GEARheadby tim shuff
The WORLD in Your HAND T
Maps in your Palm The great promise of mapping GPS is the ability to download electronic topographic maps or marine charts. With maps stored in your GPS memory, you can see your exact
Lowrance iFINDER
“Sleek, And Ye Shall Find” is Lowrance’s slogan for their pocket-sized iFINDER handheld mapping GPS. Like my TV remote, but smaller, this powerful little unit hasn’t left my side. Together we’ve mapped our local lakes and rivers, cut new mountain biking trails and, with iFINDER tossed on the dash of the truck, explored backroads looking for secret kayak fishing lakes. The iFINDER is packed with features: WAAS navigation compatibility; digital recording; expandable memory with multimedia cards up to 128 MB; built-in capacity for1,000 waypoints and event markers and 10 plot trails (tracks) of 10,000 points each; zoom range from .05 miles to 4,000 miles. Plus everything else a normal GPS can do—like leading me home in the fog. Base Unit: $259.99 Cdn; $199.00 US. iFINDER Plus: $399.99 Cdn; $259.00 US. (includes MapCreate Software and MMC card reader).
www.lowrance.com
Pros: • Lightweight (219 g/7.68 oz) and thin, compact body.
• Generously sized screen with contrast and light controls.
• Very intuitive menu-based navigation with easy (average user) and advanced (tech weenie/magazine editor) modes.
38 Summer 2003
What Kayakers can do with mapping GPS
he great Polynesian navigators of old, it is said, voyaged with their scrotums on the tiller. Their bod- ies sensed the subtle shifts in direction and shape of waves refracting around far-off islands. They
carried detailed maps in their minds. The Polynesians did not need mapping GPS. Nor did my friend Dave and I. We paddled 1,200 kilometres down the B.C. coast last summer. We travelled by our wits, and charts photocopied in black and white from the university library at 10 cents a page. We went Polynesian style, by the seat of our pants, balls on the sea. And we made it. No Global Positioning System.
Knowing what I know now, however, I wish I’d carried a GPS. A mapping GPS has a memory for down- loadable maps, displays your position on a map screen, and records valuable trip information that you can use for future journeys.
position at any time. All you need to do to set a course is scroll the cursor over the map to your destination and hit the GOTO key. Your GPS will lead you there. Paddling the outer coast of Vancouver Island, I plotted the next day’s route on my paper charts each evening. I broke the day’s journey into legs. I wrote down a compass bearing and estimated time for each leg so I would be able to guesstimate the path to safety if we got fogged in. With charts pre- loaded into a GPS, I could have done this on the water with a few keystrokes. Here’s the catch: the limited availability of
electronic charts. You need brand-specific maps for your GPS unit. The U.S. is well cov-
• Staggering list of features and options.
• Includes Aquabag, a waterproof and floating roll-top dry- bag.
• Removable coloured face plates for urban style and back- country visibility or camo.
• Laid-back and friendly instruction manual: “If you’ve already figured out how to load the batteries yourself, and you just can’t wait any longer, turn to the Quick Reference…”
• Auxiliary antenna jack and power supply.
Cons: • Lowrance’s custom mapping software, MapCreate 6, doesn’t run on Mac computers and is not included with the base iFINDER package. The iFINDER Plus includes mapping software and MMC card reader for custom designing your own maps on your PC before and after our trips. We’d also pick up the optional high-detail U.S. coastal and Great Lakes card.
• The unit isn’t waterproof without the included drybag.
• Although a full range of U.S. maps is available on MMC or Secure Digital cards, topo and street-level Canadian maps aren’t coming until July 2003.
—SM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52