to work with Garmin GPS receivers that support autorouting (turn-by-turn street directions), such as the GPSMAP 196 and GPSMAP 60C/60CS. (If you own a GPS V or iQue 3600, this software came bundled with your GPS receiver.) The three versions of the product are available for North America, Europe, and South Africa.
MapSource MetroGuide: MetroGuide is similar to City Select but is designed for Garmin GPS receivers that don’t support autorouting (such as the eTrex Legend and Vista). Four versions of this product are available, providing street maps for the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe.
MapSource WorldMap: This software provides basic international maps that expand the default basemap coverage that comes with your GPS receiver.
GPS receivers sold in different parts of the world typically have different basemaps.
MapSource BlueChart: BlueChart products are Garmin’s nautical charts and are available in regional versions that cover the Americas as well as the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Fishing Hot Spots: Fishing Hot Spots are maps of popular fishing areas in North America with depth contours, shoreline details, boat ramp information, and fishing tips. The maps are sold for multistate regions.
Minnesota LakeMaster ProMap: Designed specifically for GPS receiver owners who fish in the Minnesota area, this map product has maps of popular lakes and includes three-foot contours with underwater structure detail, islands, reefs, points, bays, access points, and marinas.
MapSource U.S. TOPO: The TOPO product contains 1:100,000 scale maps of the United States and shows terrain contours, elevation, trails, roads, and summits. It’s designed for outdoor recreational use
MapSource U.S. TOPO 24K: 24K doesn’t refer to gold but rather to 1:24,000 scale maps, which have significantly more detail than the maps found in MapSource TOPO. The maps provide detailed coverage of U.S. national parks and surrounding national forest lands. Points of interest and park amenities are also included. Two versions of the product are available: National Parks, East and National Parks, West.

Check for current information about Garmin map products at www.garmin.com.

Do-it-yourself maps

2009-06-29T05:37:00.000-07:00

For the most part, GPS manufacturers have a lock on the market when it comes to maps that can be uploaded to their receivers. GPS receiver owners must use proprietary maps distributed by the manufacturers.
However, a small group of technically adept GPS and map enthusiasts have found ways around this map monopoly. They have created free tools such as GPSMapEdit and Mapdekode with which Garmin GPS receiver owners can create their own maps and upload them to their receivers. Similar projects are under way for Magellan GPS receivers.
At the present, creating your own do-it-yourself GPS receiver maps is a somewhat complicated process, but a number of tutorials are available on the Internet. (Here’s one for starters:www.gpstm.com/eng/dekode_eng.htm.)
If you’re really interested in this topic, check out the Yahoo! Group devoted to GPS map authoring at groups.yahoo.com/group/map_authors.

Lowrance MapCreate Review

2009-06-29T05:26:00.001-07:00

Lowrance was the first manufacturer to offer a GPS receiver with uploadable maps. (For you trivia buffs, it was the GlobalMap100, which first came out in April, 1998.) The company continues the electronic map tradition with its current line of iFINDER handheld GPS receivers; which use memory cards to store maps.
If you own a Lowrance GPS receiver or are considering purchasing one, here are the map products you can use:

MapCreate: MapCreate is Lowrance’s primary map program for creating GPS receiver maps of the United States. In addition to street maps and points of interest, MapCreate also has an extensive database of navigation aids, wrecks, and obstructions for marine use. One nice feature of MapCreate is that you can select polygon map regions to upload, which maximizes map storage space. Although MapCreate currently doesn’t offer autorouting and turnby-turn directions, Lowrance does plan to offer this feature in the future. Several versions of MapCreate are available. If you’re using an iFINDER GPS receiver, be sure you get Version 6 or later.
FreedomMaps: In addition to maps on CD-ROM, Lowrance also offers the FreedomMaps product line, comprising memory cards preloaded with maps of the United States, Europe, and Canada. Regional maps come on 128MB and 256MB memory cards that you just plug into your GPS receiver; no software or CD-ROMs are required.
Navionics charts: Navionics (www.navionics.com) is one of the largest producers of electronic nautical charts. Navionics Gold and Classic charts and fishing HotMaps are all available on MMC memory cards and are also compatible with the iFINDER Pro GPS receiver.

Magellan MapSend Review

2009-06-29T05:23:00.000-07:00

Magellan manufactures the popular Meridian and SporTrak GPS receiver lines. The Meridian receivers use memory cards for map storage, and the SporTrak models have a fixed amount of internal memory to store maps. (You can upload maps to all SporTraks with the exception of the basic model.) Software products that you can use with Magellan mapping GPS receivers include the following. Information about all these products is available at the Magellan Web site.

MapSend DirectRoute: This software package provides street maps, POIs, automated street routing, and turn-by-turn directions for most Meridian and SporTrak receivers. With automated street routing (also called autorouting), you can enter a starting and destination street address, and the GPS receiver will provide you with a route, including street directions. Most GPS receivers give you a straight-line route between two points, but Magellan upgraded the firmware on a number of their receivers to support both straight-line and street routes when MapSend DirectRoute maps are uploaded. Versions of the software are available for the United States, major cities in Canada, and Europe.
MapSend BlueNav charts: These are nautical charts with detailed coverage areas and enhanced marine navigation information, such as currents, tides, and port services. Charts, available for a number of coastal areas in North America and Europe, can be purchased on CD-ROM or preloaded SD memory cards.
MapSend Topo: The Topo product is designed for outdoor recreation use and features 1:100,000 scale topographic maps of the United States, including trails, roads, rivers, lakes, coastlines, and POIs. After you upload the maps, you can display elevation profiles on your GPS receiver for roads, trails, and user-created routes.
MapSend Streets & Destinations: Magellan’s original road map software package has versions available for the United States and Canada. If you’re looking for street navigation software for your Magellan, I recommend MapSend DirectRoute because of its autorouting features and more current NAVTECH maps. Choose Streets & Destinations if you have an older GPS receiver that isn’t compatible with DirectRoute or if you’re on a tight budget. (Streets & Destinations is a bit cheaper than DirectRoute.)
MapSend Streets Europe: Magellan also offers street-level maps of Europe for its GPS receivers. Like with Streets & Destinations (see the preceding bullet), if your GPS receiver is compatible with DirectRoute, I suggest going with the European version.
MapSend WorldWide Basemap: This map software package expands your GPS receiver’s built-in basemap coverage to other international regions. Each basemap region has basic map features such as cities, highways, waterways, railroads, national boundaries, and shorelines. Don’t expect street-level detail, but there’s enough information to help you get around.

Check periodically for current information about Magellan map products; go to www.magellangps.com.

