Hand held GPS??

[Artifishal]

When my wife asked me what I want for xmas I didn't know what tell her, I hadn't thought about it. Yesterday at work I was day dreaming of my next fishing trip and what I have left to get for the tinnie and then it hit me A GPS! What I want to know is if there is any AFOers that use hand held GPS and which ones are good for just logging points when you find hot spots?

Cheers

Brad

[ellicat]

Yep. I have and like the Garmin xxxxx (can't think of the model, just woke up) I'll put up the details later. :blush:

[RyanG45]

Yep. I have and like the Garmin xxxxx (can't think of the model, just woke up) I'll put up the details later. :blush:

i also have a garmin handheld its perfect easy to use, very easy to put marks down wouldnt have a clue what model it is but ill check aswell

[bootyinblue]

I use a Garmin Etrex... its a yellow water resistant looking thing. Good and easy to use but pretty limited. You would expect that though dot under $100

[ellicat]

Garmin GPSmap 76CSx

W/proof to 1 metre for 30 or 60 minutes

Many features

Love it

(you can buy maps too).

The software allows you to plan a trip on the pc and then load it to the unit and vice versa etc

Heavy on batteries at night but fortunately can plug into the 12v cig lighter

[woody1]

Before you get a GPS, do you have a smartphone with GPS built in? You can get the Navopnics app which has all teh functions of a handhelp GPS but costs less than $20.

[spilt milk]

Before you get a GPS, do you have a smartphone with GPS built in? You can get the Navopnics app which has all teh functions of a handhelp GPS but costs less than $20.

I used to have that app on my phone, its not too bad for the price of it but i found the gps to be quite slow and also doesnt work when you dont have reception.

[Artifishal]

Thanks for the tip woody i do have a smart phone but i'm with vodafone and coverage is not that great.

I do like the look of that garmin though EC

[ellicat]

You're welcome to come have a hands on play with it if you like. Just let me know. If you are attending the BRC BBQ I can bring it along there too.

[MattyD]

I asked my wife for the same thing for xmas and we ended up deciding on the Garmin GPS 72H (the next step up from the classic ETREX).

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=38309

It's got a few more features but the main thing was more memory for marks & routes than the ETREX.

It's got quite a few useful page types to navigate from (ie. map, compass, 3D. I sync it all up to the PC via USB cable too so your marks are saved.

Cool feature is you can upload your trail / marks / route etc to Google Earth and see exactly where you've been

[Bi_polar]

Someone can correct me if i am wrong but from what i have been told the GPS function on most smart phones relies on triangulation of mobile phone towers to your position rather than satelites for the GPS function and that is why the GPS function doesn't work when you dont have service.

Before you get a GPS, do you have a smartphone with GPS built in? You can get the Navopnics app which has all teh functions of a handhelp GPS but costs less than $20.

I used to have that app on my phone, its not too bad for the price of it but i found the gps to be quite slow and also doesnt work when you dont have reception.

[ellicat]

The latest ones can do both (either/or), Stu.

[tugger]

I have the same as MattyD the garmin costs about $180 i've had it for about 8 to 10yrs now and have abused it like the rest of my gear and it has not let me down they are water proof and shock proof where i think you would be lucky to get 2 yrs out of your phone

[robin]

Thats true for some mobiles, some of them like mine you can use both the Satelites and or mobile towers, altho I always find phone gps is too slow.

[aussie123]

Heya Stu

I-Phone 3 and later models use both GPS and A-GPS (assisted GPS)

Assisted GPS is fed to the phone through your towers and/or wi-fi hotspots.

Unfortunately due to the massive power usage that a fully fledged GPS needs to operate properly and maintain a strong signal the phones are built using a very basic and crude GPS system that operates on very low power to save battery life therefore they have a very weak GPS signal.

Unless the sats are overhead or well within range the phone will switch to assisted GPS or combine both to make a fix on your position.

Sometimes if you are out of tower and wi-fi range and cop a bad GPS signal the whole lot can drop out and you will get nothing at all.

Another main issue too is you need a tower or wi-fi connection for google maps to run but there is apps or software available to use that will save some maps to the phone to overcome that.

[youngy]

Hi guys biggest seller in shop for boaties is the Garmin 72h, it floats so is fully waterproof and can be made hands free with accessories and power cable.

I have the Garmin 78, this is a colour unit and takes maps which give better detail of estuaries that i fish, cheers wayne

[Shane69]

I have the navinoics app on my fone. Itz okay to use and it already has some of the well known marks in it but personally i would rather just get a seperate unit. If you leave the app on it drains your battery and its very slow and not accurate. I thought about getting a hand held but id rather save up a bit more and get seperate unit. Phone ones good because you can save spots and keep them to yourself

Shane.

[woody1]

Thanks for the tip woody i do have a smart phone but i'm with vodafone and coverage is not that great.

I do like the look of that garmin though EC

I am with Vodafone and know your pain with shitty reception, I was up at Inskip recently, my mates all had 3G reception and I couldnt even send a text!! On the plus side, Navionics was working fine on my iphone4.

I have thought about upgrading to a proper chart plotter and would get more functionality, but at the end of the day I have a sounder and the phone GPS does everything I need.

[Artifishal]

Thanks for the replies guy, How about the Magellan eXplorist range anyone familiar with them or has one?

Thanks for the offer EC, I'm not going to make BRC I'LL be on call and most probably working but I'll keep it in mind if I get the chance.

[Artifishal]

I called into Amazon outdoors yesterday to check out some GPSs. They pretty much just had Garmin and the ones in my price range I didn't really like. I asked the guy if they had any Magellan GPS, he said they stopped stocking them because Garmin are more popular but had some left on clearance. Me never being one to go with whats popular and knowing Magellan to be good little units (my old man had one years ago) I asked to have a look at them. I was glad I did because I ended up with the top of the line Triton model (now superseded by the eXplorist models) which does the same stuff as the mid range current Garmin's at about $500 (which I still wasn't to fussed on).

So I snapped up the Triton 2000 for $319 :woohoo:

Very happy

[ellicat]

Good work. No doubt it'll do what you want it for and you'll end up loving it.