GPS for Russia travel.
 

hello lads&ladies!

We are about to explore Karelia and Kola regions later this summer. ( this is some "trainning for Marocco trip to come in future, better star more "near buy" :) )

What kind of GPS shoud we look after. Not that keen to take an laptop with us ( travelling by car).
Maps are VERY inaccurate for exploring old villages and backtracks so an GPS with easy-to-use navigation is requierd. And i have not found any Russia GPS maps either!
We like to "record" our rout to share it and to use it for backtrackin incas of driving lost.

What kind of GPS should we look after? Gamin 276 is quite nice, but lack of SD kard makes them expensive to use ( buy garmin cards)

please share som experience of different GPS's


Cheers


Jan

I've got a Zumo and have found some pretty good Russian maps to work on it: Russian GPS Maps. These maps cover the areas you'll be in.

A couple of problems though:
--the maps are only in Russian; and
--to use them your GPS needs to be "Russified" (ie, different version of the firmware needs to be installed). So far, the only way that I have seen for a GPS to be "Russified" is for it to be brought in to the map provider's shop in Moscow (there could be a different way, but I stopped looking once mine was done).

I haven't used the maps that much yet, but they seem to be pretty helpful, although I haven't used them on the smaller roads in the regions yet.

There should be pretty decent maps of those areas available, albeit in Russian, and you might not be able to find them until you are in Russia.

Hi Motoreiter, got my Garmin Nuvi here in New Zealand and got garmin city navigator russia nt 2008 and russian topo 6.0 and 6.01 working, of course it shows in Mapsource and I can get streets in russian etc when I change the keyboard into russian on the nuvi but I have not tried yet in russia will do this year later maybe , maybe you think it will not show position etc on the Nuvi unless the firmware is changed?, If so I guess I can get one when I come to Ryazan next
thanks Simon

you can buy good mapsin russia at gargaes bookstores etc espically in St Peterburg, they do lots of rogaining there so have detailed maps, you have to ask around but
I have Nuvi 255w with Sd card and have managed to get Russia city navigator NT 2008 onto it and russian topo 6.0 and 6.01 onto Sd cards and getting it map showing on the Garmin and looked up addresses of my cousins in law in moscow and RED square (in russian) and it found it ok and showed on the map (nt 2008) the tope map appears to sho Ok on the garmin also
But as has been said I have not tried in russia yet but imagine it work work espically the garmin official map which seems toshow roads in Karelia and even the topo shows in Mapsource all main roads etc, I think 6.01 has natioanl parks etc
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?...13#overviewTab
topo 5.1 info (in english) 6.01 much better
hope this helps
55 regions, with detailed coverage

Arkhangelsk,
Astrakhan
Bashkortostan
Belgorod,
Bryansk,
Vladimir.
Volgograd
Vologda,
Voronezh,
Ivanovo,
Kaliningrad,
Kalmykia
Kaluga,
Karelia,
Kirov
Komi
Kostroma,
Krasnodar
Krasnoyarsk Territory
Kurgan
Kursk,
Leningrad,
Lipetsk,
Mariy-El
Mordovia
Moscow,
Murmansk,
Nizhny Novgorod
Novgorod,
Novosibirskaya
Orenburg
Orel,
Penza
Perm Region
Primorskiy Kray
Pskov,
Altai Republic
Republic of Tuva
The Republic of Khakassia
Rostov
Ryazan,
Samara
Saratov
Sverdlovsk
Smolensk,
Tambov,
Tatarstan
Tverskaya,
Tula,
Tyumen
Udmurtia
Ulyanovsk
Chelyabinsk
Chuvashia
Yaroslavl



CHANGES
C 5.03 to 5.10
1. added 29 new regions
2. The space between is filled with detailed maps at a scale of 1:5 million, without a "white spots" - card connected main routes are shown in major cities, hydrography.
3. Please correct the results of testing during the period from March 2007 to May 2008
4. Added contours of houses with home-referenced and complete obektovy composition, as well as refined organization movement in Tver, Tula, Vladimir, Ryazan, Yaroslavl, Smolensk, Bryansk.
5. A refinement of asphalt roads to travel to all areas (including cottage and chalet villages) in the Moscow region (northern sector of the M10 to M9, south-western sector of M3 to M4)
6. A refinement of asphalt roads to travel to all areas (including cottage and chalet villages) in the Leningrad Region (100 - kilometer zone around St. Petersburg)

Map ID 1280

sashadidi,

thanks for the info, I had not seen those maps before; they look similar to what I've got ("Roads of Russia"), but seem to have much less detailed coverage than what I've got (but not sure about that).

If your Nuvi can display the cyrillic letters you should be fine, my Zumo would display gibberish instead of cyrillic until it was "russified", which made it difficult to use for any practical purpose.

hi!

my choise ended on Garmin oregon 300. ease of use, good range of maps, road, tope and sea charts.
NMEA capability, "fast" navigation and capability of usin micro SD cards!

been using it for a week now and wery happy with funktions and speed. Kids tried it for geochaing too works just fine!

what comes russian maps....i try to get hold on lokal maps and use gps for POI and backtarcking....!

thats all!

--Jan--

Update
 

hello folks!

trip done and Im very pleased with oregon 300! It performed without a problem!
Can only recoment this device!
Mount felt a bitt "fiddly" but it was OK, never dropped down, not even on BAD tracks! ( but my roofrack failed!)

cheers

Jan

lacrits, what Russian maps did you use?

hello!

most papermaps of different kind kompleting 1938 finnish maps and modern maps!
Èçäàòåëüñòâî Êàðòà Ëòä. Êàòàëîã ïðîäóêöèè. Àòëàñû. Àòëàñ äëÿ âîäèòåëåé. Âîêðóã Ëàäîãè
and maps found on "the net" like ÎÊÐÅÑÒÍÎÑÒÈ ÏÅÒÅÐÁÓÐÃÀ. Êàðòà Êàðåëüñêîãî Ïåðåøåéêà 1938-1993ã maps that show old village roads that are not in use anymore!

GPS was to dokument POI's and "back-track" use!

Our dauther have done an "trip diary" fro her point of view - DU KAN KALLA MIG ELLEN -

LOTS of BAD roads overthere! :)

cheers

Jan

ps: links show "weird" cause of cyrilic alphabet!