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GPS Recievers

LORAZEPAM

leave my monkey alone
I am interested in getting a GPS hand held reciever. I am currently looking at the Garmin Etrex series, and the Magellan Meridian series. I have heard that the Magellan units do all their plots on a straight line and don't use the mapping software. Anyone know if this is true??
 
GPS V - but be careful about memroy

Howdy-

I have a Garmin GPS V and a Garmin eTrex Legend. I really like the GPS V, the eTrex is not all that useful to me.

I do not like the eTrex I have because it is too small to read while driving, it does not have the capability to have maps downloaded. It simply does Lat and Long for everything. It also has less intuitive controls in my opinion.

The GPS V works great for me. The largest complaint I have is that 19MB of memory is right at the level of being not enough depending on your location. I travel a lot for work, so I also use it in the cities just to find places to eat as well as to keep from getting lost. It works great. However when I go to some metoropolitian areas, I run out of memory.

They are both water resistant, they both have cables to connect to laptop and power.

HTH - YMMV
 
It depends on how you are going to use the GPS. I have an Etrex Legend and really like it. It has 8mb (for maps), high resolution screen, is waterproof, and is multipurpose. I have the Garmin Metroguide, Roads & Recreation and Topo maps and use them all depending on what I am doing that day. I have a handheld unit because I use my Legend for the following:
Wandering lost on my Beemer! (Ram mount)
ATVing (Ram mount)
Bicycling (Etrex mount)
Deer Hunting
Hiking
Morel Hunting
Geocaching
Travelling by car (stick it between the dash and windshield).
Boating (lakes)
Canoeing (rivers)

If you are mainly going to use it on your bike (or car) then the Garmin V is probably the best bet because of the additional memory, screen size, etc. IMHO I think Garmin has better maps than Magellan. In my area of SW MO (and NW AR) I have most of the Metroguide maps, Roads & Recreation maps and a few of the Topo maps all loaded (in 8 Mb!) at the same time so I am ready to do most anything at a moment's notice without having to reload new maps every time. If you need Metroguide maps for navigating around larger cities, more memory will quickly become a priority. YMMV, good luck in whatever you choose!
 
I have a Garmin V also. I used it to get me from Austin, Texas to Sturgis, SD. : clap I was able to load most of the maps around Strugis as well as western Nebraska and Kansas. Those maps are in addition to the already loaded base map. They gave me more detail.

If memory is a concern, Garmin makes a model 176 and 176c ( for color) that uses memory cards. The largest memory card is 128m. But it ain't cheap. :confused:

One cavet - the Garmin V loads the maps from a PC using the 9 pin serial connection. If your PC has USB only you will need an adapter which has a 90% chance of working.

Garmin needs to update the V series interface cable to USB.
 
A friend has an etrex Vista - the highest price of the etrex series.

He loves it for hiking and it looks like it would suit my needs for motorcycling. More a stop and look when lost device than a navigate on the fly. I believe it come preloaded with all major roads in North America and you can load the secondary roads for the area you will be travelling in.

Small display but much cheaper than the big dashtop units.

MarkF
 
gps for Palm

I was given a Palm M125 today and see that there are gps recievers that attach to them. Has anyone tried one of these? It definately has a large display, and looks like it is in color.
 
Garmin iQue 3600 PDA/GPS

Has anyone seen these in use yet? I was thinking about getting a GPS before summer 2004. This looks neat especially at $550 you would get 2 toys, and its in color.
Comments and reviews greatly appreciated.
http://www.thegpsstore.net/
 
A friend of mine has an iPAQ that he added the external GPS to. He is very happy with it. I like it a little better than the GPS V in that it is color. However I also laugh when in rains and he has to put his away.

As being one who uses an iPAQ a lot, I would recommend keeping the two seperate from a data and fragility standpoint.

YMMV
 
The Palm experiment was not very successful. It worked sorta kinda ok, but locked up when using the SD memory. I sent it back, and I think there is a GPS V in my future.
 
Garmin GPSmap 60

Do not know anything else but read the following and be patient. REI has confirmed it is on there shopping list. No delivery date yet.
Just quoting http://www.starte.no/ which quotes PocketGPS.co.uk:

We've just received information concerning a possible new range of Garmin handhelds. Information is a little vague but the range will be called the GPS60.

There will be 4 units in the family: 1st basic monochrome model called GPS60, 2nd monochrome model w/ basemap called GPSmap 60, 3rd colour TFT model called GPSmap60C and 4th also colour TFT model called GPSmap 60CS.

Size is 1.5" x 2.2" and they will be powered by 2 AA batteries with an expected runtime for the colour model an incredible 30 hours. Additionally there will be an International Basemap, 51MB of memory, USB interface and turn by turn routing with City Select. Slated for release in November.

http://www.starte.no/ :clap :bliss
 
I use a Garmin GPS 12 XL since that was the standard for Search and Recuue a few years ago. I was involved in the original GPS testing at Fort Huachuca many years ago and can tell you that they are all over it. Magellan (according to smart REI people) has done a lot of catching up over the years is okay and I would base my choice on the need for mapping, battery life (understand that the GPS doesn't need to be on all the time), WAAS capability, and size (mobile vs. handheld). I'm still waiting for the perfect system (additionally want MGRS capability). I can strap my 12XL to my upper triple clamps (02 1100SBX) and I use it for general direction finding. I don't care which road I'm on, as long as I'm within 45 degrees of the target. That allows me to concentrate on the road, not the destination. With all of that, I am not aware of a non-mapping program that uses (or has the capability to use) anything but straight-line distances. That's one of the things that we teach to those going overseas. The GPS is wonderful, as long as you realize its limitations. It will always go straight-line unless programming dictates otherwise.
 
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