gps
Submitted: Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 at 18:18
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Member - Malcolm M (VIC)
what is a good and reliable gps to purchase as my wife and i are planning to go bush are they as good as they say they are . going on different sites on the internet and reading about each one starts to get a bit confussing. info from people who use them wilst travelling may clear up some quieries.
Reply By: navaraman - Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 at 18:34
Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 at 18:34
This will be a big can of worms, these threads usually are. I use a Magellan Meridien with Discover Australia Streets and Tracks although I very rearely use the inbuilt maps. I connect the GPS to a laptop and use masps on the laptop. As good as GPS is you should never solely rely on it and always have paper maps and a compass as a back up.
Magellan or Garmin, take your pick, both as good as each other. generally the more you pay, the more features you get. Wether you need these features is up to you.
AnswerID:
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Reply By: GU-Troll - Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 at 18:53
Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 at 18:53
I have a Garmin GPSMAP 276C. I have travelled the UK, Europe, USA and here at
home with it and I would have to say it would be impossible to find better.
This GPS does full Auto routing and also has Marine mode to work in your boat and plug in to your echo sounder/fish finder.
The device comes with a basic basemap but you can buy maps for autorouting and these include everything from hotels, petrol stations, train/plane stations, local attractions etc with contact numbers
If you want to
check it out, Johnny Appleseed do all the maps and have the units at a good price
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Follow Up By: GU-Troll - Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 at 19:01
Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 at 19:01
I forgot to add, the 276C does auto off route recalculation and is by far the fastest I have seen a GPS recalculate. This can come in very handy when your in busy traffic in an unfamiliar city and you have made a wrong turn. It gets you back on track very quickly. It will recalculate your route in 1-2 seconds.
I had an older slower GPS which took up to a minute to recalculate and by this time you had passed where it wanted you to turn and then it would need to recalculate again. We would have to pull over and wait for it to recalculate before continuing our journey, very frustrating.
Plus the colour screen is far superior to the greyscale displays.
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Reply By: Member - Davoe (Nullagine) - Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 at 19:09
Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 at 19:09
no they are not as good as you may think they are faaaar better as far as I an concerned they are one of the 20th centurys greatest inventions.
What do you want it for
I like simplicity and have a garmin etrex its durability is without question as I got it in 02 however you cannot have an external ariel and the screen is small. It is best suited for basic in car navigation but its forte is for bushwalking.
- might you later conect it to a laptop for real time tavel
- will you benifit from cartop antenae
- do you want it to be able to have decent maps
- do you want to navigate around a city
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Reply By: Bonz (Vic) - Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 at 21:59
Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 at 21:59
If you want to go bush then make sure you go for a GPS unit not a Navman Pin or TomTom Go type of "GPS". These latter are street navigators and useless offroad.
You'll need to decide if you want someething that simply tells you where you are and allows you to navigate to a known other location (very basic Garmin 72 or 76) or something that will also use street maps and autoroute like the Garmin 76 map or 60 map or 276 unit mentioned above.
Magellan also have similar specced models. My preference is more for Garmin models as I feel that they are more intuitive to learn, but once you've mastered a GPS you know how to use it.
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Reply By: Kumunara (NT) - Wednesday, Mar 21, 2007 at 02:40
Wednesday, Mar 21, 2007 at 02:40
Malcolm
Have a look at a PDA GPS. I have a HP iPAQ 5765 travel companion. It comes with TomTom Navigator 6 for on road. I have installed oziExplorer CE with Natmap and Hema for off road.
It also had Windows Mobile, Plays Movies, Plays MP3s, Word, Excelk Outlook, Bluetooth, etc.
Much better value for money than a GPS.
Tjilpi
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Follow Up By: Old Gold - Wednesday, Mar 21, 2007 at 14:14
Wednesday, Mar 21, 2007 at 14:14
magellan does it for me explorist 600
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