All, I know this has been raised a few times over the years, so apologies for that, but the technology and brands keep changing and it is difficult to keep up. I need a Handheld GPS to support my vocalisation recordings. The main requirements other than the obligatory battery life, ruggedness, light, international maps, deep forest satilite acquistion, etc, is the ability to input multiple way points and link them to a specific recording. Most of the units I see on line seem to have a detailed drill down menu but what I am looking for is a compact unit whereby I can quickly enter a location, note the ‘location reference’ in my recording and then weeks later when I am back home, download that way point into my computer when I am doing my Meta data? Up until now I have been doing it after the fact off Google Earth and this is getting very old. Also, the ability to pre-load waypoints is probably standard, but also required. I am a hand held GPS novice, if that is not already evident by the questions, so any and all help is appreciated. Cheers, Roger Roger McNeill Samford Valley, SEQ =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Roger, Have a look on YouTube for some videos on the various hand held GPS units you are considering (eg. the Garmin eTrex That way you should be able to see the features of the various units demonstrated for you. I currently have a Garmin eTrex Venture HC, but have previously owned a Magellan eXplorist, both of which allow you to simply mark your current location and automatically name the waypoint. The generated waypoint name is visible so you can note that in your recordings. You can also upload/download waypoints to/from the GPS using the Garmin software provided. Most units come with worldwide base maps and you can purchase more detailed versions if you are so inclined. I am considering selling my Garmin eTrex, so contact me offline if you are interested. *Neil Shelley* On 1 October 2013 07:52, Roger McNeill < themcneills@rocketmail.com> wrote: =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
I use several different Android smartphones and tablets for detailed GPS mapping. The modern smart phones are brilliant in heavy forest. Mine is capable of tracking more than 20 satellites, including the russian ones. Older GPS could only track 8 so quickly lost signal under cover. In heavy rainforest the phone kept a fix at all times when previous surveys had seen older GPS lose all signal. Every year the phones get more sensitive. For instance they will easily get a fix from inside a house, as long as there is a window in the room. Accuracy and repeatability are far improved from older dedicated GPS I have owned, although I am sure newer dedicated GPSs have also improved. I use Oziexplorer to manage maps and waypoints. It can download the waypoints to excel for easy manipulation. There are similar programs available for Apple. Battery life can be a bit short, but I also carry a small battery pack that can recharge the phone if out all day. Having your birding app, GPS and phone in one instrument makes juggling hardware a lot less of a problem. As long as you don’t lose it or drop it. cheers Peter On 01-Oct-13 12:41 PM, Merrilyn Serong wrote: =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Garmin handheld GPS units are very good. Here is a link so you can compare the different models. https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/cOnTheTrail-cHandheld-p1.html They are not cheap, but if you want a good one… Cheers, Merrilyn On 1/10/2013 11:59 AM, David Richardson wrote: =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
One of the points mentioned in the original post was that the GPS be capable of deep forest satellite acquisition.I don’t know much about iphone or camera GPS functions but I doubt they would operate accurately in situations other than clear sky satellite acquisition.That is why a dedicated GPS unit,and a very good one at that,would be of more use. perhaps someone on list who has knowledge of this could post a relpy addressing that point? On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 10:27 AM, Peter Shute < pshute@nuw.org.au> wrote: =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
I suspect that the main difference between a phone GPS and a dedicated one, apart from not using up the battery of your precious communication device, is accuracy. I’m told I shouldn’t expect better than 30m accuracy from an iphone. I suspect Google Earth coordinates can be off by that much too, if the difference between the images of roads and the corresponding linework is anything to go by. Peter Shute Sent from my iPad On 1 Oct 2013, at 9:06 am, “Martin Butterfield” < martinflab@gmail.commartinflab@gmail.com>> wrote: If you don’t have a mobile phone, my camera (Panasonic TZ40) has a GPS function which – if activated – includes geocoordinates with images. I suspect many other mid-range cameras now have this functionality. It seems that the need for a dedicated GPS for simply recording point locations is well gone. Martin On 1 October 2013 08:30, Peter Shute < pshute@nuw.org.au pshute@nuw.org.au>> wrote: If you mean you want to save and name a way point so that you can just read out the way point name into the microphone, then I would have thought most would allow that. Some probably just automatically number the way points, but you could read out that number. I just use my phone’s GPS (have never tried a dedicated GPS), and I read out the coordinates directly at each new location. I could mark a way point and then later copy its coordinates into the metadata, but it seems just as quick to type it out while I listen to the coordinates I read out. It gives me two chances to get it wrong, but it also means the coordinates aren’t as likely to get separated from the recording. I’m hoping I can find a way to get the phone to read out the current coordinates so I can just hold it up to the mic. That should eliminate the first kind of error, but it’s inspired more by laziness. Peter Shute ________________________________ Sent: Tuesday, 1 October 2013 7:52 AM All, I know this has been raised a few times over the years, so apologies for that, but the technology and brands keep changing and it is difficult to keep up. I need a Handheld GPS to support my vocalisation recordings. The main requirements other than the obligatory battery life, ruggedness, light, international maps, deep forest satilite acquistion, etc, is the ability to input multiple way points and link them to a specific recording. Most of the units I see on line seem to have a detailed drill down menu but what I am looking for is a compact unit whereby I can quickly enter a location, note the ‘location reference’ in my recording and then weeks later when I am back home, download that way point into my computer when I am doing my Meta data? Up until now I have been doing it after the fact off Google Earth and this is getting very old. Also, the ability to pre-load waypoints is probably standard, but also required. I am a hand held GPS novice, if that is not already evident by the questions, so any and all help is appreciated. Cheers, Roger Roger McNeill Samford Valley, SEQ =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org =============================== =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org =============================== — Martin Butterfield http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/ =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
How many recordings are we talking about? This is something that’s been resolved for photography. For example: I carry a GPS which records a trail. Either the GeoTagr app on my iPhone, a Garmin, or one of the little Qstarz loggers. With all of these I get GPX files, which contain trails of my location throughout a trip, with each position timestamped. I make sure the date/time in all my cameras are set correctly before starting out (it makes things easier that way), and then I marry these up later with the GPX files. There are lots of different “geotagging” software solutions available which find the nearest location in the GPX file for each photo by matching up the times, and then attach the GPS coordinates to the photo. I don’t need to have a GPS in each of my cameras, even though some (e.g. my iPhone) have them. Of course I do need to make sure that the recording GPS and the camera(s) stay fairly close together during the day. For audio recordings I use a Roland unit which timestamps each WAV/MP3 file, so when I transfer these to the computer and put them amongst the photos they fall into place based on their time (either by sorting by time or by filename if I’ve renamed the audio and photo files in the same way). I can check the location data on one of the nearby photos. If you simply take a geo-tagged photo (e.g. with a phone) in each location you will probably have the data you’re after. What you might like is audio-geotagging software which attaches location information to each audio file from a GPX trail, but I’m not aware of any examples. This is probably only worthwhile if you have hundreds of audio recordings: recording geo-tagged photos with the recordings is probably enough otherwise. __ David Burren On 01/10/2013, at 7:52 AM, Roger McNeill < themcneills@rocketmail.com> wrote: =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
If you don’t have a mobile phone, my camera (Panasonic TZ40) has a GPS function which – if activated – includes geocoordinates with images. I suspect many other mid-range cameras now have this functionality. It seems that the need for a dedicated GPS for simply recording point locations is well gone. Martin On 1 October 2013 08:30, Peter Shute < pshute@nuw.org.au> wrote: — Martin Butterfield http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/ =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
If you mean you want to save and name a way point so that you can just read out the way point name into the microphone, then I would have thought most would allow that. Some probably just automatically number the way points, but you could read out that number. I just use my phone’s GPS (have never tried a dedicated GPS), and I read out the coordinates directly at each new location. I could mark a way point and then later copy its coordinates into the metadata, but it seems just as quick to type it out while I listen to the coordinates I read out. It gives me two chances to get it wrong, but it also means the coordinates aren’t as likely to get separated from the recording. I’m hoping I can find a way to get the phone to read out the current coordinates so I can just hold it up to the mic. That should eliminate the first kind of error, but it’s inspired more by laziness. Peter Shute ________________________________ Sent: Tuesday, 1 October 2013 7:52 AM All, I know this has been raised a few times over the years, so apologies for that, but the technology and brands keep changing and it is difficult to keep up. I need a Handheld GPS to support my vocalisation recordings. The main requirements other than the obligatory battery life, ruggedness, light, international maps, deep forest satilite acquistion, etc, is the ability to input multiple way points and link them to a specific recording. Most of the units I see on line seem to have a detailed drill down menu but what I am looking for is a compact unit whereby I can quickly enter a location, note the ‘location reference’ in my recording and then weeks later when I am back home, download that way point into my computer when I am doing my Meta data? Up until now I have been doing it after the fact off Google Earth and this is getting very old. Also, the ability to pre-load waypoints is probably standard, but also required. I am a hand held GPS novice, if that is not already evident by the questions, so any and all help is appreciated. Cheers, Roger Roger McNeill Samford Valley, SEQ =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org =============================== =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================