Imported GPS

An overseas GPS will work fine here without reprogramming. It may take quite a while t acheive a lock the first time (Up to 30 minutes). Any GPS will do this when moved more than a certain number of KM while switched off.

I have personally bought 3 GPS units from the US and they all work fine here.

One potential problem is the base map in some handheld devices. The Garmin's (I think, may be the magellans...Check before you buy) have the base map in the firmware and this cannot be changed.

Peter

We have a little magellan that was used to attempt a waypoint for Charles de Gaul airport back in 1999. Hasn't worked since.
I'm told it shouldn't have been an issue but perhaps there where other mitigating factors

Tony Harding

Magellans you can change the basemaps on, Garmins you cant.

Magellan are kind enough to charge you $300ish to do it... bollox to that, it works with the USA basemap, or if you search the web you may be able to find the basemaps still...

HI I have a garmin etrex vista from the UK and have used it in The US , Australia, all over europe and south africa no problems at all.

Any GSP should work anywhere in the world, the point Truckster is making is only in referance to GPS that have mapping software loaded. If you have an Etrex or a Garmin 12 etc etc that only pinpoint or do track routes, then its not even an issue.

But if you have an that have base maps loaded then they obviously wont match the 'new' country you are in. But in this case Im sure you would be able to purchase or download the related mapping software.

Even then, the GPS will still work as a conventional GPS, you know, provide co-ordinates and a plotter track function anywhere in the world!!!

Matt.

Mitch

I purchased a Garmin Etrex legend from a bloke in the US, and it works fine.

I managed to get around the basemap issue by downloading free GIS data from
http://www-a.ga.gov.au/products/ and using some readilly availiable shareware/freeware uploaded this to the unit.

For Street level navigation you will require the Mapsource software.

Glenn

I have a son in Cairns who wnet fishing near the reef armed with some GPS
co-ords, a chart & a secondhand GPS to make sure he was not in the no-go
green zone.
Well he had a nice coral trout & a boat load of Parks guys came along & after listening & writing down what he told them after showing them his GPS & charts
booked him for being in the green zone.
It seems that the land based gps does not automatically work on the sea & some charts have a warning about this. Upshot was a day in court explaining things and a hefty $1000 fine. How to win friends & attract tourists FNQ police state style.
He since advises me that many beaches are now no fish zones & mums & dads trying to give the family a FNQ experience need to be very careful.
Also the reef is closed to fishing 9 days a month during their estimated breeding cycle & this is announced during each month on the local radio.
And there is the bag limits. No longer can we put food on our tables whilst enjoying the sport. We have to let the pros do it for us & pay, not that boating is cheap anyway.
Maybe someone can enlighten me on the differences between onshore & offshore GPS & help others at the same time.

Thanks for that. Have to read it again to sink in I think. Still seems that you need to be well outside the "green zone" to be sure.

It appears to me the use of the GPS in a marine environment was with land co-ordinate system rather than the wgs84 with lats and longs. marine maps are in lats and longs and when using WGS84 you are pretty much near enough to being close to the lats and longs based on GMT. I think its about 100 metres difference. Any GPS on Earth (excluding street navigation units like the StreetPilot series) allow you to input co-ords in any format. For example a land map that a 4WD enthusiast would use AMG84 and datum format of UTM. UTM will convert the lats and longs to metres northing and easting.

The first thing to do is learn what the numbers around the paper map represents, how to interpret and use with a GPS.

With regards to the original post, anyone who find it impossible to use a GPS in Australia and had purchased/used overseas either have to wait a long time for the GPS to aclimatise or have a dud GPS.