GPS basics?

[Coasthunterjay]

I have been very interested in the idea of getting one and i know there are alot of people who think this question as well.

can some of you with them tell us what the honest usefull benefits are of using a GPS and there programs are and can you tell us or recommend to us what GPS systems you would buy high end and low end....

Also dont just recommend the top expensive GPS systems....lets see a couple really inexpensive GPS systems for those of us that dont need all the bells and whistles, but the basics....

What are your thoughts and recommendations?
What do you have? and Why?
What do you use it for?

[billythekidrock]

I would suggest Garmin.
Easy to use and many to choose from.
I have a couple Garmin Rinos and I use mine mostly for scouting.

I think they are the best thing for learning new areas. We a couple laptops with receivers to track out progress in real time. I mark everything that may be interesting and then go over it at home to clean up and remove items that I won't need.

[Red Dawg]

I have a garmin 120. Love it. It is very handy when you have a topo map in the palm of our hand. You have many waypoints to use. I use them for patterning animals. Pattern my hunts and it real easy when your whole hunting group has one because you know where they are at all times.

[Coasthunterjay]

I have a garmin 120.

Is that the rino also? sounds like alot of people like the rinos

[Red Dawg]

yes

[popeshawnpaul]

I own the Garmin 60 Gsx.  I pair it with the Natl. Geographic TOPO for WA.  I could not go into the woods without it.  Before hunting I plot all the spots I want to hunt and major points of interest and then transfer the waypoints to the unit.  That way i can go cross country in unfamiliar woods and come right out where I want.  The Garmin 60 Csx is great because it can get signal under trees, in a car or boat.  The other units like the etrex can't.  You can also see how far you've gone that day and how much elevation your at.  I found that tracking is really useful with one.  This unit is accurate down to the foot and I can mark where I shot, where the animal was standing, and I hit a waypoint for every drop of blood so I can trail the animal and go back to where I left off easily.  I can mark scrapes, kill sites, give the points to my partners and they can show up in the middle of nowhere with the coordinates.  I have become very dependent on a GPS.  I could never live without one.

Shawn

[KillBilly]

I would suggest Garmin.
Easy to use and many to choose from.
I have a couple Garmin Rinos and I use mine mostly for scouting.

I think they are the best thing for learning new areas. We a couple laptops with receivers to track out progress in real time. I mark everything that may be interesting and then go over it at home to clean up and remove items that I won't need.

I also own a couple of Garmins. My most recent, the Rino 530HCx cooks dinner for me.  The Rinos are truly awesome. they allow partners to see each others locations when talking amongst the fine features. I would highly recommend them.

[Coasthunterjay]

has anyone heard of a garmin foretrex 201?

[coonhound]

I use the Magellan Explorist 200, it works great when it's in open country but my buddies Garmin works much better in timber.

I typically hunt the wilderness areas and am often several miles from the truck:
-My primary use is to mark my critter so I can walk back to it for the remaining packs. 

-I also use it to log spots that show promise, like a good fresh wallow.

-It is a great tool when you find some deep water small mouth structure.

-My wife was complaining about me getting another boy toy, so I got her involved, we go geocaching when we are camping or on vacation.  Gives us something we Can do together and of course justifies one of my many toys.

Coon

[robodad]

I am with Shawn, except I used mine for fishing. (Maridian Marine) I could easily mark the smallest rock pile and find my way to and from it in dense fog at night (never fished at night) but it was great.

I did a test with it one time, I went to the Nile (gmu) and found a road I had never been on before and pulled off the road onto a skid road, I got out and set my GPS to where I parked, then I turned it of and went on a long hike to see if I could get lost (what a dummy) so I hiked for several hours and figured I should try to find out where I was so I turned on the GPS and waited for it to pinpoint my location, well it found where I was so I put in a GOTO to get back to my truck and it said I was only 200 yards from it so I began to hike in the direction it said to go and I came out of the woods and across a small opening and right to the end of the world. It brought me right to the highest cliff I had ever seen I will bet it was 1/2 mile straight down (seemed like) so I looked at my GPS and it said I had 45 yards to go before I found my truck. (over the cliff) Here I am looking around to see where the hell I am and there are animal bones scattered around and an elk skull and the back of my neck felt like there were a thousand centipedes crawling around like they just drank a can of mountain dew, HOLY CRAP now what. Now remember I was tying to get myself lost to check out my gps and see just how good they really are in the woods (big mistake) one of the problems I had was I didn't bring a back up compass and the compass on my gps only worked if I was traveling in a straight line for a while so i could not depend on it for anything. I finally found a skid road and some folks were horseback riding up there so I asked them where the road was and I had several miles to go to get back to my truck.

The gps went back in the boat !!   

[catwithboost]

I have 2 rino 520's and 1 120 still learning how to run them.

[bobcat]

The Garmin 60 Csx is great because it can get signal under trees, in a car or boat.  The other units like the etrex can't.

I would agree that the 60CSx is a great unit, because I have one and also use one just about every day at work. But it is not true that it picks up satellites better than the eTrex. It all depends on which receiver the particular unit has. Some of the eTrex units have the same high sensitivity receiver as the 60CSx, and some do not.

I checked the Garmin website and it looks like 5 out of 7 DO have the same receiver as the 60CSx. Obviously the cheaper units are the ones that do not have the new high-sensitivity receiver. I would not recommend anybody buy a unit that doesn't have the new receiver. They will still work great if you're out in the open, but in the timber it's well worth it to spend just a little more money and get one with the best receiver available. I WOULD recommend the eTrex. Great, basic unit, that will do anything you will ever need to do with GPS, except of course, they are not also a two-way radio like the Rino.

Here's a link to the eTrex units:  http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/etrexseries

[Skyvalhunter]

YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER ONE THING ABOUT GPS'S IS THAT THEIR ABILITY TO MARK A WAVEPOINT OR LOCATE YOUR LOCATION ALL DEPENDS ON SATELLITE AVAILABILITY. IF THE FIELD OF VIEW FOR THE SATELLITES IS LESS(mountains or other obstructions) THAN THE ABILITY TO PICK UP THE SATELLITES IS LESS. IN CERTAIN AREA'S THERE ARE MORE SATELLITES IN THE SKY AT CERTAIN TIMES OF THE DAY. EXAMPLE IS IN WESTERN WASHINGTON USUALLY THERE IS MORE SATELLITES AROUND IN THE FIELD OF VIEW OF THE SKY AT NOON. THUS IT IS EASIER TO LOCK ON AT YOUR POINT OF LOCATION AND BE MORE ACCURATE WITH MORE SATELLITES AT THAT TIME OF THE DAY.

[bobcat]

Damn Sky who are you yelling at?   

[Skyvalhunter]

Sorry my speakers were turned up on my computer and I guess I was yelling!!