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mbhunt Offline OP
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I am contemplating using my HTC1 for my GPS this hunting season. I got the Backcountry Navigator Pro app and have just started to mess around with it. I'm probably on the lower half of tech savvy but it seems fairly complicated to get it set up. Has anyone used this app or another and were there any things that helped you set it up? And what do you think of it's performance in the field?

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I use the Locus Map app so I can use maps like the one below that I've created. I've used Backcountry Navigator a little bit. What are you having trouble setting up?

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mbhunt Offline OP
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Not sure how to download maps into it and I'm not really sure which ones are best to use on it.

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Do you mean downloading maps for offline (no cell signal needed) use? Or downloading maps not available in the app, for use in the app? Map choice is going to be personal preference, or task specific, such as needing an aerial image instead of a topo map.

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I am looking to use it offline. I'm going to work some more on it and come back with some specific issues if I need to. Thanks answering the post but I need to do some more on my own.

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[Linked Image]




Click on the tile with the three squares at the top of the screen. That takes you to your map sources.


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In the menu you will see select areas to download. Tap on that. It helps to have the area zoomed out to cover as much of a area that you plan on being in. I download anywhere between 20-50 miles. It helps to have a SD card.




[Linked Image]


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The square with the hand in it is used to trace the area you wish to download. The hand by itself is used to move the map around. [Linked Image]


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GPS airtime is a free app that allows you to use the phone in airplane mode. Although it helps to have some cell service. I have used it for two years and have not gotten lost with it but I still have trust issues when out of cell service but so I throw the garmin in for peace of mind. You can also create a waypoint with the app and snap a picture of the place to mark as your waypoint which is awesome. Seeing I always have my phone on me this is a great app to have in the woods. You can download topo and aerial photos to use a reference.


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Battery life sucks for smartphones. That's why I stick with a Garmin and a compass.

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You either have a much different phone, or use it in a much different way, than me. Obviously Garmins have better battery life but it wouldn't be so great if they were powering the screen a phone battery has to. The bigger screen is worth shorter battery life to me, but I've never even come close to running it down in a day of use as a GPS. I don't need it on continuously though.

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Thanks for the info

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I use Trimble GPS Hunt. It is not the best software but it works. I can create a top and download it so that it is resident on my Samsung 4 series phone. After downloading, it will locate you on your map using only GPS signal, not phone or data. In my tests it works ok. I do not keep the function running, I turn it on when needed. This shows where I am relative to my points of interest at any time, and on a scalable too of good quality. Used like this, battery life is amazingly good. Of ourse, all battery devices have limits. Customer service with this subscription product is poor, and the software is average at best. But there are plenty of capabilities and creating extensive maps on your pc is easy. Because I usually have a phone anyway, as well as a map and compass, it limits the number of devices many times. Also, friends can view my map while we discuss on the phone, which is invaluable. This costs $30 per year and I gladly renew it. For me it's a big upgrade.


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Topo! Damned autocorrect.


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But I digress from the original post ... after a lot of swearing, I gave all the tutorials some study and discovered my errors with the program. First, the app must be downloaded successfully. Later, it must be synced with the map on your pc regularly. The big thing with my product is that there are two capabilities of the software -- first, to download a topo map, one you have marked up and adjusted on your pc. Second, to actually link to your online map when you have a data signal -- this takes a lot of battery. The trick was to do my field navigation using the downloaded map, which uses little battery. It just plots your position on the map using the gps chip -- easy and fast. My phone acquires a gps signal faster than my Garmin did. Once I figured that out, which could have happened in a day but took a year due to my failure to read, things came together nicely.

In the field, one needs to know whether your screen is automatically orienting north or if it is simply behaving like a paper map -- you must know where north is, and know how the paper is oriented. Since my map usually has lots of topo features, and I am standing in them at the time, it is easy to see what to do.

Most recently, I was standing in a deep valley in a wilderness area wondering if I had reached a certain spring I had marked on the topo, which was downloaded. With the app, I simply looked at the dot to see if I had passed the position. Turns out the feature was not a true spring, but would have been great if it were ...

I think most apps will offer these capabilities in some form or other. But you do need to know if the app will offer a downloadable master map or if it has to tap into the 'cloud' and read a map to function. Another thing I noticed is that the smart phone commands involve a lot of touching the screen, which is difficult in the field. If you tap it too much and give too many commands, it may freeze. You have to take it easy and pace your commands to the processor speed of your phone. There may be certain scale which loads instantly, yet must resolve again if re-loaded. I 'stuck' my program a few times before I got that.

I'm going to length here because the benefit is really big -- the info you get on the phone screen, the high quality map, the gps function, and the ability to take photos, movies or send a text using one machine, is a big upside. Such a big upside that my Garmin, after it's last 'failure to acquire', acquired a 180-grain Gold Dot instead.


I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world itself is vexing enough. -- Col. Stonehill

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