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Downloading GPS Coordinates

As a registered member of DiveSpots.com, you can now download GPS coordinates for dive spots directly to any GPS device or GPS software that supports the GPX interchange format. GPX (the GPS Exchange Format) is a light-weight XML data format for the interchange of GPS data (waypoints, routes, and tracks) between applications and Web services on the Internet.

Most of the new GPS software applications now support this common file format. If you have a GPS device with USB or direct serial port support, you can download GPS coordinates to your PC, then transfer them to your GPS device in one simple step.

If your GPS software does not currently support GPX, you may be able to use a third-party application such as EasyGPS from TopoGrafix. EasyGPS is a free waypoint management application that supports a wide variety of handheld and other GPS devices.

We'll be using EasyGPS in our example below to demonstrate how you can download and use GPS coordinates from DiveSpots.com

Getting Started

1.	Download and install a copy of EasyGPS from the TopoGrafix download page.
2.	Launch EasyGPS, then configure it for your GPS device. To do so, select the "File" menu, then select the "Preferences..." menu item. The following window should appear:
3.	Click the "Add GPS..." button to select your GPS device. The following window should appear: Select your GPS device from the list provided. Follow the on-screen steps to complete the setup of your GPS device. Save all settings and exit EasyGPS. You should only have to perform steps 1-3 once. The remaining steps are all you'll need to do to download GPS coordinates from now on.
4.	Find any dive spot on DiveSpots.com and look for the GPS control that appears on the spot's main page (see below). Click the "Download" button to download this spot to your PC.
5.	When you click the Download button, DiveSpots.com will send the coordinates in GPX format. On a Windows PC running Internet Explorer, the following download window will appear: If you're using a browser other than Internet Explorer, a similar download window should appear. Click the "Open" button button to open the GPX file in EasyGPS.
6.	EasyGPS will now open and display the waypoint information you just downloaded. That's it! You can now either download the data directly to your GPS device by pressing the send button (circled in red below -- be sure your GPS is connected to the USB or Serial Port), or save the data on your PC for later use.

Further Reading

GPS coordinates are available on many different pages on DiveSpots.com. You can download one at a time (as described above), or several spots of your choice. You can download GPS coordinates for:

• Individual Dive Spots
• My Favorites
• Any Dive Trip
• All Dive Spots in a destination (e.g., Key Largo)
• Most Dive Shops, Dive Operators, and Partners

Simply look for the GPX icon and click it!

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