News letter August 09

							                                                        New sletter August 09

In this issue
Odometer issues
KMF – Great Big Treasure Hunt winners
Garmin launch new models with sunlight-readable touch screen displays & image geotaging
At last 50k OS Discoverer GB coverage for the Colorado, Dakota and Oregon Ranges
Create you own Custom Maps - compatible with all Garmin mapping GPS units
Update for Satmap Unit Firmware & SatSYNC
Lowrance re-enter UK outdoors market with the Endura Range GPS with OS maps
Late Availability Offers on courses in Aug & Sept - details

Odometer Issues
From time to time we get long and detailed email from GPS users complaining distance issues when making
comparisons between the GPS Odometer, their Mapping System, or another GPS being used at the time.
Some users can get quite hot under the collar about this issue so on the last occasion the subject arose we
got this advice from the guys at Garmin support; we thought you might be interested in their advice.

                    The first recommendation was for the user to update the unit firmware; easily done
                    online using Garmin’s webupdater. They said that there had been distance issues in the
                    past which had been fixed by software updates to the unit’s firmware.

                    All those who have attended our courses will be aware that to record the distance of a
                    walk the odometer and tracklog need to be reset at the beginning of the walk, Garmin
                    reiterated this point and in addition mentioned the subject of signal loss; pointing out
                    that the odometer does not compensate for distance in the event of any signal loss
                    whereas the tracklog does effectively drawing a straight line between the two points
                    were the signal was lost and regained (as this is a straight line it will reduce the
                    accuracy of the distance record)

KMF – Great Big Treasure Hunt winners
We are pleased to announce the following prize winners drawn from the correct answers submitted during
KMF weekend – winners should apply to Customer Services at George Fisher Ltd Tel 017687 72178

1. DORIAN WISKOW - . £200 worth of Berghaus
2. BEN DEWHIRST - . £100 GF voucher
3. SUE WILKINSON – Garmin GPS plus OS Mapping
4. KATH HADFIELD - GPS Training voucher worth £120

Garmin launch new models with sunlight-readable touchscreen displays & image geotagging
New for the autumn are two new additions to the Oregon Range the Oregon 550 & 550t and a new product
The Dakota which offers a slightly smaller touch screen than the Oregon. All the new models offer what
                    Garmin describe as a sunlight-readable touchscreen which we assume is an effort to
                    address the issues around the readability of the Oregon screens in direct sunlight

                    The main new features added to the 550 (RRP £429.99) & 550t (RRP £479.99) over
                    and above the existing Oregon’s (200,300,400t) are a 3.2 megapixel auto-focus digital
                    camera with automatic geotagging, a sunlight readable touchscreen and 2 AA NiMH
                    batteries with battery charger included in the box. If you’re wondering why you would
                    need a camera integrated into a GPS unit the clue is geotagging; widely used amongst
                    the Geocaching fraternity and on sites like Google Earth and EveryTrail.

                    The all new Dakota 10 (RRP £229.99) & Dakota 20 (RRP £279.99) are new products
                    from Garmin with a slightly smaller screen size (2.6”) than the Oregon and a more
reasonable price structure; both units offer the benefit of the new sunlight readable touchscreens and high
sensitive GPS receiver with Hotfix that acquires a position quickly and maintains that position even under
heavy tree cover, a worldwide basemap and 850MB of free internal memory ready for map transfers

The Dakota 20 a neater version of the Oregon adds 3-axis electronic compass and barometric altimeter, unit
to unit wireless data transfer and Micro SD card slot. A GPST review of all these products and the new
sunlight readable screens will be available from the GPS Information page our website very soon




Save £££’s when you purchase a new Oregon or Dakota 20
Stock is expected on 1st August of Garmin’s OS Discoverer coverage of whole GB at Landranger or 50k
scale, as with Topo GB the OS Discoverer 50K mapping is being offered on plug & play micro SD cards in
three regions Scotland, Northern England & Midlands and Southern England & Wales the RRP for each
region is £119.99 (GPST less 10%). Each title includes OS 50K data for the area, OS Road Map 250K
coverage of whole GB and Navteq Points of Interest & Auto routing data for whole GB allowing the user to
navigate both on and off road

