Garmin GPS 72H

Originally posted by Buzz

   As I said, using GPS for mark laying doesn't require any particularly sophisticated or difficult GPS functions.
Difficulty seems to lie in getting on top of the rather old-fashioned user interface.  Once you do that, I think it's actually pretty intuitive.

The button and screen interface on the GPS72H is NOT a graphical user interface like on a smartphone or a mouse-cursor interface.  It is an old fashioned, arrow-select, layered menu interface.  Think back to keypad driven mobile phones.

For starters, read Manual Conventions, and Tips and Shortcuts on the User Manual page i.

You use the Rocker moving up or down, left or right, to point to a screen [menu] item, and the ENTER key to select it.  So when the Manual says 'Select ....' it means 'Rocker the highlight to the required item and press ENTER'.

To execute a selection, press ENTER.  To go back one layer, press QUIT.

Understand that:
there are five display 'pages', illustrated and discussed in the Manual pages 13 to 19, and which you can 'page' through by pressing the Page button repeatedly;
context sensitive menus or submenus accessible by pressing the Menu key once;  and
a Main Menu accessible by pressing the Menu key twice (giving access to Settings discussed in the Manual pages 20 to 30)
Setting Units

Here is the detail for setting units, etc as required by RMM H5, which prescribes the following:
Distance in nautical miles
Time in local time zone 24 hour format
Compass bearing in magnetic
Lat and long in decimal minutes
Map datum WGS 84.
Open the Main Menu (Press Menu twice).

Rocker down  (or up once) to Setup, and select by pressing Enter.

You are now presented with a 'tabbed' screen, with the following 'tabs' across the top:  General, Time, Units, Location, Alarms, Interface.

Rocker right to the Time tab

Rocker down to Time Format and select by pressing Enter.

Rocker down to 24 Hr and select by pressing Enter.

Rocker down to Time Zone and select by pressing Enter.

Rocker down to the correct local time zone, or Other and select by pressing Enter

If you have selected Other, Rocker right to UTC Offset and select by pressing Enter

The plus/minus sign will now be highlighted:  rocker up or down to correct plus or minus for the local offset, then rocker right to move to the next digit and rocker up or down to the correct number, and repeat for the following digits:  when setting is complete, press Enter. (Read To Edit Text Using the Rocker on page 4 of the Manual).

Rocker up to the tab line at the top of the screen, and rocker right to Units

Rocker down to Distance and Speed and select by pressing Enter

Rocker up or down to Nautical (nm, kt, m) and select by pressing Enter

Rocker right or Left (from a one line option) will take you back to the tab line at the top of the screen.

Rocker right to Location

Rocker down to Location Format and select by pressing Enter

Rocker up or down to 'hddd^mm.mmm' and select by pressing Enter

Rocker down to Map Datum and select by pressing Enter

Rocker up or down to WGS 84 and select by pressing Enter

Rocker down to North Reference and select by pressing Enter

Rocker up or down to Magnetic and select by pressing Enter

You have now completed setting the required units.

Press QUIT and you will go back to the Main Menu, or else press Page, until you reach the page you want to see.

Setting Display Pages

This procedure is pretty much the same for all pages except GPS Information where the layout cannot be changed.

All you need is Bearing and Distance.

So, from the page you want to set up,  Press Menu

Rocker down to Setup Page Layout and select by pressing Enter

For my preference, rocker up or down to Small (2 rows) and select by pressing Enter

Again press Menu, Rocker down to Change Data Fields and select by pressing Enter

You will now see the screen, with the label of the first data field highlighted:  select by pressing Enter

Rocker up or down to Bearing and select by pressing Enter

Now, rocker right to the label of the second data field and select by pressing Enter

Rocker up or down to Distance and select by pressing Enter.

Press Quit or Page to get out of page setup and back to operating pages.

Note, you need to aware of GPS language and defined terms:  see Data Field Options on page 30 of the Manual, in particular:

Bearing:  the direction from your current location to a waypoint
Course:  the direction from the starting location to a waypoint
Track:  the direction of movement relative to a ground position (heading)

Also be aware of the difference between 'to Destination' referring the the final destination of a Route, that may be several Waypoints away, and 'to Next'  referring to the next Waypoint.  For this, use Distance to Next.

Ping and Go To

Ping means to record your current position (say alongside a Reference Point, like a race committee vessel) as a Waypoint on your GPS, or to put it another way, to create a Waypoint in the GPS at your current position.

The 72H (like most GPS) has a one-button facility to do this.

Come alongside the mark/boat that you wish to ping and press and hold Enter (that has 'Mark' written underneath it).  After a couple of seconds the Mark Waypoint screen will appear, with the new waypoint showing.

If you have done the create/delete process I described in my previous post so that the next Waypoint you created would be Waypoint xx0, that will be the number/ID of the waypoint you have just created and no further editing of the waypoint information will be necessary.

To set up Go To this waypoint Rocker down to the bottom row of buttons, and rocker right or left to GO TO and select by pressing Enter.

If you then Page to the screen you have set up showing Bearing and Distance to Waypoint, you are all set up to motor to the required (reciprocal) bearing and distance upwind.

If you want to Go To any other waypoint, you can use the Go To Button.

Hope this helps.