GPS Manufacturer Software Reviews

2009-05-30T03:17:00.000-07:00

GPS receiver manufacturers have a number of software products available for their models that support maps. So you have a better understanding of what types of maps are available, here are the different map software packages that the major GPS receiver manufacturers offer. Read on to discover what types of maps you can upload to the three main brands of GPS receivers. For more information and in-depth reviews of GPS receiver manufacturer map products, including screenshots, visit http://gpsinformation.net. GPS receivers sold in different parts of the world typically have different basemaps. For example, a GPS receiver sold in Germany will have a more detailed basemap of Europe, compared with the same model of receiver sold in the United States.
I want to clarify a point that sometimes confuses current or prospective GPS receiver owners: Each of the major GPS receiver manufacturers has their own line of map products that all sound pretty similar. Here they are:

Magellan (www.magellangps.com) MapSend
Lowrance (www.lowrance.com) MapCreate
Garmin (www.garmin.com) MapSource

MapSend, MapCreate, and MapSource all refer to the respective PC programs that allow you to view maps on your PC, upload maps to your GPS receiver, and manage GPS waypoints, routes, and tracks. Magellan, Lowrance, and Garmin ship these programs with their respective map products. Just remember that MapSend, MapCreate, and MapSource are not maps nor map data but simply the programs that interface the map data. In addition to map products, several GPS manufacturers sell waypoint and route management software. If you don’t care about uploading maps but want to transfer and save waypoints, routes, and tracks, I recommend using the free G7ToWin program (which works with most all GPS receivers) that you can download at www.gpsinformation.org/ronh.
Some manufacturers offer GPS receivers bundled with map software and other accessories. These bundled products are usually cheaper than separately purchasing the GPS hardware and map software, so shop around. Just like any other software line, GPS receiver manufacturers roll out new products, drop outdated ones, and add new features to existing products. Be sure to check the manufacturer’s Web site to get the latest information on what map software is available for a particular model of GPS receiver.

Getting maps to GPS receivers

2009-05-30T03:11:00.000-07:00

All GPS manufacturer map programs upload maps to your GPS receiver in similar ways. Although the user interfaces are different and the commands vary, you load a map onto a GPS receiver by using the same basic process.

Run the map program and zoom in on the area that you want to upload to your GPS receiver.
Choose which parts of the map you want to upload to the GPS receiver. This usually means selecting one or more rectangular areas on the map. Depending on the program, you either draw a rectangle that defines the areas that you want to upload, or you select grid squares that appear on the map that correspond to the areas you want to upload.
Connect your GPS receiver to your PC. You use a special cable for this data transfer connection. To read more on connecting your GPS receiver to a PC, go to Chapter 9. If the GPS receiver uses a memory card to store maps, you can skip this step.
Set the communications parameters in the map program. This comprises the COM port, baud rate, and other settings that are needed so that the GPS receiver can successfully communicate with your PC. This is usually a one-time setup, so you don’t need to repeat this each time you want to upload a map. Again, you can skip this step if your GPS receiver uses a memory card.
Upload the map to your GPS receiver. The program extracts the information that it needs from the map data CD-ROM and builds a custom map of the area that you select. When this process finishes, the program either starts uploading the map to the GPS receiver or saves the map to your hard drive where you can copy it to a memory card (if applicable).

How long building a map takes depends on the size of the area that you select, how much map detail you want to include, and how fast your PC is. This can range from a minute or less for small areas (such as a metropolitan area) to five or ten minutes for a large map (such as one that includes many different states). For example, when using Lowrance’s MapCreate, it takes a little under five minutes to create a 26MB map of the state of Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle on a typical PC that’s been manufactured within the past several years.
How much time it takes to upload a map into a GPS receiver also depends on the size of the area you select and how the receiver stores maps. If you’re uploading a large map from a PC via a serial cable, it can take hours to transfer the map between a PC and your GPS receiver. GPS receivers that support Universal Serial Bus (USB) communications are much faster. For GPS receivers that use SD or MMC memory for storage, after the map has been created and saved to the memory card, it’s just a matter of inserting the card into the receiver.
After you purchase GPS receiver map software, be sure to check the manufacturer’s Web site every now and then to see whether updated releases of the PC software are available. You may be able to download upgraded versions of the program with bug fixes and enhanced features. Keep in mind that when you download the program, updated map data doesn’t come with it. Some GPS receiver manufacturers use different methods for stemming software and map piracy. Both Garmin and Magellan use unlock codes on some of their map products that require you to visit a Web page and get a code to activate the program. Some map products (notably nautical charts) have multiple regions stored on CD-ROM, and you need to purchase an unlock code for each region you want to access. In addition, programs commonly link the serial number of a GPS receiver to a map, meaning that the map will work only with the GPS receiver that the map was originally uploaded to.

Common GPS map software features

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Here are some of the features that all GPS receiver map software have in common.

Upload maps to GPS receivers: The main job of a mapping program on your computer is to upload maps to your GPS receiver. The maps appear the same on your computer and your GPS receiver screen although the GPS receiver displays smaller portions of the map than you can view on your computer screen. (And the map won’t appear in color if your receiver has a monochrome display.) You use the mapping software to select the portions of the maps that you want to upload to your GPS receiver.
Print from and use maps on your PC: In addition to uploading maps to a GPS receiver, you can also use the map software on your PC to view and print maps, measure distances, and plan trips.
Download waypoints, routes, and tracks from GPS receivers: With GPS mapping software, you can download information that you’ve recorded with your GPS receiver, such as waypoints, routes, and tracks. You can store this data on your PC’s hard drive or display it as an overlay on the maps displayed on your PC.
Upload waypoints, routes, and tracks to GPS receivers: In addition to downloading GPS data, you can also upload waypoints, routes, and tracks from your PC to a GPS receiver. For example, you can plot several waypoint locations on the PC map and then transfer them to your GPS receiver.
View POIs: Many software packages have Points of Interest (POIs), such as restaurants, gas stations, and geographic features shown on the maps that you view with your PC or GPS receiver.

Three rules of GPS mapping software

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Consider these three basic tenets before you start to shop for GPS mapping software.

