11 minute read

Planning is key to a travelling home office

arch

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:hough rc:casing This doesn't :-!cm in this

- a course to . v.here it is cn the journey. ThcketPC chimes. telling our s a "right turn r• 1:- . are seems to take into of road and speed tray, highway. it gives about 15 advanced warning before a fT-ramp. while on sur_'...as less advanced warn e things confusing. correct turn, the 7." ng our explorer - :a correct route and journey - each chime is like a L7.7. t : : done. Our explorer's mouth almost waters like one of

Pas lov's dogs.

However, for those that see in-car GPS as the solution to the unscheduled map checking stops. don't be too hasty. After finding out that one of the roads our explorer needed to get to the falls was closed because of spring flooding, a new course had to be plotted, detouring around the closed road. After looking at the map on -screen and deciding on another plan of attack, the PocketPC attached to the GPS unit keeps chastising our explorer for going 'off route." Once an alternate route was discovered. it was simply a matter of driving off course then pressing the action button on the PocketPC to re-route to the destination according to the current position.

On the train, the iSun Sport sat in the window to catch the sun and charge the batteries in the BattPak that connects to the back of the iSun solar panel. The batteries have been mostly charged in • the sun beforehand, and this is just the final step; iSun says the batteries, up to ten of them in the BattPak at a time, will be fully charged by the solar panel in seven hours of bright sunlight. The solar panels aren't practical for charging the devices that are along for the ride; they can't produce a strong enough or steady enough current for that. However, once the batteries have been charged up using the sun's power, users can connect to the BattPack and use the stored energy to charge devices.

In the car, the BattPak connects to the Stylus 300 to charge it on the way. The lighter socket is taken up to power the GPS receiver, which is stuck in the upper right hand side of the windshield, dangling wires across the interior of the car.

Carrying the BattPak and solar panels adds considerable weight to a backpack, and is impractical for true wilderness hiking or canoeing where every grant of pack weight is scrutinized. But for a short camping trip where gear weight isn't too big a consideration, the solar solution can work well; batteries can be charged during the day and devices charged up by night. The voltage is controlled by how many batteries arc present in the BattPak when the leads are hooked up for charging; each AA battery represents 1.5 volts, so if a camera requires six volts to charge, users can put four batteries in the unit, hook up with the included cables and charge any device using the stored energy of the sun.

The Stylus 300 turned out to be the right choice. as it is an all weather digital camera with everything sealed tightly inside a small and sturdy case; Olympus says the camera can deal with a bit of moisture without any negative effects. It's not waterproof by any means, but can deal with snapping pictures in the min or, in this case, at the base of a waterfall where the water hitting rocks leaves a heavy mist in the air. The Stylus 300 captured pictures where our explorer would have been very nervous taking most other digital cameras.

At the end of the day, our explorer, feeling much less Intrepid (after all, this was only an afternoon trip) is pleasantly surprised by how well all the devices worked in conjunction with each other. There were naturally a few snags along the way, mostly from poor planning; for instance, the camera didn't have time to fully charge along the way, as it was only hooked up to the BattPak for about an hour before being used. The camera ran out of juice about halfway through the trip, but was returned to the backpack to charge up for another hour, which allowed for about 15 more exposures. Also, the aforementioned road closure and just plain human error factored in to the trip. All things considered, our explorer and his compliment of high tech devices fared well In the carefully scripted, well maintained but still beautiful "wilderness."

Next time perhaps, a true wilderness trial by fire for the high-tech hiker. •

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London? (long Kong? Sydney? thing one step further, and will set up heading overseas used to be so easy. All your actual home office in a foreign you needed was a passport, travellers' locale, read on. There's loads of precheques and a map. Everything else lay departure prep involved in making a in the thrill of Just being there. hassle-free transition from home

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