Lowrance Expedition

[Reth]

I have seen a post somewhere that stated the Lowrance Expedition C uses the Sirf III chipset. I have emailed Lowrance and they replied that that information was proprietary. So I then emailed them asking what the sensitivity rating of the unit was and they never replied at all.

 

Does anyone have this info? I am considering purchasing this unit, but now I am having second thoughts based on my experience with their customer service.

[+drbugs]

There are several posts in the forums that mention certain lowrance models using sirfIII, some like THIS and This One

 

A friend of mine just picked up an Ifinder with mp3 capability. Pretty nice unit. No autorouting on the device from what I remember though (but I could be wrong).

 

Good luck!

Randy

[Reth]

The answer to the question about a lowrance is it almost went into the creek while geocaching in the parks. I had just got my new 60 csx and my work budy just recieved his Lowrance hunter c. While hiking in the woods he kept asking me what the coordinates were that my csx was reading. After about 10 minutes of the annoying questions I asked him why he kept asking me for the coor. He replied that the Lowrance had only locked onto one sat. About another 10 minutes had passed and I had noticed that he wasn't even close to the cache we were looking for. I asked him what his gps was reading and he replied "I don't know. I left it somewhere on a rock back there about 5 min. ago because it would't lock onto anymore sat. and I was getting ready to throw it in the creek." Needless to say, the lowrance was returned and a 60 csx was bought to replace the lowrance that just did't perform under tree coverage. I am sure there are many stories about all manufactures gps units. Happy hunting. Wiiiillllmaaa!!!! WERE'S my gps!!!!

 

If both of these units use the SirfIII chip why would one outperform the other as reported above? Why does Lowrance state their unit has 16 channels when the SirfIII chip supposedly has 20?

 

I finally got a reply from Lowrance regarding the sensitivity of the Expedition and here is what they stated:

 

Sensitivity Tracking -150dBm

Reacquisition -147dBm

-141 hot/warm acquisition

135dBm cold acquisition

[+synergicity]

The 60csx advertises 12 channels, so who knows. It's marketing.

 

All I can say is that side by side with my Magellan Sportrak Map I get faster acquisition and better lock with the Expedition - and way better performance under tree cover. I just did a hike in the woods (redwoods) with track points every second and it didn't lose lock once, over 3645 points with zero outliers, most of the time I had 6 or more satellites, 2-4 on the Sportrak.

 

It sounds like the Hunt C below was broken or he didn't properly initialize. Beware that there are bad anecodotal stories about every brand and model of GPS. Take them and mine with a grain of salt.

 

 

The answer to the question about a lowrance is it almost went into the creek while geocaching in the parks. I had just got my new 60 csx and my work budy just recieved his Lowrance hunter c. While hiking in the woods he kept asking me what the coordinates were that my csx was reading. After about 10 minutes of the annoying questions I asked him why he kept asking me for the coor. He replied that the Lowrance had only locked onto one sat. About another 10 minutes had passed and I had noticed that he wasn't even close to the cache we were looking for. I asked him what his gps was reading and he replied "I don't know. I left it somewhere on a rock back there about 5 min. ago because it would't lock onto anymore sat. and I was getting ready to throw it in the creek." Needless to say, the lowrance was returned and a 60 csx was bought to replace the lowrance that just did't perform under tree coverage. I am sure there are many stories about all manufactures gps units. Happy hunting. Wiiiillllmaaa!!!! WERE'S my gps!!!!

 

If both of these units use the SirfIII chip why would one outperform the other as reported above? Why does Lowrance state their unit has 16 channels when the SirfIII chip supposedly has 20?

 

I finally got a reply from Lowrance regarding the sensitivity of the Expedition and here is what they stated:

 

Sensitivity Tracking -150dBm

Reacquisition -147dBm

-141 hot/warm acquisition

135dBm cold acquisition

[peter]

I finally got a reply from Lowrance regarding the sensitivity of the Expedition and here is what they stated:

 

Sensitivity Tracking -150dBm

Reacquisition -147dBm

-141 hot/warm acquisition

135dBm cold acquisition

 

For comparison SiRF gives the following for the III:

Tracking sens. -159 dBm

Hot acq. meas. with 7 SV @ -153 dBm and one @ -145 dBm

Cold acq. down to -144 dBm

 

So either Lowrance is using a less sensitive device or they believe in quoting more conservative specs.

