GPS reviews, news, tips, tricks and deals
UPDATE: I’ve posted a Garmin Forerunner 110 review
The Garmin Forerunner 110 was announced this morning, updating the popular line of fitness watches with a sleek new entry level product. The Forerunner 110 will have a simplified menu system and will be available with or without a heart-rate monitor. One interesting note is the use of the SiRFstar IV chipset; I believe this is Garmin’s first use of this product. read more
The Magellan eXplorist GC
UPDATE: I’ve posted my hands-on review of the Magellan eXplorist GC.
Magellan is announcing a new handheld today – the eXplorist GC, which is designed specifically for geocaching. I’ll have a full review up soon but I wanted to go ahead and give you a sneak peek.
The eXplorist GC is set up for full paperless caching, meaning there’s no need to print out a bunch of info from geocaching.com before heading out. Perhaps the nicest feature in this respect is the ability to sort / filter caches in just about any way and combination you can imagine.
The interface is pretty intuitive. In my early testing I’ve been fairly impressed and think Magellan may have a winner here. I’ve included a couple of screen shots showing the filter feature below to whet your appetite for the full review. In the interim, is there anything specific that you want to know about the eXplorist GC? Chime in below and I’ll try to include it.
Expected to be available next month, the eXplorist GC is priced at $199.99 (MSRP).
This is the fourth in a series of posts designed to help introduce beginners to the use of handheld GPS receivers.
I’ve covered both routes and tracks in this series, so now it’s time to do a direct comparison. Here are some key differences:
This is the third in a series of posts designed to help introduce beginners to the use of handheld GPS receivers.
Tracks are a record of where you’ve been. People often use the term “breadcrumb trail,” a la Hansel and Gretel, to describe tracks. Your GPS receiver creates this record as you go along, allowing you to follow the electronic breadcrumb trail back to your starting point. A sample track is shown at left. A hike of a few miles can have 1,000 or more track points, which make up the track (also known as the tracklog — and if you guessed that’s where this site got its name, you’re right!).
Once you return from your outing, most handheld GPS receivers allow you to download the track to your computer. With mapping software, you can view your track on a topo map or aerial photo.
Your GPS probably has a trackback function, allowing you to navigate back along the track. Various brands may differ in how they handle this, but generally speaking, it takes a few dozen of the most significant trackpoints and creates a route from them.
This is the second in a series of posts designed to help introduce beginners to the use of handheld GPS receivers.
Routes are used for navigation. As the name implies, they are about where you are going. Routes consist of a series of waypoints, navigated to sequentially in the order you specify.
Most GPS receivers allow you to create a route from waypoints stored on the device. You can also create a route with mapping software and then transfer it to your device. My personal favorite for this task is Garmin MapSource, which allows you to click from waypoint to waypoint to create a route. It’s hard to get any simpler than that!
Backcountry GPS routes are generally laid out as the crow flies, giving you the straight line distance to the next waypoint (as seen in the screenshot at left, which shows a loop route). This is a very important point; the route in the image is 4.2 miles in length, while the actual distance on trail is 6.4 miles. Don’t be fooled into thinking your outing is shorter than it will be!
The most common handheld GPS question I get these days is about chipsets. People agonize about buying a unit without the SiRFstar III chip, partly because GPS enthusiasts like me have long sung its praises. So it’s time to set the record straight, or at the very least give you my opinion on the newer chipsets being used in current GPS receivers.
First some background — up until couple of years ago, the SiRFstar III chipset was the gold standard for GPS receivers. Before this chip, reception in mountainous terrain and in other challenging conditions was often hit or miss. Manufacturers had to use the SiRFstar III or risk being ignored by the market. Then a patent dispute with Broadcom was settled, and not in SiRF’s favor either. Manufacturers began looking for high-sensitivity chipset alternatives, usually turning to MediaTek or STMicroelectronics.
This is the first post in a new series, designed to help introduce beginners to handheld GPS receivers.
Waypoints are perhaps the single most important handheld GPS term, since they are key to navigation. So here’s our definition: A waypoint is a location which can be stored in your GPS receiver in the form of coordinates, allowing you to navigate to it. Each waypoint has a unique name or number assigned to it.
Select a waypoint and your handheld GPS can point you towards it and tell you the distance to the waypoint. Just remember that, with handheld units, the distance is generally given “as the crow flies” — a straight-line distance to the waypoint that doesn’t include all the twists and turns and switchbacks of the trail.
You may already be familiar with some specialized waypoints, such as geocache coordinates, or the points of interest (POIs) pre-loaded in auto GPS navigators.
The SPOT Satellite Messenger is getting some new competition from personal locator beacons (PLBs). These emergency devices utilize the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system designed to aid in search and rescue missions. The advantage SPOT has enjoyed, is the ability to send non-distress signals. Today, Cobham Life Support-ACR Products announced a new service that will take advantage of PLB’s self-test function to send non-distress messages via text and email.
While PLBs are more expensive than the SPOT Satellite Messenger, this newly-leveraged functionality will be priced at $39.95 to $59.95 per year, significantly lower than SPOT’s $99.99 basic plan. Another differentiating factor is that the PLB can continue to be used for emergency extraction, even if the subscription plan expires. These advantages may help drive sales volume, allowing further reductions in unit costs.
The extent to which messages can be customized is unclear. For the most advanced functionality, the ACR PLB 350C (pictured) is required. The news release cites “the added features of multiple text and e-mail messaging, trip planning, and GPS test location.”
The Garmin Foretrex 401
