Make Your Life Easy With Garmin Oregon 400c Handheld Gps

Explore the world with the Garmin Oregon 400c Handheld GPS that takes you to your destination quickly and comfortably. Its 3-inch diagonal, color screen makes your task easier than ever. You don’t have to take extra care for this Garmin Oregon GPS if the road is bumpy, or if there is a lot of dust, or if the climate is humid. It can function regardless of such odd elements. Not surprisingly, it is also water proof.

The Garmin Oregon 400c Handheld GPS gives you enough reasons to discover shorelines and coastal areas too. To help you do it, this GPS device comes with built-in BlueChart g2 coastal charts and worldwide base map with imagery. The map includes details on shorelines, depth contours, navaids, harbors, marinas, and coastal roads for the U.S. and Bahamas.

You can even send information like, the best route to a place or the location of a cache to your friends who are using Garmin’s Oregon or Colorado handheld devices. The Garmin Oregon 400c Handheld GPS has simplified downloading geocaches as it supports geocaching.com GPX files. You just have to upload the GPX files to your Garmin Oregon GPS to start hunting for the caches—and have fun.

What if you are lost in the jungle or next to a tall building? Worry not! This GPS device will pinpoint your location—possible only because of its highly sensitive WAAS-enabled GPS receiver and HotFix satellite prediction. It will be there for you when you need it the most.

You can also get to know your bearings and your altitude through this Garmin Oregon GPS. Wondering how? The Garmin Oregon 400c Handheld GPS comes with a built-in electronic compass and barometric altimeter to give you these data when you are on the go.

To make the most of Garmin Oregon GPS, you can insert a MapSource card with detailed street maps. It will give you turn-by-turn directions to where you want to go. Such a device comes in handy whenever you are discovering a new place.

So, why wait? Get the Garmin Oregon 400c Handheld GPS to make your life easy. It is one of the best GPS units available in the market.

Sail Fearlessly With Icom Ic - M72 Marine Radio

You can’t afford to lose communication when an emergency crops up unexpectedly, that too, in the middle of the sea. Therefore, it is important to be prepared for any untoward incident and to be able to communicate should such a situation arise.

The Icom - M72 Handheld VHF Marine Radio is the first item you should pack before going into the sea to be better equipped. It has a transmitter and a receiver of its own and
is being widely used by boaters and shippers for a range of purposes like summoning rescue services and communicating with harbors and marinas. Its size, portability, and grip has made it a huge hit it among seafarers.

With a transmitter power of 6 Watts, the IC - M72 VHF Marine Transceiver is able to send information a long distance. Whether it’s thunder or storm, the message gets transmitted clearly. It operates in VHF range and supports both voice-only and digital selective calling (DSC), something which might be of tremendous help during an emergency. No doubt, it is “the” most popular modern day marine radio.

The selectivity of Icom VHF Handheld Radios is such that you can operate it in any weather condition. Moreover, it has an auto scan function that starts scanning if there is no signal. It is also waterproof! You don’t have to worry if it will stop functioning as it has been tested under water (1.5 m deep) for 30 minutes. Its AquaQuake draining function clears water away from its speaker grill.

A large capacity battery allows as much as 15-16 hours of operation. This handheld marine transceiver also has an indicator that displays how much battery power is left in 4 levels. Its LCD screen displays characters brightly any time of the day. The antenna of the IC - M72 VHF Marine Transceiver is also 30% shorter. With all these features, you would not like missing it. So, sail through troubled waters fearlessly with the dependable IC-M72.

Glide Effortlessly With The Furuno Gp7000 Chartplotter In Your Boat

After a busy week, I usually go sailing during the weekend to unwind. I own a boat and I’ve used different types of GPS plotters. I replaced the last one with the Furuno GP7000 GPS Chartplotter. I’m pleased with its performance and I suggest you buy it if you are looking for one.

The Furuno GP7000 WAAS Plotter has been designed to meet the video plotting requirements of different kinds of boats. No matter what kind of vessel you have, the Furuno GP7000 LCD Color Plotter is a perfect device to be fitted in. You will be quite amazed to see how accurately the position of your boat is plotted on the video chart. These plotters have high-performance GPS/WAAS receivers that make this possible.

