Thanks for the input,

Al

Good luck

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dog

I like the looks of that new Garmin ETreck also.

There has been two significant improvements in GPS units in the past couple of years. One is the base maps which show you where you are. This comes in handy when you hunt a new spot and are not familiar with any landmarks and don't have a topo map. I used a railroad track whitetail hunting one year to keep me on the land I had permission to hunt on.

The other big improvement is the new WAAS capability. WAAS is an upgrade to the GPS satellite system that the FAA implemented but it is helping hunters and fishermen get even better accuracy. Accuracy in older GPS can range from 30 to 100 feet. This is pretty good unless you're looking for a trail or treestand in fog. Accuracy with WAAS is down near 10 feet.

One other slick idea in the GPS field I saw last week at the SHOT show in Las Vegas. Garmin has a GPS and FRS radio combo unit out that you can talk on and it also shows on the base map where your buddies are. You save weight and bulk with just one piece of gear instead of two. The Rhino is due out in June 2002, no word on price yet.

More info on the Garmin Rhino here.

http://www.garmin.com/products/rino/

The other Garmin GPS that is getting a lot of buzz is the GPSMAP 76. I have a Garmin III+ and Garmin has upgraded it to the Garmin V. The base map now has 24 megs of storage. You can find more info on these GPS at http://www.garmin.com/outdoor/

I've also got some info and reviews on GPS at

http://www.jesseshuntingpage.com/gps.html

------------------
~spectr17

Jesse's Hunting Page and Gear Review

I use the Magellan GPS 315 daily in my real job as a forest engineer. It works very well in forest canopy as well as the open.

The price is usually affordable too...I bought mine at Bi-Mart for 109.00

Most importantly, learn to use a compass..!!

Joel Slate
Slate & Associates, LLC
The Safari Specialists
www.slatesafaris.com

7mm Rem Mag page www.slatesafaris.com/7mm.htm

Easy to use and really handy size.

I bougth 4 reloadable Ni-Mh cells for it. The only possible backside is that it uses quite a lot of batteries. Two Ni-Mh cells last me a day of hunting and I keep the other two for back up.

As the other gents. pointed out, always bring a compass.......

Stefan.

An older buddy bought one of the higher end GPS, without knowing what he was looking for. He can hardly figure out how to turn it on. Great machinist, but not very tech literate. His GPS has 12 different function buttons. My Etrex has 5, including the on/off button. Big difference.

Like everyone else said, decide what you need it for. If you're not a pilot or a big water boater, the low-end models should suit you fine.

That Rhino looks like a dandy. Wish I'd seen it before I bought mine. Though, I gotta say, neither my Etrex or my Coleman FRS are an onerous load. Just wish they used the same size batteries...

I don't think that the "Waas" feature is necessary. Correct me if I am wrong but since selective avaliablity was removed my old GPS 12 is very accurate now. Even in the forest it can find a stand, etc.

A friend has the Garmin GPS12 and it seems to pick up signals a bit quicker in marginal conditions (inside the truck, or in a deep valley). But it's twice the size and weight.

Neither one will actually tell you where you are unless you have a map. And neither one will tell you anything if the batteries die.

To preserve batteries I just mark a waypoint at the truck in the morning, then turn it off. I may turn it on a few times during the day to confirm my location on the map or mark any locations of interest. But basically I leave it off until it's the end of the hunt and I'm in a hurry to get back to the truck.

John

But if you NEED a GPS then ALWAYS take and use a map and compass. A GPS is no sustitute for simple compass-work.

------------------
Regards

Richard

With a non WAAS GPS and with SA off the accuracy runs anywhere from 30 to 100 feet depending on many factors like terrain, atmospsheric conditions etc. My Garmin III+ stays around 25 feet prettty much of the time. This is okay for most of the uses while outdoors but there have been two instances I would have liked better accuracy.

One was while looking for a crossing a buddy gave me. It was foggy and I walked around in circles at his waypoint and finally found it after 20 minutes. With a WAAS receiver and 10 foot accuracy I could have swung my dead cat around and found it a lot quicker.

The other example was a treestand which was given to me as a waypoint. Of course it was pitch black and I had to shine a flashlight up into the trees as I searched. It wasn't the quietest I've snuck into the woods before. With a WAAS GPS receiver the noise and light show would have been just a second or two.

70% better accuracy? Yup I'll take one, even if I only use it once in the next few years.

------------------
~spectr17

Jesse's Hunting Page and Gear Review

[This message has been edited by spectr17 (edited 02-13-2002).]

I am aware of the Waas technology. I don't carry my GPS most of the time anyway. On the boat Loran and the GPS 12. That's enough for now. When I get a new GPS I may get Waas but to carry in the woods I want something small or nothing at all.

