Ben C. needs help converting offshore and deep-sea fishing spots from an Excel spreadsheet into GPS coordinates he can convert to a .USR data file for his Lowrance GPS. Here's how to import and download Excel data to your GPS using ExpertGPS:

Ben contacted me because ExpertGPS wouldn't accept the latitudes and longitudes in his Excel spreadsheet. They are in a non-standard format, with two decimal points. Looking carefully, you can tell that these are actually degrees and minutes of lat/long, with a decimal point used between the degrees and minutes, rather than a space, or a degrees symbol. ExpertGPS can extract coordinates out of just about any format, but I had to modify ExpertGPS to accept this data. Download version 3.09 (or later) of ExpertGPS mapping software to convert this data.

Before copying and pasting the coordinate data from Excel into ExpertGPs, I followed these instructions for adding a new coordinate format to ExpertGPS, and selected degrees and minutes (hddd mm.mmmmm) and the WGS84 datum.

Importing the Excel fishing waypoints

I copied the three columns of data from Excel, starting on the second line since the first line contained a title that spanned all three columns. ExpertGPS wants to see actual data (or a header row) on the first line of the pasted data. I selected degrees and minutes, WGS84 datum.

On the second page of the ExpertGPS Import Text Wizard, I matched up the columns of data from Excel with the columns in ExpertGPS. Click Next, then Finish, and ExpertGPS displays a map of your GPS fishing spots, as shown below.

Sending Fishing Waypoints to your Lowrance GPS

To transfer your fishing spots to your GPS receiver, click Send to GPS on the GPS menu. If you haven't yet told ExpertGPS which GPS receiver you're using, click Preferences on the Edit menu, and add your Lowrance GPS, as shown here. Because this GPS uses a MMC/SD data card, you'll be prompted to save a .USR file to your GPS memory card containing all of your fishing hotspots and waypoints.

Learn More about Fishing and Boating with ExpertGPS

To learn more about using ExpertGPS to map out fishing spots or to upload and download data from your Lowrance or Garmin chartplotter or GPS, read the Fishing and Boating tutorials on this site, or Ask the GPS Expert if you need help transferring waypoints, tracks, or routes to and from your boat's GPS.

Brian H. asks:
How do I add Lowrance gps way point numbers( like 34.06.182 / 81.23.465 and convert to get into google earth pro for fishing way points?

Your data is in latitude and longitude, degrees and decimal minutes. That first dot (after 34 in 34.06.182) should actually be a degrees symbol, or a space. So the latitude is 34 degrees, and 6.182 minutes North latitude. The longitude is 81 degrees, 23.465 minutes West longitude. (In the US, we're in Western Hemisphere, and you'll often see the longitude written with a negative sign: -81 23.465')

Read my tutorial on adding a new coordinate format to ExpertGPS for instructions on how to add lat/lon deg min.min coordinates. You'll need to know whether your data is in WGS84 datum, or NAD27.

Viewing your Fishing Waypoints in Google Earth

Once you've entered your waypoints, you can press F7, the View in Google Earth command, to map your GPS fishing waypoints on Google Earth's color aerial photos. And when you press Send to GPS in ExpertGPS, your waypoints will be transferred directly to your Lowrance chartplotter or GPS receiver.

Jani asks:
If we are using e.g. Lowrance LCX series plotters, can we export depth data as well as coordinates? Or is this something we can do (to a text file) with Lowrance's own software?

Your Lowrance LCX-series GPS chartplotter records depth data along with GPS coordinates, and ExpertGPS can extract the depth information from your chartplotter and display it, or convert it to text, CSV, KML, or other formats, so you can use it in any program you like.

Lowrance GPS receivers and chartplotters store user data (waypoints, routes, and tracklogs with depth info) in .USR files. You'll need a USB card reader attached to your computer. Remove the data card from your chartplotter, place it in the card reader, and then click Receive from GPS in ExpertGPS. ExpertGPS will prompt you for the location of the .USR file you'd like to download from your GPS receiver's data card.

To view the depth or elevation data associated with your chartplotter's recorded tracks, switch to the Track List in ExpertGPS. Select a track, and click Show Elevation Profile on the View menu.

Exporting Lowrance GPS Depth and Elevation to an Excel Spreadsheet

If you'd like to export the depth information to Excel or another program in text or CSV format, select a track, and click Show Trackpoint List on the View menu. This will bring up a list of every data point in the recorded GPS track, showing the exact coordinates of each point, and other columns of information. The Depth column is hidden by default. To enable it, click Select Columns on the View menu, and place a check mark next to the Depth column. You can now select the entire Trackpoint List, Copy, and Paste directly into a spreadsheet.

Viewing the GPS Track from your Lowrance Chartplotter in Google Earth

Another useful tool is the View in Google Earth command on the View menu. Simply click the command or press F7 to view your recorded GPS tracks and waypoints over the aerial imagery and underwater contours of Google Earth.

Stephen P. is trying to import some buoy data into ExpertGPS, and keeps getting an error message. He asks:
When I try to paste and after I go through the paste procedure, click finish I keep getting this message which makes no sense at all: "The Import Waypoints in a Tabular Format command could not be completed. Minutes of longitude must be between 0 and 59.00000, 0 82.00000 is not valid". The process worked several times when I tried samples, but now not at all.

How can I convert buoy data from MS Excel into GPS waypoints?

When you paste delimited data from MS Excel into the Waypoint List in ExpertGPS, the program brings up the Import Text wizard to help you successfully convert your data into GPS waypoints. It's extremely important that you select the correct coordinate format and datum on the first page of this dialog. Here's a sample of Stephen's data:

Stephen's buoy data is in Deg min.min format, which is pretty standard for marine data. Both the degrees of latitude and minutes of latitude are in the same cell in Excel. Same for longitude. In the Import Text wizard, select DMM WGS84 (or DMM NAD27, as appropriate) as the coordinate format. (If you don't have DMM as a listed format, click Add, and add this format to the list of coordinate formats you work with.) Because latitude is in one column, and longitude is in a second column, select The coordinates are in 2 columns (Latitude, Longitude). It's easy to overlook this setting when importing data, but it's probably the most important part of the first page of the import wizard.

Once you've selected the coordinate format and number of coordinate columns, click Next to move to the main page of the wizard. Match the columns in the top of the dialog with the appropriate data sources in your Excel data in the lower list. You can leave some of the columns blank, but you have to enter data for the coordinates (latitude and longitude). Click Next again, and you're done.

Data in the wrong hemisphere

There's one problem with Stephen's data - the longitudes listed in the Excel file are all positive, which places them somewhere in Europe, rather than in the United States. Longitudes in the US are always negative, but you'll often encounter online data tables where the longitude has been given as a positive number. This is extremely common in US marine data, for some reason.

To fix this for Stephen's data, I had to go into Excel and write some formulas to prepend a - sign in front of all the data in the Longitude column. Since that gets tedious, I've modified the next version of ExpertGPS to detect this specific condition, and offer to fix the data for you. If you normally view data in the Western hemisphere and you attempt to import a bunch of data with positive longitudes, ExpertGPS will ask if you want to automatically change the longitudes back to the Western hemisphere. I hope this new feature takes some of the pain out of creating GPS waypoints in ExpertGPS out of tabular and delimited data.