Not all GPS receivers can display maps. Lower-cost models (typically under $150) or GPS receivers with very small screens usually don’t support maps. If you already own a GPS receiver, make sure that it’s compatible with the map software you’re interested in using. Manufacturer Web sites are pretty good about listing product compatibility. The same holds true if you’re shopping for a new GPS receiver.
You can use only proprietary products (made by the same company that manufactures your GPS receiver). For example, you can’t use Garmin maps on a Magellan GPS receiver. Likewise, you can’t use thirdparty maps produced by DeLorme or Maptech on a Magellan GPS receiver. Repeat after me, “You can only use Magellan maps on a Magellan GPS receiver” (or whichever brand you happen to be using). Admittedly, I’m belaboring this point, but a fair number of novice GPS users think that they can load just about any map on their new GPS receiver, which isn’t the case.
Don’t expect the level of detail in a GPS map to match paper maps. In order to maximize memory space, GPS receivers use vector maps (created with lines and shapes) instead of raster maps (scanned paper maps). And because a GPS receiver has a fairly small screen to display a map, don’t expect the map on your GPS receiver to appear as an identical version of your favorite paper map.

Until GPS receivers incorporate science-fiction like, holographic projection systems where a map appears in midair (and I’m not holding my breath), viewing a paper map will always be easier and more effective than staring at a map on a GPS receiver. Keeping these three rules in mind when you go map shopping, you can generally expect to pay anywhere from $100–$150 for a map software product from a GPS receiver manufacturer. You can easily avoid paying suggested retail for map software if you exploit the Internet for dealers offering better prices. Even if your GPS receiver doesn’t support maps, you can still use a manufacturer’s map program with your receiver to download and upload waypoints, routes, and tracks, as well as access maps on your PC.

Using GPS Manufacturer Mapping Software

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GPS receivers that support maps come with a basemap of the region the GPS receiver was sold in (such as North America or Europe) that shows city locations, highways, major roads, bodies of water, and other features. Precisely what the basemaps display varies by manufacturer and model. Although base- maps do provide general information, some GPS receiver users want more detailed maps that show city streets, topographic features, marine navigation aids, or places outside the United States.
The good news is you’re not limited to the basemap that came with your GPS receiver: Most mapping GPS receivers allow you to upload more detailed maps. These GPS receivers either have a fixed amount of internal memory used to store the added maps, or they support external Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMediaCard (MMC) memory cards for map storage. (Check product marketing literature or the GPS receiver user manual for details on how many megabytes of map data a particular model can store. More is always better.) Different types of maps are available from GPS receiver manufacturers and are sold on CD-ROMs, including street maps, topographic maps, fishing maps, and nautical charts. These map products have software that you run on your PC to install the maps, plan trips, and exchange data with your GPS receiver. I will discuss mapping software produced by the Big Three GPS receiver manufacturers (Magellan, Lowrance, and Garmin). I also show you the general features that all GPS map programs share as well as what kind of maps are available for the different GPS receiver brands.

Uploading Firmware Revisions to Your GPS Receiver

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Just like software vendors, GPS manufacturers find bugs and add enhancements to their products. New versions of a GPS receiver’s operating system can be upgraded through the receiver’s firmware (the updateable, read-only software that’s embedded in a hardware device). Check that your GPS receiver’s firmware is current every few months or so, especially if your receiver is a newly released model. GPS manufacturers offer free downloads of firmware upgrades on their Web sites, and these bug-fixes or new features can definitely make your GPS receiver perform better.
To upgrade your firmware

Check the current version of your GPS receiver firmware. Sometimes this is displayed when the GPS receiver is turned on, or it might be shown on an information page. Consult your user’s guide or the manufacturer’s Web site for specific instructions on how to get this information for your model.

Visit the manufacturers’s Web site and go to the software updates section. Here are the URLs of the major GPS manufacturers: Garmin: www.garmin.com

If you have a Garmin GPS receiver, you can sign up for automatic e-mail notification of firmware upgrades at the Garmin Web site. I expect other GPS manufacturers to start offering this service. Lowrance: www.lowrance.com, Magellan: www.magellangps.com
Find your GPS receiver model and check its manufacturer’s Web site for the latest firmware version. If your firmware is older than the current version on the Web site, follow the online instructions to download the firmware installer. Usually, the higher the version number, the more recent the firmware version. Make sure that the firmware installer you download is for your GPS receiver model. If you upload firmware designed for a different model, plan on the GPS receiver not working until you load the proper firmware.
Follow the installation instructions that come with the downloaded file.

Usually firmware installation files come in two forms:

A standalone program that runs on your computer, connects to the GPS receiver, and sends the upgraded firmware to the receiver. You need to have a PC interface cable attached to both the computer and the GPS receiver.
A special file that you copy to a memory card. When the GPS receiver starts, it searches the card to see whether a firmware upgrade is present. If it is, the receiver uploads the upgrade.

After the upgrade is successful, you can erase the firmware upgrade file from the memory card. Upgrading a GPS receiver’s firmware is pretty easy; not too much can go wrong. About the only thing that can get you in trouble is if the GPS receiver’s batteries die midway through a firmware upload. A firmware upgrade usually only takes a few minutes to complete, but make sure that your batteries aren’t running on empty before you start.
Some firmware update software works only on COM ports 1 through 4. If you’re using a USB adapter, (which is usually set to COM port 5 or higher) and are having problems connecting to the GPS receiver, try reassigning the existing COM ports to numbers higher than the USB adapter’s port; then set the adapter’s port number to 1. Refer to online Windows help (choose Start➪ Help) and perform a search for device manager to get more information on changing device settings.

Troubleshooting GPS Receiver Connection Problems

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If you follow the instructions that come with the your software to connect your GPS receiver to a computer, usually getting the two devices talking is painless.
If you do run into problems, follow this set of steps, in this order, to help you identify a possible culprit for your connection troubles:

Always make sure the cable is securely plugged in to both the GPS receiver and the computer. While you’re at it, check that the GPS receiver is turned on.
Make sure that the baud rate and the protocol are the same in both the GPS receiver and the interface program. Double-check this again if you can’t establish a connection. Even if the baud rates match, they may be set too high — thus causing communication errors. When in doubt, lower the baud rate. You can either step-down a rate at a time or go directly to 4,800 or 9,600 baud. Although this is slow, this rate shouldn’t generate errors.
In the interface program, make sure that the correct COM port is specified. If you can’t get a connection, try different COM port numbers until you find one that works.
Always check the program’s user manual, online help, or support section of the vendor’s Web site for specific information on interfacing with a GPS receiver.

If you can’t get your GPS receiver to talk to your computer and you happen to have a PDA, turn off the PDA synchronization program first. PDA synchronization software that’s running in the background is a frequent culprit in causing GPS receiver interface problems.

G7ToWin and other utilities

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G7ToWin is the Swiss Army knife of the GPS world. This free utility program works with most all brands of popular GPS receivers. With this Windows program, you can

Upload waypoints, routes, and tracks to your GPS receiver.
Download waypoints, routes, and tracks to your computer.
Edit waypoint, route, and track data in a spreadsheet-style window.
Create waypoints, routes, and tracks.
Save waypoints, routes, and tracks in different file types. (Remember that GPS receiver and software manufacturers all use a number of different file formats for waypoints, routes, and tracks.)
Save the image that appears onscreen of many Garmin GPS receivers.

