hey
My sport track pro works inside my house; I doubt a tree coved mangrove would stop the signal. As for readability its good, the part about the polarizing lens is correct, get Two pars of polarized glasses, put one on, and while looking through the other pair rotate them 180 degrees, the lens will turn black. And you will not be able to see anything!!! I have noticed that when I am pumping gas, some of the gas pumps must have Polarized glass on the liquid crystal readouts, as they disappear sometimes when I have my glasses on too.
Geocaching
Yes! We went out one day and had a great time. We went right to the site, unfortunately about 100 yards from the goal we met with a closed park. Hurricane damage had closed it down–so we didn’t get to mark it up as a win. I didn’t know they did this kayaking–is there a website you can give to get the coordinates? Is there a really good one for land too? I just stumbled across a web site a month ago and wouldn’t you know it, it got “lost”. Sorta poetic huh.
Garmin Legend C
Garmin makes a Legend Color. Very nice unite . I got one for Xmas. There is a bit of a learning curve. FishHawk
Magellan
I use our SportTrac Pro for boating and occassionally snoewshoeing, and have never had any problem reading the screen as long as I wasn’t trying thru polarized sunglasses. But at the age of 53 I usually have to put fold-up drugstore reading glasses on to see the details anyway. The only problme I have ever had with the unit is that it is old enough that it doesn’t have an expandable memory card, so I blew out the memory once. That was straightened out very quickly when I spoke with a representative at Thales, who ran me thru the reboot sequence.
This post on issues with Magellan abandoning their aviation models was put up in another thread on GPS units. Were I a pilot it would be instructive. But I am not. I (and others I know) have not encountered support problems for GPS units used for paddling and hiking.
I am sure the Garmin units are fine as well, but a preference for one is no reason to trash the other.
Celia
Garmin GPSMAP76 even better than eTrex!
Bigger screen, better buttons…
Shopping hint…
– Last Updated: Jan-06-05 3:02 PM EST –
When I was shopping for mine (1999) they didn't have the trex but I started with the cheapest one and would turn them on to see which has the largest most readable graphics without my glasses.
I ended up with the Magellan 315, it has been beat on a powerboat for years and underwater on the kayak. I have no complaints except it wounld't lock on in South Korea or China, but that's another story.
And since I mounted it vertical on the deck of the kayak I haven't had any drops in the mangrove tunnels.... GH
I wouldn’t recommend the Etrex.
With that said, I have used the heck out of it for about the past five or six years.
The Map 76 is unbeatable. I steal my wife’s all the time.
With the etrex the readout is tiny and you can’t have both mileage and speed on the same screen which makes it no good if you want it for speed/distance training.
Cheers,
JackL
You can have mileage, speed, …
…You can have mileage, speed, distance, and just about anything you want on the screen at the same time with the Legend. The display screens are programable as to what you want them to display. You can also have them display in a large font, and the smaller one it comes as standard.
… On the screen I use for paddling, I have it set using the large fonts to tell me the time of day, the speed I am paddling, the track I am paddling, and the distance paddled. If you switch to the small fonts, you can display about 3-4 more items. There is a list of about 15 items you can pick from to display on these screens. it’s pretty easy to set it up too. The instructions are pretty easy to follow.
Happy Paddling!
If they did it once, they could…
… I posted my note about Magellan abandoning the avation customers, because If they did it once, they could easily do it again. If they had no hesitation to trash their high priced aviation customers, what will they do to the lesser priced other customers?
… Magellan got me once, but they won’t get me again. I just don’t trust them anymore.
You can view distance to target
and speed simultaneously on the most simple etrex, and toggle through the displays in a second with your thumb. In fact its very light and easy to carry in a hand or pocket and is great for checking speed and distance while kayaking, skiing, running etc.
Beware of opinions of the technology impaired.
You cannot view speed and distance
traveled simultaneously on the simple Etrex.
Period.
When a person is training at all out speed or even at pace,if you have to miss a stoke or two to change the screen that equate to N. G. Possibly even N.F.G!
Cheers,
JackL
You are absolutely correct about the
Etrex Legend model. You can do everything that you mentioned, wjlatsha. I have had a Legend for about two years now and absolutely think it is the best bang for the buck. I bought when it was like 190 minus a 50 dollar rebate (met price of 140 plus a t-shirt that says gpsdiscount.com on it). I use it in a clear dry bag. The buttons are “okay” but not great inside of a dry bag. I usually display the speed and the distance while displaying the map of the water that I am on. The 8 meg of memory is a bit of a pain to keep on updating for different areas that I travel to and the screen is definitely too small to look at while driving for detailed viewing, but with all that being said, it does NOT get dusty staying in a bureau drawer. On the contrary, I continue to use it when driving in the car and ESPECIALLY when I am on the water at all times.
It has all the bells and whistles that I commonly use without going overboard (like the Vista model with its altimeter and compass features.)
If and when it ever dies, I would opt for a larger display and more memory in my next GPS. Other than that, I will wait until the color units continue to come down in price.
Jeff
I used to have an Etrex Legend
and the “click” button failed and the display also started to haywire. Garmin repaired it under warranty.
Then right after the warranty ended, it started doing it again. Garmin wanted about $100 to repair it.
Instead I wound up buying a GPSMap76. It’s much better than the Etrex series. Buttons are easier to use, it floats, and the display is much LARGER.
As with all GPS units, the battery compartments are the weak link in water resistance. Practice safe GPS and bag it.
I would suggest.
Next time you get out in the really deep part of the Gulf, just give it a sling. Maps don’t take batteries, and unless you throw them over-board they don’t quit either, and they seldom lie. (wink) I’m worried this electronic age just might sink the whole ship. Seriously, if you are going to use a GPS I would suggest having two anyway in case one quits, and don’t get rusty on the map. Always make note of where you are and write it/keep it in mind in case it does happen to quit. We’ve run across on more than one occassion paddlers lost in the Everglades that were trying to be totally reliant on a GPSs that failed, without a back-up GPS, and no note, or rememberance of last location. I think it is always a mistake to be totally dependant on electronics for anything. I’ve learned this thoroughly while sailing. I would seriously get a newer model and just hang onto the one you have now strictly as a backup. Just make sure if the battery on the new one is different that you have backups for the current one as well as the new one. Happy paddling. I’ll see you on the water.
Paddle on~ Splash
Try geocaching.com
it must be terrible to have
bright sunlight blocking your GPS while out paddling, have you no empathy for those of us in Michigan.