Thinking Of Going Up A Step In Units

[yawarakai]

I have the basic Garmin Etrex, it is accurate up to 80 feet according to the screen when I am out. unfortunatly that gives a lot of ground to cover when searching. I am wondering what would be a good step up from that for not much money. I see Wal Mart has the Rhino GPS and Radio for $142. Has anyone used them, and can they tell how good they are? Also are they compatible with other FRS radios as I might only have enough to buy one at a time.

[-Oz-]

I have a Rino 120 (two actually) and they claim accuracy of 20ish feet. They work will all FRS and GMRS radios. The Rinos get blown away by my 60csx though but that unit costs a lot more.

[+Miragee]

I have the Garmin Vista C and really like it. It gets a lock more quickly than the older monochrome units.

 

As I understand it, the Garmin Venture Cx is now being offered for less than $200.00 with a $50.00 Garmin rebate. Or you can find either the Vista C or Legend C on eBay for good prices since they have been discontinued. That is where I bought my GPSr.

 

I wouldn't get the Rhino unless you were hiking with someone else who also had that same unit. You will be better off getting a separate radio if you really need one.

[PengJie]

I'm curious as to what circumstances are resulting in your getting only 80-foot accuracy?

 

All I have is the basic Garmin eTrex. I haven't done a whole bunch, but I've used it in Edmonton (Alberta), Florida, Massachusetts, and the mountains of Maine, and it does fine; usually with 20-25' accuracy. The only time I've seen 80-foot accuracy is when it can't see all four satellites.

Edited August 3, 2006 by PengJie

[+Renegade Knight]

Check out the GPS V as a step up or three for fairly cheap considering what you get with it.

 

The Legend (Black and White or Color) is inexpensive as well.

 

Nobody has mentioned a bad GPS above me either. As was pointed out your accuracy is worse than it should be. The upgrades will give you WAAS but a lot of people don't use that so while it helps it won't help you much.

 

The people I know with Rhino's like them though if they have two GPSs they like the stand alone GPS better as a GPS.

[-Oz-]

Make sure you don't have battery saver on. One of my Rino's was using that mode and it had awful accuracy, turned that off and the accuracy improved a lot, quickly.

[yawarakai]

I have the Garmin Vista C and really like it. It gets a lock more quickly than the older monochrome units.

 

As I understand it, the Garmin Venture Cx is now being offered for less than $200.00 with a $50.00 Garmin rebate. Or you can find either the Vista C or Legend C on eBay for good prices since they have been discontinued. That is where I bought my GPSr.

 

I wouldn't get the Rhino unless you were hiking with someone else who also had that same unit. You will be better off getting a separate radio if you really need one.

 

A friend of mine is thinking of getting a Rhino 110 for himself also. We both do security work and a third friend might get one for security work. My etrex I got 20 - 30 feet accuracy until I hit the woods.

[+triturtle]

I have the basic Garmin Etrex, it is accurate up to 80 feet according to the screen when I am out. unfortunatly that gives a lot of ground to cover when searching. I am wondering what would be a good step up from that for not much money. I see Wal Mart has the Rhino GPS and Radio for $142. Has anyone used them, and can they tell how good they are? Also are they compatible with other FRS radios as I might only have enough to buy one at a time.

I bought a Garmin etrex Legend Cx for my first unit. I kind of wished I would have bucked up for the more accurate 60CSx, but the Legend is a great unit. For what it is worth, I bought my unit and mapping software from gpsnow.com - they were very helpful on the phone and have great prices.

 

Now... is it time for me to upgrade?

[+Searching_ut]

Unless you're having reception problems, about the only improvement you'll get as far as basic accuracy will come from WAAS. There are lot's of other things that have improved over the years though, so it's definately worth looking into for reception improvements, mapping capability, FRS radio, or whatever other newer features are to your liking.

 

As for the 80 foot accuracy you're reporting with your etrex yellow, I'll assume you mean the EPE estimate, which is basically just a wild guess. There are some good reasons to suggest it's a fairly educated guess, but in the end, it may or may not mean anything. What sort of firmware do you have loaded in your etrex? That unit came out in the old SA days, and the early firmware was very conservative on what it displayed for the EPE. Later updates to the software report considerably smaller EPE figures than the old software did. In the end though, the real accuracy was always the same, it's just the guess as to how accurate the unit might be under the current satellite config that has changed over the years.

[yawarakai]

Unless you're having reception problems, about the only improvement you'll get as far as basic accuracy will come from WAAS. There are lot's of other things that have improved over the years though, so it's definately worth looking into for reception improvements, mapping capability, FRS radio, or whatever other newer features are to your liking.

 

As for the 80 foot accuracy you're reporting with your etrex yellow, I'll assume you mean the EPE estimate, which is basically just a wild guess. There are some good reasons to suggest it's a fairly educated guess, but in the end, it may or may not mean anything. What sort of firmware do you have loaded in your etrex? That unit came out in the old SA days, and the early firmware was very conservative on what it displayed for the EPE. Later updates to the software report considerably smaller EPE figures than the old software did. In the end though, the real accuracy was always the same, it's just the guess as to how accurate the unit might be under the current satellite config that has changed over the years.

 

Well I never did anything with the unit, I purchased it 4 years ago from Wal mart and that was it. I used it to do geocaching finding stuff. I tried putting out 2 caches but got reports that the co-ordinates were off with them.