Where Am I?There seems to be a demand in the marketplace for a handheld GPS unit that would be suitable for use hiking, fishing, boating etc and for use in your car. Unfortunately no manufacturer is making such unit (affordable or not) for all applications. This is commonplace to find a demand for an amalgam of features that suit a variety of uses. Well, it would be nice, but sorry! Some units now on the market are optimized for aviation, some for boating, some for automobiles and some other outdoors applications. A few are just an "electronic map" that shows your position on the map screen. You essentially have to pick the features that you do want at a price you can afford and put up with the fact that certain other features are just not present. So lets review some of things that are desirable in the GPS handhelds right now. Here's my "top" eleven. You decide if they are "must-haves" or just "nice to have"! - "Map" screen. Much easier to see where you are quickly and to orient yourself quickly. - Water Proofing. Is the unit you are considering submergible? - The longer the battery life the better. If you're on a wilderness trek every pond you carry is hugely important. Keep as low as you can. - Maps an integral part. This is really useful estimating distance. How close are you to the nearest road? - Route ability. A twenty route capability is pretty minimal. - User's Waypoints. Your unit should be capable of storing at least 500 waypoints. - Multiple Datum capability. Ensure all the datums you will want are include in the unit. - Light and compact. If you're trekking and carrying a lot of weight, the lighter the better. As you trek, it will get supremely important to you so be smart, now while you shop around. - Bearing reading to next waypoint. Most of today's units have this. Don't buy without it. - Screen readability and size. B&W screens are OK for hiking. Remember that a lot of color screens are hard to read in direct sunlight but what are called transreflective color screens obviate this difficulty. - Reception. If you have 12 channel parallel receiving you probably can overcome a lot of difficult reception areas like woodland, etc. Those are some of the features that I would look for, if I were shopping today. Make sure that the unit you buy has the right menu of these features to suit your personal taste. Best if you can hike, boat - whatever with buds to see what they use and if you like their units and whether or not you want to use them as models. Or conversely, if you want to avoid certain things you don't like about those units. Perhaps your friendly outdoors outfitter is willing to let you use a demo on your next hike. Ask, anyway. |