Garmin / sat nav

[RichardJ]

Hi

We are looking to purchase a hand held sat nav, the ones that work for the country side, NOT roads, has anyone got one, do they work?

We enjoy working in the countryside, and sometimes trying to follow maps is not possible, or should I say impossible, in particular when in a wood.

Argus have some on sale, not sure what is good or what ones are bad, any assistance would be welcome.

 

[bigbilly]

I have the Garmin Etrex (the yellow one) which is the very basic one. I got it on ebay for about

 

[JTQ]

I have the Garmin Etrex Vista HCx which can be loaded with Garmins Topo maps.

However those maps are no where near as detailed Ordnance Survey 25K walking maps, and it all works our expensive.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Richard,

I am not quite sure what you are hoping a hand held systems will do for you, There is a significant difference between the Sat Nav sold for cars. Lorries, and the systems used by walkers.

The car systems use some sophisticated software that works out a route based on the roads and gives you turn announcements etc, but the walkers systems only tell you where you are now and give a compass heading directly to the next way point or home. It does not route round obstacles - you have to plan your own routes.

The Channel 5 Gadget show did a survey of hand held units a few months ago, and found that the SATMAP ACTIVE 10 was easy to use, and it displays proper Ordnance Survey maps Maps are available at 1:25000, 1:50000 and a larger scale for road use, But the detailed maps have to be purchased seperately.

You can find these units from sellers on Ebay, and other outdoor specialists, such as Blacks, and Milletts.

For details see:-

http://www.satmap.com/index.php

 

[xtrailman]

i understood the hand held walkers satnav, enabled the current location to be stored?

We have been looking at getting one for some time, ever since we got lost in the new forest!

 

[xtrailman]

they work via sat, which can cause problems with loss of signal in woods.

 

[JTQ]

Quting:

"they work via sat, which can cause problems with loss of signal in woods."

This was the case with earlier handheld units but recent designs have made great improvements, with the good units it is no longer a real life problem.

I have three generation of the Garmin and can advise that the recently introduced Etrex"H" series is exceptionally good in difficult locations. It even holds a fix inside buildings like Tesco and Homebase!

Re quoting my earlier post;

"I said getting the "H" is very important. This signifies "High sensitivity" and this is very very much better than the earlier models at getting a signal say in woods or high hedged tracks".

 

[xtrailman]

JTQ

Things have moved on since i last looked at these hand held.

I have been waiting for the prices to reduce, at the time the one i was thinkig of was about

 

[Clockwork_374390647]

Any of the newer TomTom, Garmin or many other flat pocketable SatNavs will take you back to your start point using a pointer.

We use a Garmin 700 series and it works fine, even in dense black forest it got a signal and we found the right pathway after getting lost on our bikes.

 

[JTQ]

JTQ

Things have moved on since i last looked at these hand held.

I have been waiting for the prices to reduce, at the time the one i was thinkig of was about