Merasheen Posted January 16, 2003 Share Posted January 16, 2003 I am a first time buyer looking at both of these models . I do hiking some boating but already have a radar ,etc, looking at doing some geocaching , and enjoying the outdoors as well as the back roads of alberta. Can you help me decide which one . or even some pro and cons. thanks Quote Link to comment
+Desert_Warrior Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Merasheen:I am a first time buyer looking at both of these models . I do hiking some boating but already have a radar ,etc, looking at doing some geocaching , and enjoying the outdoors as well as the back roads of alberta. Can you help me decide which one . or even some pro and cons. thanks WOW... I thought I would be in a small minority, having a working X-band Dopplar radar at home. (I am a ham op, and I have experience in radar). What do you have? To answer your question, it depends. If you like the Garmin E-Trex series, get at least the Venture. The Legend is good too. For the few $$$ more it offers a lot more over the basic yellow E-Trex, plus comes with the computer cable. There has been discussion on the Sporttrack series seeing the satellites better. I don't think that has been totally proven yet, but the E-Trex has a better display, longer battery life, smaller size and weight, and better user interface (with one hand operation) than the Magellan. I STRONGLY recommend you read some of the forums, especially the GPS UNITS AND SOFTWARE area. Then go to your local outdoors store and look at a few. Take them outside if you can, and spend some time playing. Then decide. And just so I don't get stomped on for stomping on newbees, WELCOME TO GEOCACHING! *grin* Have a GREAT weekend. Mike. Desert_Warrior (aka KD9KC). El Paso, Texas. Citizens of this land may own guns. Not to threaten their neighbors, but to ensure themselves of liberty and freedom. They are not assault weapons anymore... they are HOMELAND DEFENSE WEAPONS! Quote Link to comment
+Mopar Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Desert_Warrior: WOW... I thought I would be in a small minority, having a working X-band Dopplar radar at home. (I am a ham op, and I have experience in radar). What do you have? Having RADAR on your boat is fairly common these days. Having a unit on your HOUSE however.........! Is there a reason for it, other then "the geek who dies with the most toys, wins"? Tae-Kwon-Leap is not a path to a door, but a road leading forever towards the horizon. Quote Link to comment
Cracker. Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 Its probably for detecting aerial A@@-Blasters..... Desert Warrior, your name wouldnt happen to be Burt Gummer, would it?.... By the way, I used to work on Doppler and a few other things as an Avionics Tech in the Corps... My fave was the ARN-159, Nav/Weather radar out of the C-130's. Looked like a black beer keg, & weighed about 80lbs....leaked (I mean,) put out like 50K watts! Art www.yankeetoys.org www.BudBuilt.com http://www.ttora-ne.mainpage.net/ Quote Link to comment
+Desert_Warrior Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 It is a portable system. It runs on 12 VDC, and output power is limited to a few watts ERP. Some years ago I enjoyed playing with it where the speed limits were 55 mph and below. I would cruise (troll) the right lane at 55, and anything that went past me in the left was speeding. I would give them about 100 yards, then check their brake lights by turning on the radar. You could get some spectacular reactions from truck drivers. It was even better if you could monitor CB ch-19 at the same time. Since the speed limit is now 75 in most of the area, it isn't as much fun anymore. Still, it was entertaining on a Friday night some years ago. Mike. Desert_Warrior (aka KD9KC). El Paso, Texas. Citizens of this land may own guns. Not to threaten their neighbors, but to ensure themselves of liberty and freedom. They are not assault weapons anymore... they are HOMELAND DEFENSE WEAPONS! Quote Link to comment
+Bev and John Posted January 18, 2003 Share Posted January 18, 2003 I have used both models, and I have to say I love The sportrax. The basemap seems to be better, I have used it in Ky, In, Tn, SC, NC,GA and everywhere we went was on the base maps. Heck it even had gravel roads and dirt roads marked.The etrex did not have alot of these areas marked. I do like the display of the etrex alittle more. Other than that I will be selling the etrex and keeping the sportrax. Just my opinion, btw I dont work for Magellan either. Quote Link to comment
+Searching_ut Posted January 18, 2003 Share Posted January 18, 2003 quote: Originally by Cache Masters: The basemap seems to be better.... I would suspect Cache Master is lucky enough to have the Sportrak Pro rather than the Sportrak Map. I've found the sportrak map basemap to have a fair bit less information for my area than the eTrex Legend basemap does. The pro has a different basemap though, which I haven't really used so I can't compare it. Then again, there may be a big difference in regards to what area you're looking at as well. My comparisons have only been in the rocky mountain area as my Sportrak hasn't been able to take a good road trip yet.... I have both a Sportrak map (2 in fact) and an eTrex legend and prefer the Legend overall for the following reasons. The Legend has proven itself tough and robust wheras my Sportak has had some ruggedness problems. The legend has a more detailed display I find more useful in the field. I like to keep my receiver immediately available and in a postion to record good track logs. I find the eTrex fits a little better on my pack strap than my sportrak does. The size difference really isn't that great, but the Sportrak seems huge in the field by comparison. I prefer the Legends track recording capability over that of my sportrak. I prefer the Legends TOPO software and the units operating software over that of my legends. The software changes fairly regularly though, but for now, I still prefer the Legend Trip computer etc. For what it's worth Jeff http://home.sprynet.com/~searching_ut/ Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.