Etrex Legend GPS

Prento,
I have been looking at the same unit. I don't have one yet, but I was talking to a mate who has one and he does a bit of boating as well as FWD'ing and he seems to think it is a good unit.

He has Metroguide but obviously he doesn't use that when out in the water.

If you are after a unit that is a bit more biased to boating then I think the GPS72 has that.

There is more information on GPSOZ and the Johnny Appleseed sites. (No I don't work for either).

Let me know what you decide.

Cheers,
Mal58

I baught a legend couple of months ago and you have to buy the metro guide software with it to get any good value out of it....I used it yesterday to search for a street I was driving to found it and mapped to it. It's not a turn by turn type gps but it does show the steets and shows you where to go....it gives me a very good idea of where to drive but not 100%...if you want something for just roads then it's prob not the thing you want but it's a great little all rounder I think for the price

Hello Prento

I have used an Etrex Legend for for a few years now. It worked well in the tank bag of my BMW tourer in a round Oz trip. It worked well across the Simpson in my LC 100 RV.

There is a heap of gear on the internet to download. If you want waypoints and tracks for most of the 4WD tracks in Oz go to this site: http://www.outback-guide.de/Guide/Tracks/Zentrum/mmZ01.htm and look for "Weitere GPS-Daten Waypoints und Tracks gibts hier." A knowledge of German is helpful but not essential.

I have linked it to my HP Jornada 540 series PDA (needs a NULL modem available from Expansys as mentioned above) and also a 12V power lead. Works fine with Hema Desert Desert Tracks and Fullers street directory. I also purchased NATMAP Raster Mapsheets and replaced the default map with MapsSource MetroGuide.

There are perhaps a couple of limitations. I don't think you can plug an external antenna into the Etrex series. It gets hot under the windshield and I note that the rubber side cladding is lifting. The other limitation relates to the PDA rather than the GPS - the visibility of the map in full sunlight using my somewhat outdated PocketPC is poor.

Incidentally, in the round Oz trip which didn't take me too long - particularly in the NT- I was somewhat surprised to notice that the GPS and odometer distance readings were out by 30k/1000K. This is probably due to the track plot cutting corners as the bikes odomoter was very accurate. This would depend a bit on what speed you travel at and should not be a problem in most 4WD's or boats.

Never tried it on water but I don't think the sattelites care too much where you are. I think they say that it will withstand a certain international standard of water immerison but I am not too sure whether mine would be very water proof at the moment.

Being so small it's great for hiking, biking, motoring and boating.

Go for it.

Martin