GPS Brand Recommendations?

[SpanishFly]

Anyone have a GPS they love? Please elaborate?

Brand:

Model:

What mapscale is it? 1:100,000? 1:24,0000?

Was the basemap sufficient?

Did you buy additional mapping software?

If so, what?

Total investment if willing to share.....

[wetdreams]

I like the garmin and this is why,
1. It is probably the most user friendly though you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out any unit.
2. They have a lot of good extra software and it is easy to find if you want it.
3. I have found that a lot of people I know have them so if I have any questions it is easy to find a answer.
All in all any unit made in the past two years is generally the same, things have kind of plained out for a while in the hand held GPS units for the moment. Now the software you can download into the unit is the new craze. You are doing the right thing by researching it I am sure you will be lead in the right direction. My 2 cents.

[mcflyfisher]

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend. I have not used any other systems so I don't know that I have a better one than anyone else. I paid about $250 for the unit about three years ago. The basemap is OK for road trips and such, but not good enough for any real outdoor use. The Topo software was a little pricey at $100 but it made the unit about three times as useful. I had to buy a data cable too :mad: , as mine didn't come with one. I think that was about $20 too. I really like mine, and use it often enough that I feel it is worth about twice what I paid. If I was to get another I would buy the Etrex Vista. It has two features that would be a lot better. First of all it has a magnetic compass that will allow you to navigate even when you are not moving. Without it the GPS depends on plotting points to determine what direction you are going. This means that if you are moving the compass is very accurate, but if you stop and turn 90 or 100 or 123 degrees the GPS still thinks you are looking in the direction you were moving. Can be confusing until you learn to not trust the compass when you aren't moving. That Legend has 8 megs of mem for loading maps. This is enough for me to load all the sections that I might need while floating in MI, but is not enough to load the whole state. The Vista has 24 megs of storage, which would allow me the load the whole state. I don't know what the base map scale is, but it is not that good. I can't remember what the scale on the topo map is either, but it is good enough for what I use it for. One other thing to consider is battery life. If I use rechargables I will need two sets to get through a day. Good alkalines will give me a day or perhaps a day and a half of use. Good luck with whatever you chose.

[hill]

The Garmin Etrex Vista is awesome. I've been using it for work up in Alaska for the past two summers. The topo maps show a lot of detail, even some un named streams. You can also vary the map scale by zooming in and out.

[SpanishFly]

Great INFO!!

BTW, I do have a GPS.

eTrex Vista, love it, was a gift! My mom paid over $350 when it first came out, at Best Blows, came with a case and data cable though.

Bought Mapsource TOPO from Amazon $76 w/free shipping, Feb '05. A must to upgrade base maps, they were awful. My GPS went unused for the first 3 years other than a few mountain bike trips. I am pleased with the detail on the GPS, but the map detail when viewing on the computer is lacking.

Also have Maptech Terrain Navigator 6.5 Michigan, Feb '05. Very cool, 1:24,000 scale! Can't load the maps, but I can find trails in it and make routes/waypoints and transfer directly to the GPS.

Check out this forum for further GPS comments/suggestions from snowmobilers! They need the utmost detail and trust their lives with it....

http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forum/index.php?showforum=71