To celebrate the launch of these new models and the new regional OS mapping we are offering one half
price 50K Discoverer title with each Oregon or Dakota 20 sale GPST and unlimited access to the GPS
Training OnLine Resource with step by step guides and video clips based on the operating system on the
Oregon and Dakota Ranges find out how you can save over £100 on any one of these great offers.

Create your own Custom Maps - compatible with all Garmin mapping GPS units
Did you know that it’s possible to create your own custom maps for your Garmin mapping GPS?

                     Its not something that is shouted from the rooftops for obvious reasons; but if you’re
                     reasonably computer friendly then using a clever software application you can create
                     maps for your own use like the example seen here (OS Landranger Mapping as seen in
                     Garmin GPS Map60Cx)

                     Provided you can scan/copy a map segment and give exact geolocation fixes for three
                     points on the map segment then the software will allow you to calibrate, vectorise and
                     transfer your custom map directly to your Garmin GPS in almost any grid format
                     including Lat/Long, UTM/UPS and British Grid.

                     We found the software easy to use & inexpensive ($45 US) if you have the time and
                     energy to use it then it could be the key to having maps at both home and abroad. If
you would like to know more; then we have written a comprehensive review which is available in PDF format
from our GPS Information page with links to Mapwel the software house who sell and licence the product.

Our experience was that the creation and transfer of a map to a GPS was a five step process:
   1. Scan paper map or capture image of the map from Digital Mapping software like Memory-Map or
       Quo on your PC (we used Snagit) and save the scan or image to your PC
   2. Import image to Mapwel
   3. Calibrate map – you need to be able to give an exact grid reference to three positions on your map
       portion, Mapwel supports most grid formats like British Grid, Lat/Long, and UTM/UPS.
   4. Vectorise map – turns your Raster image into a Vector format acceptable to MapSource
   5. Transfer to GPS using Mapwel (unlock code required)
                                 Map Auto-Vectorised from Satellite Image


Update for Satmap Unit Firmware & SatSYNC
SatMap Active 10 users should update there firmware to the latest version v1.328 with the following updates:
   • GPX date format should be YYYY-MM-DD
   • French datum added
   • UTM coord entry
   • GPX schema validation
   • Ascent calculation improved
   • Panning speed - Faster at 1:250m

With Geocaching continue to grow in popularity, Satmap is responding to the needs of geocachers with a
new version of SatSYNC. Enabling uploads of .LOC and .GPX files, users can now benefit from cache
description, terrain difficulty, type, size and hints. These updates accompany Satmap’s ongoing expansion of
its European mapping catalogue, so that geocachers can enjoy high-detail topographical mapping whether
they’re at home or abroad

Visit this page on the Satmap website and follow the on screen instructions to update both applications.


Lowrance re-enter UK outdoors market with the Endura Range of GPS with OS maps
Huge in the marine navigation marketing the US Lowrance had an unhappy experience with the iFinder in
the UK several years ago; despite this experience they are bringing a new range of colour, touchscreen,
handheld GPS to the UK, we expect the launch of both GPS and a range of OS mapping titles on plug & play
SD cards in August

We’ve been promised a demo unit as soon as they are available. Once we have had a chance to use the
unit on the hill and got our heads round how the operating system works we’ll add a review and details of the
cost of both GPS and maps to our website GPS Information page.
Late Availability Offers on courses in Aug & Sept – Save £39 when booking both days
We have late availability on the following two courses: 385M (Mungrisdale North Lakes) & 390H (Hampshire
Martyr Worthy book both days and save £39 on the normal price – now only £99pp for the two days. Booking
Online or by phone via the office 01768 885855.

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