G7ToWin is a must for the serious GPS receiver user. Its author, Ron Henderson, continues to add new features to the program. DOS and Pocket PC versions of the utility are also available. You can download G7ToWin at www.gpsinformation.org/ronh.
Other GPS utilities worth consideration include

EasyGPS: A popular, free utility for creating, editing, and transferring waypoints and routes, available at www.easygps.com.
GPS Utility: A popular freeware/shareware program that lets you manipulate and map waypoints, routes, and tracks and works with Geographic Information System (GIS) data. It’s available at: www.gpsu.co.uk.
GPS TrackMaker: A free utility that creates, edits, and deletes waypoints, routes, and tracks. It supports mapping features. You can download the program at www. gpstm.com.
GPSy: For users who want to interface their receiver with a Mac. For more information, see www.gpsy.com.

How to Transfer Data from GPS Receiver?

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GPS receiver interface programs tend to work the same way, although they have different menus, dialog boxes, commands, and appearances. When you transfer data between your GPS receiver and PC, you’ll either be

Capturing current location coordinates to use with a real-time mapping program you have running on your laptop (or PDA). As you move, your location appears on the map.
Downloading or uploading waypoints, routes, tracks, or map data.

The process to complete both of these tasks is the same. (If you have a GPS receiver with a memory card, you don’t need a cable to download or upload waypoints, routes, tracks, or map data because you’ll be using the memory card and a card reader to do this. However, you’ll still need a cable to capture your current location to use with a real-time mapping program.) Take a look at the general steps involved in transferring data with a cable:

Connect the PC interface cable to your computer and to your GPS receiver.
Turn on your GPS receiver. The GPS receiver doesn’t need to have a satellite fix to transfer data unless you’re using the receiver with a mapping program that’s plotting your current location.
Run the interface program.
Ensure that the protocols and settings on both the GPS receiver and the computer are the same.

At this point you can

Select the type of data (waypoints, routes, or tracks) and upload it to the GPS receiver from your computer or download it from the GPS receiver to your computer.
Upload a map to the GPS receiver that was created with a GPS manufacturer’s mapping program.
Have the GPS receiver start providing location data to the interface program for real-time mapping.

Check the program’s user manual or online help for specific instructions on transferring data between your GPS receiver and a PC. If you’re transferring data to and from a memory card, refer to the GPS receiver’s user manual or support Web site. With some receivers, you can simply drag data between the memory card and the hard drive via Windows Explorer. In other cases, you might need to use a utility program, such as G7ToWin or EasyGPS.

Transferring GPS Data

2009-02-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

After you have a cable and then get the ports, baud rates, and protocols all figured out (or have a memory card and card reader), the next step is getting the data transferred between the GPS receiver and your computer. This is where software comes in, and you generally have three options:

GPS manufacturer software: The commercial mapping programs that GPS receiver manufacturers sell can all upload and download waypoints, routes, and tracks as well as upload maps to certain models of their GPS receivers. GPS receivers that display maps work only with proprietary maps provided by the manufacturer. You can’t upload maps from third-party mapping programs into your receiver. Sometimes GPS novices believe that they can load maps from DeLorme, Maptech, National Geographic, or other mapping companies directly into their GPS receiver. You can’t.
Third-party mapping software: Most third-party, commercial map programs can also upload and download waypoints, routes, and tracks —they just can’t upload a digital map that appears on your PC. This is an essential feature so you can overlay GPS data on a digital map to see where you’ve been or plan a trip with the mapping software and then upload waypoints and routes from your computer to a GPS receiver.
GPS utilities: Software programs used to interface GPS receivers to computers are utility programs designed specifically to download and upload waypoints, routes, tracks, and other information. These programs are usually freeware or shareware and have a number of useful features.

A few drawbacks to GPS receivers that support memory cards

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Here are a few drawbacks to GPS receivers that support memory cards:

Added cost: They add a bit more cost to the receiver price because of the built-in card reader and associated technology.
Reader: You need a memory card reader connected to your computer to transfer data back and forth between the GPS receiver. However, some computers (notably laptops) have built-in card readers. If your GPS receiver didn’t come with a card reader, any third-party reader will work. These devices are inexpensive and easy to use. Just plug the reader into a USB port, and Windows treats the memory card like a hard drive or floppy disk. You can then copy data back and forth between your hard drive and the memory card. Card readers are inexpensive, and you can purchase a basic model for under $20.
Removal: Memory cards can be a little tedious to swap because you need to remove the GPS receiver batteries to access the card slot. Just like digitals cameras, GPS receivers that support memory cards usually come with a card that has a relatively small amount of storage space (8–16MB). In fact, if they both use the same type of memory card, you can swap a card between your digital camera and GPS receiver. You’ll probably want to upgrade to a larger capacity card. Blank memory cards with the GPS receiver manufacturer’s brand name tend to be more expensive than standard MMC and SD cards. I don’t find any difference between the two, and you can save money with third-party memory cards in your GPS receiver.

Managing GPS Receiver Memory

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If you own a GPS receiver that uses a memory card, congratulations! I personally like the versatility these receivers offer (such as stuffing a bunch of maps onto a single, large-capacity memory card). This section talks about how to get the most out of your memory card GPS receiver. If your GPS receiver uses only a cable to connect to a computer, you can skip this section. Better yet, read along to see how memory cards work for transferring data.
If your GPS receiver supports using a memory card, you have some significant advantages when exchanging data with a computer, including

Upload speed: Uploading maps from your computer to a GPS receiver is considerably faster with a memory card than via a serial port cable. Because GPS receivers communicate at a fairly low baud rate, transferring 10–20MB of map data can take a long time (up to hours depending on how the serial port is configured).
Affordable and practical: Memory cards have gotten inexpensive over the years. You can load frequently used maps on several cards and not bother with repeatedly uploading data from map program CDs. You can easily pick up a 128MB memory card, which I’d recommend as a minimum size, for under $40. I like to use Froogle (http://froogle.google.com) to find the best prices online.
More storage: Memory cards give you considerably more storage than GPS receivers with fixed amounts of internal memory. You can currently purchase memory cards that provide between 8–512MB of data storage. Handheld GPS receivers that don’t support memory cards might have only 1–115MB of internal storage.
Versatility: You can use the memory card in your PDA, digital camera, and cellphone (if all the devices support the same type of card).
Minimal settings: When using a memory card, you don’t need to worry about COM ports, baud rates, and protocols when transferring data. (However, if you’re using your GPS receiver with a laptop and cable connected to a moving map program, you still have to contend with getting all the settings just right.)

