Hand Held GPS

Have any of you purchased a hand held GPS?  If so, which unit did you purchase, why did you purchase this unit, and would you recommend I purchase this unit?  

I have the Magellan Sportrak MAP.  I also have the MapSend TOPO map CD that allows you to download topo lines to the unit and also allows you to upload routs or tracks from the unit to the computer.  I have been pleased with the unit.   It is very user friendly but could use more memory (only 8MB).  I picked the Sportrack series over the Meridian because of the size because I carry it hiking.  The Meridian works the same but has more memory and you can also buy SD cards in 16 and 32MB.  This would allow you to download much larger maps.

[Civil_War_Buff]

I have a Magellan 315 and I like it a lot as well.  It is pretty easy to use and it is fairly small.  Now days there are so many that are available, it's easy to get confused, but usually any of the name brand will be a good buy, IMHO.

Larry

[RockyMtnRay]

I have Garmin's eTrex Legend and have been quite happy with it. I do a lot of backcountry hiking/backpacking in the Colorado mountains and felt at the time I bought it (about 2 years ago) that this was the smallest/lightest unit that had a downloadable topographical mapping capability. It's also pretty much water proof and even has a fairly accurate altitude capability.

Even in deep narrow canyons with limited satellite views it works well as long as it's kept in a vertical orientation...so I clip it to my backpack/daypack's shoulder straps near the upper part of my chest.

Although I also always carry a compass, altimeter, and paper topo maps as backups when hiking/backpacking (batteries can fail and canyon walls sometimes block satellite signals), the eTrex is nearly always all I need when I want to know where I am or how far it is to my next waypoint.

Definitely can recommend this unit. For more info see http://www.garmin.com/products/etrexLegend/

The Magellan 315 is a great unit for the price.  I saw that it was also the one Jeraldo Rivera had strapped beside his ships wheel while sailing around the world. I bought it to locate rockhounding sites.

GPS units take some study to properly learn how to use them--and the catalogs that come with them aren't always adequate. Videos are available for many units, and the Coast Guard offers a GPS one day class that is very helpful.  Like anything else, practice, practice, practice!  There is some great software to load before an adventure, topographical applications being most helpful and specific.  A cable that connects both to your computer for uploads and a car cigarette adapter is very helpful as batteries may only run for about 5 hours.  A carrying case to keep the unit clean(er) and protected is a worthwhile final investment.  If you don't want to invest in topographical software, check out the Topozone website; you can put in your coordinates, map it, print it, and have an idea where to start your adventures.  

Do you know about the geocach game where you use a GPS unit to either hide or seek a container that is filled with a log and goodies to find? Great fun!  There is one to check out at:  http://www.geocaching.com/

Happy trails!

Joan

I have a Lowrence, it wouldn't be very suitable for your particular needs as mine is capable of MGRS, (Military Grid), which is what I bought it for. It has no maps of any kind on it, or anything like that, other than it can trace your steps back to where ya started from. The bottom line I learned when picking my particular unit though is plan on spending at least $200.00 on it if you want the highest accuracy possible. SA, (Selective Avalability) of the military satallites has been reduced from a football sized area, down to a tennis court area in recent times, but a poor choice going with a cheap unit, you'll be lucky to find something 1000 meters or more from what you're looking for. You see, the US government runs the sats all the GPS's run on, have a code on those sats, so that unless your GPS has that code, (i.e. military gps's, or what we call, "sluggers&quot, the sats aren't immediately available to deliberately throw off civilian models. If you're heading down the road, trying to find a town, this might not at all be a problem, but if ya plan on finding that same sweet fishing spot, might be a different story. The Magellens are very good, and probably would have bought one if the models I had available supported MGRS. For what it's worth, the military "sluggers" that our troops use, simply output a military grid coordinate, and nothing more, and are accurate down to 1 meter. (Says a little about our "smart bombs", and the reason for "selective availability", doesn't it?) Anyway, point being plan on spending at least $200.00 on one, even if you do plan on using it just to find a town or whatever, the money will be well spent should an emergency come up such as a car wreck out on a strange highway or something where an ambulance might be needed. Basically, don't buy a cheap one, but don't break your wallet on a super expensive one with all the bells and whistles, $200.00 is the mark you're looking at. I've talked about this in previous posts, but thought I'd state it again for the newer people of this group that might or might not be considering buying a GPS, and don't want to sort through the thousands of posts just to "see" if there's anything already written about them. Hope this helps!


[glow=red,2,300]Happytrails.........[/glow]

I have a Garmin III plus which is about 5 years old. I love it. We use it hiking and hunting. Can even download way points to a computer. You can estimate how much the government is varying the accuracy by comparing previously saved way points to current known location. We relocate spots in the woods this way.   We have the road map CD's for the entire US and the Topo CD's. Thus can download to the GPS detailed street level (gravel roads included) to the Garmin.

When traveling, I interface it with one of our laptops and find the cigarette lighter cord which provides power to the GPS and communicates with the laptops (Mac & PC) invaluable. On the computer, I use Delorme Street Atlas to plan our trips. I save the itinerary, attach the GPS and track us at street level while traveling.

I recently added Good Sam's Club Trailer Life CD (by Rand McNally) to our laptops and am still evaluating it. Like the fact that it has all the camp sites and RV parks on the CD which are in the TL Directory. Allows for trip planning or quickly finding a spot to stop when we get off schedule while enroute. Am hoping it will download road construction detail as advertised - but haven't gotten that far. Maybe someone else can give info in that area.

I wouldn't be without a GPS and agree that a compass also needs to go along when on foot.