furuno gp 33

[Estimator]

Anyone have one of these units? I am looking for a machine that can convert loran to gps.
Has anyone tried this function on this machine? Any comments?

I try to relocate a few waypoints every time I go out but looking for something a little more time saving.

Thanks
Anthony

 

[hntrss]

I have one, and it does convert to TD's, but so far with very little accuracy

 

[pugsley]

all the gp's are nearly the same, i have a gp31, it does convert, but you need to adjust it, so if you know the exact td of something, get to that spot and then adjust the gp to the correct numbers, mine was about 4 tenths off.

 

[petrel]

Yeah, you've got to figure out the x and y offsets. And if you've got phantom LORAN TDs from a few different machines and the offsets are set different then you've got a mess.

 

[fishmanfh]

The GP 31/32/33 will all convert with great accuracy from my experience. That is all we use. You just need to ensure you get the correct offsets put in. Which you can do right at the dock, just match up your slip loran number to the furuno. You will need to slightly adjust your offsets as you move from that point, but not as much as you might think. In about an 80 mile range, the offsets change about 0.3 on the top and bottom. It is accurate enough that we use the machine in TDs versus L/L all the time. Good luck.

 

[Capt. Rick]

Estimator, in my estimation (sorry haha) I like the Furuno GP 33. As fishman and petrel stated you have to figure out the correction factor for the area you are looking. IMHO the best way is to go up to a wreck, preferably a small one you have in the area where you are looking and make note of the difference in your reading and actual old loran position for that spot. They may be + or -. Then apply those corrections to into your Furuno machine. That's what is cool about these machines, they let you enter the corrections into the machine so it runs in a "corrected mode". I have had some successes doing this, not 100% of the time, but enough to make it worthwhile to hunt for spots. Sure helps to also have a side scan sonar like "Humminbird" for example to widen your search. I have spent countless hours hunting bottom and wrecks and enjoy it, especially finding new pieces to fish. Yep, I have a problem with it

 

[Estimator]

Wreck Hunting

It is becoming an obsession for me too. It is great when you find them after searching.
Question on the number differential: Can you use phantom loran numbers on actual spots for the differential?

I does seem that the old numbers when entered into my gps in phantom loran are 95% of the time 1/4 mile NW of where the spot is when I find it again.

Anyone finding this

Thank you for your replies

 

[petrel]

Yeah, they changed one of the lines a few years back, so the older TDs are a bit off from the newer ones like you say; I'm not exactly sure when that happened, but Carl Andren was telling me about it when a bought this conversion software a few years ago. He has some good software for translating TD's to LL and vice versa and organizing your numbers. www.andren.com/

 

[Brooksie]

I have one, and it does convert to TD's, but so far with very little accuracy

Same experience here and I think they all use the same algorithm sp? to do the converting. I did mine the "easy" way and it only gets me in the neighborhood. To do it properly I should have gone to each spot w/ Loran, then set the GPS point.

 

[Badlatitude]

When I did mine Loran was still functional. I used Andren software. The creator was awesome and spent a lot of time on the phone with me. getting everything set up mint. It was a lot of time and work.

 

[petrel]

Carl Andren is a good guy.