GPS Receivers Protocols

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A protocol is a way for two devices to successfully talk with each other. Think of a protocol as a language with a strict set of rules. When one device sends a message to another device, it expects a certain type of response back. This structured, back-and-forth conversation takes place until one device sends a message that says the conversation is over.
Likewise, when you connect a GPS receiver to a computer, a certain protocol is used to transfer data back and forth between the two devices. You need to ensure that the same protocol has been selected for both devices. If two different protocols are used, it’s like the GPS receiver speaking Russian to a computer that understands only Chinese.
The protocols typically used with GPS receivers are

NMEA: The National Marine Electronics Association came up with the NMEA 0183 standard, which is a protocol for transferring data between marine-related electronics such as GPS receivers, autopilots, and chart plotters. Virtually all GPS receivers support the NMEA 0183 standard, which uses widely documented text messages. Typical NMEA data includes latitude, longitude, time, and satellite status. NMEA comes in several different versions, including 1.5, 2.1, and 2.3. Make sure that this version number matches both the GPS receiver and the computer program that you’re using.
Proprietary: Some GPS manufacturers have their own proprietary protocols for communicating with a GPS receiver. These protocols send additional data that isn’t included in the NMEA standard: for example, altitude, speed, and position error.

NMEA is the de facto standard for getting a GPS receiver to talk to a computer. However, some programs support GPS manufacturer proprietary protocols. If you have a choice between NMEA and a proprietary protocol (for example, the Garmin protocol used with Garmin GPS receivers), select the proprietary protocol because it can supply richer data to a program.

USB ports and GPS Receivers

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Consumer GPS receivers first started appearing in the mid-1990s. At that time, personal computers exclusively used serial ports to interface with other devices, making it easy for hardware manufacturers to design their products to communicate through a serial port. GPS was initially popular with sailors because they could connect a GPS receiver to an autopilot or chart plotter and navigate a vessel based on GPS data. With the right cable, you can also connect your GPS receiver to a computer and download and upload data.
Serial ports are now going the way of the dinosaur, replaced by easier-touse and faster USB ports. In fact, some laptops no longer have serial ports. However, GPS manufacturers have been slow to jump on the USB bandwagon and until recently have relied on serial port connections for getting GPS receivers and computers to talk to each other.
At some point, GPS receivers with USB connectivity will eventually become widely available in the marketplace. But until that time comes (and considering the millions of GPS receivers already manufactured that can connect only through a serial port), what do you do if your computer doesn’t have a serial port?
The solution is to use a USB serial port adapter. The adapter plugs into your computer’s USB port and has a standard 9-pin connector that you can connect your serial port devices to. After you install a driver for the adapter (which comes with the product on a disk or CD), Windows recognizes the adapter as a serial port. Just connect a PC interface cable to your GPS receiver and the adapter, and you’re all set to send and receive data between the two devices.
Note this one little “gotcha” to mention regarding USB adapters: Windows might squawk that you need a driver when you plug in the adaptor, but you know you’ve already installed one. The fix: In the dialog box that’s prompting you for the driver location, tell Windows to look in the C:\Windows\Drivers directory. (This path is for Windows XP; the location varies in older versions of Windows: for example, C:\WINNT\system32\drivers in Windows 2000.) Depending on what USB devices are running at the time, Windows XP might assign the adapter to a different COM port from the last time it was used and incorrectly assume it’s a new device that needs a new driver. This abovementioned directory is where previously installed drivers are stored, saving you from having to find the original driver distribution disk. All GPS receiver manufacturers sell their own branded serial-to-USB adapters, albeit at a premium price. If you’re on a tight budget, most any third-party adapter that you buy from a computer retailer will work. These adapters tend to be cheaper than the GPS manufacturer brand-name models.

Typical COM port setting

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Unless the program specifies otherwise, here are the typical COM port settings to use when interfacing with a GPS receiver:

Baud rate: 4,800 and 9,600 baud are almost certainly guaranteed to work with all GPS receivers. You can increase the speed to a higher rate on some types of GPS receivers. The higher the speed, the faster the data transfer. I recommend experimenting until you find the fastest, mostreliable baud rate, and then using that setting.
Data bits: 8.
Parity: None.
Stop bits: 1.
Flow control: None.

Some GPS receivers allow you to set the baud rate in the system setup page of the receiver, but other models don’t give you any control of the speed. Check your GPS receiver user guide for more information about your model.

COM ports Properties

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COM ports have properties that establish how the communication between the two devices will occur. Generally, both of the devices need to have the same settings. The COM port properties include

Baud rate: Baud is the speed at which the port communicates with other devices. This number is in bits per second (bps): the bigger the number, the faster the speed.

Data bits: This is the number of data bits that are transferred for each character, typically 7 or 8.
Parity: This is a form of error checking that ensures the integrity of transferred data.
Stop bits: This is how many bits follow a character and mark the end of a data transmission.
Flow control: Sometimes called handshaking, this is a way for one device to stop another device from sending data until it’s ready to receive the data.

Although you can set COM properties in Device Manager, I recommend making changes in the program that you’re using to interface with the GPS receiver. You’ll usually see an Options or Configuration menu in the program that displays a dialog box where you can set these values.

COM ports for GPS Mapping

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A COM port is a computer serial port that’s used to connect a mouse, modem, or other device, like a GPS receiver. (COM stands for communication, and the ports are called serial ports because they receive data serially, one character at a time.) COM ports typically have a small oval, D-shaped connector (with nine pins) and are located on the back of your computer. (If you have other devices plugged into your serial ports, you’ll need to unplug them so your GPS receiver cable has a port to plug in to. You can plug the other devices back in when you’re through transferring data with your GPS receiver.) Your PC might have one or two physical serial ports that you can plug devices into, but Windows allows you to assign a COM port number to each device. These numbers usually range from 1 to 4 but might go as high as 256 if a USB adapter is used, (which I talk about in the upcoming section, “USB ports”). In most cases, you won’t need to use Windows to reassign any of the port numbers. Just know that you have numbered COM ports and that you need to assign one to your GPS receiver, which I talk about next. To get more detailed information about COM ports and Windows, including how to change settings with Windows Device Manager, head to the Microsoft support Web site at http://support.microsoft.com and search the Knowledge Base for com port. Or pick up a copy of PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition (Wiley) by Dan Gookin, which has an excellent chapter that clearly explains everything you need to know about the subject. The program you’re using to interface with the GPS receiver is where you need to specify which COM port number the receiver is connected to. Programs typically use a drop-down list box that shows all the COM ports; just select one from there. (Some programs have an autoselect feature that tries to establish communications on all available COM ports until the port with the GPS receiver is found.)

