GPS Recommendations?

[payaso]

I've been waiting a while to buy a GPS unit and was wondering what features people feel are worth the price. The basic yellow Etrek seems popular, but they have many different options these days. There hasn't been a post on here that I could find since last April so maybe some new beta is overdue. Anyone have the latest and greatest? Yes, I know there is no sub for map and compass, but I've seen some of these "save the day" on more than one occasion. I actually work in Cartography by profession so interoperability with computer software is of interest to me. Are the $300 + models worth it? Any advice, stories, etc would be appreciated, Gracias.

[gregm]

to save batteries i keep it turned off, only turning it on to mark a waypoint or when i need it. for skiing it will interfere with your beacon anyway.

[dbb]

I have a yellow eTrex and like the simplicity of it. Works awesome on big glaciers when you say "I want to go that way, for 5 miles", and you can set a waypoint out there and follow it. Having the ability to download waypoint directly from TOPO! is cool too, but I think having the ability to download the map is worth it. You have to pay more for that feature, but then you're not limited to only the waypoints you've stuck in.

[glen]

I have spent a fair amount of time using the etrek 'Summit' with the built in altimiter and electronic compass. My usage involves frequent calibration against USGS monuments and I've been pretty impressed with the accuracy/precision of the altimeter (+/- 10 to 20 feet isn't bad compared to the vertical resolution of just GPS. Certainly good enough for mountaineering).

It is also a fun as a speedometer and picks up with measurements in the first 40' of travel. Probably worth the extra couple of bucks over the base model. After shopping around a bit, I was able to find one for ~140 clams.

[bballer44]

true true... i guess the etrex summit with the altimeter and electronic compass are worth the extra bucks. the altimeter could come in handy since the one on the base model etrex is often off by as much as 100'. my vote is now for the etrex summit, for value and features.

[EV]

I've got the etrex Venture. Stores up to, I believe, 20 routes and 500 waypoints as opposed to one route and 50 waypoints. Battery life between the yellow etrex and Venture are about the same, 22 hours for the yellow; 20 hours for the Venture. The Venture has the WAAS feature, the yellow one doesn't. The Venture is about $40 more.

I carry a regular compass when I'm out and I've got a barometer on my watch. Never did trust the electronic compass. Battery issues, not accuracy issues.

[Alex]

payaso, I bought a Garmin GPS III+ a little more than a year ago. I originally bought it with 2 purposes in mind: sailing, and approaching and documenting remote ice climbs in the Cascades.

The III+ (and now other models) has a built in map. Pretty nice, compact unit. Pretty expensive hit if you ever drop it overboard.

I would not use this thing on a normal climbing trip in the summer, but for more expedition style climbing it makes it pretty nice: you could leave a cache, mark it as a waypoint on the GPS, and not have to worry about finding it again in poor weather. For sailing, its da bomb!

Alex

[bballer44]

ive had the garmin etrex for about 2 years now and it has worked perfectly. it has helped down off of mountains in zero visibility. plus it only costs 120 bucks, you can find it on sale for a 100. i dont think that the 300$ models are worth it. it has all the basic features, create routes, waypoints, speed, etc. also you can hook it up to your computer to up/download routes, waypoints...battery life is good, better than most i believe

ive used the track-back feature while hiking, without looking up to see where i was going and it kept me right on course...

[hikerwa]

I have an etrex too, the track back is invaluable on nasty poor visibility days in the mountains...or for tricky approaches..And you can upgrade the firmware inside to stay with the current release.(although I have no idea how)

The only thing that sucks is batteries, for onger trips it means extras...more weight.

[jeffers]

I use the summit. You can go to Garmin and update the firmware, which gives you more routes with less waypoionts each. You can get the coordinates from www.topozone.com, the cursor reads out the coordinates if you have the accessory bar turned on in your browser.

The new firmware also improves the opening page/signal acquisition screen. Instead of the basically worthless one that shows only how many signals you've aquired, the new screen shows the direction and relative position of all satellites above the visible horizon, and their signal strength. Instead of just saying "not enough sats to plot position" now you know which direction you need to move to get a good fix.

The altimiter is worth the extra money, although not as handy as a wrist altimeter. When I plug in my waypoints, I always include their elevation and then can use these to both calibrate the altimeter, and to get a solid feel for the barometric trend/weather prognosis.

[djd]

I sold some gear and picked up the garmin vista in Jan along with both TOPO and garmin software. You need the garmin SW for the maps that can be downloaded to the gps unit but the (IMHO) topo SW seems to be easyer to use, more features, etc. The topo SW also has a downloadable web site with lots of trips that people are sharing. So if you want to download maps (meaning that you can *not* down load maps from topo to the unit), you will need the Garmin SW, for everything else, the topo sw is a good purchase. Good luck.

[genepires]

A gps with altimeter and a built in barometer should be manditory. You could check for dropping pressure (indicating bad weather approaching. A alti watch will do it but it is hard to figure when ascending. With that garmin, you could compare the barometric trend with the satelite based altitude to see air mass pressure changes. Or you could just watch the skies.

[payaso]

Has anyone used the expensive mapping software that is compatible with the more expensive Etrex series like the Legend or the Vista? It looks like you can only upload maps from their particular set of cd's, called Mapsource. I've been using the TOPO! series for a while now, but it looks like their stuff won't allow you to upload the map to your etrex. I just noticed that there is a $50 rebate from Garmin going on right now if you buy the software and either the Legend or the Vista at the same time.

http://www.gpsnow.com

cheap prices!