GPS Location Tracking on RTW Trip?

[rscott4563]

Hi there,

I'm just getting into GPS as I have recently bought a Dell Axim X51v and decided to get TT5 and a Globalsat BT GPS receiver.

I'm heading off round the world for a year in October backpacking and have started to think about the possibilities of tracking my journey for the purposes of a online diary and also using the GPS to be able to help me navigate when I go off trail in SE Asia, Australia, NZ and the USA.

Now the problem is I have no idea about what software i out there or what I would need??

I'm thinking something along the lines of a PocketPC version of a Ordinance Survey map but for the whole world (or at least the countries I'm visiting) which would show my location using my GPS receiver and possibly be able to track my movements and show them as a trail. Ideally the map would be zoomable from a whole country overview just showing which area I was in down to about 1:50,000 or preferably 1:25,000 or closer.

Is this possible or am I dreaming??

Would I be able to have something like a world google earth map or would it have to be country by country?

Any help much appreciated...

Cheers

Ryan :D

[lbendlin]

You should look at OziExplorer and learn how to calibrate your own scanned maps.

You already bought a GPS receiver but you may want to trade it in for a data logger device, like the WinTec WBT-100 I reviewed recently. That way yuo can track your journey without the need to keep the PocketPC on all the time.
_________________
Lutz

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[AllyCat]

Hi Ryan,

In terms of "Google Earth in your pocket", you're dreaming.

The OS 1:50k maps just for the UK are 3GBytes, the RRP typically £200 (Memory Map) and the memory card at least another £50. Even then, the maps are not "continuously zoomable" (because the text/detail gets too large/small), so these (raster scanned) maps are also provided in 1:250k and 1:1M versions. Furthermore, map data of the quality of OS maps just doesn't exist for many parts of the world.

For logging the track of your route, a handheld GPS would be much more suitable as it will typically run for up to 30 hours from a couple of AA cells, compared with perhaps 4 hours from a PPC's internal batteries. To store a year of tracklogs, either get one which has removeable memory cards, or download the tracks to your PPC (using Ozi Explorer or Memory Map European edition, etc.).

Also, a mapping handheld GPS will give you an almost "infinite" zoom range, but the map detail is very poor and/or expensive for high degrees of zoom. Take a look at the Worldmap on the Garmin Mapsource Viewer to see what is (and isn't) available.

TomTom can give you road mapping for most of those countries (at a price! ) but will be useless "off trail" and won't record your track log.

Cheers, Alan.
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Garmin GPS72H/76/60/45, Etrex H, Mapsource v6.5.
Acer N50,HP114,Loox N560,Dell x50,CF/SD cards to 4/32GB.
RoyalTek,Holux236,Navman B10 & Copilot(Globalsat) BT GPS,TomTom5/6.
Memory Map (v5.4.2 & v5.1.3 OS & Euro), GPS gate,OSGPSconverter.

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