Lat/long VS TD's

[BYRD]

Why is it that the offshore "set" still seem to use TD's while every other aspect of fishing has gone to the GPS? I have numerous TD log books but theyare of no good to me as of right now because I do not have a loran. No one has came up with a good GPS to TD conversion yet, and I do not think it will ever happen. So, again, why does the offshore group continue to use TD's when the rest of the fisheries seem to have gone to GPS?

[anthony]

Because TD's are 1000x easier to use. And you can use them in your GPS, just set it up to display position, etc in Loran C TD's instead of Lat/Lon. You will be so much happier that you did, especially offshore.

[Edge Sportfishing]

The L/L to LORAN TD conversion in a Northstar GPS is reliable. Forget about trusting any of the others though (not even close).

[neilinov]

I think a lot of it has to do what you grew up with. I for one don't want to re-learn all of the degrees minutes and seconds from the spencer to the norfolk. Right now if you tell me you are 70 fathoms on the 270 line I know exactly where you are. If you tell me you are 38 24.05 and 074 69.22 I have to break out the chart to figure out where inthe hell you are.

[FinRazr]

Its easy to go to 300/850 and is close enough for offshore.

[Proheat]

My GARMIN GPS converts my old TD's to lat/long and with the WAAS, its pretty accurate!!!

[mrfishy]

Our furuno does a good job too usually within 1/10 of a mile

[Glenn W]

My GARMIN GPS converts my old TD's to lat/long and with the WAAS, its pretty accurate!!!

Yup, I agree Barry. It may not put you right on top of a wreck with inputed TDs (fine wirh repeatability), but pretty dang close on the new Garmin. I checked my inputed TD's with known Lat longs and they are very close. The trick I found in NC is to adjust the TD offsets on your GPS for the local area--- i.e., you may be off a couple hundred feet by just putting in a TD location in your GPS, but figure out the local TD offset (to compensate for the mathematical error in the GPS algorithum to fit everywhere) and you are good to go. You can use a bouy, etc with listed TDs as well as lat long to figure out your specific TD offset.-- Of course better to check it with two locations.

[matey1]

i have a program here on my computer at work that i got from the coast guard i believe. it seems to be pretty accurate. if i could figure oout how to download it i could send it to anyone that wanted it. i believe it is called positionaide2

[lazyfatass247]

As stated above its a combination of two tings. one relearning TD's and GPS for the old salts and two its offshore if you 200 feet off its not the end of the world. Its a whole lot easier.