Re: GPS ?


Message posted by gary on July 24, 2001 at 21:01:06 PST:

If you are buying new technology, I'd say the 3 volt Garmins are the way to go, namely Etrex and Emap. There are now 5 versions of the Etrex. The basic etrex and the Etrex cammo will get you in business. They are the same except the cammo version should be easier to lose. The Etrex Summit has a real compass, which seems to be a non-feature to me since I have a compass for back-up in the event the GPS fails. The Extrex Venture has a map database, but you can't upload maps, which means you really should spend the money and get the uploaded versions if you want mapping. They are the Etrex Legend and the Etrex Vista, with 8 megs and 24 meg respectively. If you have a laptop PC, the 8 meg Legend version should do the job because you can always upload new maps. The 24 meg of the Vista is plenty of memory. I have an emap with 16 meg, which can hold all of Nevada ranging from Las Vegas to Tonopah, plus all the roads along the way from the San Francisco bay area.

The emap is not considered an outdoor GPS by garmin since it is not as waterproof as their outdoor specific GPSs. However, none of the Garmin GPSs are really waterproof. If you are just hiking, waterproofness should not be a big deal. If it is, a ziplock bag will do the trick and it is really waterproof.

If I didn't have an emap, I would probably get the Etrex Vista because I don't have a laptop computer, and I like having a map database in the GPS. If I had a laptop, I'd get the Etrex Legend unless they were close in price. If you don't want to spend too much, the plain Etrex will do the job just nicely if you create routes ahead of time. The display on the map capable Etrexs is much nicer than the emap, so unless you wanted to upload really large maps, the extra memory capability of the emap isn't very useful.

Just checking out the Garmin map database, you can get all of Las Vegas/Henderson and everything between the loop of 95, 6, and 93 in 7.5meg. The entire state of Nevada takes 33.6Meg. If you only use the GPS for hiking purposes, the 8 meg in the Legend should be fine.

Check out www.tnnav.com for prices.


In Reply to: GPS ? posted by John K on July 24, 2001 at 20:08:07 PST:

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