www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Does anyone have a recommendation for a portable GPS like Tomtom or Nuvi that has good maps of Costa Rica?

The last time i looked there was nothing that mapped CR roads.
I will follow this thread with interest.

Is there such a thing as a non-portable GPS?

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It is cheaper to pay now and get it over with.
It is also easier to get them to leave.

Almost all rent-a-car agencies in Costa Rica offer GPS units for their rented cars. My neighbor bought a used GPS with CR maps that come from a rental car fleet. Try www.navsatcr.com. You can also Google "GPS Costa Rica" and get a number of hits.

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Pura Vida
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Navsatcr is the only commercially produced maps for CR that I have seen. I wouldn't mind trying them but I've been too cheap to spring the $150 for the download.

I did download some maps from http://rwsmaps.griffel.se/
This fellow has created maps for the Carribean region using USGS data. The maps for CR don't have much detail though. He has concentrated mostly on some of the Carribean islands.

Slim pickin's for CR GPS maps.

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western

An example of a non-portable GPS is the system that's used to track your cell phone when it's turned on, the ones that trucking companies use to track the positions of their trucks or the one that tracks you via your EZPass or equivalent transponder. This last example is why some folks have thriving businesses selling lead shields your transponder slides into when not in active use. Main point: It's not just for consumer use but, no, I'm not peddling conspiracy theories either.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

I have searched the internet and also came up with the navsatcr maps but was not sure what models they would work with or if they were any good. My GPS experience has been with the "Non Portable" units in my car and boat. Perhaps I should have said portable or hand held.

I think that the navsatcr maps work with most Garmin models. I've heard of people using them with handhelds as well auto units. I believe that they may support some other brands too. You should be able to find that info from navsatcr.

I've read comments from other forums that the navsatcr maps are pretty good. They release updates regulary too.

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western

I call WRONG on this statement.
GPS is a satellite receiver system that determines location by triangulating signals from 'visible' satellites.
The systems that track vehicles are relaying the GPS position of a vehicle to a monitoring system that may be stationary.

Don't confuse transponders (like EZ pass) with GPS. They are not the same.

Cell phones can be tracked 2 ways;
1) By relaying the cell phone GPS calculated position to another station
or
2) By determining which ground based antennas are receiving your cell phones signal ( another form of triangulation).

_________________
It is cheaper to pay now and get it over with.
It is also easier to get them to leave.

Not to get all stupid here Brother T&V, but in the cases I cited, what do you call the receivers that are tracking the object (the transponder)? I think in popular parlance, THEY have the GPS locked on you...but then I could be mistaken.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

Garmin makes a pretty nifty hand held GPS called eTrex. The link is listed below but when I went there I saw that the product was discontinued. Maybe there is an updated model I don’t know as I didn’t take the time to research. I have the model shown in the link provided and used it in Costa Rica several times and it worked beautifully. You mark your starting spot and it shows a line of direction on the hand held map that is nothing more than as a crow flies direction indicator. This worked fine by me as there really aren’t too many street names in CR anyway that would be listed in any GPS. You can also mark points of interest while you do your walk. I forget the price of this unit but know it was pretty reasonable and I think it was less than $100.00. I recommend it!
Quick note about the car model Garmin GPS units. I own the Nuvi 255w and I was going to try to bring it with me to CR and when I tried to look into buying maps for that area I was told there were none. This was about a year ago and that is what lead me to buying the eTrex.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=6403

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Ironape,
Here is a link of all Garmins hand held GPS devices.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=143

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Garmin sure has a full line of hand-helds including some for marine applications. Research them at the Garmin Website mentioned above, then shop eBay which has a ton of them new or used for bid or for instant sale.

_________________
"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

They are called interrogators, a transmitter and receiver combo that is capable of recognizing the unique code (identifier) of the transponder.

A transponder is a receiver/transmitter that responds with a unique signal that identifies that transponder to interrogation signals (like EZ Pass).

A GPS receiver is actually a computer/receiver combo that calculates the position. A basic GPS RECEIVER has no transmit function, and does not need it. The GPS satellite system does not, ever receive any signals from the GPS receiver.

If you have additional equipment (like GPS tracking), then the calculated position can be transmitted elsewhere. This could be done by directly transmitting to a local receiver or to a dedicated satellite (not the GPS satellites), which will re-transmit the signal to a ground based unit.
Cell phones with GPS can re-send their calculated position over cell frequencies. Uplinks to satellites are less common, but never to GPS satellites..

FYI: I am trained in this field. I am an Electrical Engineer, have a FCC 1st class license and am experienced as a GPS instructor for airline pilots. This was in a previous life (pre CRT, for sure).

Trivia:
Civil aircraft use a 4096 code transponder system, which is 50's technology. The EZ pass transponder is significantly more sophisticated, with a true digital ID.
GPS signals used to have a built in random error for civilian users, so that the bad guys couldn't use it for precision bombing of friendlies. To give aircraft the accuracy needed to find a runway centerline required extra equipment, which involved additional land based stations. The stations had a fixed (known) position. This was the only use of a non-portable GPS receiver, and is now obsolete. The system transmitted the calculated error (the difference between the known fixed position and the GPS calculated position) to properly equipped aircraft so that position could be calculated precisely. This was called differential GPS. Our government eliminated the built in error in the 90's.

_________________
It is cheaper to pay now and get it over with.
It is also easier to get them to leave.

Question- I read the restricted items for air travel, I understood that one of the units could not be transported in my carry on luggage, am I correct?

I have used the cheap Garmin ( so if I lose it no big deal) to mark starting spot, landmark and then to get back to starting point, both for hunting and vacations- so I just go wonder around on side streets, very similar to the way BrentC15 described, Works great for that, but after a very interesting 2 hour discussion with the Police at the Amsterdam airport about how only terrorists and criminals need GPS’s I have been hesitant to take one along with me since then. Going to MDE in 30 days I have thought about taking one along on that trip, BUT

Does the MDE police has similar attitudes towards GPS as AMS cops?—and please don’t ask about the Russian cops and GPS’s/ walkie talkies

To be certain, I just checked the TSA website. GPS units are not prohibited in either carry-on or checked baggage. I've carried mine on board on several occasions and never had a problem. USING a GPS unit on board an airplane is expressly prohibited by the airlines. They don't want any interference with the aircraft nav systems.

Just leave your GPS switched off and stowed.

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western