Need Help From You "GPS" Guru's!

[Muddybottomblues]

I am headed down to the key's for my daughters Spring break week from school. I found a web-site www.marinefisheries.org/ar/reef_locator.asp with locations of artificial reefs in Florida. I put in Monroe County. Some of these reefs were set over 10+++ years ago. Alotta sunken ships. I'm thinking the chart reefs may be a little busy or line shy and if that's the case I want to hit these.
My problem is fiquring how to put the numbers in my GPS?? If the link to the site works, they have a GPS column with "DGPS" "GPS" and "LORAN". They have loran numbers 1 & 2 along with the Lat & Long numbers. However there is a little qoute about the Lat & Long format being in decimal/minutes ETC, ETC..... I am GPS E-literate and just want to go fishing! Any help or explanation would be appreciatted. Also what is DGPS?
Al/Muddybottomblues

[sockeye]

Muddy:

The link that you provide in your message sends you to a page titled "Reef Locator". It has the search option box that you used to find sites in Monroe. In the "Disclaimer" section at the top of the page you will find that the "D" in DGPS stands for differential. It also explains that the DGPS, LOR and GPS in the far right hand column refer to the format that the coordinates were originally derived from. Further down the page and just above the search box is a link titled "An Explanation of Loran, GPS and DGPS". It brings you to a page titled "Where's the reef?". It provides explanatory information about all three.

As for entering the coordinates in your GPS, the exact method depends on the type of machine you have. Hopefully you have your manual. The hardest, yet most straight forward method is to enter the coordinates manually. If you are at the other end of the spectrum with a PC based chart program you may be able to download a spreadsheet list of the coordinates you create from the list on the web site directly to your GPS. Again, this depends on your system. For entering manually, you will have to make sure that the format the coordinates are in, either DDMM.MMM or DD MM.MMM (if you change it), corresponds to the format that your GPS is set at. You can change the format that your GPS is in. Again, refer to your manual. You should see the same DDMM.MMM or DD MM.MMM (or other) format types in your GPS display options menu that you can choose from. As an example, if your GPS is set to accept and display Lat/Long in the DD MM.MMM format, the coordinate for Speigel Cove (first on the list as 2504/8018.65) would look like this: 25* 04.000/80* 18.650 (where "*" stands for degrees).

Putting coordinates into your GPS may be as simple as this (or a variation on this theme): Access MENU/Select WAYPOINTS/Select ADD NEW WAYPOINT/Enter the coordinate/ Select an icon that will indicate a coordinate on your plotter screen/Press ENTER/Select ADD NEW WAYPOINT/Do it again...

A suggestion: try entering a coordinate of a place you can identify on a chart. Practice entering it into your GPS and finding it on your plotter. Varify its position with the chart to make sure you have it right. Hope this helps.

[Muddybottomblues]

Thanks Sockeye, that was very informitive. I think I will put the GPS (Garmin 2006 Chart plotter) in the boat in the back yard and play with it there rather than on the water. I will let ya know what happens. However if you notice I threw in the make and model of my GPS if that helps to clarify the entries(Wink Wink, Nudge, Nudge)??
Thanks Again
Al/Muddybottomblues

[sockeye]

Muddy,

Sorry, I'm not familiar with Garmin. I run Northstar, Furuno, and PC based Maptech. And I'm a long shot from a guru! But I've heard that Garmin is user friendly and I would be surprised if the menu themes were not similar. Good Luck.

[Logan9581]

Once you figure out how to put some numbers in your gps, here is another site with some numbers. http://home.tampabay.rr.com/boriss/boriss.html