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Which of you in the past have taken a GPS tracker with you while on board. I was thinking of purchasing one, mainly in order to keep track of the speed while on the trip, and then for other purposes later on.
Any suggestions on a good one to buy and where to buy it for someone who doesn't want spend a great deal of money and doesn't need anything that flashy?
I've used it to track our speed, alert me to scenic photo ops (like first view of Mississippi River, northbound on the Eagle), and just to know what town we are passing.
Posts: 1418 | From: Houston, Republic of Texas | Registered: Jan 2001
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Last weekend, a fellow runner was wearing a Garmin GPS on his wrist to track his pace! He got it at Amazon - go to their page and click on electronics and on the left side scroll down to Navigation and GPS. The unit my friend had sells for $120. But I'm sure thay have other options. From my nautical experience, I think you'll find Garmin is a big, reputable outfit.
Posts: 518 | From: Maynard, MA, USA | Registered: Sep 2000
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I bought a Magellan Meridian Gold and have used it on my last Amtrak trip. Before I left, I downloaded custom topographical areas to the unit to provide route data beyond what comes loaded as standard. In addition to exact positioning, it’s easy to track the speed of your progress. Watching your progress in real time on the map helps anticipate upcoming events such as river crossings or even towns. Very useful if you are anticipating an upcoming photo opportunity. You can almost predict when the engineer will blow the horn for a grade crossing from your GPS. One nice feature of this unit is its use of a memory chip (SD in this case). I was able to load many database map areas to the chip via a Dazzle USB reader/writer, and then just slip the chip into the unit. That saves time from the long downloads I have seen with other GPS units. Any way you look at it, GPS makes train travel even more fun
Jim
Posts: 24 | From: Panama City, FL | Registered: Apr 2004
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The "yellow" Etrex is the low end of the Etrex line, and does not have a map database. The Legend & Vista both include the map database, and of course cost more. I have the Legend; I also have CoPilot GPS software on my laptop, which enables me to track the trip & play back the track at a later date. I keep the laptop running in my sleeper room and keep the Legend with me when I go to the lounge or dinning car. Chris
Posts: 46 | Registered: Dec 2000
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