US GPS for Use in South Korea

[TrooperCam]

I am currently stationed in South Korea and would liek to do some caching while on the ROK. I want to purchase a GPS in the States and use it here in Korea. If I do purchase one in the States, where can I get local maps in English and has anyone living overseas found any difficulty using a GPS unit overseas and then bringing back to the US?

 

I would really hate to spend the money to find I have a 200 dollar paperweight when I redeploy to the US, likewise I can get a GPS unit in Seoul alas I don't read Hangul

[+x_Marks_the_spot]

I don't know for sure, having never tried, but I would bet good money that any GPS you buy here stateside would work in Korea (the "G" in GPS standing for "global" and all that). Interesting bit of history (interesting to me anyway), the Selective Availability system which previously diminished the accuracy of civilian GPS receivers was turned off during Desert Storm so soldiers who had non-military GPS receivers could use them in battle when military GPS receivers were in short supply. They worked in Iraq 17 years ago, so I would bet they'd work in Korea now.

 

All the major GPS manufacturers have mapping products which will cover all manner of regions of the world. I certainly can't speak to how accurate Korea would be on those maps, or how much money you'd spend on them.

 

As for transitioning from Korea to the US, you just have to give the unit a little extra time to figure out where it is the first time you turn it on in the new location. Depending on the unit, it may have an initialization feature to give it a little leg up by pointing it to its rough location.

 

You may also want to give this article a look. I have no idea how applicable it is to Korea, but it at least bears thinking about.

 

And thank you for your service over in Korea.

[+clatmandu]

Can't you get electonics for less over there than here stateside? What ever unit you buy, you should be able to get the handbook downloaded in English off the net. Most of the newer units have multiple languages in them, so you may have to change it to english. What about at the PX, do they have GPSr's available?

As to your question, like xMts said, it might take a little longer to get a signal, but only the first time. When you turn the unit off, it remembers where it was at that time, then when you turn it back on, it assumes you are still in the same general area and looks for the sats that should be in the sky there at that time and day. If you have moved somewhere else, expecially several hundred/thousand miles away, those sats won't be there, so it has to do a broad search to find what ones are in that area. Once it finds one, the others are found more quickly since it now knows what ones should be in the vicinity of that one.

I had no trouble using mine in Hong Kong or Nepal when I was there.

[+DonB]

I am currently stationed in South Korea and would liek to do some caching while on the ROK. I want to purchase a GPS in the States and use it here in Korea. If I do purchase one in the States, where can I get local maps in English and has anyone living overseas found any difficulty using a GPS unit overseas and then bringing back to the US?

 

I would really hate to spend the money to find I have a 200 dollar paperweight when I redeploy to the US, likewise I can get a GPS unit in Seoul alas I don't read Hangul

I don't know about the Garmin models but my Lowrance iFinder Hunt has a base map of the world, but as far as geocaching you should be able to do that without needing maps.

[+silverquill]

Okay, this is an old thread, but if one is planning to Geocache in Korea, you can bring your GPS with you and it should work fine. I brought my Garmin Colorado. The base maps are pretty basic, but adequate for geocaching. If you use the online maps to view your intended caches before you go out, the Google maps are very detailed.

 

We're shopping tomorrow for a GPS for our car. There are models with English voice and map labels. The information is very detailed with warnings for speed bumps, traffic cams, etc. and individual apartment buildings even.

 

If anyone is headed this way, drop me a note through my geocaching account -- silverquill

[Rocketsteve]

The short answer is: Yes, a GPSr will work over in the ROK. If you will be doing city caching, you might want to find yourself a KATUSA to help guide you around whatever town you will be caching in.

 

If you buy any of the "mapping" Garmin GPSr, you can go to the GPSFileDepot website and download "FREE" topo maps for the ROK (Republic of Korea):

 

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/301/

 

Units like the eTrex Legend H and the Venture HC are mapping GPSr, but both units are limited to 24 MB of internal memory. The more detailed a map is, the more memory is consumed when the maps are downloaded to the GPSr (uses up a limited amount of memory very quickly). The way to avoid this problem is to buy a GPSr that uses expandable memory, in the form of removable memory cards. I currently have a eTrex Vista HCx with a 2GB microSD card, and I have plenty of room to load all kinds of maps.

 

I was stationed @ YongSan Garrison, Seoul, Korea from April '86 to May '87.

 

Good luck and have fun pounding the ROK!!

Edited March 13, 2010 by rocketsteve