Months back my friend and a hunting partner called me about a deal on the Garmin 530HCx. He was ordering one to be a companion radio to his 530C. His primary hunting partner is his son. This guy it a super outdoorsman, fishing, hunting, hiking, and cutting firewood.
Because of home computer problems he had not loaded US Topo 2008 on his computer at the time I had arrived or updated the software for his two units. We had got together to visit, shoot, hunt, and take advantage of the time to get to know our Rino radios.
Neither of us had used the polling feature on the Rino radios and we spent sometime outside practicing with the feature. Later we learned much more about it in the woods.
With his permission and encouragement I did the following.
The first thing I did was go to Garmin Support and download Web Updater.
http://www8.garmin.com/products/webupdater/howtoinstall.jspI have found that when using Web Updater I get unit updates that are not otherwise listed.
I connected the Mini USB/USB cord that had been provided with his unit and connected the Rino 530 to the computer and followed the path shown on the screen. The software automatically detected the 530 and identified the software update. The software update was transferred to the unit. On many of the Garmin GPS units if you go to the System Setup Page, and select the menu option, you will get a drop down giving you a Software Version option. A new page pops up on my 530HCx displaying Software Version 2.60, GPS SW Version 3.00, and the Unit ID.
You need not worry when using Web Updater; it will detect what is in your unit and tell you if you need to update the unit. There were two updates for the Rino 530 and the 530HCx.
A critical update was a fix when loading LARGE mapsets to the 530CHx. When working with two different 530CHx the unit shut down when loading much more then 1 MB to the 2GB Micro SD Card. Garmin sent me a third 530CHx and I was able to load full 2025 maps to the 2 GB card.
While his 530HCx was connected to the computer and being updated I realized that my unit was out of date and I hooked it up to take advantage of the recent update.
Our next step was to select a mapset from U.S. Topo 2008 to be loaded on the Rino
The 530 have 56 MB of user map storage. The 530 do not have the high sensitivity receiver.
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=167&pID=283 The 56 MB mapset included a strip of Southern Oregon, and the Northern third of California. The transfer time of the mapset from the computer to the unit was rather quick.
Next we create a mapset to be transferred to his 530HCx, which has a 2 GB Micro. The mapset filled about half of the 2GB card. The limit being set by the 2025 maximum set by the Garmin software. This included the SE Alaskan coast, and from the Pacific Ocean to the Eastern boundaries of the Rocky Mountain states. It took about four hours for the computer to create the mapset, and loaded it on the unit.
Battery (s):
The units come with a lithium-ion battery. My friend and I have also invested in an optional AA battery holder. The unit will only work at 5 watts using the lithium-ion battery, and will automatically default to 2-watts when using the AA battery holder.
When using all the options, and just monitoring the radio the lithium-ion battery seems to last forever when set at 5-watts. After a few hours of steady transmission during or practice session, transmitting, receiving, and polling I could tell the battery was taking a hit.
We wanted to maximize battery life, and usefulness in the woods. We decided to operate at the 2-watt setting. When we initially started out I thought I was going to need to recharge my battery nightly. This assumption was incorrect. After three days use I needed to do a recharge and the battery was not dead and I could have run part of another day on it.
I have used the AA battery holder when using the unit as a gps and battery life appears to be acceptable, but not as strong as the lithium-ion battery.
Polling:
This is a great safety feature. We use the radios as a safety tool; it is good for young and old. The majority of our group is over sixty years old, suffering from old injuries and age. I am sure that you can understand hunting as an individual, rather then military procession in the woods. Besides the pitfalls created my Mother Nature, mining has generated many risks in woods.
Every time a member of our group hit the transmitter key on a Rino, the other members with a Rino was updated on the screen. The update showed the icon of the individual transmitting, and his/her track. Normally our group does a check-in at pre-set times.
Should a member fail to show up at the end of the day, part of the plan is in place because we already know the general area he plan on being in. Assuming he has been using a Rino, and has generated a transmission, his icon will be showing on your screen. There are at least two if not more ways you can track back to the sender’s location.
The easiest way is to go to Main Menu>Tracks Icon>Saved Tracks Box which will show a list of Rino users in you group whom you have accepted. > Click on the missing individual>you get a screen that has the individual, assigned Track Color and the TracBack option. (To show you how vast the country can be in, it shows my icon in an 8986.4 acres area.) Select TracBack, which puts you on the map screen showing the icon of you targeted individual, and the icons of other individuals. You might have somebody close to the location from which he disappeared. You can move the courser over to the icon and click on it. You will get a map with the individual’s icon, and you position pointer, a line showing the direction to the individual. I like to scroll with the courser to the icon and click on it. I then shift the menu at the top of the page and save the icon’s location as a waypoint to that I do not lose the information and I can pass the Lat/Long on to others. I then can switch to the Compass Page and it gives the name of the Icon (waypoint), the distant to it, and what ever options you have selected on the Compass Page. If you want more detail you can setup the defaults on the Trip Computer page to fit you needs.
The TracBack option has a lot of applications. Every once and a while gear will be lost. Following a track back may assist in recovering the gear.
Many years ago a neighbor was hunting out in the Lava Beds and broke an ankle. He spent a long time out there before he was found and transported to a hospital.
This feature has sold me on the Rino, but it only works with another Rino.
Other GMRS/FRS Radios.
We were short a Rino and a friend used one of my Midland GXT-400 radio’s, and another party member used another brand of radio. The three different brands worked fine when set on common frequency, and tone.
The Polling Features only worked on the Rino radios. We could hear them, and talk to them, but they did not show on the map.
Scramble:
Basically you can have three different levels of privacy with the radio, open transmission on a frequency, transmission and reception with tone protection, and a higher level when in the Scramble mode.
My friend had just returned from out of State and committed that his companions were not receiving a clear transmission from his radio. A quick check of setup menu showed his radio was in Scramble mode.
During our outings we did not use the Scramble mode because we had a mix of other brand radios.
Back in my law days we had portable and vehicle radios with analog scramblers. There were two notable downsides to using the scrambler mode on those old radios. Reduced range, and rapid consumption of portable radio batteries.
I am on my third Rino 530HCx, and I must say I have had some frustrations but Garmin support has worked with me, and the third radio was the charm. I believe the large map download problem has been resolved with the latest software update. My friends unit was manufactured during the same period, as my original 530HCx did not have a problem after update was installed.
The Future:
In the world of electronics the development of the next generations are in the works. We have witnessed a rapid updating of gps models by Garmin in the last ten years. I believe the days of the 520HCx and 530HCx are limited. The gps side of the 530HCx appears to have come from the 60CSx gps. In the handheld models Garmin has made a rapid transition from the Colorado to the Oregon.
I would not be surprised to see the new Rino model on an upgraded Oregon platform, preloaded from the factory with 24k topo maps, and other upgrade features.
