GPS

mojo said:

I'm wanting to buy a GPS.

Garmin seem to be popular but from what I've read Magella seem to be
better. Does anyone have any experience of these GPS?

Define "better"...

Furthermore, Garmin and Magellan aren't the only games in town.

If you can say what you want to get out of the unit when you have
it, what is your budget etc. and then the folk that know the field
can point you at specific models which will best suit your needs.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

mojo said:

Garmin seem to be popular but from what I've read Magella seem to be
better.

Better in what way? Depends what features you want.

Garmin are popular for good reason, they're very good, but so are Magellan,
and don't forget Lowrance.

Pretty much all map/GPS software supports Garmin, Magellan are not quite so
well supported, Lowrance the least. To get the best out of any GPS you
should use it in conjunction with mapping software, so it's worth deciding
what software you'd like to use with it before you decide on a GPS model, to
make sure that the software supports it. You won't go far wrong with
Garmin, but if considering Magellan or Lowrance, check the software support
first.

Paul

mojo said:

I'm wanting to buy a GPS.

Garmin seem to be popular but from what I've read Magella seem to be
better. Does anyone have any experience of these GPS?

MoJo

I've got a Magellan Meridian (so not the latest Explorist model) and
would say that although it has some advantages over Garmin there are
matching arguments for either.

The Magellan's best feature is the availability of large, cheap
storage for maps (SD card). If you don't care about maps this is
obviously unimportant. Other good points are the ability to save
named tracks to the SD card, a good solid power/data connector,
and a recent upgrade which added street routing to a unit which
previously couldn't do that. It also has very sensitive reception
(at least, compared with etrex). Most of these advantages have,
I suspect, been superceded by the Garmin 60 except for the SD card -
but I don't own one of those so can't speak from direct experience.

On the down side, the magellan is poor at statistical measurements
such as average speed, time spent in motion etc. which may be of
interest to walkers. The latest firmware wastes battery life by
turning the backlight on unnecessarily (this is an enhancement
for use in the car in street routes, but poorly implemented for
walking).

Magellan is also the only company to produce UK topo maps. However,
you need a colour model to get the best out of these and they
miss a lot of useful detail. Useful, but nothing like a replacement
for an OS map.

-adrian

Adrian Godwin said:

mojo said:

I'm wanting to buy a GPS.

Garmin seem to be popular but from what I've read Magella seem to be
better. Does anyone have any experience of these GPS?

MoJo

<snip>

I use a Garmin GPSMAP 60CS which,it seems to me,does most things rather
well.

Coloured display,autorouting,geocaching,good battery life,suitable for hill
walking.

Bear in mind though that if you want mapping and autorouting over and above
the basemap,which is not changeable,you will need to purchase it on top of
the GPS and it is not cheap.

If you are in Europe/UK be careful to only purchase a unit with the
UK/Europe basemap and not one of the grey USA basemap imports.

Another thing,it is strongly rumoured that Garmin will be bringing out a
range of upgraded units with faster chips and memory cards in the near
future.The above unit for instance will be known as the 60CSx with a similar
name change accross the range.

If you can wait it might be worthwhile hanging on for one of
these.Alternatively,the present range may be discounted (
globalposiitioningsystems.co.uk have already knocked 50GBP off the above
model ).

As previous posters have said,it depends on what you want to use it for,but
the above model seems to cover most applications.

Sam Salt

Peter Clinch said:

mojo said:

I'm wanting to buy a GPS.

Define "better"...

Agree with Pete - why do you want a GPS? What features - functions -
capability are you looking for? What of the previous are essential,
what are nice to have?

David.

In message <[email hidden]>, mojo
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

I'm wanting to buy a GPS.

Garmin seem to be popular but from what I've read Magella seem to be
better. Does anyone have any experience of these GPS?

MoJo

I wouldn't ask here. We only approve of the use of sextants, Harrison
chronometers and Mercator globes in this newsgroup.

--
Martin Richardson
271/284 Munros - 4.5% to go 34/34 'Furths'- 0% to go
53/89 Donalds - 40% to go 493/1554 Marilyns - 67% to go
376/525 Hewitts - 28% to go (E=178/178; W=137/137; I=61/211)

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, mojo
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

I'm wanting to buy a GPS.

Garmin seem to be popular but from what I've read Magella seem to be
better. Does anyone have any experience of these GPS?

I wouldn't ask here. We only approve of the use of sextants, Harrison
chronometers and Mercator globes in this newsgroup.

Delighted chuckles here when I realised I'd misread that as 'sextons'...
:-))
--
To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @
where common sense dictates.

In article <[email hidden]>, Fran
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, mojo
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

I'm wanting to buy a GPS.

Garmin seem to be popular but from what I've read Magella seem to be
better. Does anyone have any experience of these GPS?

I wouldn't ask here. We only approve of the use of sextants, Harrison
chronometers and Mercator globes in this newsgroup.

Delighted chuckles here when I realised I'd misread that as 'sextons'...
:-))

Oi, I resemble that remark ;-)

--

Dominic Sexton

On 11/12/05 15:20, in article
[email hidden], "mojo"

Quoted message said:

I'm wanting to buy a GPS.

Garmin seem to be popular but from what I've read Magella seem to be
better. Does anyone have any experience of these GPS?

Well you've certainly asked in the right place (stands back to await the
shouting and the screams!)

--
Andy Howell, Birmingham, UK. To mail simply put back the dots ...

Must Be Over There ...
http://www.ecotrend.org.uk/trek

mojo said:

I'm wanting to buy a GPS.

Garmin seem to be popular but from what I've read Magella seem to be
better. Does anyone have any experience of these GPS?

MoJo

G'day MoJo

If you have not already done so, I suggest you check out
GPSInformation.net. The URL is <http://gpsinformation.net/>.

Also another good source of advice on GPSr units are the various
Geocaching forums as the geocachers use GPSr a lot :-)

I am sure there are UK forums around. Just do a search.

Finally I suggest you take a look at the reviews and test reports on
BackpackGearTest.org. The relevant URL is
<http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Navigation%20and%20Map%20Gear/GPS/>.

Personally I play with a Garmin Geko 301 which I have found useful for
my needs. I do tend to use it more for geocaching than bushwalking but
it is reasonably light so I take it with me on bushwalks.

Regards
Andrew