GPS advice

[bobpbx]

C'mon Guys, you're pressuring him, and that's not right. He's got a little boy and is moving to a new house. Don't chide him anymore.

Jeff, you can use my old etrex legend. I have another one I can use. If you like it, give me $30 and its yours. If you want a new one, give it back to me and buy a new one. If you don't like it buy something else. You can probably get a new legend for less than $75 on Ebay anyway.

It ain't the greatest, but I never got lost with one, and it pulled my butt outta the swamp many a time.

 

[Pyrodox]

I have a Garmin Venture HC, which was $200 at Dick's, and came with the USA Topo MapSource DVD which has 1:100,000 topos for all of the USA.

The new "High-sensitivity" line from Garmin locks and holds a signal even better than the older 60CS/CSX and 76CS/CSX. They look the same as the older versions, but have the "HC" or "HCx" designation for the high-sensitivity chipset.

I am upgrading to an eTrex Vista HCx soon, because it can accept microSD cards and 1:24,000 topos, and has a built-in compass that doesn't rely on GPS signal to update the directional arrow (no more slow arrow.)

I like the eTrex H line, small, light, waterproof, the HCx models accept mircoSD cards for more storage in the unit and the high-sensitivity chipset does lock on very quickly and very easily, even under canopy or inside buildings. They also have a really nice color screen, and pretty good battery life.

 

[woodjin]

C'mon Guys, you're pressuring him, and that's not right. He's got a little boy and is moving to a new house. Don't chide him anymore.

Jeff, you can use my old etrex legend. I have another one I can use. If you like it, give me $30 and its yours. If you want a new one, give it back to me and buy a new one. If you don't like it buy something else. You can probably get a new legend for less than $75 on Ebay anyway.

It ain't the greatest, but I never got lost with one, and it pulled my butt outta the swamp many a time.

It is okay I appreciate the advice.
Bob, I will take you up on your kind offer. This way I can get a feel for the whole GPS thing before investing in it. Thanks.
I remember you gave me that one very old Magellon unit but I never got it to work correctly (pretty sure it was dysfunctional), the 60 page manual was of little help. Hopefully I will have more success with this.

Jeff

 

[piker56]

This way I can get a feel for the whole GPS thing before investing in it. Thanks. Jeff

Jeff, could you post on how you are making out with the GPS? Referring to your original post (where you called them the devil), I too have not purchased one. I deal with tech stuff all day at work and haven't been able to bring myself to carry electronics in the woods (yet). This thread provided lots of food for thought, though.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[wis bang]

Piker56

You have to take them and use them go to the 2nd URL in my above post, I learned more about mine in an afternoon than I ever got from the book.

I've been carrying mine around the same gemeral area for four years now and when zoomed out all the waypoints look like a small electronic pin cushion...

The PA stste forest has lot's of corners as it winds around private holdings. I mark every corner I come across...

The oddometer makes you honest too...walks that I thought were 5 miles turned out to be only 2.75...

 

[piker56]

Piker56

The oddometer makes you honest too...walks that I thought were 5 miles turned out to be only 2.75...

I started tracking my trail runs using gmap-pedometer, and some of my longer runs were at least a mile shorter than I thought. I used to go by time and estimate distance but I guess I'm slowing down more than I think! As far as carrying a GPS, the most lost I ever got was on a long trail run. I carry extra water and a trail snack on all my long runs and on that day I needed them. I have tried retracing my steps and still can't figure out how I got turned around. Hmm, maybe I better take your advice on the GPS.

 

[wis bang]

The GPS givs average speed adn highest speed too!

 

[Boyd]

I started tracking my trail runs using gmap-pedometer, and some of my longer runs were at least a mile shorter than I thought.

I'm not sure how much faith I'd put in the distance readings from your GPS. You might want to try it out on a measured course to see how accurate it is. When you lose signal, etc. it could affect the totals. I've noticed that distance readings on mine are shorter than I expect also.

 

[woodjin]

Jeff, could you post on how you are making out with the GPS? Referring to your original post (where you called them the devil), I too have not purchased one. I deal with tech stuff all day at work and haven't been able to bring myself to carry electronics in the woods (yet). This thread provided lots of food for thought, though.

Thanks,
Greg

Sure

 

[wis bang]

I'm not sure how much faith I'd put in the distance readings from your GPS. You might want to try it out on a measured course to see how accurate it is. When you lose signal, etc. it could affect the totals. I've noticed that distance readings on mine are shorter than I expect also.

I've used mine in the car alot too, I have the power plug that bypasses the AA's and I've found it to be really accurate when compared to the speedometer in two different vehicles & the mile markers on the interstates. once again zooming in shows the route deviation to the built in map w/ corner radius being different that the one drawn...

Of course I try and keep an occasional eye on staying linked, often walking w/ it in my left hand facing up for the best chance of keeping locked on. The back track is averaged anyway and when walking small lapeses of coverage don't affect them. I'm covering an area where I grew up walking in the woods and I spend alot of time knowing where I am. I've marked way points 360 degrees around the area and can now zoom in and out to decide the most direct route from one area to another & then I head there using visual skills and just checking the GPS, after all, I'm hunting...not gizmo watching!

 

[airgunner23]

After been constantly led around in circles by that very slow responsive directional arrow on my e-trex, i shut the dam unit off, and went by the sun's position, which when i could ascertain it, was getting very low in the sky, if it would have been dark i would have gotten out eventually by the stars, thankfully it was clear that day and night, i would have eventually found my car.

When i finally got back on the trail to my car, i decided to turn the gps back on for the hell of it, to my amazement, my car was 12 o'clock in front of me by eyesight, but the directional arrow was saying it was at 10 o'clock.

Just think...a simple $10 magnetic compass used along with the GPS bearing (magnetic north reference selected) would have solved all your "directional problems" when using the GPS alone.