garmin rino

Looks like a combined Hand held radio Transceiver with built in GPS.

Don't know what frequency? They only talk about US and canada.

Also it looks like it would only transmit as a normal UHF radio line of sight etc.

So it would transmit your location to other units in your group I would say. They would also have to use a compatible unit.

Hi Qubert

Did a report on them a couple of years ago , also on this site.

Basically worked ok , difficult to use on/off switch , screen to small
and some slight cross talk between GPS/UHF.

Your better off with seperate units unless you specifically need the
send co-ords to a macthing unit function.

Hello
Dont buy one from OS as it wont have Australian frequencies and will actually be illegal to use. AFAIK they are discontinued (at least in Aus) though I suppose there must be some second hand ones floating around.

Cheers
Greg

qubert
Like above, but here is a bit more.


When people first started to import them from overseas, every body was complaining that they could not speak to anyone close by with other brands of UHF radios. Standard Communication were getting lots of calls complaining about this problem (At that time, they were the sole Australian Importers of Garmin Products)

The end results were that the units were fitted with US UHF frequencies, which are completely different to that used in Australia.

Standard Communications to combat the import problem, then shipped the units into Sydney and did a lot of work so they would comply with Australian Standards and frequencies (Standard Communications is the Company which produce the great GME Radios and other products right here in Australia). Because of the cost involved, it was only a once off job and did not import them into Australia any more There is a new model Rhino out now, but with only US Frequencies.

The only way to make these imports work in Australia, would be to spend a lot more money and get someone that is in the electronics game to convert the unit to Australian Frequencies.

Save you money and have a look around at 2 separate units, a good hand held GPS and Small reliable hand held UHF Radio. Garmin have just released the new Vista eTrex H with a better accuracy, selling for under $300. If you want a Colour screen, the Garmin Vista HCx is in the high $300's, or the larger GPS 60Scx about low $400

Cheers

Stephen