Garmin Rino 600 series

[birddogdad]

don't get less than a 650 model, wattage will impact radio distance (others below 650 are not 5W transmit)

[Rick]

A few of my buddies have 650T Rinos. The radio function seems great. Enough so that I bought one after last elk season.

[Rainier10]

Radio is okay but the push to talk buttons are sometimes hard to push and get clear communication.  Texting is pointless as others have said, you have to be looking when it comes in.  OnXmap is great but screen seems to be getting smaller.  Or my eyes are getting worse. 

[HighCountryHunter88]

they are also discontinued now, garmin has come out with the 750 and 755T

[croix]

Radio performance changes based on selection of FMRS and GMRS. Best performance is with GMRS and using the GMRS specific channels. The ability to send/poll locations is where the money's at. When your buddy has one down and you can walk right to him without a lot of chatter it's pretty priceless. If you get the one with a camera you can also take pictures of things (tracks, rubs, wallows, etc) and they are geo-tagged so that later you can select the picture and "navigate to". If you are patient you can find them on sale and they are worth every penny IMHO.

-Croix

[dscubame]

Hate it.  I'll sell mine after this season with extra battery.

[Chesapeake]

Our group all owned 530 hcx's for the last 8+ years and over the last 3 or 4 have migrated to the 650's as our older units have failed.
The 650's pale in comparison to the 530's as far as polling, sending waypoints, ect... The radio reception seems almost comparable, but the data sending capability is poor on the 650's.  The GPS reception seems about the same and the screen is a little better.
We all wish the 530's were still available. I currently own a 650 and a working 530. We're waiting to see how the 700 series works out before we spend the coin to get out of the 650's.
Paid around $500 for the 530's and maybe $350 for the 650's. I'm guessing the drop in price wasn't because they figured out how to produce a better product at a lower price point.

If you get or have a 650 and you haven't updated the software you should. They constantly release updates that fix little quirky things, and unfortunately tend to cause other little quirky things.

[sirmissalot]

I have a couple 655t's I'd glady sell to anyone interested

[brianb231]

We just used the 650 T's for elk season and the texting was the best part. You can predefine your text responses in a response library so you don't have to actually text it out when you are in the field. We actually enjoyed using them. My biggest complaint is the PTT head sets. Wish someone would come out with a really good one.