P.D.A.

[rickyp]

does anyone have and or use a P.D.A.?

I have ben thinking about getting one but nor realy sure what they can and can't do.

I know most of them comes with a camera, you can get a GPS attachment for them.

Can you use the GPS  hand held like  out hunting of must it stay in the truck?

if you could tell me what yours can and can not do and what I should get if i get one.

[Siskiyou]

I use my Garmin Legend(handheld) out in the woods all the time.  I also use it my boat while fishing.  I have a combo fishfinder and gps in my primary fishing boat.  

Handheld gps units are very common in forestry, law enforcement, search and rescue activities.  A good outdoors gps unit maynot be the best unit to have in your car because of the small screen, but I still use my Garmin Etrex Legend in my vehicles.  I can see the screen but prefer to pay attention to my driving.  I'll let the wife or grandkids monitor the gps.  As I have posted earlier this electronic age can fill up a daypack.  As an outdoorsman I will go with a small handheld gps unit, with a fair amount of space to store maps, and with good battery life.

I was up in Montana this time last year and ran into an Austrian firefighter with a PDA with him.  This man had an amazing amount of data stored on this little item.  It was kind of enough to give me a little briefing on it.  I was impressed.  But there no gps or camera attached to it.  Remember the more bells, require more battery power, and in my opinion more likely to fail.  In many cases a stand alone item will provide better service.
I have no clue what brand his was or what generation.  He was very proud of his and a working knowledge of it.

I am aware that Garmin is now selling a PDA with a built in gps.  The unit appears to have a large memory and can store maps. I believe it is a model iQue3200.  You can check it out on the Garmin Internation website.  If you get one, what ever brand lets us know what you think about it.

[lockmaster]

I have used the Garmin IQue 3600 PDA with built-in GPS for about a year now. It has all the normal Palm PDA functions driven by Palm software and has the Garmin GPS function. This unit is great when used with the external antenna and accessory docking cradle that plugs into cig lighter in vehicle. It has a base map built in but contains an expansion slot for a removable SD card. I have a detailed map of Florida and part of Georgia loaded onto this chip. I use this card as a auto nav system with the external antenna. The built-in antenna works but can lose the signal easily driving around in a city. I highly recommend the external antenna which attaches  inside your windshield with suction cups.
I do not use this unit in the woods. It operates off of a rechargable battery that cannot be changed by the user. It also comes with a power saving feature that cannot be turned off. When not connected to my car cig lighter the unit shuts itself down  every few minutes to save power.
For woods I use my old Garmin Plus III gps stand alone gps!
Garmin is making a version called the IQue 3200 now. Don't think it is any better for woods nav.