I have to agree a top of the line even with a rebate is costly for many of us. The Garmin GPS 60CSx is the current choice of most professional outdoorsmen I know. In fact a friend who is due to retire, and asked what he wants as a retirement gift did not blink an eye, he wants a Garmin GPS 60CSx. I believe his true introduction goes back to the old Garmin III+. He has been a member of an Incident Management Team that has had numerous assignments across the United States. He is a 12-month a year outdoorsman and he uses his issue 60CSx to create routes, Tracks, waypoints, and determined acreage on a regular bases. He knows the more expensive mapping gps provides better reception and flexibility then the low cost units.
The old Yellow eTrex is being replaced by the new Yellow eTrex H with a high sensitivity receiver; it can be had for about $110.
http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/eTrexH_OwnersManual.pdfThe GPSMAP60CXs has more features and cost between $370 and ++$400 depending on the vendor. Currently Garmin is offering a $50 rebate on this unit, which runs out after 12/31/2007. I have bought my last two gps units taking advantage of the Garmin rebates. Garmin has offered rebates on it’s top of the line unit about two times a year.
http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/GPSMAP60CSx_OwnersManual.pdfI hunt a lot of public land where you can drive one hundred miles without hitting pavement. In many areas there is a lack of signing because of vandalism. The case of James Kim and his death in Southern Oregon comes to mind. If he had a good mapping gps the out come may have been different.
It seems that the group I hunt with is getting a little older. The guy’s wives are getting concerned when we hunt by ourselves. A hunting buddy and I caught the dickens a couple years ago when we got in real late. In most areas we hunt there is no cellphone service, but every once and while I will get a signal. I will call the wife and give her the location name along with the Lat/Long from my gps. My mapping gps provides me the name of the nearest landmark. That is a benefit over buying a less non-mapping gps.
Recent additions to the orbiting satellites and adjustments to software in older satellites have greatly improved the signals in the last couple years. When I started out I was using the original blue Garmin Legend. It worked okay 80 percent of the time, but the other 20 percent it would not receive a signal. I gave my Garmin Legend to my son, but I still have my 76C and the 76Cx. Reception has never been an issue with the 76Cx but it has been at times with the 76C. But the 76C improves with the additional GPS satellites that have been launched. The new satellites have a more powerful transmitter, and there have been some software upgrades in the older satellites.
I was surprised on Sunday while out hiking. I was in an area of about 20 percent visible sky and there was a ridgeline to my SE about 1000 feet higher then my location. The unit was bouncing back in forth between 9 and ten satellites. And it had a lock on WAAS. A couple of years ago I would have never received a lock on WAAS in that area. In 2002 I had to be down in the long North-South valleys of California to get a WAAS lock or on the peak of a tall mountain.
I was hunting above 7000 elevation and dropped into a dark canyon which was covered with tall Red Fir trees, rocks, and numerous little springs. The springs provided moisture for the numerous mushrooms in the canyon. On that day the clouds were blowing into the canyon, and there was numerous snow showers. The bottomline was visibility was very limited. I thought it was a good time to test out the Garmin Legend. It would not receive the three satellites I needed to get a lock. If I had a lock I could have scrolled the map with the pointer and found the nearest road or track back on my snow covered trail. Two hours later I popped out on a road next to an old clearcut in which the trees where still small. The Legend quickly locked on to enough satellites to obtain a position.
When Garmin came out with the 60Cx, 60CSx, 76Cx, and 76CSx with the high sensitivity receiver I wanted one. But I had a few choices to make. I wanted a new rifle in the 270WSM caliber. I grew up wanting a 270 Weatherby Magnum, so when the 270WSM came out it was the next best thing. But I had to make a choice.
At the time I was doing a lot of traveling a gps with expandable memory was very attractive. The problem was that I would get directions to travel long distances immediately and did not have the luxury of loading a new mapset into the Legend. The Legend has only 8MB of storage, which amounts to about 35 topo maps. I had already upgraded to the 76C with 128 MB of built in memory. I had California covered along with limited coverage in other states. But I wanted more and that came with the 76Cx and an after market 2GB micro SD card.
I agree with Longwinters the best cost more, or it the working mans words they do not come cheap. I bet Longwinters is getting better reception with his 60CSx, and he will use it more.
