birding-aus

GPS for vocalisation recording

To:
Subject: GPS for vocalisation recording
From: Peter and Toni <>
Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 15:09:48 +1000
I use several different Android smartphones and tablets for detailed GPS mapping. The modern smart phones are brilliant in heavy forest. Mine is capable of tracking more than 20 satellites, including the russian ones. Older GPS could only track 8 so quickly lost signal under cover. In heavy rainforest the phone kept a fix at all times when previous surveys had seen older GPS lose all signal. Every year the phones get more sensitive. For instance they will easily get a fix from inside a house, as long as there is a window in the room. Accuracy and repeatability are far improved from older dedicated GPS I have owned, although I am sure newer dedicated GPSs have also improved. I use Oziexplorer to manage maps and waypoints. It can download the waypoints to excel for easy manipulation. There are similar programs available for Apple. Battery life can be a bit short, but I also carry a small battery pack that can recharge the phone if out all day. Having your birding app, GPS and phone in one instrument makes juggling hardware a lot less of a problem. As long as you don't lose it or drop it.

cheers
Peter
On 01-Oct-13 12:41 PM, Merrilyn Serong wrote:
Garmin handheld GPS units are very good.
Here is a link so you can compare the different models.
https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/cOnTheTrail-cHandheld-p1.html
They are not cheap, but if you want a good one...
Cheers,
Merrilyn

On 1/10/2013 11:59 AM, David Richardson wrote:
One of the points mentioned in the original post was that the GPS be
capable of deep forest satellite acquisition.I don't know much about iphone
or camera GPS functions but I doubt they would operate accurately in
situations other than clear sky satellite acquisition.That is why a
dedicated GPS unit,and a very good one at that,would be of more use.
perhaps someone on list who has knowledge of this could post a relpy
addressing that point?


On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 10:27 AM, Peter Shute <> wrote:

I suspect that the main difference between a phone GPS and a dedicated
one, apart from not using up the battery of your precious communication
device, is accuracy. I'm told I shouldn't expect better than 30m accuracy
from an iphone.

I suspect Google Earth coordinates can be off by that much too, if the
difference between the images of roads and the corresponding linework is
anything to go by.

Peter Shute

Sent from my iPad

On 1 Oct 2013, at 9:06 am, "Martin Butterfield" <
<>> wrote:

If you don't have a mobile phone, my camera (Panasonic TZ40) has a GPS
function which - if activated - includes geocoordinates with images. I
suspect many other mid-range cameras now have this functionality.

It seems that the need for a dedicated GPS for simply recording point
locations is well gone.

Martin


On 1 October 2013 08:30, Peter Shute <<mailto:
>> wrote:
If you mean you want to save and name a way point so that you can just
read out the way point name into the microphone, then I would have thought
most would allow that. Some probably just automatically number the way
points, but you could read out that number.

I just use my phone's GPS (have never tried a dedicated GPS), and I read out the coordinates directly at each new location. I could mark a way point and then later copy its coordinates into the metadata, but it seems just as quick to type it out while I listen to the coordinates I read out. It gives me two chances to get it wrong, but it also means the coordinates aren't as
likely to get separated from the recording.

I'm hoping I can find a way to get the phone to read out the current
coordinates so I can just hold it up to the mic. That should eliminate the
first kind of error, but it's inspired more by laziness.

Peter Shute

________________________________
From: <mailto:
> [
<mailto:
>] On Behalf Of Roger McNeill [
<>]
Sent: Tuesday, 1 October 2013 7:52 AM
To: <
Subject: [Birding-Aus] GPS for vocalisation recording

All,

I know this has been raised a few times over the years, so apologies for that, but the technology and brands keep changing and it is difficult to
keep up.

I need a Handheld GPS to support my vocalisation recordings. The main
requirements other than the obligatory battery life, ruggedness, light,
international maps, deep forest satilite acquistion, etc, is the ability to
input multiple way points and link them to a specific recording.

Most of the units I see on line seem to have a detailed drill down menu but what I am looking for is a compact unit whereby I can quickly enter a
location, note the 'location reference' in my recording and then weeks
later when I am back home, download that way point into my computer when I
am doing my Meta data?

Up until now I have been doing it after the fact off Google Earth and this
is getting very old.

Also, the ability to pre-load waypoints is probably standard, but also
required. I am a hand held GPS novice, if that is not already evident by
the questions, so any and all help is appreciated.

Cheers,


Roger


Roger McNeill
Samford Valley, SEQ
===============================



===============================

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 

http://birding-aus.org
===============================

===============================

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 

http://birding-aus.org
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU