Welcome to this month’s GPS training podcast

1. Today we have Jon, Andy and Tom

2. Jon, managing director Shepherds Walks Ltd who is the parent company of GPS training.

3. Andy, the reviewer, tech support and all round ‘geek’ (in a nice way) of GPS Training.

4. Tom, works for sales and distribution at Garmin

We are live streaming on Facebook

New for this month we are streaming on Facebook the recording of us all recording the Podcast, so if you want to see what we all look like take a look at our Facebook page.

Don’t forget you can download the podcast from –
iTunes, Tinein, Blubrry, Stitcher, Soundclood or listen to it from our web site – gpstraining.co.uk, you will see the podcast logo on the bottom left of every page

Feedback after last month’s webinar

Many thanks for everybody who sent us their feedback and thoughts after last months first ever GPS Training Podcast

1. Max Ryan, who has been on one of our SatMap courses thought we were ‘really are an innovative lot!’ – We can but try!!!

2. Alison Hume, thought the podcast was ‘a great resource’.

3. Pete Martin – ‘Wish you every success’ and thought the podcast was ‘Very informative and easy listening’.

4. Andrew Kennard, who is an avid Podcast listener – He gave us some great ideas and hopefully you will hear a few changes on the back of his suggestions.

So, without further ado let’s get on with today’s webinar ……

In today’s webinar we are going to look and chat over the following –

1. We will review the Garmin Fenix 5x multi activity GPS watch

2. Connect IQ Apps, what are they and what are the best apps?

3. Best top end Garmin GPS (what else could we look at with Tom sat between us)

4. Top tips – both SatMap and Garmin

5. The big debate – button or touchscreen GPS unit?

6. And finally, we will have a look at our courses we have coming up over the coming month

Chat over and review of the Garmin Fenix 5x multi activity GPS Watch

1. What is a multi-activity GPS watch?

2. Fenix 5x What activities would this really be suitable for?

Andy liked it for Road Cycling & Mountain Biking, although I am not a trail runner could see it being used for Trail Running – Bring Tom in with this

Now let’s get down to the watch –

1. It comes with colour maps pre-loaded for all of Europe Topo Active look good on the watch

2. Going through the menus for the first time it is clear to see this is very much a Multisport Watch, fitness / activity tracker, navigational device and smart watch all in one.

3. It has the standard features that we expect to see on a fitness tracker, measuring your daily steps, distances, calories, sleep pattern etc but also has a built-in wrist based heart monitor and a VO2Max Estimator feature to estimate the maximum volume of oxygen you can consume per minute, giving you an indication of your fitness level.

4. I found it easy to pair the watch with my smart phone using the Garmin connect app, with this app you can sync all your fitness data to review clearly on your phone, sync your trails that you have walked, cycled, ran etc and pairing the watch with your phone gives you the function to receive text message, email alerts and incoming phone call alerts from your mobile onto the screen of the watch.
New feature in connect app – search for courses (Routes) others have shared and send straight to watch

5. Wearing the watch on my relatively small wrist I did not find it too bulky or weighty and the tough polymer strap felt comfortable and secure.

6. For my first test I used the unit on a cycle ride navigating to a village using the turn by turn routing function, It was quick and easy to select the Bike Activity, select Navigate and search for the village using the Cities search option which then lists in distance away from you any Cities, Towns, Villages, Hamlets etc.

7. From starting the Bike Activity and Navigation search the unit locked onto satellites quickly, From selecting the village I wanted to cycle to my Turn by Turn Route was quickly calculated and displayed on the map page as a magenta route to follow with clear arrows at road junctions, I had some reservations about viewing mapping on a smaller screen than the handheld devices that I am used to but I simply zoomed in so that I could see junctions at a fairly large level and this worked well for me on my cycle route.

8. On a turn by turn route as you get close to junctions / turn offs the units gives you both a tone and vibration alert, the vibration alert was useful as I don’t always hear tone noises with the wind in my hair, the screen also changes with these turn alerts to a full screen directional arrow with a countdown of distance to the turn which is useful.

9. I found it easy to toggle between the map screen and selection of data boxes whilst out on the route.

10. Overall my first impressions are very good, this is a watch that has some great fitness, navigational and smart watch features all in the one device and with the ability to have colour mapping on your wrist for navigation is great benefit when navigating with the device.

For more information about the Fenix 5x take a look on our website – gpstraining.co.uk – click on reviews and you will see an article and video review about the Garmin Fenix 5x

Connect IQ Apps, what are they and what are the best apps?

1. What are IQ Apps and what Garmin GPS units can you put them on?

IQ Apps are extras which can be downloaded to Garmin products, this can be as simple as a new watch face for a Fenix watch, or a whole new feature for one of our handheld or cycle products. This can be features such as a Sailing App for the Oregon 700 series or a new datafield or way of showing your elevation data.

Apps can be put on the Fenix lines of watches, so Fenix 3 and 5 variants, on certain newer Edge cycle devices, Forerunner models and also the Oregon 700 Series.

2.) Is there any costs involved?

All apps are developed for free, by either Garmin Engineers, members of the public or Garmin Engineers in their spare time.
32. What are currently the most popular apps?

Garmin Connect IQ App store is available through the Connect App or online via PC/Mac. There is a series of featured or popular apps of the moment.

Some of my favourites at the moment are for Fenix – Emergency Info, which allows you to display all your emergency contact info and allergies on you watch screen if needed.

Another favourite for my Oregon 700 is Skywatch, this is a great nightime app which when out, you can select a planet or constellation and it will point you in the direction that object should be in the sky.

Best top end Garmin GPS

(what else could we look at with Tom sat between us)

The units we are going to put head to head are –

1. GPSMAP64s
2. Oregon 700/ 750
3. Montana 610/ 680
Top tips – both SatMap and Garmin

1. Garmin top tip

Changing track colour –
Oregon 700, Montana, Touch – Bottom draw menu – Track Manager – Current Track (Current Activity – Touch) – i (info icon) colour
Map64s / etrex 20x/30x – Track Manager – Current Track – Set Colour

2. SatMap top tip

HR OS Maps not loading – have you zoomed out
Wait until map card detected after turning on and card pack cover appears
From GPS Map page make sure zoomed in correctly – top right screen map layer icon appears grey conical shapes x 3
Active 12 Top left button select different maps eg basemap – various OS maps
Active 20 middle button left hand side

The big debate in this month’s podcast – button or touchscreen GPS unit?

What GPS Training courses do we have coming up?

Webinars, these are unit specific –

– October 17th 2017 – Getting Started with your Garmin GPS – Oregon 700 series and eTrex Touch series

– October 24th 2017 – Getting started with your Garmin GPS – eTrex 20x, 30x and GPSMAP64s

– October 25th 2017 – Getting to Know Basecamp for Windows

– November 1st 2017 – Getting started with your Garmin GPS – Oregon 600 series, Montana series and GPSMAP64s

– November 7th 2017 – Getting to Know Basecamp for MAC

• GPS Training courses –

– This weekend 14th and 15th October – Garmin – New Forest

– 28th and 29th October – Garmin – Cotswolds – Fully booked

To finish off this our second podcast

– Many thanks for listening and let us know anything you would like to be covered in the Podcast

– Please do tell your friends about the podcast and GPS Training and ask them to look at our website – gpstraining.co.uk

– Sign up to our newsletter and keep up to date with everything

– Next month’s podcast – 1:25k mapping (options available), review the eTrex Touch 25/ 35, Topo Active mapping – what is it? And we will look at the GPS Training online resource. Also if you want anything else covering please do let us know.

– Give us a call and thanks for listening

– So, a fond farewell from myself, Jon – Andy and thanks Tom for heading up to Northumberland for today’s podcast.