Not sure what to buy for basic precise coordinate information.

what2buy

I am not interested in hiking, maps, altitute, barometer. I want to follow a straight line (my property lines). The cell phone GPS is worthless for this, especially as the land is wooded (rural area), and I get 1 or 2 bars on the phone. Perhaps the newer phones coming out, with dual GNSS chip and the ability to get both the L1 and L5 frequencys (see GPSTest app in case this is new to you), along with 5G, will be better.

From my survey map, I get the degrees, minutes, and seconds, and have calculated the degree (Ex s14,55'34"W =
194.926111111111). Obviously, hand held compasses cannot detect that kind of accuracy, so I rounded that to 195 (reverse is 15), but I cannot get that to line up with what I know should be the end point of the line. I put a line of stakes 50 feet apart on the line, and I can see then lined up backwards and forwards but they do not line up with where it should end. Big trees (where I cannot look back to see the lineup), throw my line off even more.

So, I am looking for more accuracy. Aside from very expensive survey equipment, can a hand held device (Garmin\whatever), give me the kind of accuracy that I am looking for, in particular, give me at least 2 decimal points
(194.93)?

I had written an Android app to calculate distance between two points, but again the GPs information is worthless. I understand that some devices can use bluetooth to broadcast so that a phone could pick up the information?

Thanks in advance.

Boyd

Have a look at this thread:

http://forums.gpsreview.net/discussion/31506/garmin-etrex-creating-a-trail-map-using-track-recordings

Interesting that your survey actually shows coordinates. Or maybe I'm not understanding what you're saying? My survey identifies a starting point (such as a stake in the ground) and provides vectors to each successive point. For example:

"...proceed North 65 degrees 50 minutes East, 374.56 feet to a point..."

You might find this old thread helpful, especially the software that @RangerRushton posted.

http://forums.gpsreview.net/discussion/comment/198851

But, regarding accuracy, it will be interesting to see if the recently introduced GPSMap 65 series lives up to Garmin's claims

http://forums.gpsreview.net/discussion/31512/garmin-introduces-the-gpsmap-65-series-and-gpsmap-66r

what2buy

The 66 is the only one that specifically mentions the L5 frequency. Looking at the user manuals for the 65 and 66, their accuracy is 3.6 M or about 12 feet. So, it is looking like I am not going to find the accuracy that I am looking for.

My survey, like yours, shows vectors. I got the S14,55'34"W =194.92611111111, by using the info on this link...https://support.goldensoftware.com/hc/en-us/articles/228362688-Convert-Degrees-Minutes-Seconds-To-Decimal-Degrees-in-Strater.

privet01

Only a survey by a surveyor will mean anything legally. All you'll do with a GPS is make yourself suspicious of things.

The earth isn't flat so when a property description says go 500 feet, part of that might be up the side of a hill and not 500 feet in horizontal that simple math applied to a coordinate can come up with.

Boyd

Here's a thread on a local website that might be of interest, one of our members got a used Trimble GPS for $150 to provide sub-meter accuracy for a personal project. Now, this is a professional device that he was already familiar with, it would not be user-friendly like a Garmin GPS or a smartphone.

https://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/mapping-graves-with-a-trimble-gps.13430/#post-161215