Help choosing a GPS device – hiking, biking and geocaching?
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MrMcMonkey asked:
I want to buy a handheld GPS thingy (never having used one before) but my mind is boggling looking through all the different ones available.
I want to buy a handheld GPS thingy (never having used one before) but my mind is boggling looking through all the different ones available.
I’d use it for hiking in mountainous areas and probably geocaching, which sounds fun.
The Magellan Triton 400 looks quite good, as does the Garmin Vista HCx but the latter might be a bit too much feature-wise for my first…?
Can you recommend one? Not necessarily one of the two I mentioned, any suitable one!
Thanks 
Oh, also, I’m in England so one that uses EGNOS would be nice. And can they give OS map references or only lat. and long.?
Joseph that wouldn’t be your website by any chance would it? They/you don’t even ship outside of the US. Your spam is not appreciated.
DD, thanks anyway but that’s not the kind of device I mean, I don’t need it for the car. Most of those issues won’t apply.
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Well, I don’t think it is suitable for your applications but I use the Nuvi 300. I will tell you a few things about it that I do not like so that you can check the units you are considering to see if they have these issues:
1. The text-entry is done with an ABC keyboard, not a QWERTY.
2. ETA is always based off of road time, not average or instantaneous speed.
3. When traveling to a destination the map is constantly changing zoom level. I **** this. There is a view that will not do this but if you change course and the unit must recalculate, you need to reactivate the view.
4. After one year of use the unit displays a “maps are out of date” warning EACH AND EVERY TIME you turn it on. Annoying.
5. When searching for a destination (say a store name), if you are moving, the unit constantly refreshes the display- so quickly that I can usually not even scroll down to the bottom of the list!
6. When entering security pin, if the wrong pin is entered the unit must be powered down and back on- this takes a good 30 seconds or so. It is easy to enter the wrong number on the touch screen so this has been annoying many times.
7. There is no “breadcrumb” option to see a trail of where you have been. I was quite disappointed to learn this since Garmin GPS units that I used over five years ago had this!
I went with Garmin because I liked the ability to scroll across the map just by touching the screen and moving the map (similar to how you would move a map on one of the online applications). I’ve found this to be only slightly useful but I still like it.
GPS devices for all activities
I would recommend against the Magellan Triton. It is a very buggy unit and is prone to crashes. Magellan has been slow to release firmware updates and their customer support/tech help is very poor. Plus, the last time I heard, the Tritons were not receiving WAAS/EGNOS.
You said the Vista HCx is too feature-rich for you. The eTrex Legend HCx is just like the Venture HCx but lacks the electronic compass and barometric altimeter. If even the Legend has too much for you, take a look at the eTrex Venture HC. For a really barebones unit, without maps, you could get a Garmin eTrex H. It will save tracks and waypoints, and can be connected to your computer for downloading/uploading this data with an optional serial data cable. If you go for just the regular yellow eTrex H, make sure you get the one with the H at the end of the name. The H means it has the high-sensitivity receiver. The regular yellow eTrex without the H tends to lose reception easily in the woods.