OT: GPS Units

[Champagne taste beer budget]

I'm looking at buying a handheld GPS, possibly the Lowrance H2O C Plus, but have zero experience with any of the offerings out there. I'd like to hear some input from people that have used various brands, their opinion of them, and especially, if anyone is intimatly familiar with the mapping programs available and their capabilities and/or limitations. I'm kind of partial to Lowrance, I get a good break on pricing due to my B.A.S.S. affiliation, but am open to all brands, more concerned about functionality than saving $50.

[Cal Blacksmith]

What are you interested in the unit doing for you? Avaition, boating, hiking, back woods driving, driving on roads? It will depend on what you want as to which way to go.

I have a Garman unit for when I am flying and for daily driving I use my PDA with a Pharos bluetooth GPS unit and Tom Tom software. Or, I can also use the same GPS unit and my laptop with Microsoft Streets and trips.

I find the maps in MST are better than those in TOMTOM but neither has ever failed to get me where I want to go. In off road untis, you need to use a map with them. They will tell you where you are but it is up to you to use the map to navigate yourself.

[Champagne taste beer budget]

Sorry I was so vague in my original post.

Its main, if not only use, will be fishing, marking or finding specific spots on the water. I can triangulate pretty well on my lake to find places, but it gets tougher in the winter when the ice takes out all the reeds. I live but 12 miles from Lake Mille Lacs, the "Walleye Capitol Of The World" to some, and at 132,000 plus acres, it's not too easy to line up objects on land to locate yourself when you're 8 miles from shore. It might see some very limited use in the car on vacation, would probably look into a stand alone antenna.

I know many of the units can do mapping with the optional software and store it on a card for use later or looking at on a computer. I'm hoping to be able to memorize gps locations in relation to water depth in order to create a truly accurate picture of the bottom of our lake. The only lakemap out there is the one from the Dept of Natural Resources and it's very inaccurate. I know there are a lot of small (maybe the size of a couple cars side by side) hooks/saddles/bumps that I've found in the past, but they can be tough to find consistantly without any assistance, again even tougher when you're a long ways from any visible (out of the water) structure.

Hopefully that gives you a little more to work with!

[Cal Blacksmith]

That is a good use of a GPS unit!

I would say to pick a

unit based on what is most user friendly to you. Any GPS unit will get you

within 30 feet of a location, many are even closer if you enter a location from

where you are on the water (in your case)

A friend of mine had one on his boat and when we went

fishing in the ocean, (Pacific) and were out of sight of land, we could easily

go to a spot within the 30 feet of where we wanted to be. 20 miles off shore,

there are NO landmarks and EVERY wave looks the same as the one next to it! If

you can find the bumps on the bottom with a fish finder and then while you

are over the spot, record the location on the GPS, you WILL find it the next

time you look for it, you will just drive right up to it and drop anchor (if

that is what you want to do! )

For a boat, of course, you should be looking at waterproof

units and one that has a mount so that you dont accidentally drop it over the side

while you are holding it! A feature you might think about is being able to hook

it up to a PC to save all your data and load maps if they are available to you.

This will be done with the software that comes with the GPS unit. Some units

will let you put them in the window and hook up to a laptop or a pocket PC and

you use the PC to hold the maps and display where you are.

My personal favorite is Gamin; they have been in the

business from the start and are a major supplier to the Government.

I think that if you want to "map" the lake, you would need a depth finder and a GPS that both hook up to a laptop to combine the data. I don't know of any setups that are made to do this but I am sure there might be something out there that does.

[Kriton]

If you want specifics, I have a Garmin 60CS handheld GPS, and frankly I

couldn't mange without it - it has a nice color screen with about 56

meg of internal memory for maps and POI (which is frankly its biggest

drawback - there are other units out there that have far more memry, or

it is removeable, so you can load far more maps - BUT that being said,

I have currently loaded all of the maps for the DFW Metroplex to

Oklahoma, and all of the maps down 35 to Austin, with room to spare, so

I don't have a problem with it) - and the the auto navigation is tops,

with turn by turn (no silly voices - just beeps) directions - it is

water resistant but does not float (it does float but it is not

guaran-teed...personal experience here) and it is a rugged little

bugger - has compass and altimeter too. Ram Mounts are made

specifically for this model for car or boat, great mounts - I recommend

those too.

The water specific model (76C or CS) does float and has more memory, I think, but it is also bigger.

They have come out with a new 60CSx series which I beleive has a memory

card slot and faster satellite acquisition, but you will have to look

for that -

I suggest them pretty highly - around here, where everything looks

exactly the same and we have roads like 35W that actually goes south,

and 820 N that actually goes east west, it is a life saver sometimes- I

can see on a boat how it would definitely be indispensable.

Just 2c.

K

[Champagne taste beer budget]

Thanks for the responses, lots of good info. After sending out some other feelers, I got a link to this place:

http://www.hightechfishing.com/lowrancetips.html

Anyone that is into GPS stuff on water, poke around, a lot of good info on mapping and charting. I also found this place:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mapcreate_format/

Yes, you need to have a yahoo ID to get in, but those guys are serious about their handheld GPS stuff!!

Just thought I'd pass along to those that were interested.