I glanced at your site. I was 100% convinced that I knew everything until I got on line a couple of years ago. Now I am not so sure.

My buddy got a eTreck (after loosing his big Magellan) and we tried it against my old GPS 12 while walking on a woods road under hardwoods last month. His little yellow thingy worked bettter than my old GPS 12 and it has a cord to put over your neck.

If I get another one it may be this type even though a compass and a map are primary for land use. I see the Waas as having more use on a airplane.

Your wonderful site does not address marine use of the GPS as far as I can see. For marine use paper charts are in my opinion necessary. I would never trust a chip for memory of vital information. There are of course GPS's that interface with CD's that show the rocks. But they are large, expensive and not easy (as far as I know) to update. I update my charts from the "Notice to Mariners"

The old Loran is still a more complete backup than another GPS to have on board and there are always so many things to fix on the boat that I am not going to even search for another GPS for the boat. I leave the GPS running in the cockpit and glance at it as I enjoy the instant feedback of speed, etc.

Feedback from other marine discussion boards is that the Garmin brand is so reliable that many have not "tried" their service. It has not been needed.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Al Smith:
I'm looking to purchase a GPS for hunting this fall. What models are you guys using and what would you recommend?

Thanks for the input,

Al

---

Garmin makes Fantastic equipment! I have a GPS12 XC. It works perfect!! Back in the Olden Days when 5 chanell GPS was the fat ticket, they weren't reliable in hilly areas or poor weather! The 12 chanell models work great! A buddy has a Etrex that works perfect also. Mine spends half its life on the boat dash being sprayed with salt water the rest of the time is spent wandering around in the woods in weather from +80 to -40 degrees F.
The LCD is a little slow at -40 but still accurate! I have left it on for a battery test, after 40 hours it quit, Not bad! Garmin Makes Quality Stuff!!
Good Luck

G.P.S.Don't replace CHARTS or MAPS & COMPASS or the navagation skill's required to use them!

Good luck and good shooting

I recently repied to a simular topic over at the 24HourCampfire site. Since you mentioned marine GPS units, I thought I share this with you...

Just a note on WAAS...

I have a Garmin GPSMAP176 for my boat.

It has not been able to pick up the WAAS satellite signal here in Sitka. If things haven't changed, there's only two of them satellites, and I don't know if they intend to launch anymore.

This GPS will not "lock on" while inside my house, but my basic ETrex will. Go figure. Good thing I gotta small house, and don't get lost in there.

I've got the gray-scale model, not the color version. It can be a bit hard to see at times. I find myself turing on the backlighting more than I'd like. I worry about buring out that light. When I first got it, I was using battery power. Those batteries (4 AA's) would die in just a few hours. I had to hardwire the GPS to my 12V system, and now it's not a problem.

I bought the BlueChart for the north part of S.E. Alaska from Online Marine for about $130. The chart is excellent! I have not found one discrepency between the GPS and the papercharts. BlueCharts include ALL of the charts for the area they cover, even the large-scale charts like used for navigating tight harbors. It zoomed in to my exact slip! Just guessing, but the one BlueChart contains about 20 to 30 paper charts in it's memory. When you consider how much paper charts cost (about $20 a piece?) it's an absolute bargain.

Of course I still carry paper charts, for back up. But I don't need as many. There are lot's of rocks up here, and lot's of very nice "nooks and cranny's" to explore. By simply zooming way in on the map, I can spend more time looking outside the boat, looking for rocks, and then do a quick GPS scan to back up what I'm seeing. It was a bit slower using paper charts, even when using a finger to mark where I was on the map.

Other than that, I love my GPSMAP176! With the BlueChart for my area installed, it is an excellent marine GPS.

------------------
Brian
The 416 Taylor WebPage!

Thanks for dropping by the webpage. I wish I had more time to cover the marine GPS and even the aircraft GPS but I don't. Garmin customer service is outstanding from themany people I have talked to and in my own personal experience.

BW,

There are currently 2 WAAS satellites and they are in the southern horizon. Congress has approved more funding for the next phase of the WAAS GPS system update so in the next year or two the coverage will get much better. The maps I saw of the proposed WAAS coverge didn't cover Alaska if I remember right, just CONUS and the southern part of Canada.

With WAAS enabled on your Garmin MAP176 and no WAAS satellites available, the unit actually has poorer reception when using the non WAAS sateliites. Make sure you don't have WAAS enabled on your GPS MAp 176 and you should get as good as signal as the Etrex.

------------------
~spectr17

Jesse's Hunting Page and Gear Review

[This message has been edited by rockhead (edited 02-19-2002).]