aussie gps

[+dbanksy]

hi im from downunder and looking for some suggestions on a new (up grade) gps. hubby wants his old garmin e trex (and i mean old, by its probably the first e trex model out) back for his fishing (yes i pinched it for geocaching). so i told him i want a new one for mothers day, then he can have his back...lol.

so when i started looking, reading, searching it started to get really confusing, i went straight to the garmin models as this is the only brand i have used and known. so here goes on what i think i would like in a gps;

 

compass

ability to add maps; so if needed i can add road ones or others, down the line.

external antenna; hubby said this would give me better accuracy.

colour screen; would be nice, but not essential.

paperless; at the moment i write everything down on a notepad (i dont have the cable for the computer).

 

any suggestions would be great, oh guess you need a price range, well around the $300 aussie dollar mark would be good ;p

thanks

[+mpilchfamily]

All Garmin units have the ability to add maps.

External antenna doesn't improve anything. The GPSr is a single chip with the antenna and other components built into the package. So weather its internal or not doesn't affect its reception. It will still be surrounded by the same amount of material either way and have the same "view" of the sky.

 

With your price range you have several options. Personally i have a Dakota 10 but your budget should be able to get you a Dakota 20.

[jholly]

All Garmin units have the ability to add maps.

not true

[+Panda Inc]

hi im from downunder and looking for some suggestions on a new (up grade) gps. hubby wants his old garmin e trex (and i mean old, by its probably the first e trex model out) back for his fishing (yes i pinched it for geocaching). so i told him i want a new one for mothers day, then he can have his back...lol.

so when i started looking, reading, searching it started to get really confusing, i went straight to the garmin models as this is the only brand i have used and known. so here goes on what i think i would like in a gps;

 

compass

ability to add maps; so if needed i can add road ones or others, down the line.

external antenna; hubby said this would give me better accuracy.

colour screen; would be nice, but not essential.

paperless; at the moment i write everything down on a notepad (i dont have the cable for the computer).

 

any suggestions would be great, oh guess you need a price range, well around the $300 aussie dollar mark would be good ;p

thanks

My wife is presently in Victoria using our old DeLorme PN-40. I loaded it with maps and aerial photography before she left. So far she has 8 finds and one DNF. But DeLorme and Garmin have different, proprietary maps so youmay wish to stick with a Garmin but check to make sure the maps for the unit you are going to buy will work with the unit you already have.

Cheers,

PandA

[+julianh]

hi im from downunder and looking for some suggestions on a new (up grade) gps. hubby wants his old garmin e trex (and i mean old, by its probably the first e trex model out) back for his fishing (yes i pinched it for geocaching). so i told him i want a new one for mothers day, then he can have his back...lol.

so when i started looking, reading, searching it started to get really confusing, i went straight to the garmin models as this is the only brand i have used and known. so here goes on what i think i would like in a gps;

 

compass

ability to add maps; so if needed i can add road ones or others, down the line.

external antenna; hubby said this would give me better accuracy.

colour screen; would be nice, but not essential.

paperless; at the moment i write everything down on a notepad (i dont have the cable for the computer).

 

any suggestions would be great, oh guess you need a price range, well around the $300 aussie dollar mark would be good ;p

thanks

My main suggestion would be to get any current model Garmin mapping unit that is in your price range, and then download and install the free ShonkyMaps from http://shonkylogic.net/shonkymaps/ (don't let the name put you off - it's 100% legitimate!), which will give you 1:250,000 topographic maps for all of Australia. You can use this as a starting point, and see whether you think you need to pay for proprietary Garmin maps, such as street maps for car navigation, higher resolution topo maps, etc.

 

Colour screen is HIGHLY recommended for a mapping unit - trying to use full-colour maps on a grey-scale screen can be pretty tricky. (Almost all recent mapping units would have colour screens, but there are still older grey-scale units in-store at plenty of places I have been to recently, like Anaconda.)

 

External antenna? Forget it - it might have been advisable once upon a time, but just make sure you get a recent model with high-sensitivity chipset - these will hold a lock under VERY heavy tree cover. Again, nearly all recent units are high-sensitivity, but Anaconda etc still stock some older low-sensitivity models. (e.g. I use a Garmin Summit HC which I have owned for 3 or 4 years now; it works fine even in dense tropical rainforest.)

 

Paperless means you probably want to look at the Oregon / Dakota range - these models should tick all of your boxes.

 

Just be warned - most Garmin map-sets in Australia are licenced for only a single unit, so you would need to buy two licences to install on both a hand-held and a car sat-nav - and you can't put Garmin maps onto a TomTom sat-nav, etc.

 

Note also that most hand-helds make pretty poor substitutes for dedicated in-car navigation (small screen, feeble voice prompts, etc), and most car units are not ideal for hiking (fragile, limited battery life, not fully water-proof, etc). While it is possible to get a single unit which can act as both a hiking unit and an in-car unit, it will probabaly not be ideal for both tasks.

 

Hope this helps!

Edited May 8, 2011 by julianh

[+dbanksy]

thanks that has given me something to think about, cause i hadnt thought about the dakota or oregon.

hi im from downunder and looking for some suggestions on a new (up grade) gps. hubby wants his old garmin e trex (and i mean old, by its probably the first e trex model out) back for his fishing (yes i pinched it for geocaching). so i told him i want a new one for mothers day, then he can have his back...lol.

so when i started looking, reading, searching it started to get really confusing, i went straight to the garmin models as this is the only brand i have used and known. so here goes on what i think i would like in a gps;

 

compass

ability to add maps; so if needed i can add road ones or others, down the line.

external antenna; hubby said this would give me better accuracy.

colour screen; would be nice, but not essential.

paperless; at the moment i write everything down on a notepad (i dont have the cable for the computer).

 

any suggestions would be great, oh guess you need a price range, well around the $300 aussie dollar mark would be good ;p

thanks

My main suggestion would be to get any current model Garmin mapping unit that is in your price range, and then download and install the free ShonkyMaps from http://shonkylogic.net/shonkymaps/ (don't let the name put you off - it's 100% legitimate!), which will give you 1:250,000 topographic maps for all of Australia. You can use this as a starting point, and see whether you think you need to pay for proprietary Garmin maps, such as street maps for car navigation, higher resolution topo maps, etc.

 

Colour screen is HIGHLY recommended for a mapping unit - trying to use full-colour maps on a grey-scale screen can be pretty tricky. (Almost all recent mapping units would have colour screens, but there are still older grey-scale units in-store at plenty of places I have been to recently, like Anaconda.)

 

External antenna? Forget it - it might have been advisable once upon a time, but just make sure you get a recent model with high-sensitivity chipset - these will hold a lock under VERY heavy tree cover. Again, nearly all recent units are high-sensitivity, but Anaconda etc still stock some older low-sensitivity models. (e.g. I use a Garmin Summit HC which I have owned for 3 or 4 years now; it works fine even in dense tropical rainforest.)

 

Paperless means you probably want to look at the Oregon / Dakota range - these models should tick all of your boxes.

 

Just be warned - most Garmin map-sets in Australia are licenced for only a single unit, so you would need to buy two licences to install on both a hand-held and a car sat-nav - and you can't put Garmin maps onto a TomTom sat-nav, etc.

 

Note also that most hand-helds make pretty poor substitutes for dedicated in-car navigation (small screen, feeble voice prompts, etc), and most car units are not ideal for hiking (fragile, limited battery life, not fully water-proof, etc). While it is possible to get a single unit which can act as both a hiking unit and an in-car unit, it will probabaly not be ideal for both tasks.

 

Hope this helps!