184 Louisiana Sportsman^ | April 2015
Dear Capt. Paul:
Can you please give detailed instruction to get GPS
coordinates off Google Earth? I would like to find
points in Delacroix and Hopedale areas, and put them
in my Lowrance HDS7 touch screen as waypoints.
Thanks in advance.
MikeCapt. Paul’s response:
G
lad you are going to transfer and use your
GPS to navigate your rig.
Google requires an Internet connection via
the web or through a data cell phone link. Many times
anglers are out of cell phone reach, thus disabling the
Google program in your smartphone or tablet.
Using your GPS is the way to ensure that you will
get out and back by the best means available.
There are two ways of completing your mission. I
suggest you try both and see which works best for
your unit and your piece of mind.
Both require a two-part operation.Part One
First, get a spare data card that will be used to only
make data transfers from your computer to the GPS
unit. Place it in the unit and turn the unit on, and
change any function in the unit.
Remove the card and bring it to your computer.
Make a folder in the Google Earth client window,
and name it something like my “GPS points.’
This will be the location where you save the
Google “Places.”
They will go to the general client file, so
you might have to move them into the
proper folder.
Open the Google Earth program and
in the View link, select Tool Bar and
Sidebar by checking the links. This will
allow you to see a bar on the left side ofthe screen, as well as a toolbar at the top.
The waypoints will appear in the Places box in that
bar. Organize it to your taste.
Google Earth can record and save the places in
a variety of position formats. I suggest you use
degrees and decimal minutes (DDD,MM.mmm), as
this is usually the default setup for your GPS unit.
If it is not, change it to this setting in the Google
Earth Options/3D View in the Show Lat/Long set-
tings. They also use a WGS84 DATUM in plotting
and displaying their mapping images.
It is a locked-in setting that you are not able to
change in the Google Earth program.Google earth placemarks
to GPS waypoints
ABOVE: You can use
Google Earth to get you
to and from your favorite
fishing hotspots, if you
know how to make the
data transfers from the
web to your GPS.
BELOW, RIGHT: Babel
is a free program that
allows you to change file
formats for use in differ-
ent GPS units.aSk caPt. PauL
Capt. Paul Titus
Capt. Paul Titus has been
responding to GPS questions
on LouisianaSportsman.com
since 2000. He has been fishing
and hunting in Louisiana
since 1957. Titus holds a
USCG license and conducts
instruction courses in the use
of GPS for private individuals
and government agencies.