Hand Held GPS

[dfunde01]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a hand held marine GPS?

Thanks,

Dave

[blackhawk]

I have a Garmin Etrex and it works great. I got mine when they first came out and I think there is about 5 or 6 models now and they are all resonably priced.

[stinky-d]

I also have an Etrex. (silver model...not sure of the name) I've had it for about 3 years and it's been through two combat tours in the desert and multiple parachute jumps. I've also used it on the boat. They are small with a nice big screen, easy to use and weather :umbrella: (sand) resistant . They also interface nicely with your PC. happy shopping.

[MOP]

Ditto on the Garmin, I have had a couple over the years they are the best.

MOP

[joel3078]

Ditto on the Garmin. I use a IIIplus model myself. I think current model is a 5 vs the older 3. Anyway, they support external antenna, serial port communucations with laptop/pc, very nice backlight for night display, and have fairly good mapping software. They work even better for boating as they are pretty water proof and straight line routing via your waypoints works wondurful on a lake. Batteries don't last very long however, so get the external power cord that plugs into cigarette lighter.

[David Ochs]

Dave,
I also have a Garmin. It is the GPSMAP76 and is several years old. I suspect that the ETREX units do all the same stuff. I love this thing, it is a great toy to have. I am always fascinated with how accurate these things are. Fantastic to take on a trip. Only dissapointment is the storage capacity for "Mapsource" information, this unit only holds 8 mb. On a long trip it's not enough. The newer ones have a lot more. Whatever you get you'll enjoy it.

[Rootsy]

I have a garmin Legend (the blue one) with 8 megs of memory... it serves me very well for boating and hunting, etc... you can find them on sale now and then at EXCEPTIONAL discounts...

The silver is the vista with 24 megs or memory and the price significantly reflects the step up.

The 12V cord is a must have feature because batteries last about 8 hours IF YOU KEEP THE LIGHT OUT

[ChromeGorilla]

I have the Garmin Etrex Legend C (color lcd). It is awesome. I used it this past weekend. I plotted my courses I needed on my PC and transfered to my handheld. Was very usefull.

[Fish boy]

Not that I do not like the garmin, I have one and recommend it, but the first question should be what are you going to use it for, and how much are you willing to spend. THere are some for under $100 and some for $800-900. Do you want mapping? Are you going to use it in the boat and car? Do you want color? are you going to rely on battery or hard wire? Do you want to record your top speed (lots of us do)? If you want mapping, how much detail do you want?

Sorry for the 20 questions, but I have had 2 garmins, both good, but huge differences between my old one and my new one.

I have a Garmin 60C (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=34289&item=5775214812&rd=1) and love it. I had a garmin72. I wanted to have detailed mapping to use in my car for traveling and also the waterways. THis has 56mb of storage (most have around 8mb) which is necessary when saving lots of points and loading detailed maps. Mine shows every marker, reef, sandbar...etc for the water. I also have detailed streets and addresses for use in my car. Although it is color, the battery life is about 36 hours which is a big difference from the standard 8-10 hour is you are not going to hard wire. this one is also waterpoof.

Not trying to sell you on mine, just letting you know that there are big differences between models. Take a good look at batterylife and memory space if you are going to do anything other than just occasionally look at how fast you are going. Alos might want to make sure it will save max speed.

The city select rocks! It gives me turn by turn directions, estimated time, how many miles to each turn (constantly updating) and beeps to make sure you know when you are supposed to tuen and will even tell you which lane to get into when the road you are on branches.

BTW, the unit came with water info and major roads on the standard software. I had to buy Blue chart for my region (waterway detailed maps) and city select which gave me xtremely detailed streets for the US and lots of Canada. Each were around $100.

My dad has a garmin76. Monochroms, inexpensive, easy to use, and basic mapping. He has some pretty trick electronics on his boat but this is the only one he can figure out and works well for him. We used it to navigate back and forth to the bahamas 2x and works amazing.

[dfunde01]

Thanks for the quick replies guys. I just ordered the Garmin GPSMAP 76, 12 volt power cord, handle bar mount, and US recreational lakes CD from The GPS Store. I have had the Garmin Street Pilot III in my cars for several years and love it. While the Street Pilot III and bean bag mount work fine on my pontoon I estimated it's service life at less than 60 sec. next to the grab rail on the 16. Since I will be running Hartwell and Lanier in Georgia 99% of the time that should do a good job of getting me back to the dock. I'll also be able to figure out if I have a tach error, speedo error, or both. The specs say that the 05 Classic 16 has a 12 volt outlet on the dash. Where did they hide it?

Thanks,

Dave

[ChromeGorilla]

The 12V outlet in my 05 22 is in the port storage pocket on the side....

[Pismo]

Get an etrex with the most memory you can.

[HeavyP]

Does anyone know where the best bargains are for buying the marine maps for the etrex?

[ChromeGorilla]

I found the lowest price I could on the interenet and printed out the page with the prices for both my Etrex Legend C and US Rec. Lakes (East). I took the printouts to local BoatUS store and the kid working there honored the price match. I don't think their policy lets them match internet prices (Boaters World and West Marine wouldn't) but like I said the kid didn't care..... I just dug out my receipt..... Etrex Legend C- Original in store price $349.99 paid $269.99. US Recreational Lakes w/ Fishin Hotspots regular price $114.99, paid $74.99.