GPS

[Jeff Skevington]

Our lab has a Garmin 12 channel GPS.  We are very pleased with it, but we
are considering buying an external antenna to improve its usefulness in
forests, etc.  Is the expense of an extenernal antenna worthwhile?

Our only negative experience with the unit is that at temperatures above
45-50 degrees C. the key pad ceases to work effectively.  After cooling the
unit down it works OK.  The unit is accurate to about 50 m (not quite as
good as the manual suggests, but adequate for most uses).

Do all GPS units work off of the same model of the earth?  If so, it seems
that as long as "GPS" is indicated with coordinates collected, differences
from map lat/longs are irrelevant.  Finding a plant, or anything else that
is marked using GPS will involve using another GPS, not a map.

Jeff

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Jeff Skevington
Department of Entomology
University of Queensland
Brisbane
Qld 4072
FAX: 61 7 3365 1922
e-mail: j.skevington at ento.uq.edu.au
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