[+Airmapper]

I'd believe they would be conservative, just look at the EPE readings beside say, a Garmin. The Lowrance will have a better lock and point return, but a high EPE, but the Garmin will jump around with 6 foot EPE.

[territorytreasure]

The 60csx advertises 12 channels, so who knows. It's marketing.

 

All I can say is that side by side with my Magellan Sportrak Map I get faster acquisition and better lock with the Expedition - and way better performance under tree cover. I just did a hike in the woods (redwoods) with track points every second and it didn't lose lock once, over 3645 points with zero outliers, most of the time I had 6 or more satellites, 2-4 on the Sportrak.

 

It sounds like the Hunt C below was broken or he didn't properly initialize. Beware that there are bad anecodotal stories about every brand and model of GPS. Take them and mine with a grain of salt.

 

 

The answer to the question about a lowrance is it almost went into the creek while geocaching in the parks. I had just got my new 60 csx and my work budy just recieved his Lowrance hunter c. While hiking in the woods he kept asking me what the coordinates were that my csx was reading. After about 10 minutes of the annoying questions I asked him why he kept asking me for the coor. He replied that the Lowrance had only locked onto one sat. About another 10 minutes had passed and I had noticed that he wasn't even close to the cache we were looking for. I asked him what his gps was reading and he replied "I don't know. I left it somewhere on a rock back there about 5 min. ago because it would't lock onto anymore sat. and I was getting ready to throw it in the creek." Needless to say, the lowrance was returned and a 60 csx was bought to replace the lowrance that just did't perform under tree coverage. I am sure there are many stories about all manufactures gps units. Happy hunting. Wiiiillllmaaa!!!! WERE'S my gps!!!!

 

If both of these units use the SirfIII chip why would one outperform the other as reported above? Why does Lowrance state their unit has 16 channels when the SirfIII chip supposedly has 20?

 

I finally got a reply from Lowrance regarding the sensitivity of the Expedition and here is what they stated:

 

Sensitivity Tracking -150dBm

Reacquisition -147dBm

-141 hot/warm acquisition

135dBm cold acquisition

[territorytreasure]

I have been very concerned about purchasing a Garmin 60CSX, for the money it should come with trail smoothing like the Lowrance Hunt Unit, so your trails don't creep around on you. I know that Garmin Acquisition time is much better than its older models but signal strength is only competitive now with Lowrance and Magellan, The basemap on the Lowrance Hunt is better and one can purchase a Lowrance Hunt C with very detailed software for under 400.00 The Lowrance Menus are "Dos" compared to the Garmin "Window" Format but ultimately one reads the menu text before choosing a picture icon for the most part. Lowrance Hunt does not have Autorouting but the Navigation feature is very clean and accurate. I like the feel of the Lowrance with the rubber felt liner around the entire unit which makes it easier to hold in one hand, the Garmin plastic is slippery and if you don't hold onto the bottow rubber portion of the unit you might just see the unit fall. The Lowrance Hunt has comparable features like the 60CSX has such as a Barometer with History data, It has a very good Electronic Compass, and Hunter exclusive icons if you like that. I have read of many problems with the 500.00 Garmin 60CSX which problems don't exist with the Lowrance Hunt. I haven't had a Lowrance Color unit with 16 channels yet, but was impressed with the Lowrance Hunt over Magellan Explorist units 500-XL. The ability to adjust features on the Lowrance is great. As a Buyer by profession, Customer Support for a product is vital, and these are my results, If you are able to get a hold of a Garmin rep during business hours, it will be after being on hold for 10-30 minutes, and the rush to get you off the phone by the rep is severe and you feel rushed to ask all your questions. The Garmin email is ok if you just expect a response in 24-48 hours. Magellan, forget it, I had on multiple times sent emails and they wouldn't respond in over a week. Lowrance Customer Service is the best. with email response in 24-48 hours and I have received phone calls from Lowrance Reps to discuss in detail my questions, and they are friendly and represent their products very well. I really don't know which unit I will purchase: The Lowrance Hunt C or the Garmin 60csx. But these are my experiences so far.. I am open to more experienced input by both types of GPS Users. Thank you.