Hand held gps

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rosewood

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I had some good advice on here when looking for my 50th birthday persie last month. I'm now after some Christmas advice. Want to get a HH gps I think. Any thoughts on which one would be the best. Kids say that I cam have round about 200 quid
 
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onesea said:
I would start by deciding what you want it for...
Car? boat? both? Walking?

I have an Garmin Oregon

If I was buying again I would get a Garmin Montanna a bit more expensive but does the job...

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/catalog/product/compareResult.ep?compareProduct=113520&compareProduct=75228&compareProduct=117521&compareProduct=30926
Click to expand...


My current handheld is a Garmin Etrex Vista HcX ... somewhat out of date, but it has barometric pressure (actually useful!), and you can download charts to it quite easily. Bluechart is pretty functional. You also get to play with the charts in "Homeport" or even the older Mapsource application -for planning / browsing.
I don't think you'll go far wrong with a recent / new Garmin handheld. The same SD or micro SD chart cards work in the bigger Garmin plotters as well..:-)

Graeme
 
Yeah I'm thinking garmin now. It's for the boat. I can use it as a back up or plug it into my laptop. Etrex 30 looks ok. And within the strict price budget my dear children have allowed me. Which is a bit rich being as it's me who will be buying it:)
 
pcatterall said:
Wot do you use yours for car? boat? walking?
Click to expand...

All of those... Although now my phone tends to be used first in the car as google maps with traffic is handy.

On the boat the Orgeon is my chart plotter handy as you can pass it round the cockpit. Yes the screen could be brighter but its all a compromise.

The other big question is would I buy it again and I am not so certain. Phones have moved on so much you can now get waterproof enough phones although there is still piece of mind in a bit of dedicated tough bit of kit.
 
I use a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx for everything, suits me well - more modern models are available.

You should be able to pick up all sorts on ebay.
 
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onesea said:
I would start by deciding what you want it for...
Car? boat? both? Walking?

I have an Garmin Oregon

If I was buying again I would get a Garmin Montanna a bit more expensive but does the job...

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/catalog/product/compareResult.ep?compareProduct=113520&compareProduct=75228&compareProduct=117521&compareProduct=30926
Click to expand...

+1 for the Garmin Montana - love ours both on land and at sea. It came with UK Ordnance Survey and we purchased the Middle East Blue Chart chip for the Gulf etc and Middle East road maps for it. Easy to use and supports our other hobby geocaching well too. You do need the cradle for 12v charging plus spoken directions in the car though.
 
Not disagreeing with what anyone has said so far but have you considered a waterproof phone and navionics or MX Mariner?

If you in the market for a new phone ever it doesnt seem worth buying a dedicated device. On land you can get Maverick which has all the os maps. For sea there are vector or raster chart options.

Galaxy S4 Active? Sony Experia Z & Z1? etc
 
roblpm said:
Not disagreeing with what anyone has said so far but have you considered a waterproof phone and navionics or MX Mariner?

If you in the market for a new phone ever it doesnt seem worth buying a dedicated device. On land you can get Maverick which has all the os maps. For sea there are vector or raster chart options.

Galaxy S4 Active? Sony Experia Z & Z1? etc
Click to expand...


The Experia sounds a good out of doors / boat capable device. How long does it last with GPS module powered up though? I freely admit the Garmin Etrex I have lasts about 2 typical sailing days on NimH rechargeables, but no more.
 
rosewood said:
I think the 30 is colour. Although I quite fancy the gps map76s now. Too much choice
Click to expand...

The link to the Garmin webpage on my previous post has a good comparison tool.

I still do not know if I would of been a ludite and stuck with my phone if I had not of bought before technology moved on.
Although having had it a whole day 2 AA batteries, tough etc no I would not be without it...
 
roblpm said:
Not disagreeing with what anyone has said so far but have you considered a waterproof phone and navionics or MX Mariner?

If you in the market for a new phone ever it doesnt seem worth buying a dedicated device. On land you can get Maverick which has all the os maps. For sea there are vector or raster chart options.
Click to expand...
Having see others use phones to check where they are, it works, but you can't get the amount of data off them that a "proper" GPS can give you.

After arriving home I can upload the trail onto Basecamp and look at where were, pull that into Goggle Earth and look at that, even share it with everybody on Facebook if I wanted. But the real value is I can analyze the data to my hearts content.
 
Need to know if you want maps on it. I am a Garmin 72 man. Does everything I want in communication with my laptop and DSC radio. It has always polled pretty well in terms of enthusiasm when this question is asked. For reasons too complicated to explain I have three of them. Current version give USB connection to laptop - mine are older and need an adaptor to create a virtual .com port, but it works fine. Maps on a handheld seem a bit too small for my liking, especially when any old laptop will do better.
 
roblpm said:
Not disagreeing with what anyone has said so far but have you considered a waterproof phone and navionics or MX Mariner?

If you in the market for a new phone ever it doesnt seem worth buying a dedicated device. On land you can get Maverick which has all the os maps. For sea there are vector or raster chart options.

Galaxy S4 Active? Sony Experia Z & Z1? etc
Click to expand...
Depends what you want it for.
I still find my old Magellan handheld very handy, the fact that it is seriously waterproof is useful when laying racing marks from a RIB.
I regard it as a 'grab bag' item, along with spare AA's.
I've used it more than once to find the yacht in fog after going ashore in the tender.
The old school daylight viewable LCD is the right thing for the job.

It is part of the boat equipment, which anyone aboard might use, whereas I might not want random people rummaging my phone.
 
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