Understanding Ports and Protocols

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Argg. You track down the right cable you need. You plug one end into your GPS receiver and the other into your computer. And nothing happens. Exactly. Nothing should happen because you need to be running some type of software on your computer that enables the two devices to talk to each other. Before I discuss interface software, however, I have to lay some groundwork. The programs designed to communicate with GPS receivers have one thing in common: You need to specify certain communication parameters in both the program and the GPS receiver for the devices to successfully exchange data. If the settings aren’t correct, you may as well try to communicate with someone a thousand miles away by sending smoke signals through a telephone line. Although setting the right communications parameters isn’t that difficult, it can be a bit confusing. This section guides you through the process and also gives you some tips on smoothing out some common problems that you may encounter, beginning with ports and their settings. Setting up communications between a GPS receiver and a PC is a one-time process. After you get everything working, no worries about the next time.

Untangling GPS Receiver Cables

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If your GPS receiver uses a cable to connect to a computer and you want to interface the two, you need the right type of cable. Some GPS receivers come bundled with this cable; others don’t.
If you don’t have a cable for your GPS receiver, get one. Cables tend to vary in design between manufacturers and models, so be sure to get the right one for your GPS receiver. (See Figure for examples of different types of cables.) You can purchase a cable directly from the manufacturer at its Web site or through a retailer. Expect cable prices to range from $20–$45. For this connectivity, you need a PC interface cable. It has a connector that attaches to the GPS receiver on one end and an RS-232, 9-pin serial connector on the other end to connect to your computer.
Newer GPS receiver models support USB. If your GPS receiver supports both serial and USB interfaces, use a USB cable for much faster communications. If you bought a GPS receiver that didn’t come with a cable and you can’t find a cable to buy, you’re not necessarily completely out of luck. If you’re handy with a soldering iron, most GPS receiver manufacturer Web sites describe the pinout configurations of their cables so you can make your own. The tricky part can sometimes be finding the right connector for the GPS receiver because most connectors vary between manufacturers and models. A number of how-to sites on the Internet show you how to build your own cables and where to get the connectors. Do a Web search for gps cable connector and the brand of your GPS receiver to find different options.
Some cables are designed to both power a GPS receiver from a cigarette lighter and to connect to a computer to send and receive data. These cables are especially useful if you’re using your GPS receiver with a moving map program and a laptop. Just remember that you’ll also need to buy a dual, car cigarette-lighter adapter so you can plug in both your GPS receiver and laptop into a single cigarette lighter.
If you have a Garmin receiver, check out the Pfranc company for its quality Garmin-compatible cables. Larry Berg started out making shareware Garmin cable plugs, and his business grew. He now stocks a line of reasonably priced cables for all Garmin models. Check out his Web site at www.pfranc.com.

Anatomy of a Link: Understanding the Interface Process

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Before I talk about how to interface a GPS receiver to a PC, you need to understand the types of data that can be passed between the two devices:

GPS receiver to PC: Saved waypoints, routes, tracks, and current location coordinates
PC to GPS receiver: Maps (if the GPS receiver supports them), waypoints, routes, and tracks

You can interface a GPS receiver to a computer and transfer data in two ways:

Cable: Most GPS receivers use a special cable, with one end that plugs into the receiver and the other that plugs into the serial or Universal Serial Bus (USB) port of your computer.
Memory card: Some GPS receiver models use Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMediaCard (MMC) memory cards to store data.

You transfer data between the GPS receiver and your computer with a card reader connected to the computer. If you use a Bluetooth wireless GPS receiver, you don’t need a cable or memory card reader to transfer data. These are designed to be used exclusively with laptops and PDAs
Avoid GPS receivers that can’t interface with a personal computer. The benefits of connecting to a computer far exceed the few dollars you’ll save.

About (Inter)Face: Connectivity Rules

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If you choose to use a mapping GPS receiver (one that you can upload maps to from a PC), you’re in the right chapter. And kudos to you to getting a model that really lets you maximize using your GPS receiver. You’ll be outdoor navigating and geocaching in no time. Here are the very cool things you can do with a PC-compatible receiver:

Back up and store GPS receiver waypoints, routes, and tracks on your computer.
Download waypoints, routes, and tracks from your GPS receiver to your computer to use with computer mapping programs.
pload waypoints, routes, and tracks to your GPS receiver from other sources such as Internet sites, other GPS users, or mapping programs.
Upload maps from your computer to your GPS receiver (if your receiver supports mapping). For more on selecting a GPS with mapping capabilities.
Provide GPS data to a moving map program on a laptop for real-time travel tracking .
Update your GPS receiver’s firmware.

Internet connection for Digital Mapping Hardware

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You need a modem and an Internet account if you want to

Download mapping software updates
Use Web-hosted mapping services
Download data for creating maps

An Internet connection is a must for anyone interested in digital mapping. If you plan to download digital maps and aerial photographs, you really should have a broadband Internet account (DSL or cable modem). Even when compressed, these files can be very large, and it can be painfully slow waiting for the data to arrive on a slower, dialup connection.

Communication ports

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You can connect most GPS receivers to your computer through the computer’s serial port. If you want to download data from a GPS receiver to use with a digital map or upload maps and data to a GPS receiver, your computer needs a serial port and a special cable to connect the two devices. (Note: Some GPS receivers use a faster USB connector to interface with a computer.) If your computer doesn’t have a serial port, as is the case with a number of laptop computers, you need a USB adapter and serial cable to connect your GPS receiver to a computer. Read more about this in Chapter 9, also. If your GPS receiver supports both a serial connection and a Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMediaCard (MMC) memory card for storing data, use the memory card when you’re exchanging data. It’s both faster and easier to use than a serial cable when interfacing the GPS receiver to your computer. You will need a card reader connected to your computer to transfer data to and from the memory card.

Printers for Mapping Software

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At some point, you’re probably going to want to print a digital map. Expensive plotters and large format printers are important for a professional mapmaker, but any printer that can output the map in a readable fashion is fine for the average computer user. However, some printers are more suited for digital mapping than others.

