Hand Held GPS units

[Heethers]

Folks do any of you have use these.

I have thought about buying either the Garmin GPS 60 at £117

Or the Garmin Dakota 20 at £251

We are not professional walkers but do quite a bit when we are out in the van.

I believe you can get cards for them with preloaded walks such has for Yorkshire dales, is this the same for the GPS60 or only for the dearer Dakota, l know there are other makes but the only two we seem to get around here are the Garmin and that's from Go Outdoors.

Your help would be greatly appreciated before l buy.

NigelH

 

[KeithandSuefromNorwich]

We've been using the Garmin Oregon 400 for va couple of months. You can buy OS mapping on SD cards for Garmin Dakota, Colorado and Oregon, but probably not for the other one.

You will also need mapping software for your pc to get the best out of your gps. You can then download walks (or cycle routes, etc) from various sources and transfer them into your gps.

Be aware that for all practical purposes you are buying an empty box which you need to spend big to fill.

We found the learning process to be very frustrating, but now we've got it sussed we are having a lot of fun.

Keith

 

[ProfJohnL]

"Batteries not included"!

Satellite navigation is wonderful piece of technology, and I always marvel at it ability to pinpoint your position, until for some reason it can't!

It's fine and dandy when you have travelled far enough to loose sight of your start or destination, and then the system goes down, unless you have some back up. I refused to allow Scouts in my group to start a trek unless they had a written route plan, map, compass and the knowledge of how to use them.

Baden Powell was a very forward thinking person, he had one of the first caravans in the country, so it is highly relevant to this forum, but he apparently loved to use modern gadgets, but never lost sight of the more traditional ways of doing things. So if he were alive to-day he would probably be advocating the use of sat nav, and mobile phones but always in addition to the old tried and tested methods that won't let you down when the batteries run out.

As for systems that have earned a good reputation - there are Garmin Etrex models, I have seen an impressive model by Sylva (the Scandinavian compass maker, and Satmap, which has very good mapping available based on the OS maps. There are others but I have not seen them so can't offer any opinion.

 

[KeithandSuefromNorwich]

Yes, indeed.

One of the unforseen items of expenditure was for three sets of top quality NIMH rechargeables.

Our Oregon absolutely eats Duracells and the like.

Now the cells are fully charged we are getting 12 hours or more from a set.

Keith

 

[BedfordGeorge]

Call me old fashioned but I prefer to use maps. We find our walks from the AA 1001 walks in the UK, or Walking Great Britail site or the local Tourist Info shops. I normally then print a copy of my proposed walk from the Streetmap site, this shows very clealy all footpaths and on a good scale. Forgot to do one for our recent walk from Mickleton in Gloucestershire, and following the written instructions missed a turn, ended up with a 10 mile walk instead of the proposed 7, but what the hell we got back eventually.

www.streetmap.co.uk

www.walkingbritain.co.uk

 

[Heethers]

Thanks for your quick replies, we have the Jarrold walks and usually buy one for the area we go, from what you say it might be better to stay with the books instead of spending

 

[Dave_374330759]

One thing you can do is use the GPS unit to track your progress and when you get home you can download the track into your computer and see where you went and how fast you were walking and even get an analysis on the height that you've traversed. I've got a cheap and cheerful GPS72 - no maps just tells you where you are and where you've been and where you want to go and lots of other info as well. I use it for sailing mostly but it adds interest to walking. Go to the Garmin website and see what's available and you can download the manuals to see how to drive them. Another good site for mapping info is memory-map.

I never go out without a map of the area nor do I sail without charts for the area that I'm sailing in. A GPS is an aid to navigation but you should always carry an up to date map and be able to read it especially in unfamiler or rough/wild country.

 

[Pat_374304630]

Agree with John L

I bought my wife a sat nav for Xmas 2008. We have used it quite a bit but if we are driving to a site or for work I am going somewhere in the U.K, as well as the Sat Nav I will have directions of where to go plus a map of the area and I would not be without my road atlas.

Maybe it's a case of old habits die hard ( I work in the transport Industry )

 

[JTQ]

We have a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx, together with the Topo Southern Uk mapping. The Garmin will cost you

 

[Guest]

If you can stretch to a Garmin GPS72 then I can highly recommend it. I use it for walking, driving and when I had a boat I could even use it as a chartplotter. It gives altitude too. The Garmin maps aren't cheap but they are good and IMO are value for money.

 

[Dave_374330759]

the GPS72 is not a mapping unit, you have to go to a GPSMAP76CS or CSX for a mapping unit. Otherwise it's an GPSMAP60 (the GPS60 is not a mapping unit either) or one of the ETREX models (not H but th HC, HCX or Vista HCX. The touchscreen versions are the Dakota and Oregon ranges.

for lots of info or to download manuals go to www.garmin.com

 

[Wanderer1]

Hi NgelH

We use the Satmap and find it fantastic, the large display is a boon. The software is continually being updated (free) You could become a member of "Walkingworld" and download hundreds of walks throughout the whole country or for Scotland "Walkhighlands" offers many walks for no cost

http://www.walkingworld.com/home/index.asp
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/

 

[Heethers]

Thanks Wanderer going to the Manchester Caravan show Friday they had them their last year will look then at the options.

NigelH

 

[Wanderer1]

Hi NigelH,

Should have added, if you decide the satmap is for you I would recommend that you pay the extra for the power pack rechargeable batteries.

Being the mean Scot that I am I initially thought that disposable batteries would do fine, although the power consumption has been reduced by software updates it still ate batteries and as a result I finally purchased the power pack.

What a difference, completely transformed the device.

 

[JeffandDi]

I looked into this a while ago and for my two penneth... I decided upon getting a little PDA. This is a little hand held computer slightly larger than a mobile phone. You can get one that does the job fine for about