laptop for GPS

Well that was quick thankyou people,i wanted something more than i have to navigate me round the country side better than i have which is the nuvi gps I have recently bought a toshiba laptop and i thought i might as well use it to do everything from my pics to GPS etc etc it has a 13inch screen i think so its not to big to lug around.i just went onto ebay and bought a (GlobalSat BU-353 SiRF III Water Proof USB GPS Receiver)
it cost me $65.00 new, so i gotta get the Natmap series and the oziexplorer and then i guess thats it,and then i'll work out how it all go's togather....so thankyou all for getting me started, it was great to see how fast this forum works as this is the first time i have been on here....Alan..ps if i need to know anything else please let me know cheers..

Suggest you look at the Hema 4wd map collection
here in the exploreoz shop.

Good set of maps and includes the natmaps as well.

I agree with Lex M suggestion - the Hema maps will cover just about any place that you will want to go to :-)))))

Hi Lex and Kiwi in Aussie
Yes the Hema maps are very good, BUT if you are travelling into very remote areas, you can not beat the Natmap Topo maps. Sure you get them in the Hema series, but there are two main disadvantages.

1. Natmap costs around $100, where as the Desert Series of Hema around $180

2. The 1:250000 series of the Natmap sheets in Hema is Map sheet only and is not Mosaic.

This may not be a problem for some but I prefer a seamless map when in the bush. I know that only a very small dedicated group on desert travellers ever head out into the trackless country, but the Natmap has more detail. And yes for the record I do have and use both series of maps in very different situations.

Below are again screen dumps, so tell me which one you would prefer to navigate with.


Cheers


Stephen

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Or you can download the Natmap maps for free from the Geoscience web site.

"The 1:250000 series of the Natmap sheets in Hema is Map sheet only and is not Mosaic"

Partly true - the maps included on the Hema DVD are actually the mozaic cut into 8 "slices" matching UTM zones 49 to 56 i.e. not individual mapsheets. Getting the Hema map set and the 250K map set as one package isnt a bad idea.

"I know that only a very small dedicated group on desert travellers ever head out into the trackless country but the Natmap has more detail,..."

Extra detail is required in a wide range of situations by a wide range of people and not just by a "very small dedicated group on desert travellers" (made me laugh - sounded a bit like something Willem would say). 250K is fine in a lot of cases but in some circumtances 50K, 25k or even less is obviously way better. Unfortuanately these scale maps are not available for most of Australia. Geoscience Australia are apparently releasing the 100K series in digital format soon though, like 50K etc coverage is not complete.

Cheers
Greg

Hi Greg
The 1:100000 sounds like they would be great to get, do you have any indication on pricing, or is it still to early.


Cheers


Stephen

Hello

No idea on price - All the information I have is -

"They will release 2 versions – one as a Mosaic with the 250k data in places where there is no 100k data and new mains roads overlaid. The other version will be just the 100k tiles."

Theoretically they will be "free" (to download?) but as they will require at least 2 or 3 DVDs given the number of maps, suspect they may cost more than the $99 currently charged for 250K on disc.

Other issue is coverage - big gap in data for most of central Australia so 250K will remain best topo map option for many areas despite its inadequacies (though keep in mind other non topo map sources e.g. geology maps, google earth etc)...and yet another issue is currency - many are pretty old. They are overlaying new main roads on the older maps but rest of data remains somewhat "historical". Will be handy none the less. You can never have enough maps.

Cheers
Greg