I'm looking to put a GPS receiver on the Christmas list. Any recommendations? I've been doing some research, but I've never used one before. Looking for practical, hands-on experience from a Boy Scout troop perspective. Primary use would be for hiking and orienteering courses. I'm a "map and compass guy" trying to get with the times.

I use a Garmin Etrex. It works great.

I bought a Garmin Etrex Legend a couple years back and I'm really happy with it.

 

www.garmin.com

 

YIS

Phillip Martin

aka

AK-Eagle

Scoutmaster Troop 21

Juneau Alaska

A wealth of info is available at http://gpsinformation.net/

 

What specifically are you looking to do with the GPS?

 

Do you need to have maps on your GPS? How important is this feature to you?

Do you want to have an electronic compass on your GPS?

Are you planning to carry the GPS hiking? On a vehicle dashboard?

Would you want (need) to attach an external antenna? (required if located away from vehicle windows)

How important is size and weight to you?

Is a color display a feature you are willing to pay for (+$200 or so)?

 

Any simple, inexpensive GPS can provide UTM coordinates and store waypoints. These are the tasks most commonly used in the field.

 

If you want to have maps and follow your routes in a vehicle, then you'll need a more advanced GPS w/ memory. May need a larger screen, depending on your eyesight.

 

Also consider the battery life.

 

I myself tend to prefer Garmin. I'm torn between the Etrex line and the Gecko line. Etrex is well proven and easy to use. Gecko is much smaller and lighter. If you need mapping capabilities, I would go with the Etrex Legend. If you don't, I'd go with the Gecko 201 (electronic compass sucks power and not really needed - bring a magnetic compass instead).

 

If using it in a car/truck, get a RAM suction cup mount - fantastic mounting system.

 

Thanks. I'm looking for it for hiking purposes. (Although SWMBO could really use one for her car).

 

Your questions:

 

Do you need to have maps on your GPS? How important is this feature to you? I believe so

Do you want to have an electronic compass on your GPS? Probably

Are you planning to carry the GPS hiking? On a vehicle dashboard? Carry hiking

Would you want (need) to attach an external antenna? (required if located away from vehicle windows) No

How important is size and weight to you? Since it's for hiking, smaller is better

Is a color display a feature you are willing to pay for (+$200 or so)? Not necessary

 

 

Again, thanks for the help so far. I've looked at the eTrex line. There's quite a variety in the models.(This message has been edited by EagleInKY)

Want maps, then your choices are the Legend or the Vista. If you want to stuff lots of maps on at one time, then the Vista has LOTS more memory (24MB vs 1MB). One MB of memory isn't much.

I bought little KS a Garmin E-Trex for his birthday a couple years back. The thing's great; light, easy to use, long battery life. Base E-Trex doesn't have mapping capability, but where we were living at the time, Garmin didn't offer maps for anyway. Unintended consequence: without mapping capability in your GPS, you're forced to carry maps with you, and by extension, be able to use them. If I bought another one now, I'd probably get another Garmin with mapping capability. But, I still wouldn't leave my paper maps at home. Any machine can break, with or without extra batteries.

 

KS

 

 

I hear you KS. I love triangulation. It's cool when the boys figure it out too. Although, I've found some can never seem to grasp the concept.

I have a Garmin Etrex. It works great on the trail. I wouldn't mind upgrading to an Etrex model with topo maps though not enough to actually spend the bucks. I've also done some Geocaching with it http://www.geocaching.com

 

Here's what I'd like to see happen and how I want to start making better use of my Etrex. Basically, most topo maps haven't been updated for years and the hiking trails tend not exist or not match the trails on the maps. I'd like the trails to be hiked and their tracks recorded then overlayed on topo maps so it can be easier to see where the trails are. It's fairly simple to overlay tracks on the topo software that, e.g. National Geographic has. We just need to get a central repository for this and someone to manage it. (Yes, I know, Natl Geo has a map exchange, but it's not really maintained. At least for Arizona).

 

This coud really be helpful when on the trail. Especially a trail that is hard to follow. Using a map to get where you're going and know where your're at is one thing. Trying to follow poorly marked trail not shown on a map is another.

 

SWScouter

I've been using a Magellan 315 for the past 8 years. Although older and hard to find now, its pretty user friendly and can be found for under $100.00 on Ebay. I've used mine in Canada, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, Iraq, Panama, Germany, and Switzerland. I really get around and don't go anywhere without it. A useful toy when not desperately traveling.

KW,

 

Machine breakage aside, those paper maps also come in handy for starting a fire when you get hopelessly lost!

I like the Garmin unit, I have an older one but it has never failed to work great! It acquires the signals quickly and downloads to my computer easily. Be careful if you take it to Russia, though, I had a close encounter there a few years back. Good thing the people I was with had a sense of humor.