Magellan Sportrak Topo

[Karl360]

Since Christmas is coming up I am thinking of asking my wife for a new GPS. I want something that has topographical maps and after searching the Magellan site the Sportrak Topo caught my eye.

Anyone out there who owns this GPS have any thoughts about it?

I live in Hawaii, do a lot of caching under dense tree cover.. Does it do well under trees? Is the topo software detailed? Does the "NorthFinder" work well?

I currently have the basic Garmen Etrex, and I do like it, but it has no map functions and does SUPER poorly under trees and near mountains.

Any feed back would be great.. -Karl

[+embra]

I have MapSend Topo on a Meridian, so I have no personal SporTrack experience. SporTrack users seem happy with their units. Northfinder works nicely (as long as it's not cloudy), and the maps are pretty good in my neck of the woods. Good signal lock even in foliage.

 

There are reports of inaccuracies in certain locales, and guess where one of them is...yup. Someone in the Yahoo group mentioned going there on vacation and seeing her position a quarter-mile offshore. If you do most of your cache hunting in Hawaii, you might want to stick with Garmin--if you need topo maps, anyway. The new DirectRoute maps are supposed to be very accurate, if you don't need topo.

 

Also, I would think the SporTrack Topo would be good for someone traveling all over the US. But someone sticking to a single locale could probably get away with something carrying a smaller map set...probably save some $.

[sneakypete]

I bought my SporTrak Topo about a month ago.

 

The first thing I noticed is that the thing picks up signals in the city, on the lake, in the woods, on the road, and even in my house! I have spent probably 150 hours using this thing so far in the boonies (deep woods in the U.P. of Michigan... when the trees still had leaves) and have never lost a signal including a trip into a 100' deep rock cut on a waterfall hunt. So, this thing gets an A+ for reception.

 

The unit is just big enough to handle without it feeling too big, and just small enough to carry on my belt or in my backpack webbing with no problem. It's about the size of a cellphone and about as comfortable as you can get. The buttons are about the right size. Not too big or too small. No joysticks. Menus can be tricky to learn, but once you get the hang of it, you can really make hay. I give this toy an A for comfort & ease of use.

 

The resolution isn't perfect, but you can adjust the zoom to get the clarity you need to really take advantage of the topo lines. Hell, the whole reason I bought this thing was I enjoy hiking in the boonies and I like walking up hills. Anyhow... I'm getting off track. The resolution isn't as good as my buddy's Garmin, but he's always looking at me asking "how far to that hill over there..." The topo data is very accurate for everywhere I've been up here except for a few spots. For instance, Lake Superior is at 600-603' (depeding on her mood), and there are a few areas where the thing reads 595' when you go inland about 50'. Weird... On the other hand, I live at 986' and the topo data says I'm at 982' (but when I hold it I'm at 986'). You can also project topo details of the course you are on as well as roads. Northfinder works fine. Bottom line is the topo is very useful but not 100% accurate (more like 90%) B for resolution... B+ for topo accuracy (but it does what I wanted it to, so I'm happy).

 

The software kicks butt. I mean... it really kicks some serious butt! I go on these 4 day hikes and come back and upload all the data of my hike onto my PC and fire up the Magellan Topo software and it tells me everywhere I was, how fast I was moving, what elevation I was at, and all kinds of other stuff I don't really need to know but just like looking at and thinking "uhhh... cool". I was a little dissapointed that you can't upload detailed maps of the entire midwest onto the GPS due to space limitations, but I do have a huge swath of Minnesota, Wisconsin, the entire U.P., and a huge chunk of northern lower Michigan on this baby. When you get into the detailed maps, you can find two-tracks and railroad grades- that's pretty good detail. It also has a ton of points of interest on there too. It's cool finding stuff out in the woods that I didn't even know was there. I'm still learning the ins & outs but I'm already blown away by it. One thing I learned it that you can upload 4 different "boxes" to the GPS at once, so you can kind of create a patchwork of areas that you like to roam in. That was good to finally figure out. So this thing gets an A+ for the software.

 

Since I don't live anywhere near Hawaii, I can't tell you what you're getting into with a Topo out your way. However, I can say if you're in northern Michigan or Wisconsin... this thing works like a charm. Overall, it gets an A from me.

 

Probably more than you wanted to know... but good luck!

[+5cachers]

When I was shopping I also looked at this unit. Based on the specs, it appears that the Sportrak Topo is basically a Sportrak with tons of memory (~100mb, if I remember correctly). If you want to spend a little less, purchase a Sportrak Pro or Map and purchase the Mapsend Topo SW ($50 rebate with the purchase of a Sportrak or Meridian). You could also get a Meridian, which has a SD slot for expandable memory.

I purchased a Sportrak Pro and the Mapsend Topo SW. Works great for me!

[larrydam]

i have one and used it in kawai. worked just fine once it locked on the satillites. on a road with tall trees it was slow to lock on.

[birchfinch]

The Sportrak Topo has been out a while now and I've been waiting for more reviews. Anyone? Anyone?

[Dosido]

I've had my Sportrak Topo for quite awhile now (maybe 4 months). My only other unit was a Magellan Companion for my Handspring.

 

I love the Sportrak, and bought it specifically for the topo feature. Compared to a Sportrak Map - which a friend of mine has - it's pretty sweet. I like the topo feature, as it allows me to go hiking (and geocaching) while being able to see the terrain which can change your mind about how to attack certain caches - whether the cache is on the other side of the hill, or right on top, for example.

 

The topos are pretty good, but the basemap of streets is pretty weak (the same with all the Sportrak line I'd imagine). However, with the addition of the Mapsend Topo CD which comes with the STT, you can get very good street coverage - for a limited area. You can select a region off the CD and upload it to the GPS, and the map for that area will show up highly detailed on the GPS whereas the rest of the US will still be at the lower detail.

 

However, comparing the STM (not typically sold with the Mapsend Topo, I don't believe) with the STT, you can upload 16MB to the STT and 8 to the STM. I was able to upload all of MA, CT and RI to my GPS (about 12mb), but my friend could only upload Eastern MA, and RI to his, as he didn't have enough room to upload any more area due to the lower limit on memory. The 12MB upload did take about 20 minutes, though.

 

This is probably anecdotal evidence, but when caching with my STM friend, I almost always got better GPS accuracy (IOW, beat him to the cache location) and faster lock than he did - however, recent firmware upgrades seem to have evened this out. Again - not scientific, but it was noticeable.

 

I've never had a problem getting an initial lock with the unit - in overcast skies, storms etc., (could never do that with my Companion) and I have traveled several times over 500 miles with it off, and I can always get a lock in around a minute - travelling locally I get a lock in much less time. Not that it can't be foiled - I have lost signal in heavy tree cover and in Norfolk among the tall buildings.

 

All in all, I think it's a great unit, and I won't give it up! BTW - I also like Magellans customer support. I broke the lanyard attachment off while caching and sent an email in asking if I could get a replacement - 3 days later I had a new battery holder/lanyard attachment for free.

 

Brian

[birchfinch]

So, for $269 (at Harmony), is this the one?

 

Includes:

 

Sportrak Topo unit

Magellan Topo Software

Shipping

 

Whaddya think? If you're getting your first one, is this the best way to spend $269?