The Garmin Oregon 300 has world base map but could use more input.

Did a search on "GPS" and found lots of information. The E-Trex Vista received a lot of good press.

The new Oregon 300 is a touch screen model, seems to have all the bells and whistles.

Any comments on the touch screen? I like the Idea of a larger screen.

I just picked up a rhino 530. I haven't used it yet, but it has lots of bells and whistles. Check it out.

Brett

I have an Oregon 400i and find it to be a pain in the ass. I own 8 Garmins of various styles and uses and by far find the "genre" to be the least user friendly.

Jeff

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana Bunduki:
I have an Oregon 400i and find it to be a pain in the ass. I own 8 Garmins of various styles and uses and by far find the "genre" to be the least user friendly.

Jeff

Because of the touch screen?

Be sure if you get a Garmin that it's an "Hcx", as in 530 Hcx. These have a newer chipset that works a whole lot better than the plain old Rino 530, for example.

Garmin's Hcx hardware is about the best you can get frm a sensitivity and time-to-first-fix. Their software, user support and map software policies suck, to be polite about it.

The new Hcx will get an initial fix in blacktimber, between two mountain ridges in less than a minute. Hard to beat.

However, GARMIN maps are not generally available for Africa - and you cannot use other map sources to load into Garmins.

In these times, even small purchase like a GPS is something I take seriously. One of the reasons I was looking at the Oregon 300 is the world base map. While not a detailed map, it does cover Africa. Another reason is the larger screen. I have a lot of questions about the touch screen however.

I have a old E-Trex, worked well for a few years, but it is not color, and the base map went away. Went to download an update and discovered my cable will not work with new computer USB port Time to upgrade.

Don, in your opinion, who makes the best maps? I was thinking about adding the TOPO West. Appreciate you thoughts and help,

quote:

Originally posted by Don_G:
Be sure if you get a Garmin that it's an "Hcx", as in 530 Hcx. These have a newer chipset that works a whole lot better than the plain old Rino 530, for example.

That's the one I have. It works pretty well so far. I haven't got lost in my appartment yet!!!!

Brett

quote:

Originally posted by JBoutfishn:

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana Bunduki:
I have an Oregon 400i and find it to be a pain in the ass. I own 8 Garmins of various styles and uses and by far find the "genre" to be the least user friendly.

Jeff

Because of the touch screen?

No the touch screen is ok.

First it eats batteries like a mother.

Second when in chart mode (Map0), there is a lmit on the amount of information available on screen. Bearing and heading for instance. Cant display speed and distance to mark at the same time. This is a real pain.

On the positive side, it locks in faster than any GPS i have used.

As for the touch screen, I question the durability, but that remains to be seen.

Jeff

Bwana Bunduki

The "experts" complain about the screen brightness, is it a legitimate complaint?

To all: I really appreciate your input, need all the help I can get.

The screen is very bright in night time usage. Too bright if you are navigating without a flashlight. It also has a bunch of stuff sportsmen wouldnt care about like heart rate geochaching and other garbage. In short I am using it but aint wild about it. When duck season starts and I am running an airboat in pitch black, it will be with one of my old Garmin gps 75's.

Jeff

One thing I mentioned earlier that is critical to me for a heads up display is:
Bearing
Heading
Speed
Distance to target
Havent been able to display these in the map format and that is really disappointing.

Jbout,

If you are not in a hurry, I can loan you the thing after hunting season if you like.

Jeff

Thanks for the offer. Not sure when I will jump. Living in California our season ends Saturday, so no real hurry, but you know how that goes

Boom Stick posted the link to a report on the Colorado, looks pretty good. Just don't know.

Noticed a lot of bitching about features not present, then someone posts instruction of how to do it. Thinking many folks just don't read the book.

The search continues

Garmin has "good" (24,000:1 scale) maps of the SW and the West USA are among the best available. If only ANYBODY had the same coverage for the rest of the world!

These maps are about 8x expensive as the TOPO US map that is 100,000:1. If you get around on foot, or horseback in the wilderness it's worth the extra $ for the 24k.

The downside of the 24k maps is that for example you can only get the 4 SW US states in a 4GB sd card, vs the whole TOPO USA 100k, and the entire City Navigator USA on a single 2 GB sd card.

This means that only the newer units with external sd cards can support large areas of the US. My brother still has an older Rino 530 without an external sd card - he has to download specific mapsets for every hunting trip, but he still covers the whole region necessary for our recent elk hunt (on foot and horseback) in a single download.

Again, I only know about stuff to use on the trail - I don't pretend to keep up with roadmap GPSs to use in cars.

If you are on foot or horseback the Rino series with the built-in two-way radio are literally lifesavers. You can set up your Rino so that you can track your entire party, and they can track you. The radios send their position after every transmission, and can also be remotely polled by your friends. This means that even if you are unconscious your friends can find you.

Not a bad safety net for rugged country and half-trained horses.

I looked up the Rino® 530HCx, now I really confused. Looks pretty good, like the radio feature.

On the other hand I like the larger screen of the new models.

Don, someday we need to discuss the adventures of "half trained horses".

Jim,

Again, I'm talking about using this off-road only. While it works on the road, the simple rugged buttons and small display make it a poor choice in a car.

The color display let's my old-man's eyes see the difference between trails and creeks, etc, and even the small display holds the area I can walk in an hour at a good scale and high detail.

Choosing a GPS is a very personal choice. I don't think there is a single "right" answer.

Hmmmmmmmmmm Just went back and checked out the eTrex Vista Hcx, might be the ticket if the screen and I are compatible.

Sure like the larger screen of the Oregon and Colorado. They only cost twice as much. I wonder if they work as well in their primary function.

Again, thanks for the input.

JBoutfishn,

I live and earn my money driving around South Africa at night shooting jackal. Most of us here doing this work use the Garmap 60Csx, the mapping is good, have used it in Bots and Moz. as well, no problems in the 16 months Iv'e had it. Not touch screen though, but robust, and if I can operate it, anyone can.

Graham

The Touch Screen is overrated and I am constantly fatfingering the damn thing and ending up where I don't want to be.

Jeff

As far as road applications I have a Garmin Nuvi 260. I have taken it on several trips and have never been lost in any North American city I have been in. It's great for finding resturants, local interests, fuel, medicine. It was very helpful in Vancouver this past September.

I also have a Brunton. I used it when we were fishing the inside passage in BC. Good reciever, you just need to be able to remember how to get to the drop down menus.