The Furuno GP7000 WAAS Plotter sports a 7-inch TFT bright color LCD screen. This sunlight- viewable screen offers you an aspect ratio of 16:9. This chartplotter has four display modes to help you out. The “Course Plot” mode gives you the necessary information about surrounding coastal areas. The “Steering” and “Highway” modes help you follow a predetermined route. Finally, it has a “Nav Data” mode that displays navigational information in large and clear text, which can be read even from a distance.

It is also compatible with NT+ charts of C-Map, one of the leading names in the field of digital marine cartography. Need I say more about the accuracy? These GPS devices have a user-friendly interface and operation, thanks to their rotary encoder and soft keys. An improved chart redrawing speed is another highlight of this product. With the Furuno GP 7000 in place, information on water depth, contours, coastlines, lighthouses, buoys, and more are readily available for you. All these devices support dual SD card slots for memory and chart cards.

The Furuno GP7000 GPS Chartplotter comes with an owner’s manual, which has instructions that anyone can follow. You get an external antenna, mounting bracket, and power cable too.

Google Trike

You’ve probably already seen many images of the Google Street View Car, or similar Navteq vehicles but probably never a tricycle with Google equipment on top. Let’s just call this the Google Trike from now on. It is now going to map streets of UK - specially narrow ones, and places where motor vehicles are not allowed - starting with historical landmarks that public voted to the top. Google Trike weighs about 250 lbs and allows for 360 degrees images to be taken with the on board cameras and processed with the on board image software. It is currently being tested somewhere else in Europe - namely Genoa - and will arrive in Britain this summer.

For those piracy crazy Brits - the software will be blurring those license plates and faces so they can focus on worrying about their own government’s surveillance cameras and not Google.

via

Brought to you by your GPS navigation site GPS tech.

What’s Up With “gps Satellites Doomed” News?

Just like any other news story this one has really just one source - and everyone else is just blowing it out of proportion. We thought we’d dig around a bit and see what’s up.

So here are some quotes from Government Accountability Office report (pdf):

If the Air Force does not meet its schedule goals for development of GPS IIIA satellites, there will be an increased likelihood that in 2010, as old satellites begin to fail, the overall GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits to.

Because there are currently 31 operational GPS satellites of various blocks, the near-term probability of maintaining a constellation of at least 24 operational satellites remains well above 95 percent. However, DOD predicts that over the next several years many of the older satellites in the constellation will reach the end of their operational life faster than they will be replenished, and that the constellation will, in all likelihood, decrease in size.

And here is the final recommendation from the report:

Recommendation: Because of the criticality of the GPS system and potential delays, and given the importance of GPS to the civil community, the Secretary of Defense should appoint a single authority to oversee the development of the GPS system, including DOD space, ground control, and user equipment assets, to ensure that the program is well executed and resourced and that potential disruptions are minimized. The appointee should have authority to ensure DOD space, ground control, and user equipment are synchronized to the maximum extent practicable; and coordinate with the existing positioning, navigation, and timing infrastructure to assess and minimize potential service disruptions should the satellite constellation decrease in size for an extended period of time.

Somewhere in the report it even mentions that the military may see decrease in accuracy of GPS guided missiles - requiring the military forces to use bigger bombs or more bombs to hit the same target. Sad to see the report is not concerned about loss of civilians lives because of dumbing down “smart” bombs.

So yeah, we’re doomed. Nobody was blowing it out of proportion :)

Handle Natural Disasters Better With Gps

Every time you switch on your television, you come across so many disasters, be it natural or man-made. With the mention of natural disasters there are quite a few, which come to my mind. Be it Hurricane Katrina or the 2004 Tsunami, the images of the destruction caused just won’t leave my mind. The very thought of being in such a situation, sends a chill down my spine. Imagine the plight of the millions of people who have gone through all this. Doesn’t it make you sit back and think for a moment as to whether something can be done to put an end to all this? It makes me wish for some sort of disaster warning communication system.

