GPS for Dummies.pdf - Engineering Surveyor

Chapter 5Selecting and Getting Startedwith a GPS ReceiverIn This Chapter Selecting a GPS receiver Matching GPS receivers with activities Powering your GPS receiver Initializing your GPS receiver Using your GPS receiverThis chapter is about selecting a GPS receiver and getting started using it.Choosing a GPS receiver can be quite an overwhelming experience. If youlook at handheld, portable GPS receivers that the Big Three (Garmin, Magellan,and Lowrance) currently offer, you’ll have around 50–60 GPS receivers tochoose from. That’s a lot of choices. And that’s only the beginning. After youpurchase one, you still need to find out how to use it.This chapter should take some of the confusion out of buying a GPS receiverand help you come up to speed using it. (GPS For Dummies isn’t meant toreplace your user manual, though, which you should refer to while you’rereading the “Becoming Familiar with Your New GPS Receiver” section of thischapter.)When it comes to selecting a GPS receiver, I won’t recommend that you buy aparticular brand or model or tell you which is best for hiking, geocaching (thebest Easter egg hunt in the world; see Chapter 9), or other activities. Rather, Ifollow more of a Socratic method, in which I ask you a number of questionsthat should help you make a pretty good and informed purchasing decision.