GPS units for APRS?

[W1QJ]

GM, this is my first post to this forum so if this question has bean beaten to death please forgive me.  I used to be into APRS when it first came out many years ago.  I have been out of it for a long time.  In those days it was required to have a NEMA data output from the GPS unit to support APRS.  I was told shortly afterwards that as the GPS market boomed and it became standard for almost every driver to have a GPS, and the market got flooded with these things.  Apparently the NEMA data output feature was deleted by most units.  So I am under the impression that one might need to get hold of an older GPS unit to do APRS these days.  SO I suppose the question is does in fact the new units not support NEMA data therefore they can not be used for APRS.  If there is a unit out there that can be used for APRS, what unit is it?  I have been out of it for so long I just haven't followed the progession.  Thanks for any help. 73 Lou

[W0JRT]

While it's true that most "automotive" type GPS units no longer include NMEA, there are still some options in new units.  Try one of the Garmin Montana series (600, 650, 650T)  http://sites.garmin.com/montana/.  It's considered to be in the outdoor product line, not the automotive product line, but it can do on-street routing with the proper map data (City Navigator North America).  To get the NMEA data in/out of it you'll need to use either the AMPS Rugged Mount (Garmin P/N 010-11654-01) or the Marine Mount (010-11654-06) -- The standard Automotive Mount with speaker will NOT work as it does not have the RS-232 signals brought out.  Also note that the Montana unit needs to have software version 3.90 or higher.

Some of Garmin's other outdoor products (colorado, Rino 1xx, Rino 5xx) also work and can be used in automotive mode, although they have smaller screens.

[W1QJ]

Ok, thanks for that info.  Would it be logical then to just simply buy some older unit that supports NEMA since all one is interested in with APRS is data string location instead of getting directions. Lou

[N3HFS]

Would it be logical then to just simply buy some older unit that supports NEMA since all one is interested in with APRS is data string location instead of getting directions. Lou

You might want to consider having a GPS just for APRS in addition to a street navigation GPS.  These are tiny "pucks' about the size of a matchbook with a serial cable that provides power in and data (NMEA) out to your APRS modem.  They usually have a magnetic base, but are sensitive enough to work very well inside the car at the base of a windshield or slanted rear window, or reasonably well at the base of a vertical side window.

Examples:

https://www.argentdata.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=23

http://www.byonics.com/tinytrak/gps.php

[W0JRT]

The pucks work well -- I've used both the GPS 18x and the older GPS 18 from Garmin.

One advantage of having a moving-map GPS for the APRS system is the ability to see where the other APRS stations are on the map.  The Kenwood radios will send all received stations / objects to the GPS as waypoints so they'll show up on the map.

[W1QJ]

I have a Garmin Street Pilot III.  I was told in it's day it was one of the best units since it would show the positions of other stations on the screen.  Are these still popular among APRS users?

[N0JS]

I just bought a used Garmin Nuvi 350 through Ebay.  It was $44.00 shipped to the door.  The maps had never been updated, so it was eligible for a free update from Garmin.  I did the free map update, updated the firmware, and I am able to add Favorites, Vehicles, Custom POIs, etc.  It navigates just fine and with the Argent Data cable it feeds NMEA-0183 data to my radio at the same time.

[K0JEG]

I have a Garmin Street Pilot III.  I was told in it's day it was one of the best units since it would show the positions of other stations on the screen.  Are these still popular among APRS users?

Should work just fine. You'll need the older style round power and RS-232 cable to interface it to most TNCs:
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=601

One minor annoyance with the older Garmin units is that in order to display other vehicles it stores them as waypoints. If you actually use the waypoint functions it can be difficult to find your saved waypoints among all the stations it collects over time. That, and (at least in the case of my old Vista+) the first letter of the callsign was cut off, or maybe it truncates the call to a few letters. Is has been a while since I used it for APRS.