Hand Held GPS

I did some searching on the forum here, and can’t find any recent info on hand held GPS’s. Does anyone have info or a recommendation. My Dad really could use one, but he thinks it would be way too hard to use, so I need something simple, and preferably inexpensive too. In my searching I saw several references to a post that Gianni made about GPS, but I can’t find that particular post. Thanks for your help, Mojo.

Mojo,
I have a Garmin GPS III Plus that I really like. It is super easy to use. I don’t think I have ever cracked the owners manual. It has a base background map and you can purchase any of the optional CDs to download much more detailed information. I think this unit runs for about $299 new and it’s worth every penny in my book.

Good Luck!
Crossin’

Hi Mojo,

I have a Garmin. I’m not sure of the model, it’s the green one at $169. Many differant thing to concider here. Did you want to mount it in your Dad’s boat or a hand held? Pesonally I like the hand held because it’s flexable. But then you have the 12v cigarette lighter addaptor and cords lying in the boat. The 2 AA batteries last about 6 hours, althought they claim that they last (upto)8. If you plan on using one for any lenght of time, you will need a power source or buy stock in Everready!

I use mine everytime I fish. The only thing that I don’t like about it is when you mark a waypoint, it gives it a number, then allows you to change the number to a name. When I’m fishing, I don’t always have time or remember to name it. Then the next time I’m out, I have all these numbers marked but can’t remember why or what they were!

This sounds like an operator issue to me!

Other wise, my Dad’s 86 years old and he uses mine all the time, although he askes me why I maked a spot and I usually don’t know why!

Hope this helps…a little?

Hi, Mojo

I like my Garmin Rino 120. It’s a combo handheld GPS and 2-way radio. It sells for about $250, though you can find it for as low as $200. The are other Garmin hand-helds, especially in the eTrex family that sell for less and likely have all the features you’d want.

I really like the versitility of the handheld GPSs, this being my 2nd one. I use mine for hunting, hiking and fishing. The 2-way radio feature I use for road trips with multiple vehicles, too. Plus, the Rino has a neat feature that will send it’s coordinates to other Rinos. Really nice when you’re not in direct site of who you’re talking to.

The biggest problem with the handhelds is the screen size. If you dad’s older and doesn’t have good eyes, the hand helds can be challenging to read in low light and turbulent conditions.

I agree with BeachBrian that it would be really nice to have additional info, like a notes field, that you could enter about your waypoints. Entering text into these things requires you to choose each letter from a screen by moving and clicking a joystick. That can take a while.

– Rick

What are you looking to use it for?

If it’s only for fishing, then I don’t think that moving maps are all that useful – driving in unfamiliar cities & backwoods, okay that’s a different story. If you’re on unfamiliar waters, especially if it’s a chain of interconnected lakes, then I could see maps also being useful. If you’re mostly on your “home waters” I don’t think they’ll be much help.

WAAS is a big buzz right now, but in general I have a fairly low opinion of it’s performance bootsting abilities. Because it’s a space-based system (geostationary satellites that cover the continental US), it cannot remove the largest measurement bias errors, which are caused by atmospheric effects on the nav signal. WAAS does reduce measurement bias due to satellite clock error and a few other things, but largely those error sources are trivial in comparison. It’s benefit is somewhat more brought into question with the fact that once I get near a location, my eyes leave the GPS and affix to the sonar or shoreline.

Right now there’s units out there from $95 to as much as you can afford. Ultimately, the navigation performance is not going to be notably different so you’re really choosing a likeable user interface.

I bought a GPS III-plus at Dicks for 170 earlier this year- it usually is around 300 bucks I think, but I believe they might have discontinued the model or something. Anyway, it is nice, has maps and over 50 routes and 2000 or something waypoints. I also bought a hot spots gps book. You could easily make one, but it has pages where you can number or name the waypoint, punch in lat-long, description, whatever you want. It has about 50 pages to enter data so my plan is to dedicate 1-2 pages for each lake. I agree with above- not much use on familiar water, but it can help if exploring backwaters to help find your path back out since sometimes everything looks the same. I love the garmin- good service. My unit even tells me what restaraunts/hotels are at exits on the highway.

I would recommend the Garmin GPS12. It is the most simple one out there. It holds plenty of waypoints and tracks your trip when you leave the dock or truck. Then when you are ready to come home, just follow the path back. It is very inexpensive and easy to use. The batteries are supposed to last, I think, 14 hours. I use mine all the time for fishing and more importantly walking in the Mississippi bottoms duck hunting. Very easy to find your way out. Those are my thoughts. Any one you choose will make the fishing/hunting experience a new one. Especially when the fish are biting slowly and you can play around with it.

I have a Garmin E Trex Legend. Love it. Garmin GPS units are very user friendly.