Color printers: Black-and-white printers are perfectly suitable for printing maps, but color output is usually easier to read and understand, especially when using topographic maps. A colored map produced on a cheap inkjet printer might be more useful than a crisp black-and-white map that came from an expensive laser printer. When cartographers make maps, they design them to be either black and white or color. Important information can be lost when a map program translates a color map into the inherent shades of gray in black and white.
Resolution: The higher the print resolution in dots per inch (dpi), the better the map will appear; especially for maps that show a lot of detail. Printers designed for printing digital photos work quite well in representing topographic and other detailed maps.
Print speed: Some printers are faster than others, and a faster printer means you get to see and use your printed map quicker. Printers are rated in pages per minute (ppm), which is the number of pages that can be printed in a minute. When you’re comparing page per minute ratings, be sure you look at the numbers for printing graphics instead of at text.
Cost per page: If you’re frequently printing maps, it makes good economic sense to use a printer with a reasonable cost-per-page rating (the estimated cost to print a single page, considering paper and ink). Cost per-page rates vary considerably between printers and are usually mentioned in magazine and online reviews.

Graphics cards and monitors for mapping softaware

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Unlike computer video games, graphics card requirements for mapping programs are pretty minimal. All you need is a Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA) card, which has come standard on computers for years. If your mapping software supports 3-D terrain display, a card that has a graphics accelerator will draw map images faster. An accelerator isn’t an absolute requirement because most commercial programs that support 3-D rendering take advantage of a graphics accelerator only if it is present. Check the specs of your current PC (or one you’re considering purchasing) to see whether an accelerator is present.

Just like the broad, general hardware requirements theme for mapping, bigger (that is, a bigger monitor) is better. Although most programs work fine on a 15-inch monitor, the larger the monitor, the more map area can appear onscreen. 17-inch monitors, which come standard with most computers these days, are more than adequate for digital mapping. However, if you’re spending a lot of time using maps in front of a computer screen, consider a larger (19-inch or 21-inch) monitor, which is both easier on the eyes and can display much more data.
In Windows, change the display size of a monitor via the Display Properties dialog box. To access this, right-click the desktop and select Properties from the contextual menu that appears. On the Settings tab, you can change the display area to different sizes such as 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, or 1280 x 1024 pixels. Try some of these different settings to see which works best for your mapping program as well as your eyes.

CD and DVD drives for Mapping Software

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Just about every commercial software manufacturer uses CDs to distribute their products. Digital map manufacturers are no different; they extensively use CDs for map data. For example, the National Geographic Back Roads Explorer (a whopping 16-CD set) provides topographic maps for the entire United States. You can run these CDs on any CD drive; the higher the read speed, the faster the map data will load and display. Having a CD drive that can write (burn) CD-ROMs is way useful if you plan to download large amounts of map data from the Internet. Because data files can be very large, archive the data on CDs instead of cluttering your hard drive with infrequently used files. If you’re not going to be archiving map data, consider using CD-RWs (rewriteables) because you can delete files from them, using them again and again.
Computers are now commonly equipped with a DVD drive, which can read both CDs and DVDs. DVDs rock because they can store a whole lot more data than a CD; compare 4.7GB on a DVD versus a relatively paltry 700MB on a CD. As DVD drives become more commonplace on computers, expect map software companies to start offering their products on DVD media. This will make life easier for vendors who currently distribute map data on multiple CDs.

Hard Drives Requirement for Mapping Program

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In these days of cheap, large hard drives, it’s easy to get a little blasé about storage space. Digital mapping can take up quite a lot of hard drive space, though, and you should be aware how much space your map software and its data can consume.
Software storage needs
A mapping program can easily install between 300–500MB on your hard drive, and that doesn’t count all the map data that’s contained on a CD. Depending on program options and the types of maps to be used, you can easily have up to 1GB of space taken up by a single mapping program. Always check the software hardware requirements to ensure you’ll have enough storage space to install the program.
If you’re running low on hard drive space, some mapping programs have a minimal install option that leaves some program data on the CD instead of writing it to the hard drive by default.

Data storage needs
Most commercial mapping programs come with map data on CDs, so you shouldn’t need to worry about storage space unless you plan on copying the map data on the CDs to your hard drive.
However, if you’re downloading lots of raw data from the Internet to create your own maps, you definitely need to think about your storage space needs. Map data is not small. For example, a single map data file can easily take up 5–10MB of space.

If you plan to collect lots of map data, you’ll definitely need a high-capacity hard drive for storage. At 10MB per data file, 100 files quickly can consume a gigabyte of disk space. Although you can get by using smaller hard drives, I’d opt for at least an 80GB drive.
If you decide to get serious about computer mapping, I recommend that you purchase a second internal or external hard drive to exclusively store your data. A second drive provides more performance and is easier to maintain and manage files. And because a second drive currently can be had for a little more than a dollar per GB, the bigger the better.

Sweet emulation

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Some mapping programs allow you to copy map data from a CD to your hard drive. This is useful because then you don’t need to find misplaced data CDs or swap between CDs to view different maps. Unfortunately, many commercial mapping programs don’t give you this option.
Skirt this problem with a special type of software:
a CD emulator. This program allows you to copy the contents of a CD onto your hard drive to create a virtual CD. This tricks a mapping (or other) program into thinking that you inserted its CD when the data actually already resides on your hard drive. Sweet. Do a Google search for CD emulator to find information about various products. They tend to be reasonably priced — under $40.

Memory for Digital Mapping

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If you look at the system requirements of commercial mapping software, you’ll see some ridiculously low memory requirements considering what’s standard in today’s computers. (When was the last time you saw a computer advertised with 16, 32, or 64K of RAM? That’s actually some of the stated minimum memory requirements for a number of popular mapping programs.) Every contemporary computer should have enough memory to work with most mapping programs.
However, memory is one of those things that you can’t have enough of. Although a computer with 128K of RAM is probably going to meet most of your mapping needs, more memory will improve performance. If you’re running Microsoft Windows XP, you should consider running at least 256K of RAM. Don’t fret over the different types of memory. Double Data Rate (DDR) memory chips are indeed faster than conventional, synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM) memory. But if you’re the average computer user doing typical mapping projects, you’re probably not going to notice the difference.

Processors for Digital Mapping

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Most commercial mapping programs have pretty humble processor requirements. To use these programs, your computer should have a modern Pentium or similar chip with a minimum speed of 300 MHz. That’s a pretty meager amount of computing power considering that current computers offer at least six times greater processor speed, if not more. If you’re using commercial mapping software, just about any contemporary computer is going to fit the bill when it comes to processor requirements. You’ll want a faster processor and more computing horsepower if you’re doing a lot of 3-D mapping or processing large amounts of map data — particularly creating maps from data that you download from the Internet. This can be a processor-intensive task: The faster the chip, the quicker the map or terrain image will be rendered and displayed. (Any Pentium III or above PC with a processor speed of over 1.2 GHz should suffice for the average map user.)