Every time a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina occurs, and we see the amount of destruction caused by it, what do we do? Act during that particular moment and then forget all about it. That should not be the case. Steps should be taken with the help of GPS disaster management systems to handle the situation when nature strikes. Monitoring natural disasters like avalanches, tsunamis, tornadoes, cyclones, hurricanes, or earthquakes will help manage them.

Global positioning system (GPS) can be one of the most important planning and development tools that can be used today. Though GPS is used mostly for navigational purposes, it can also be applied in various fields, ranging from natural resource management to disaster monitoring.

A disaster warning communication system using GPS plays a vital role in three aspects of disaster management - rescue, relief, and rehabilitation work. As GPS enables rescue operations to be seen in real time, officials can coordinate rescue missions effectively. They can also share data, maps, and images, which helps speed up the operations.

With the help of GPS receivers, we can handle serious natural calamities in a better way and save lives.

The Steiner Binocular 8 X 30 Navigator – Your Pocket-sized Companion

Are you looking for a pocket-sized 8 x 30 military-marine binocular with the same features of a bigger 7 x 50 one? Then this post might be useful to you. I love going on sailing trips on weekends. So, I need not add that binoculars are always a part of my backpack. On my last trip, I dropped my binocular and couldn’t use it. Luckily for me, my friend had an additional binocular. It was the Steiner Binocular 8 x 30 Navigator and the more I used it the more I liked it.

The most appealing feature of the device is its small size! You can easily slip it into your coat pocket and take it anywhere with the carrying strap. Weighing just 18 oz, this light weight Steiner 8 x 30 Military-Marine Binocular is a delight for travelers like me. Don’t go by the size and underestimate its uses. These 8 x 30 navigator binoculars are exactly designed like the bigger 7 x 50 binoculars to make it a matching miniature.

These 8 x 30 marine navigators come with Steiner’s Sports Auto-Focus. What this means is that, once set up for your eyes, these Steiner 8×30 Navigator Binoculars keep all objects in focus at distances from about 20 yards to infinity. Another attractive feature is its anti-haze optics, which ensures that you get the best out of these Steiner 8 x 30 Tactical Binoculars under both bright and low-light conditions. They have a field of view of 390 ft at 1000 yards.

These fog and waterproof Steiner 8 x 30 Marine Navigators are worth buying! Many binocular users, including my friend, get a 8 x30 navigator along with the bigger Steiner 7 x 50. This is mainly because the smaller version can be used as a back-up. Grab one and you will not regret it!

Furuno Navpilot 520 Handheld Inboards No Pump – An Autopilot In Need Is An Autopilot Indeed

Do you like heading out to your favorite vacation spot on your boat? Or, are you the patient angler looking to spend your lazy afternoon fishing in the middle of the lake? If yes, the Furuno NavPilot 520 Navigational Autopilot is what you need to help you make your adventures a lot easier. You can set it up from your sailboats to your power boats and the Furuno NAVPILOT520 Handheld AutoPilot puts you in control right from the word ‘GO’. The clear LCD display gives you all the navigation information that you will need to propel your boat in the right direction.

Furuno Navpilot 520 Handheld Inboards keep a record of your steering characteristics of all your voyages and store it in the processor memory. So, when you set out on a boat ride, the self-learning and adaptive software comes into play. The Furuno NAVPILOT520 Handheld AutoPilot refers to the database and automatically adjusts your boat based on the vessel speed, trim, draft, tide and wind effects, weather, and so on. You can choose to propel your vessel by choosing any one of the four modes that the Furuno Navpilot 520 Handheld Inboards feature. These include the Auto Mode, the Advanced Auto Mode, the Nav Mode, and the Wind Mode.

For all those fishing enthusiasts, your rigorous fishing method just got simpler, thanks to the FishHunter feature. All you have to do now is to target your fish using the FURUNO sonar and feed it to the Furuno NavPilot 520 Navigational Autopilot and your job is almost done. This device takes over and automatically switches your vessel to the FishHunter mode. It controls your boat to perform orbit, spiral, or figure eight maneuvers around your target prey and traps it.

A whole lot of other features of Furuno Navpilot 520 Handheld Inboards make your boat-riding experience a hassle-free one.