NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Navigational computers
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Oct 23, 06:08 -0300
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Oct 23, 06:08 -0300
> -----Original Message----- > From: Lee Martin > To my mind, dedicated navigational calculators have had their day. A Palm > loaded with readily available software will do it all, plus lots, lots > more....tides, magnetic field calculations, exchange rates, shopping list, > email...etc., etc.. A second hand Palm Vx sells for about the same as a > N-77....a few dollars. (And I was a confirmed HP person for 30 years!!) I'm a died-in-the-wool handheld computer nut, but I disagree with "dedicated navigational calculators have had their day". Handhelds need too much care and feeding, making them a relatively perilous tool at sea in a smaller boat. I have used a PocketPC at sea for 4 seasons now to do my GPS navigating, and I use a Palm daily at work and everywhere else. I think that if I could ever do the circumnavigation that is getting further away from me in this lifetime, then I would want a dedicated calculator. They have better battery life, less risk of losing memory, and, in my opinion, better overall navigation software than the apps available presently for Palms and PocketPCs. If my GPS went down and the sextant had to come out, then I would be very happy with a dedicated nav calculator with an electronic almanac. Especially in a lifeboat. However handheld screens show much more intuitive menu interfaces than even Tamaya's Pocket PC-powered NC-2200. But a navigator would easily get used to the TI-81 green screen, if they lived with a dedicated nav calculator day to day. Jim Thompson jim2@jimthompson.net www.jimthompson.net/palmpda Outgoing mail scanned by Norton Antivirus -----------------------------------------
