Lone Wolf replied:

And I want that new phone they've been advertising on the Telly......... CDMA AND Satellite.

Member - Rick (S.A.) replied:

Rick Blaine

I'm interested in your use of sextant & clock.

Can you suggest where I may find out more (e.g. web sites) about these navigational instuments, & how to use them?

Kind of impressive how the explorers/surveyors did it all by star observations, calculations, etc

I have had a brief search on the net with no real useful result.

Thanks

Rick Blaine replied:

Try this site if you wish to purchase these instruments:
http://www.marinedirect.com.au/catalogue/category1104

Member - Mik replied:

Hello Rick, The oganizer/gps you are lookig at will work fine as a organizer but its the gps will let you down. The cf slot/sleave gps units are just crap, due to the low voltage output of the organizer and there ability to keep a continues satlock, i owned one to use with my Ipaq, it was resold very quickly. Ther are a lot better options out there. Second hand Ipaq $500, Garmin Etex $300, OziExplorer $100, link cable $50, maps $100 = $1050 and it works inside
hope this helps

Cheers Mik

Mark replied:

Rick,
Sounds like you may be refering to the new Navman Pin (rebadged Mitac 168 PDA).
A friend picked one up from DSE yesterday & we had a play with it today & compared sensitivity to a Garmin etrex. So far we are pretty impressed with the unit & the 3D mapping software is pretty amazing when you compare it to the basic 2D squigly line stuff that most GPS provide. We punched in an address on the Central Coast (we were in Chatswood, Sydney) & hit "show me" and the unit drove the whole route at 90KMH in a simulation mode, showing all intersections with voice prompts to turn etc, even servos & medical centers etc were shown.
The sensitivity seemed pretty good & comparable with the Garmin, it was in a built up area but still seemed to give around 5 meters accuracy as we walked around Chatswood. The bonus with this unit is its a full blown Windows 2003 PDA so you have Word, Excel, Outlook etc as well when not using for Navigation. The only down side I could see was it has a non replacable battery built in so it will probably need replacing by the dealer at some stage. Early days as my friend has not tried it much in the car in built up areas as yet but should find out more on Monday.
Cheers