Isn't the Garmin GPS128 amazing!

[escapism]

Bought the boat in the late 90's, and through maintenance and updating, almost all the equipment that came with it has been replaced, except the GPS128. I happened to notice today, the healthy growth of lichen on the GPS antenna, and realised that the antenna and cockpit mounted 128 were the only instruments still extant from the original purchase. I do remember that I turned it on in 2001 hoping it had survived the Y2K debacle , and it took some time to come to itself after a six year layup from 2010 to 2016 due to (my) illness. It's outlasted several generations of NASA stuff, a Contest 101 compass, a VHF to which it passed info, and all without any maintenance whatsoever. What's more, it's still a very useful cockpit instrument. Apart from the basic data functions, the cross track error display is an excellent way of making sure you arrive uptide of a destination.

I'm not much interested in suggestions to replace it, but would love to hear of others who thing the 128 is the bees knees.

Should the lichen be removed from the antenna?

 

[BobnLesley]

Should the lichen be removed from the antenna?

What! Hardly ecologically friendly, though maybe if you feed the lichen to seahorses that'll balance things out.
We too loved our 128; our antenna (lichen free, so maybe that's protecting yours?) died in the boondocks of Suriname, we replaced it with a cheap (I think they we're two for ten quid) puck antenna which got plugged in and tossed onto the saloon shelf until I'd time to install it properly; it was still living there when we left the boat in NZ.
Oh, by the end it was getting slow at finding itself at initial switch on due to the internal battery beginning to die; not available in NZ, but that too cost only a couple of quid online once back in the UK; it's still sat in a drawer as we didn't get back to fit it.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I'm not much interested in suggestions to replace it, but would love to hear of others who thing the 128 is the bees knees.

Merely middle aged! My GPS45 is still working. It gets the date wrong, but still knows where it is - albeit slowly.

 

[Refueler]

I am very sad that my old Lowrance 3500 plotter screen died ....

Its replacement - Onwa KP39A is better ... but that Lowrance provided excellent service for many years ...

I still have an old Magellan Handheld with the pivoting antenna .... takes ages to lock on ... but still works !

 

[Plum]

Bought the boat in the late 90's, and through maintenance and updating, almost all the equipment that came with it has been replaced, except the GPS128. I happened to notice today, the healthy growth of lichen on the GPS antenna, and realised that the antenna and cockpit mounted 128 were the only instruments still extant from the original purchase. I do remember that I turned it on in 2001 hoping it had survived the Y2K debacle , and it took some time to come to itself after a six year layup from 2010 to 2016 due to (my) illness. It's outlasted several generations of NASA stuff, a Contest 101 compass, a VHF to which it passed info, and all without any maintenance whatsoever. What's more, it's still a very useful cockpit instrument. Apart from the basic data functions, the cross track error display is an excellent way of making sure you arrive uptide of a destination.

I'm not much interested in suggestions to replace it, but would love to hear of others who thing the 128 is the bees knees.

Should the lichen be removed from the antenna?

My Garmin GPS128 is 20 years old and still in use as a backup and to provided position nmea to my vhf, Navtex and NASA Radar AIS. I am envious of your lichen!

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[Stemar]

Mine was 18 years old and still going strong when I sold the boat last year. Good, straightforward bit of kit that did what it was supposed to without trying to be too clever.

 

[Daydream believer]

My 128 works perfectly well & the only reason I have a chart plotter is for the ais function. I do have the maxm number of routes bar one installed. That is incase I decide to set a new route. However, I tend to use it as a compass & log. It gives me a check against my grid compass for tidal drift etc. Then I just steer to my Sestral compass. Often I put a goto on it from my Yeoman which is handy at night.
I also use it when seasickness strikes, so that is why the common routes are pre installed.

 

[Obi]

Used one for thousands of miles about ten years ago and found it a great little tool. I still have a south of England set of digital charts for these units.

 

[Tranona]

Inherited one with my new purchase and have kept it to drive a NASA repeater for speed in the cockpit. Also had one in a previous boat from the early 2000s which was still working when I sold in 2019 despite a 9 year layup.
GPS 45 still working if a bit slow. Remember leaving it on top of a dustbin for a day after Y2K.

 

[davidmh]

Bought one in 1999 and still going well. Only thing that has failed was the Arial unit about 5 years ago, the Arial fault was some damage to the casing which subsequently let in water. Garmin supplied a new Arial, to the latest design which works with the 128 perfectly. An ideal simple bit of kit which tells you were you are which is all I need.
David MH

 

[escapism]

"Good, straightforward bit of kit that did what it was supposed to without trying to be too clever."

Exactly. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only fan of this bit of useful kit. However, I'm not at the level of the super-fan on currently advertising on Ebay who thinks a well-used 128 is worth £164.99, without the aerial! Truly amazing.

 

[Neeves]

We have a Pronav GPS 100 which predates anything you have. Its still works, we keep it as back up. It has had internal batteries replaced a couple of times. It is a good emergency unit as it works off both 12v and a battery pack. It has both a wired and 'plug in the back' aerial. I think its original usage was for light aircraft, as it gives altitude, and Pronav might have been bought by Garmin. Its major downside is that its accuracy can be plus or minus 100m - which is good enough if everything else has failed. It dates from the late 1980's. From memory it cost around US$100 and was state of the art at the time. The display is simply Lat and Long, distance to way point and a crude guess at speed + altitude. Furuno had a big chunky unit at a similar time with a similar but larger display. We would simply take the lat and long and plot onto paper charts (I'm showing my age). it took us safely down to the Philippines from Hong Kong (and back) safely a number of times - they were good enough

It was a this point it was obvious that sextant navigation was not going to have much of a future. The idea of incorporating these units into an electronic chart - a dream, not even talked about (though the research must have been going on).

Its interesting these units were replaced not because they failed but because technology was moving forward factorially. Technological development has continued but reliability has suffered., maybe because the units are more complex and there are simply so many of them and the proportion of failures has not changed.

Jonathan

 

[Refueler]

Neeves talking about old sets .... I had the mis-fortune to have to sail with Magnavox Transit ......

First vessel I sailed with Transit .... the system was in two main parts .... a large box about 1m square, 1m high holding the main computer gear ... then cables to the TV style printer display ....
Next vessel - Magnavox had finally developed the all in one display unit .... about size of a small TV. Doing away with that large box.

Transit had a problem .... over a period - the sats would bunch up and you would have a lot of positions given in s short time .... then nothing for hours ... over next days they would spread out giving positions more spaced out ... only to bunch up again days later. Transit unlike GPS - the position info was not 'continuous' ...... most of the time - the position info shown was pure EP based on previous sat position calcs.

Transit and its development is quite an interesting story ...

https://www.ion.org/museum/files/TransitBooklet.pdf

Developed primarily for US Navy and Polaris Subs.

 

[Andrew_Trayfoot]

I have a 22 year old 126 (same thing with a built in antenna). Got it direct form Garmin as a reconditioned trade in for a broken hand held.
Only things I've done to it is replace the battery (easy job) and update the firmware to fix gps roll over issue.
Switch it on and it usually has a position within 20 seconds or so.

Fantastic bit of kit...

 

[steveeasy]

love my 128. For simple waypoints it’s just so simple follow. Time to waypoint. Much easier to use and I’d never remove it. Worth its weight in gold.
Steveeasy