map chip

I think at times the mapping supplied with the GPS unit is more of a problem than the actual operations of the unit. One of mine, may have been my Streets and Trips using the external dongle to receive the signal for the laptop, was showing Valdez to be on the wrong side of the bay. Even though I was at the time sitting at a picnic table at the campground next to the city boat harbor.
As we all know it takes a good signal from at least 3 satellites to get an accurate reading and if you have tall mountains or tall trees blocking one or more of the normally visible satellites being blocked, the GPS will not do well.

As sue mentioned, I too have a hand held Garmin Etrex GPS, mainly for hiking or fishing away from the roads. It works fine, most of the time. Even though all areas of the earth are supposed to receive adequate signals from the satellites, it would appear that locations closer to both sides of the equator get better signals than do the areas closer to both of the polar regions. I have read several articles explaining the technical reasons for this but they made no sense to me.
I made one trip using a Lawrence GPS unit that was fine in the lower 48 but when I got to Alaska and was going east-west, it couldn't handle the latitudes with good accuracy. It was running NavTec maps in it, but kept showing me to be about 100 meters north of the road I was driving on between GlennAllen and Palmer. (east west route) So it spent all it's time telling me to go back to the route and I finally had to turn it off as I was on the only road in that area.
The accuracy of individual GPS units also figures into the use of them. But of course I expect more from an aircraft GPS sold by Garmin that sells for over $15,000 than I do the $200 units I run in my RV. LOL

For fishing and staying within the regulations of Alaska, a GPS is great to have in your pocket. I also like to just have the info available when on the road as how far the next town is down the road and stuff like that. I run with two GPS units working and a third one in reserve just in case I need to replace one.

My handheld Garmin etrex units work well everywhere we have visited in the North. I use the handheld in the truck too, connected to my laptop. Using a prehistoric program provided by Garmin years ago, called nRoute.

The handheld connects to the computer via USB cable and I have an inverter in the truck to power the laptop. The Garmin is also powered by the USB cable so no battery wear while we're on the road.

While hubby drives, I navigate. Mark waypoints (I have an extensive waypoint collection of the north). It is also very handy when we go off-road to determine upcoming terrain.

nRoute can still be downloaded from some spots on the internet. Garmin provides no support for it though, so you're on your own to make it work. I haven't yet tested it with Win7 but it works well with Vista (which is on my laptop).

Learn more here http://www.gpsinformation.org/penrod/nroute/nroute.html

A friend has a standard Garmin unit with an SD card slot, he uses some web-based software, it may be Garmin's, to create a file on the SD card of his own custom POI's, on his home computer, then just plugs the card into the unit. Done.

It also allows him to make a custom multi-stop route plan. He makes one route plan per day of his trip then just follows it's directions.

Thanks for the advise. I like the sticky note idea. I could write poi down and stick them on the dash in order. The chip would be very handy. I also have a garmin hand held unit that takes a microchip for hiking etc. The garmin has a unit that mounts to the dog collar so I always know where he is when we hunt hike . Does GPs system work in the far north. I dont plan going much n of Fairbanks.

For the provinces in southern Canada, Backroad Mapbooks offers SD cards for Garmin GPS units http://www.backroadmapbooks.com/GPS/index.html
Their maps are excellent. These maps also show hiking trails, campsites, recreational opportunities, fishing spots, etc.

Unfortunately, no product available for Yukon or Alaska. And the northern mapping from Garmin is very out-of-date, but then the topographic paper mapping offered for the north is also out-of-date. It isn't uncommon for the GPS mapping to show the highway in an entirely different location then it actually is because new sections haven't yet been mapped. Fortunately, there isn't much route choice and few road junctions on which to get confused.

They do have a digital version of the Milepost which is just a "copy" of the guide. I have downloaded it a time or two, but only use it like I do the paper copy, as it doesn't do anything more than the paper copy does. I like having it on my laptop computer and in the evenings when stopped, to run through the next days travel plans. From that point on, I tend to make notes on stickies and put them in my shirt pocket, for the next day, listing mileposts of places I want to stop at, sights I want to take photos, get fuel, do any shopping needed, etc.

There are a number of SD and Micro SD topo chips available that fit in my portable Garmin. I have a couple that run the Colorado area of the mountain west and another for farther north. The topo map additions blend in with the regular maps and just give much more detail to the surrounding terrain in my location. I would love to have a chip from the Milepost that would give me the same type of info, on showing my location, to roadhouses, scenic points of interest which are mentioned in the paper copy, etc. Every so often I will make one leg of the round trip to/from Alaska solo, as my wife will fly home or fly to meet me somewhere along the way. Navigation can get interesting at times when solo traveling, if good pre-planning hasn't been done.

There are a number of good topo maps of the western Canadian provinces as well. I know Sue T. has some of these set up in their truck GPS, so she can track locations where she take photos, locations of campgrounds, etc. Other Canadian forum members have also talked about having the same chips.

While the Milepost digital copy is nice and a good start, I would like to see it be developed into an interactive one, that would work in conjunction to my Garmin GPS. But so far I haven't read of any plans of their's to do such, or of anyone else planning such a GPS chip.
Anyone know of any such?