In some cases the upgrades were not as great as I thought they would be. The Garmin Street Pilot 550c was the top of the line at one time and I bought it at a large discount on line as it was being replaced by the Nuvi series. At the time of purchase it had the most current maps set. One must understand that maps grow stale quickly; A lot faster when the economy humming along and lots of homes and businesses were being built.
After a few years I figured I would get another unit at a low price because it was being replaced by the latest and greatest. At that time a map upgrade was expensive enough that the new unit with current maps and an automatic map up grade sound good to me. I have been pleased with the new unit but in the long run other then more current maps and a larger screen it has not been a major improvement. In the last few months I received an offer from Garmin for a map updates on my automotive gps units that are half the price they use to be. If I had the same offer before I bought the second automotive unit I would have been $$$ ahead and happy. But there is always the pleasure of trying something new.
I gained more in the advancement of handheld units and the increase storage space for maps. And in the case of the Rino 530HCx the ability to communicate and track my hunting partners is nice. None of us are getting younger. But the bottom-line is that the old Garmin eTrex Legend serviced me well with its North America Base Map and the ability of storing 8MB of maps from a Garmin Map Source product. The 8MB of memory were adequate for me when hunting different units in State, but fell short when I was travelling on fire assignments in the Western States. But the Base Map came in handy on assignments in Montana. One was an hour East of the Little Big Horn Battle Monument in Southeastern Montana. And a few days later I was reporting for an assignment at Fort Missoula in Missoula in the NE part of the State. Fort Missoula was being used as a gathering point for firefighting resources to attack a number of large fires in Western Montana. I was told to report to an Incident Base near Potomac, MT.
At that point they were just getting setup and had no maps and the person giving me the order was not local. While he went digging for a map I pulled out the Garmin Legend with the Base Map and found Potomac. One of the problems was the Incident Base had not be established yet so nobody was sure where it was going to be setup.
This trip made me hungry for more map storage, and as better units came on the market I bought them. At the time I did not buy an automotive gps because my primary goal is field use. When I bought the Garmin 76C handheld it would float, and has 115MB of map memory. I installed City Navigator and US Topo on it. It became a favorite out fishing in the boat and hunting. Until Garmin came out with the 76Cx which improved satellite reception and used a Micro SD memory card. I think mine has over half the United States Topo maps loaded and it has a good base map. This was going to be my last gps but that changed when a hunting partner called me about the Rino 530HCx he was buying.
I ended up returning three of the Rino 530HCx units to Garmin under warranty before I got a good one. I returned the 76Cx to Garmin under warranty and they replaced it. The replacement unit failed and I paid to have it repaired because it was not under warranty. Like the original, the contacts with the batteries failed. I believe this is a manufacturing issue. A friend had bought a Garmin 76CSx and had the same problem. We were in a very busy fire season and he rarely got out of the dispatch center to use his. Again I think it was manufacturing failure. I discussed this with Garmin Support and was told that they produce a lot of units and there will be an occasional failure, and it is not a produce design issue.
Garmin has come out with new units, but I am not interested in units with camera’s and flashlights. I have a flashlight in my daypack, and there is a camera in my cellphone. I want a good sturdy gps unit with a fast chip, expandable memory, and weather proof.
My two hunting partners are experience outdoorsmen starting in their youth in the Civil Air Patrol. They have S&R training a have taken part in searches. One of my partners who is retired from the Forest Service has a wide breath of experience in the Forest Service and worked on Districts with two or more wilderness areas. Many years ago he worked for me on a ranger district that had portions of a large Wilderness. The three of us have automotive gps units, but we do not carry them in the woods. The vast majorities of automotive units are not waterproof, and are not rugged. A friend dropped his Nuvi from the dash of his patrol unit to the floor mat and the screen fell out. Last season we travelled back in a remote location at least 100 miles from town and a gas station. When it was time to drive out of that country I had the Nuvi set to navigate us out of the country. It was dark and at the few crossing logging roads the signs had been stolen. The unit did a good job and we made it out to pavement without any oops.
I have had my handheld units out in heavy rain and snow they have never failed in the field and environment issues have not shut them down. GPS units have limitations in sub freezing weather. I carry my unit inside a coat, or vest. I guess if it gets below 5˚ under my hunting coat I am done for. Battery quality may determine reliability and operating time in cold weather.
P.S. It is hard to beat a compass. Years ago I was fishing in the Sea of Cortz out of a small boat 600 miles below the border. We found a real good location a couple miles off shore and caught some nice fish. I pulled out my Siva Forester compass and shot bearings on two different peaks. We have been able to return and catch more fish at that location.
