Lowrance Expedition C - Comments?

[+OHMIKY]

I just posted this as a reply to a different post, but considering that the post already has about 50 replies, my question may not be read or responded to. Please bear with me if you read this twice.

 

I had the H2O until yesterday morning when I was the victim of a smash and grab. I am wondering if the remote antenna on my roof was a giveaway for the gps unit tucked away in the center console. Now I am considering upgrading but I will stick with Lowrance - I love the unit for its speed, accuracy and the fact that I have developed a familiarity with those confusing menus. Also, I still have the MapCreate software I bought with the H2O so I can avoid an additional expense by buying a compatible outfit. I am looking at the Expedition C - so if anyone has comments about that model, I would really appreciate some feedback.

 

notes: I have very little interest in the MP3 player - I enjoy the sounds of nature and would not likely listen to music while caching and I have a fine cd player in the car, so that feature is really a useless bell or whistle as far as I am concerned, but the barometric altimeter and the electronic compass seem like potentially useful features.

 

Carry On

[+MAG315]

I've had and Expedition for a couple of months now and so far, I'm really happy with it. It gets a satellite lock fairly quickly and holds it even under dense tree cover. There is no lag like my Magellan Meridian had so you can just walk right up to a cache if the coords are anywhere near right. One feature I really like is the onboard compass. I was recently hunting a micro cache in an area where there were many steep, vertical rock faces. This was causing me to get erroneous readings as to where the cache was located. I switched the map orientation to the "heading" setting and the compasse rotated it around and pointed right to the cache, which I located in a few minutes. When I first got the unit, I thought the shiny case and exposed screen cover would be easy to scratch but so far, it hasn't been a problem. I bought a good GPS carrying case and that has helped keep the unit looking new. There are so many menus and so many ways to customize this unit, it does take some time to get used to. At first, there were some things about it that I didn't like but after I figured them out, I can see how the way Lowrance does things is actually better and easier in most respects. I think that anyone who doesn't at least look at the Lowrance units is really doing themselves a disservice. Hope this helps.

[+OHMIKY]

Thanks, it does help.. I am sold on the Lowrance menu setup - it has a steep learning curve but I doubt that this unit is a great deal different than my old H2O so I expect to be up to speed on it in a matter of minutes.

[CO-Zman]

OHMIKY,

I just got my AirMap 600c (Aviation brother to Expedition C) and it is AWESOME!

 

No MP3 capablilty, but has all the A/C use that I wanted along w/ landlubber functions.

 

The color screen is the cats meyow. Incredible resolution. I have been getting 13' EPE's thru the car windshield w/o the active external antenna that came with it. I imagine you will see the same.

 

They are power hungry, though. NiMH rechargeables are definitely a plus, and eco-friendly

 

Synergicity has many posts here on his experiences w/ the Exp. C. Do a search on his name to find them. He has gotten good life w/ 2500 mAh NiMH's, so the battery life problem is probably more specific to my model.

 

I'm sold on the things. I agree on the menu structure being intricate, but it didn't take that long to get comfortable with it.

 

Good luck on your purchase. I noticed that Lake Powell Marine has good prices, and has gotten good reviews.

 

Z

[+OHMIKY]

tnx! I ordered one today from GPSdude who had the lowest price I could find online (about $260)