Processing Power

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When it comes to software, whether it’s an operating system or program, the processor and amount of memory your PC has can make a difference in performance. Some people think that just like money, you can never have enough processor speed or memory; when it comes to mapping software, though, that’s not entirely true.
You don’t absolutely need to have the latest cutting edge and fastest technology for computer mapping. You can easily get by using older computers and peripherals. I have an old 3000 MHz Pentium IV with 512 Mb of RAM running Windows 2000 that works fine for mapping. Granted, it’s a bit slower performing some tasks than faster, newer computers, but it still gets the job done. With this in mind, take a look at practical processing and memory requirements for mapping software.

Digital Mapping Software Choices

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Understandably, your hardware needs are driven by your software needs.
Here are the three main types of mapping programs you’re most likely to use:

Commercial mapping programs: Commercial mapping programs come bundled with maps and offer a number of powerful features but are relatively easy to use. Most commercial map programs don’t have extensive hardware requirements. In fact, many of the programs on the market work fine with older computers.
Web-hosted map services: Web-hosted map services are accessed with your Web browser. These map Web sites are easy to use but don’t offer as many features as commercial or standalone mapping programs. Viewing Web site maps isn’t a very resource-intensive activity. The speed of your Internet connection is a bigger issue than the speed of your computer’s processor.
Standalone mapping programs: Standalone map programs are similar to commercial map software but don’t come bundled with maps; you need to provide the map data yourself. If you’re using a standalone program to make maps from data that you download from the Internet —especially if you’ll be creating 3-D images — you want as much processor speed, memory, and storage as your budget allows. It also doesn’t hurt to have a high-speed Internet connection to speed up downloads. Additionally, you need to factor in your processing power as well as what types of storage devices, display devices, printers, and communications equipment you’ll need and use.

In most cases, if you’ve purchased a computer in the past couple of years that runs Windows, it’s probably going to be more than adequate for computer mapping. (Always check a mapping software vendor’s Web site first, though, to ensure that your computer is compatible with the program you plan to use.)

Other caching pursuits

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In addition to geocaching, a number of other GPS-related activities have sprung up on the Internet. A few that you might be interested in include

Geodashing: This is a contest in which random points are selected and players need to get within 100 meters of the location. There are no caches, hints, or terrain difficulty ratings, and the points can be anywhere on Earth. In fact, some locations can be impossible to reach. A new contest takes place roughly every month. The goal of the game is for teams to collect all the points first or to get as many as they can before the contest ends. For more details, check out www.geodashing.org.
The Degree Confluence Project: This is an interesting project in which people use their GPS receivers to visit places where latitude and longitude lines converge. They take a digital picture, which is then published on a Web site. The goal is to map all the major latitude/longitude intersections for the entire Earth. For more information, go to www. confluence.org.
Benchmark hunting: Benchmarks are permanent markers installed by the government for survey purposes. Over one-half million benchmarks have been installed in the United States. The most familiar type is a small, brass disk embedded into rock or concrete. The National Geodetic Survey (www. ngs.noaa.gov) maintains a list of the benchmarks and their locations. The Geocaching. com site also provides benchmark locations and lets you log a benchmark when you find one.
GPS Drawing: This is an interesting form of art based on using your GPS receiver to record where you’ve been. For some amazing examples, check out the gallery at www. gpsdrawing.com.

Internet Geocaching Resources

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Because geocaching is very much a sport of the Internet community, the Internet contains some terrific sites about the sport. Here’s a sample:

Geocaching.com (www.geocaching.com): This is the primary geocaching site on the ’Net. In addition to an extensive database of caches and FAQs about the sport, the site also has a large number of forums dedicated to different geocaching topics.
Navicache.com (www.navicache.com): This is the second-largest Web site dedicated to geocaching, but it’s still currently quite a bit smaller than Geocaching.com in terms of caches listed. The site has many of the same features as Geocaching.com and is often viewed as an alternative to the more mainstream, larger site. There’s not much duplication in the cache listings between the two big sites, so be sure to check both their listings when searching for caches.
Buxley’s Geocaching Waypoint (http://brillig.com/geocaching):This site has a comprehensive set of maps that provides a bird’s-eye view of caches in your area. Just click a dot on the map for cache information. If you want to socialize with other geocachers in your area, local and regional clubs and Web sites have sprung up. Many of these sites have their own lists of caches and practical information for the novice or experienced cacher. Do a Google search for geocaching and your city or state to search for Web sites with more information.

You can also find out more about geocaching in your area by checking out the regional discussion forums at Geocaching.com. The geocaching community is not immune to politics. Skirmishes and largescale battles can break out between individuals and rival Web sites. It’s best to duck your head, check your GPS receiver, and head to the cache waypoint.

Geocaching Etiquette

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For the most part, there aren’t a whole lot of rules when it comes to geocaching. It mostly boils down to respecting other cachers and the land that you play on. Consider these etiquette points when you’re out geocaching:

Always respect private property. Need I say more?
Don’t leave food in a cache. Food can attract animals as well as get smelly and messy, and plastic cache containers have been chewed through to get at a tasty snack.
Never put anything illegal, dangerous, or possibly offensive in a cache. Geocaching is a family sport, so be responsible.
Always trade up or replace an item in the cache with something of equal value. Don’t be a Scrooge; what’s the fun in that?
Be environmentally conscious when searching for and hiding caches. Tread lightly on the land. Check out the Leave No Trace site at www.lnt.org for more information.
Geocaching is a pretty dog-friendly sport. Keep it that way by having Fido tethered in leash-only areas. And no matter how good your dog is, have a leash ready in case other people or animals are around.
Cache In, Trash Out (CITO). If you see any litter on your way to or from a cache, get some additional exercise with a deep-knee bend, pick it up, and pack it out.
Say thank you. After you visit a cache, send a quick e-mail, thank-you message to the geocacher that placed the cache or acknowledge him or her in your cache comments.

How to maintain the geo-cache?

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After you hide your cache and it appears in the database, your work isn’t over yet. You now have the responsibility of maintaining the cache. This means visiting the cache every now and then to verify that it’s there and in a good state of repair. You may even need to restock it with some trinkets if the supply is running low. During your visits, check that the area around the cache isn’t being extremely impacted by people searching for the cache. If the site is being disturbed, consider either moving the cache to a new location or pulling the cache entirely. (If you decide to temporarily or permanently remove a cache, be sure to post a log entry to let other geocachers know when they look up information about the cache. Also, let the Geocaching.com administrators know so they can update their database.)
In addition to physically checking the cache, you should also check your cache online and read the comments posted from people who have visited the cache. These comments can alert you when it’s time to make a maintenance call to the cache. Patience, Grasshopper! Sometimes it can take a while for someone to first find your cache and post about it.