What GPS?

S

SH00T TO K1LL

New member
I've got some Christmas money to spend and I think I've narrowed my options down to a GPS. I just need to decide which one. I've been looking at a Garmin Rino 120 and a Garmin Etrex Legend. I like the 2-way radio option but don't know if it's worth the extra money. Would you guys reccomend one of these or something else? If not, what do you use?
 
Here in Alaska one cannot afford to take chances. (Same applies if you were in the middle of the Everglades).

Get ONLY the best.

The ULTIMATE wilderness/hunting, etc. GPS unit is the "Garmin Map 76-S". ("the 76 on steroids").

NOT the 76.

NOT the Map 76.

But RATHER the "Map 76-S"

TRUST ME -- its WORTH IT a Thousand times over.

Cas
 
That's the GPS I've been looking at getting. But by the time I get around to getting it (other things keep grabbing my attention and $) there will probably be a newer and better model /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
I use a magellan 315 and it seems like a good one I have had it 4 or 5 years and it always get me back to the truck
 
I use a garmin e-trex and really like it. I have the plain one. (yellow) around $110. IT has everything you need to get there and back.
i wanted to get one that you coud load topo maps on but those screens are too small for me to navigate with. i got the map tch software for like $60 bucks and switched my gps to run UTM instead of lat/lon. then i just print out a map put in a 1gal. zip lock and go. with UTM its like looking at the sign in a fun park that says you are here! i love it. i found a guy that was lost here a few months ago. i don't want to look like he did /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
If you want a good gps without spending a lot of cash check out the e-trex. They are now $99 or less. I have one & for hunting & other outdoor uses it works great.
 
It really depends on what you plan to use it for, and how much time you'll have to push buttons when you need it.

It's hard to beat the yellow e-trex for sheer ease of walking around operation.

http://www.garmin.com/products/etrex/

It has its buttons configured for left handed use, so your right hand is free.

It uses two AA batteries, so spares aren't a problem.

It does have some goofy looking graphics, but nothing you can't learn to ignore.

Go with the yellow e-trex and spend the difference on ammo!

Robert
 
I just bought the Garmin GPSMap 76S today. It's a very robust unit. The basemap it comes with is major roads and highways which isn't much use for off-road (hunting) purposes until it is expanded upon with optional mapsets (including topographic) with increased detail. It has moon information as well as sunrise/sunset info. It has some strange "Hunt and Fish" feature that is supposed to give the best/good times. I don't know how they derrive this though and honestly don't have much expectations for it.

It doesn't do road routing, simply point to point. Routing is done by establishing a series of waypoints as is done with any other GPS. The mapset can be supplemented with detailed regional maps, as well as topo maps with back trails.

It has a built in barometer for charting barometric pressure and determining altitude. It also has a magnetic compass so it can determine direction without moving. However, in order to use the magnetic compass the unit must be held flat.

The screen is a decent size, about 2 3/4" inches, and works with 4 scales of grey. Pixle size is relatively small allowing for a pretty decent resolution. However, some of the map labels can be pretty small which may be a problem viewing for some users. Even though the text size can be increased, the letters are still fairly thin. The buttons are positioned above the screen so it is easy to hold and operate with one hand.

The unit includes a serial data cable to connect to a computer. The cable is the round four contact type that is also used by the GPS 12 series. The manual that ships with the unit is easy to follow and understand. There are a number of customizable options and the manual does a fairly good job of explaining them.

The biggest drawback is that the unit does not have the ability to utilize removeable memory cards. But, since the unit includes 24Meg of fixed memory it should hold enough mapsets to cover a considerable area. The advantage of the removeable cards would be not having to unload/load mapsets if frequently travelling to areas that can not fit in the base memory. The mapsets do not need to be contiguous so a detailed mapset for an area of Arizona can be loaded with a detailed mapset for an area of Texas.
 
I use the garmin gpsIII+ it is a great gps. It is a little bigger than some of the others mentioned, but it works good. These are older model units so you can find them for pretty reasonable prices. One cool feature I like is no matter what other gps I hook it to I dont have to reformat my setting, it does it itself. All of my friends have to reformat to my gps to download my waypoints. Also I rarely lose my sat signal with it, so that is also nice. My old Meg. would lose signal if I held it wrong.
 
I have a legend, worked great for 2 years. I wish though that the Rhino 120 had been out when I got mine. If I had it to do all over again, I would wait on the new Rhino 130 that will be out in a few weeks.
 
I have got a question on GPS's. If I have a gps and my friend has a gps, is there anyway I can get mine to show me where he is or visa versa? Thanks for any help.
marcus_r80@hotmail.com
 
To my knowledge, only the Rhino has this capablity, and it is done through the radio portion of the device, so the range would be at most 3 to 4 miles I believe. Hope someone can do better on this for you than I could.
 
Marcus, the Rino can do it. The downsides though are that the range is relatively limited and the GPS does not automatically broadcast your location, you have to push a button to send your position. This was an FCC requirement Garmin had to meet.

There's plenty more info on GPS and such here: http://www.gpsinformation.net/
 
I've got the Garmin V. And here is my story:
I like the routing feature, but don't leave home without a map. You've got to use some common sense with it.

When I was in North Carolina, we made a trip to Atlanta to see a buddy play the Falcons. On the way back the GPS beeps and says turn off (of the interstate). Yeah, me says, my wonderful machine has found me a shortcut. We drive for quite a while, and decide to dig out the map. One last glimpse at the GPS, and when I look up, we're heading right towards a dead-end...which just happened to be a LAKE! GPS showed it going through, but I don't think the 4Runner would have agreed.

The routing feature is nice if it's simple navigation, but it's not nice enough to justify losing the co-pilot! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 


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