I need a new GPS !

[Haveuseen1]

Well I turned on my gps, set it on the roof of the truck to get a signal, and on my way to the woods I stopped at Home Depot, Lowes, the grocery store, and a gas station.  Somewhere between the house and the woods my gps decided to get off the roof of the truck without asking.  It was an Garmin Etrex Legend and I was quite pleased with it.

I have started looking at replacements and man o man technology has come a little ways in the last 6-7 years. You can get touch screens, color, and all kinds of other bells and whistles.  It seems the newer ones have gone up in price a bit. I think I paid 150 for mine years ago. 

What I would like is easily portable, accuracy, good battery life, and the ability to download maps.  I am open to suggestions.  Does anyone have any ideas where you can go to look at functioning models?  I went to Dicks and they have a few you can touch but of course they dont have power to them.

I am thinking Garmin Etrex Vista HCx or, maybe one of the new Garmin touch screens, or yesterday I found (online) the Delorme PN-40.

Any suggestions would of course be welcome.

Thx

[elbowman]

I recently upgraded from my Garmin Legend also. I bought a new Garmin E-trex Summit HC.
It works alot like our legends did, but has a color screen with the high sensitivity GPS. Not very expensive, but does not have alot of bells and whistles like the other more expensive models or makes. But for a budget GPS, that I can hand around my neck, works great.

Eric

[Joshua Szulecki]

PN-30 or PN-40. Downloadable raster maps/aerial photos. There are downloadable maps for Garmin, but not to the level that Delorme offers. They are very tiny and around the 60CSx accuracy level, which is pretty decent. Battery life is the only real negative. A day is the best you can really expect, so rechargables are required.

The PN-40 has the advantage of being bright orange, so if you do lose it, you might be able to find it. The PN-30 is green, so it will probably try to get lost.

I wouldn't touch anything with a touch screen. The field is not the place for delicate technology, and they reduce contrast and increase glare by placing an extra piece of transparent material in front of the screen.

[SmokeDiver]

Garmin kicks alot of tail. I'm getting a Colorado 400t for Christmas. My Magellan just isn't cutting it, freezes up all the time even after updating it. Garmin uses the latest chip sets, they acquire really fast, SiRG star III I think it the system they use. My father uses a Garmin aviation GPS in his plane, it works like a charm. We had a lot of luck with that brand.

[Joshua Szulecki]

For car navigation I tend to suggest Garmin. For aviation they are awesome, but they also have fairly little competition. Their hiking hardware is VERY capable, although I disagree with a few design choices like touchscreens and mini-usb ports, for durability reasons.

The only reason, besides that I own one, that I would recommend a PN-20/30/40 from DeLorme over ANY Garmin unit is the map support. Other than the "t" series units, the Garmins do not come with topo maps in the box, adding extra cost. The PN-series come with 100k vector topos in the box. And, it is $30/yr for 24k USGS topos, aerial photography in both B&W or color, and NOAA nav charts. Yes, you can download free vector topo maps for the Garmin, but they are unsupported. Yes you can get nav charts, for serious $$$. I pay $30. A year. And right now the DeLormes are WAAAY down in price. My PN-40 was almost $150 more than I could get one for this year. However, Garmin's 24k map products are more up to date than the 24k raster USGS maps DeLorme offers. They are also a ton more expensive.

But, if I were into geocaching, I'd probably prefer Garmin due to the larger free software base. It all comes down to personal preference. For a person who ONLY hikes, no geocaching, and who does bushwhacking and impromtu hiking, I need the map support more than the geocaching software.

Now Magellan... I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole. Never again. My Meridian Gold was a nightmare, enough said.

But... As I've said dozens of times... We can pontificate all we want, but the decision comes down to you and what you want, need, and can afford. We can tell you why we bought what we did, but not what YOU should buy.

My review of the PN-40 is at: http://waterfallchasing.b...re-view-introduction.html