more Module 9 - GPS - Recreation Grade Lab

INTRODUCTION

'Recreation grade' GPS receivers provide accurate data collection tools for a fraction of the cost of 'Professional grade' GPS tools. We will look at several Garmin GPS receivers during this class. There are many other manufacturers of recreation grade GPS units like Magellan that have similar functionality but we will stick to Garmins since that is what we have a school.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Describe the GPX format
   
2. Utilize the main pages on a 'recreation' grade GPS unit (one of the school Garmins or your own)
   
• Satellite page
• Map page
• Compass page
• Main menu
  
3. Define waypoint
4. Define track
5. Modify GPS settings through setup menu
   
• Set coordinate system
• Activate WAAS
  
6. Create waypoints
7. Save tracks
8. View map
9. View satellites
10. Navigate to waypoint
    
11. Connect to GPS using several FREE utitities
12. Utilize GPSUtility and Garmin MapSource to transfer GPS data to desktop computer
13. Display GPS data in Google Earth and ArcMap

LEARNING RESOURCES

GENERAL GPS

About GPX

About KML

DNR Garmin

GARMIN RESOURCES
Garmin 60cs on Garmin website
Garmin 60cs 60c review - great screen shots
Garmin 60cs manual
Garmin MapSource

Recreation Grade GPS vs Professional Grade GPS

HOMEWORK

Recreation-grade GPS assignment

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddh8bbwd_651d6b77kzr&hl=en

Next generation GPS to be more accurate

Looks like the new IIF satellites will have accuracies down to 3 feet in real-time. See the Wired article on this from yesterday.

Trimble GPS video

Record your screencast online

GPS data collection with Trimble TerraSync and the GeoXT

Last class we created a data dictionary to use during our field data collection. Allen Instruments has a great operational instruction document for the GeoXT and TerraSync. It is short and to the point. It should not be used instead of the Trimble TerraSync Operation Guide by it is a great field guide. See the Trimble TerraSync Operation Guide for more in-depth instructions.