22 + Years of Handheld GPS
 

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1993 GPS 45 $499
2003 E Trex Legend $89
2015 64 S $249

Wow the first one was the most expensive $499. I gave it to my kids 5 years ago, they gave it back to me. It was like Voodoo in hunting camp in 1994.

The Legend stays in the the survival bag or in the boat. It helped the family with Geo Caching for many years in some very remote areas in MT. I have the phone app which works great as long as you have cell reception, a luxury here.

Everything is better now. I like the buttons for using with gloves. I use these all the time. With the On X Maps Hunt. I can go right up to private land with out penetrating the boundary Hunting and fishing.

I can find state land, bureau of land management, Forrest Service. I can not imagine hunting the fringes with out one. The new 64 S gets 16-19 Hours with 2 AA batteries.
the accuracy is dead on.


Each unit

Better faster sat acquisition times
Better battery life,
Better accuracy 18 Inches

Remarkable tool for the outdoors-people.

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These Garmin handhelds are good but some have limitations. A good topographic map should be a backup and I will tell you why. I was hiking by myself with my new Garmin Oregon 450t. Would receive a good signal but once in the tall trees the signal became unreliable and getting to where I wanted to go took longer than planned.

Hiking with the Oregon was perfect in say the desert areas of Palm Springs because the signal was not blocked by any trees. However in addition to a map then a compass is good as a backup too.

Had many since about 2002. Many don't realize the limitations of these new, cheap ones that sell for $150 or less. Sad.

I have the one on the left but don't know where it is, not even sure it still works.

Love Garmin in the plane.

It is just astonishing how much this would relies on GPS. Now that the Russians and the Chinese have their systems in place it is easy to have some fantastic accuracy whit very high end units. A survey grade GPS can have the accuracy of the thickness of a sheet of paper.

GPS chips in phones are tiny and draw very little power. I suspect it will not be long before every device has one built in. Every car, boat, and truck will have them built in.

Yes, before you know it we'll be tracking shlt!

I was attempting to enter the C&D canal close to midnight in my boat. The GPS said I was right there and should turn to port. My gut said no, the lights further ahead were right. If I had just followed the GPS I would have ended up on the rocks.

I cant really fault the GPS, but the chart/mapping software was lacking. The technology and features are really amazing. Waterproof, lightweight, battery life... but you still need a map and some common sense.

So why can't they put a real GPS chip in smatphones that doesn't require a cell signal or wifi?

They do.

The problem is you will be a blue dot in the middle of the screen with no background information. With some programs you can download the background map ahead of time if you know where you will be going.

A Garman has the background map downloaded ahead of time. A phone usually does that on the fly and that is why it needs the cell signal.

In the recent past (last year and prior) I downloaded Citymapper maps of places I traveled to. I never got the blue dot on the map. I've never been able to get location on my iPhone without data. Now, I just make sure I have data (I use T-Mobile international data roaming).

Nokia has been letting the user download maps for the phone (to work w/o carrier signal) for some time. The maps are quite large, but the idea is the user downloads them via WiFi, and then isn't dependent on cellular when out and about in the world.

When I was doing flight test back in the late 80's I flew the first GPS in a Naval Aircraft. It was a five channel NAVSTAR that was as big as a New York City Condo...the antenna was also huge, trash can lid big.

The constellations were not all in place so we only got a few hours a day of testable GPS.

However, I'll never forget our first low level navigation flight: I entered in the lat/log of all the TACAN (precise navigation beacons) stations in the area and off we went. I have maps for back up but as we marked on top the TACAN stations, the nav symbols I entered into the mission computer would dissapear.

It was eerie. My co-pilot and I looked at each other and knew the world had a new, very powerful capability. What were once just symbols on a tactical screen with huge nav inaccuracies between other aircraft and their "tactical" world became the real world for all..

So many early GPS stories...

I used that exact Garmin GPS 45 sailing all over the TX gulf coast in the mid 90's. This was long before the GPS-MAP systems came out. Used it to chart positions on the nautical charts. It was integrated with the autopilot and worked well but I never trusted it enough to go below and take a nap. I still have it stored in a drawer and change the batteries every year... still fires right up. I also still have a cardboard tube full of the TX gulf coast nautical charts ?

Was your phone in airplane mode? For some reason, this turns off the GPS receiver. You need to turn off airplane mode to receive GPS.

a GPS coupled with a great paper map is pretty powerful stuff.

i switch the units to the UTM-UPS grid to get my GPS and Maps on the same page..pretty quick to see where you are and where you want to go.

and thanks. just forgot to pack my GPS rhino. duh!!

Exactly.
Whether I'm offshore or out in the wilderness, I still navigate using my charts or maps, as a backup. Too many people stake their lives on technology. When technology fails they are helpless.


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I still use paper maps in the woods.

This the Garmin G1000 that's in the Plane I rent it's unbelievable.

I grew up learning to fly in planes with no electrical systems so it's a big deal.:D

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Use a Garmin 696 in the Maule.

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I was using my iPhone while traveling in airplane mode. I downloaded an app that allowed me to access the maps and directions via wifi but would then give me live driving directions just using GPS signal. It worked great as long as I had wifi to create the route.
The exact name of the app I can't remember, but I imagine there are several out there. It was free.
GPS is amazing.

18 feet?