www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Hey guys!

Need help. Does anyone have experience with GPS locaters in CR? I'm moving to CR in two weeks, have GPS capability in my PDA, but have searched this sight and several internet sites with not much luck. Specifically looking for map overlay software for CR and/or Latin America. I find tons of info for U.S., Europe and Canada.

I would appreciate any help from the knowledgable CRT members.

Thanks, Viper

I was on the Poas tour with an old gringo with one he was complaining that he could not get a signal in CR.

It's like the Black Hole.

I hope someone has a good answer here. It sure would be nice to have an exact GPS location to navigate CR. It would be much more accurate than turn left at the Park where the big tree is that they cut down last month not to far from the Church etc. I don't know if Ticos are ready for prime time GPS since I am not sure how well this country is mapped with software.

I almost hope it stays like it is since it is nice to have a place to get lost !

_________________
"Run silent, run deep"
Spunk glazed Chicas are the building blocks of the universe!

A friend's lawyer has a GPS to help identify properties. I don't have any more info, unfortunately. But somebody uses one here, at least.

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

I overheard a guy in CR saying his GPS worked but it wasn't accurate and something like he had to buy a chip from the CR government...which owned the rights(?) -and went on to say just like you can't get a decent map of CR but you can also buy them from the government. Does this make sense?
I'm obviously not sure of the details but will be able to find out in a couple weeks.

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Living well is the best revenge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwUtj_YnNoY

This site http://www.costarricense.netfirms.com/i ... age709.htm has a few GPS waypoints; Costa Rica points of interest using GPS coordinates.

I once brought a large telescope down to do some observing on the Pacific coast. The scope opearates on GPS technology. I had no problem at all using it to locate objects in space based upon it's position on the planet. Unfortunately the observing was not very good due to atmospheric conditions under the convergence zone around the equator.


Madhatter

GPS works anywhere on Planet Earth - providing there is nothing obstructing reception (trees, buildings, down in a steep valley, etc.).

Wikipedia it out Gentlemen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gps

Long Story Short: You're screwed until the Costa Rican government (or a private company) gets the data collected and put into a digital map format for major GPS units.

Long Story Long:

(1) Costa Rican GPS Coverage: GPS is available everywhere on earth. You are guaranteed to find 3 out of 4 necessary (4 tells you altitude too) anywhere on earth provided you aren't in a building or in a tall canyon, etc. There are 24 sats covering the globe.

(2) COSTA RICA INTERFERENCE: Unless they're jamming (maybe? to protect real estate speculators? hmmm, interesting thoguht as I type this...nahhh...anyway) -- it's most likely atmospheric problems -- which are well known and documented and can be accounted and corrected for. You see, modern GPS receivers can calculate the delays and/or positioning hotspots that most often plague GPS reception and correct for them. Note in the link below that the GPS 'problems' might have been with the interference, not so much that coverage wasn't adequate. Newer units compensate, so buy new.

(3) Whether your GPS receiver will correlate your Global Position to a MAP -- is another question. Remember, this was devised for the US Military in the late 70's and then they didn't have fancy computer generated color maps of anything. The system simply provided them a coordinate (LAT/LONG). They had to then use a PAPER (gasp!) map and find out where in the hell they were.

(4) You're probably screwed. Because, after all, what you SEEK is not the location info (GPS will provide this in a numerical format - see #3 above), but the mapping component that makes a GPS receiver for non-military and experienced navigators (read: Civilians) useful. E.G. when it receives your LAT/LONG it plots your point on a digital map of the location (with roads, etc). Note that TOPO maps don't always have roads. Thus, it's a highly specialized thing in countries where infrastructure development on civilian 'goodies' such as this aren't really prioritized. Further, Costa Rica is a small country. Finally, things in Costa Rica aren't really mapped well even on paper to begin with. Terminating your thoughts of the well-connected GPS driving lifestyle is this fact: roads that have one name have another to locals and vice-versa as well as the obvious factor that streets and addresses aren't always given names other than "When you Encounter the Ramp of the Hospital Guardia Calderon, Please go 200 meters...", etc. Good luck.

Which is what, I suspect, the Costa Rican government will happily sell you for your unit for a lot of money.

Or, go here:

http://rwsmaps.griffel.se/
http://www.travelbygps.com/maps/central_america.php
http://web.utk.edu/~orvis/
http://web.utk.edu/~orvis/CR_GPS.pdf

Note the last is an excellent page that includes the reasoning behind why cheap (older, per this article, many years ago) GPS units probably suck and newest (better, then -- more expensive) ones worked. And why maps are notoriously difficult to line up with Geospatial references.

Wow! impressive post Zee, Once again shows the wealth of information available from CRT's on this forum.

Certainly shows the complexities of GPS, and how much we take for granted using some of the technologies available to us.

Thanks for the info.

Viper

The GPS works fine in Costa Rica, unless you are in a mountainous area in a deep canyon or otherwise blocked from receiving enough satellites. I have used one there on all three of my trips, but not for navigating a car - for trails and off-trails in the rainforest. It's the maps that are missing. As far as I know there are no digital road maps for Costa Rica formatted as overlays to GPS units. I have only used it to mark my trails and set waypoints in the forest. It will then interface with the satellite maps if you use a program like Topofusion, but will not show the kind of detail you need to navigate a vehicle.