New to TRUE off-road navigation - need help!

[iSurvive]

Definitely. Dane is down here too, but I've yet to meet up with him. There's a '12 Raptor owner around the corner from me that I've tried to turn onto this site as well.

I'm over near HR Parkway and Wildcat (the west side of HR). Should be around most of the day today, tomorrow then we're doing my daughter's birthday party at the lake on Sunday. I'll PM you my email/phone info.

Matt

Not too far from my place. I'm on the HR Golf Course, close to the club house.

The owner (or manager) of Ideal CarStar on Santa Fe owns a '12 Raptor. I've spoken to him once.

Me and my boys might go to CORE today or tomorrow.

---------- Post added at 02:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:00 PM ----------

I help organize and run the expeditions... My recommendations?

For navigation, the Baja Elite 5M... small in size, quick response, VERY easy use, and very robust. The Topo on the HDS can is over-rated in my opinion, and rarely used. We rent these units, and they're a great little unit! I use Google Earth to plot all of our expeditions, and to edit data that I upload from the Lowrance units. Works well, easy to organize and customize.

As far as radio, to be honest if you're going to be going one more than just one run, or doing day trips with other friends with trucks, a good VHF radio is SO important! Even on the runs, the handheld units will start to break up and lose signal when only 1-2 miles away sometimes. The dash-mount units will go 10+ miles, even up to 20+ in the right conditions.

We normally recommend the Icom units, because Outlaw is a large dealer and service/warranty is much easier... However, if you're looking to save money there are some cheaper units out there.

For example this Yeasu unit, which a friend of mine has that works VERY well!

Amazon.com: Yaesu FT-2900R 75 Watt 2 Meter VHF Mobile Transceiver Amateur Ham Radio: Car Electronics


Only catch if you read the fine print is that it only "receives" communication between frequencies 136-174Mhz and we run on 151.625. HOWEVER! There is a simple "mod" you can do to the radio, which unlocks transmitting AND receiving on the entire range! That's what my buddy did... works perfect, and you can type in any frequency you want to transmit on, at any time! Which is very nice...

Here is a "how-to" on the modification...

Yaesu ft-2900r frequency modification mars mod

So for under $200, you can have a full function 75-watt radio which works across a very broad spectrum, and you can type in you own frequencies! Many other models (most in fact) require that you program channels in those ranges.

Hope that helps! We've done dozens of runs... so my recommendations come after experience with a variety of plotters and radios.

That is a whole lot of great advise. Thanks for the detailed response!!

I started playing around with Google Earth last night. I was able to draw and upload two tracks for Medano Pass. I emailed myself a copy, then had to convert the KMZ file to GPX format. Is that the method you use?

I wish I could hack my Nav system to be my off-road GPS!

 

[All The Way]

You can't go wrong with the FT-2900. With a good antenna that rig should get out there.

Here is a good online store for anything ham related (Hard to beat there prices) R&L Electronics

They have the radio Blue posted for 154.95

 

[BlueSVT]

Not too far from my place. I'm on the HR Golf Course, close to the club house.

The owner (or manager) of Ideal CarStar on Santa Fe owns a '12 Raptor. I've spoken to him once.

Me and my boys might go to CORE today or tomorrow.

---------- Post added at 02:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:00 PM ----------



That is a whole lot of great advise. Thanks for the detailed response!!

I started playing around with Google Earth last night. I was able to draw and upload two tracks for Medano Pass. I emailed myself a copy, then had to convert the KMZ file to GPX format. Is that the method you use?

I wish I could hack my Nav system to be my off-road GPS!

Which navigation are you using? I convert mine to .USR format, which is the standard Lowrance format.

I use GPSBabel to do my conversions from KML (Google Earth) to USR (Lowrance) then I use another converter called GPS Visualizer to convert from USR back to KML, as it seems to retain the tracks the best, and is modifiable afterwards... some of the conversion softwares work better than others, so it's been a lenghty trial and error process to get it down just right, like I have it now.

I like Google Earth because you can keep all of your runs separated into folders very easily, and then tracks and waypoints separated into sub-folders.

 

[brusso99]

i drive, hike and adventure with the Garmin 62sc handheld. you can get topomaps and anything else for it FREE at GPSFileDepot - Free Custom Garmin Maps, Ximage hosting, tutorials, articles and more for your GPSr

as for radios, you cant just buy ham radios and pick a frequency and talk. get licensed, but remember you can only talk to other licensed operators. to get a ham license all you need is to memorize the questions and answers from the tests at qrz.com for the basic tech license.

hope this helps

 

[treypal]

i drive, hike and adventure with the Garmin 62sc handheld. you can get topomaps and anything else for it FREE at GPSFileDepot - Free Custom Garmin Maps, Ximage hosting, tutorials, articles and more for your GPSr

as for radios, you cant just buy ham radios and pick a frequency and talk. get licensed, but remember you can only talk to other licensed operators. to get a ham license all you need is to memorize the questions and answers from the tests at qrz.com for the basic tech license.

hope this helps

It's very hard to read a small
Screen while bumping though the dezert at 70 mph