Message posted by lone wolf on March 01, 2004 at 20:26:22 PST:
FWIW, I checked out the Etrex Vista price on this sites on-line store, and compared prices on the net using various search engines. The DLR amazon.com price was the lowest if you throw in the shipping cost, which was free on Amazon. So on that note, a good deal. No loss to you and the site makes some money. Regarding the editors choice, I really wouldn't get a mapping GPS unless it has 24Mbytes like the Vista does. You need 16Mbytes to hold the database for the ranges. Note that you don't have to get a map capable GPS, but if you do, you should get the Vista. I'd skip on the 8Mbyte legend, since it's not enough memory. The Etrex Venture might be considered a really nice non-mapping GPS, even though it does have a tiny 1Mbyte in it. The reason you would go for the venture is it uses the same high quality LCDs used in the better models, without that much of a price premium. Regarding sales tax, everything I bought from Amazon came from Reno, so those in Nevada maybe charged tax. They have a few distribution centers around the US, so your tax "experience" may vary. I haven't used the Magellan models shown, so I can't say yeah or nay, but some of the Magellan GPSs uses SD memory chips. This will make it easier to add more memory to the GPS later. The disadvantage is the GPS will not be as waterproof as those with internal memory. It's not my concern, but many GPS users go boating. [So you put your GPS in a zip-lock bag and now it's waterproof.] Some of the Magellan models do odd coordinate systems like "state plane coordinates." Documents like borders around the range use state plane coordinates. The markers you find around Project Faultess are in that coordinate system. There are on-line conversion techniques if you don't have that system built-in your GPS. Area 13, which is visible from Tikaboo and one of the unique test areas not inside the NTS boundary, is documented at the NTS website in those state plane coordinates. [Ask to go to Area 13 on your NTS tour. You should be able to see the dishes at the base, which of course is why they won't take you there.] Now can you have too much memory in a GPS? Well, that depends. The Garmin GPSs with internal memory take quite some time to program via the serial port. You might think that getting the 8Mbyte GPS would be ok because you can keep uploading from a notebook computer, but in reality, this is a pain in the arse. If you can program those Magellan SD cards from a card reader, that would make reprogramming very fast. That would be something to investigate.
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