GARMIN GPS

;DWife bought me a Garmin StreetPilot 2610 GPS for Xmas. I think it will keep her from killing me in my sleep.
You know the drill..."YOU were the one who was holding the map upside down NOT me!" Seems the blame game gets played alot. We plan to do a lot of traveling this spring & summer in our TM, so looking forward to using this thing.
Anyone out there have any luck with these things? How good are they? ???

I have used a Garmin StreetPilot ColorMap GPS in my car with city street maps and rural topographic maps from MapoSource, (an affiliate of Garmin) for several years now. I also use a Garmin hand held GPS loaded with the topo maps for my frequent trips into National Forest back country.

They are great for keeping you from getting lost in the frequently unmarked roads through the forest. They are also handy when cross-country hiking off-trail to see what direction you need to go to hit a road, or get back to your car.

I have medical problems which might (very rarely) require me to call for assistance. My wife is much more comfortable with my habitual wandering around in wild country if I have a cell phone and a GPS so that I can call and give exact directions as to my location.

Best Wishes,
Wyoming RockHound

[G-V_Driver]

I have a 295 unit that is primarily for aviation use, but can be adapted for land use without too much trouble. It doesn't talk to you, but it is a great help. If I bought the card, I could download all the streets but haven't gone to the trouble.

I am now intrigued by the ique 3600 which is a combination PDA GPS. From what I've seen, I don't think the PDA features are spectacular, but the fact that it will fit in your pocket and then function as a talking GPS on your dashboard is worth a lot.

[G-V_Driver]

Are you implying that you intend to introduce logic into a discussion with your wife? Let us know how it works.

[Denny_A]

[quote author=G-V_Driver link=board=15;threadid=1608;start=msg11377#msg1137 7 date=1074210801]
I am now intrigued by the ique 3600 which is a combination PDA GPS. From what I've seen, I don't think the PDA features are spectacular, but the fact that it will fit in your pocket and then function as a talking GPS on your dashboard is worth a lot.
[/quote]

I just purchased the Garmin iQue 3600 (w/Palm OS 5 PDA). Online - $429 (vs. $549 at Office Max, et al.), plus a car dash mount unit and memory expansion card. Ready to go.

It's a neat little unit, in a small package, with a hi-rez screen! I think, based on past experience, I'm going to like it. I taught use of our (then) new GPS to the pilots in my airline before I retired. Complex moutain terrain approaches (Aspen, Vale, Rifle, etc.) stopped being frightening - only scary!

The iQue 3600 does almost everything well in its GPS specialty area. In the WAAS mode (usual), horizontal accuracy can be as low as .5(?) meters IIRC. Haven't had time or interest (yet) to fool w/the PDA. I've already stored several local routes and camping routes. I'm glad I bought the 256 MB memory card. Sucker eats up the memory if you want local street maps along the travel routes. Almost wish I'd paid the extra bux for 512 MB!

A small glitch can occur when building a map with only a start point and end point - no intermediate waypoint. It makes a dumb routing choice now and again. So I'd have to go in and add a Waypoint to force it to go the way I prefer. It's easy to do, so it's no big deal.

The map data base of businesses and attractions, along routes for which local street maps exist and have been loaded into memory, is very extensive. Many, many businesses, with a lot of detail, including phone #'s etc., are included. IIRC, there are 5 million unique listings included onthe 2 CD set, which covers the entire US and parts of Canada.

I've done some local driving with a "route to" selection, then tried to mess it up by ignoring it's freely chosen route. So far, it computes a new route in about 10-30 seconds, displays it on the screen, she (yes she) announces new turn advice for the altered routing - w/out error so far.

Maps on the CD are about 1 yr old (a given), so a newly completed expressway (which I use to visit my father at the Vet Home) is not recognized. Tomorrow I'm going to attempt building a highway of Waypoints along the new route to King, WI.

We're heading for the Corpus Cristi area, TM in tow, in a couple of weeks. The journey should provide ample training and a enough experience to gin-up a fairly objective review of its true value (to me).

We're stoked! OK, I'm stoked. New toy, new toy! Errmmmm.... new nav tool. This is serious stuff. Right then. That's the ticket.

Denny_A

[G-V_Driver]

Denny,

I sent you an email on this subject. Come see us!

Wayne

I use the GPS for various functions. First and foremost, for fun. Love setting the base coordinates, wander around and then use it to get back to where I started. works really great on Boy Scout Orienteering merit badges. I love the option of it showing you where you have been.

I normally use it to set the coordinates for suspected marijuana grows that we spot from the air and then do a land search back to where we think it will be.

I recently set up a set of directions for the Boy Scouts to find the base camp for our upcoming Camporee.
Interested to see how many can use the darn things.

ColoradoCop 8)

They have all been using them to find the grows before you do.

;D

Yeah, but it is nice to set alarms on the grow and when they go into it, they signal our GPS coordinates. They think we have officers setting on the grow waiting for them. Of course, That's why they call it "DOPE"

ColoradoCop 8)

[G-V_Driver]

Cop,

A word of caution may be in order here. Be sure you don't inadvertently comingle one set of data with the other. It won't look good in the paper if the scouts show up at a grow site.