Handheld GPS Failure

This weekend my 5 mortgage payment integrated GPS, radar, depth sounder, etc would not get a GPS signal. We were only going across the bay and the conditions were perfect but I thought I ought to get a back up.

Westmarine has a garmin 78 handheld on sale but I'm confused about maps. Anyone have any experience with these or others? It would be nice to have soundings.

No laptop with free software as a backup?

I have Garmin handheld experience with the Garmin 76 and the GPSMAP 276C. Some units come with basic charts, but not enough for the level of detail you'd like. Some others will come with the marine charts you'd like. It looks like the 78SC comes with the BlueCharts. Garmin maps are proprietary, but they make it easy to buy and update charts.

BTW, have you remedied the GPS signal loss?

Or Navionics etc on an iPad if you have one with GPS in it - if have one without, GPS can be added as a dongle. (ie USB plug in)
I swear by Navionics on iPad for my backup.

All we ever use is a hand held , it is light on pictures but has all the buoys , we have paper charts .

If it ever dies its a few bucks and ZERO time with a black hole computer attempting to intergrate stuff.

My first, second and third GPS units are Garmin handhelds. One of which is kept in a metal box for lightening protection.

Marty

Do you have paper charts, plotter, dividers, etc...you know, the kind of stuff they used to navigate in those ancient times before GPS made dummies of us all?

Captain K said:

Do you have paper charts, plotter, dividers, etc...you know, the kind of stuff they used to navigate in those ancient times before GPS made dummies of us all?

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I think this is a must. I keep charts aboard and I gave my Admiral lessons on dead reckoning and chart plotting. It's nice to have a back up plan.

Peter B said:

I swear by Navionics on iPad for my backup.

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Ditto!

Capthead said:

I think this is a must. I keep charts aboard and I gave my Admiral lessons on dead reckoning and chart plotting. It's nice to have a back up plan.

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Agree completely! My backup is a sextant, sight reduction tables and a chronometer. Uncle Sugar taught me how to use them a hundred years ago and I don't plan on forgetting how. Primitive I admit, but still fun to tinker with.

Paper charts, a whole different thread. Bay Pelican has a full set of paper charts and what is better is we use them on every cruise as well as the chart plotter.

Marty

We have Coastal Explorer with Integrated GPS in the wheelhouse and a full set of paper charts. We also have two iPads with iNavX with full sets of CHS and NOAA charts. Both iPads have GPS and when operating along side the CE plotter all match one another closely. Most of my trip planning is done on the iPad when anchored or moored somewhere. The iPad has other applications, marine and otherwise (ebooks) that makes it very useful onboard. You can turn off the lights when you have the iPad.

Jim, Sent from my iPad using Trawler

With paper charts and a hand held , most of the nav effort is in re numbering the buoys on the paper chart.

Some have 4 or 5 corrections to the SAME nav aid , but then my charts were first on the Nina.

So, did anyone come up with an idea for a handheld to have as a back up? We're looking for one to carry along in the dinghy, as well as back up the other stuff in the big boat.

Garmin 276C is what I use. It has a 4 inch (or so) screen with Blue Charts. It's no longer manufactured, but available at a discount on the used market.

If I was looking for new, I'd look at this GPSMAP 640. It has a rechargeable Li-Ion battery.

chc said:

So, did anyone come up with an idea for a handheld to have as a back up? We're looking for one to carry along in the dinghy, as well as back up the other stuff in the big boat.

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How about Navionics or similar on your iPhone...you do have an iPhone don't you..? Eeeeervrebody does...even me. I have my son's cast off. But Android no doubt have an equivalent if not...?

chc said:

So, did anyone come up with an idea for a handheld to have as a back up? We're looking for one to carry along in the dinghy, as well as back up the other stuff in the big boat.

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We use a Standard Horizon VHF/GPS handheld on the dinghy- give us comms, and DSC functionaliy.

All, thanks for the replies, sorry for the delay, business got in the way! I'm going to play with the Ipad this weekend and see how that works.

Check the software on your current device and see if a newer version is available. The Garmin on my flybridge would only see the GPS satellites about 15% of the times it booted up! making it useless. I updated the software and now it works flawlessly. Previous owner bought it in 2005 and it had never been updated. The update was a free download from Garmin.

I love Navionics on the iPad. I use it as my primary and my several thousand dollar Garmin in the pilothouse is my backup. Charts, pencils and straightedge are the final backup.