GPS Units

[mbangler]

Thinking of purchasing one soon. What handheld GPS units do you use? What is the map coverage like for Manitoba, Canada? Recommendations on specific units welcome.

[Dbl]

I have three units. An older Eagle AccuNav, good screen but only 5 channel. Just bought a Garmin Legend hand-held and I love it. For $230 US you get a mapping GPS that I use hunting, in my truck and in a pinch, the boat. The software is easy to use and you can purchase the Mapsource Canada CD for around $100 US dollars. The detail is execellent on the software. I also run a Garmin GPS162 for the boat and am equally impressed with that unit. The software and capacity on the unit should be a big factor in your choice (The Legend has 8mg capacity more than enough for most uses.) Good luck in your choice.

[rainman]

I got a Garmin etrex Legend for my birthday. Its a beauty...lightweight, easy-to-use and I continue to learn new things everytime I use it.

Highly recommended !

Have fun,

[River_eye]

I've only used two, my dad's Garmin eTrex and an Eagle

The eagle model was a little higher up and it worked good, but the Garmin is leaps and bounds ahead in the user friendly department. You can tell they put a lot of effort into making their units extremely easy to use.

I think with GPS, Garmin is the only way to go.

[John in MN]

Get one that has WAAS for better accuracy. I favor Garmin.

[Eyewitness]

Depending on what you are used to using for electronics on your boat one make or model may be easier for you to get accustomed over another. Straight out of the box, Garmin is probably easier to learn to use. If you run a lowrance graph in your boat, the menu systems are almost set up the same way on their GPS units. Of course there are some folks like my DAD who still can't set the clock on his VCR yet, so what you get has a lot to do with whether or not you will even want to use the full potential of the equipment. I know alot of guys running top of the line graphs in their boats who only run it in auto mode and never take the time to learn how to use it to their advantage. There is a reason why all those features are there. If you take the time to learn them you will be amazed at how much it can open your horizens. For instance, you may not think you would like maps, but once you have them you'll never want to not have them. My Lowrance hand held Pro map has a Smart Map disk that you can down load a more detailed area based on a grid system and mapping based on satellite photos. Last year I went on a fly in trip where we fished multiple lakes. This was up near Flin Flon. Very remote. I simply down loaded that area off my CD and it had every lake and river we fished on it. No, it didn't show every rock pile or little dot of an island, but it did however show most of the lake in very good detail. Every point, bay, and major island were there. I was quite impressed to say the least. A buddy and I also navigated in 18 miles after dark to a camp site on a large Canadien lake which we had fished before, and did it all by a saved routing. This lake was nothing but islands and channels. We took our time , trusted the map on the GPS and were able to go right where we wanted to. Not that I would recommend doing that to anyone of course. We knew the waters we were boating fairly well. Just to relate to a map was the difference between KNOWING where you are, and thinking you do. I personally wouldn't have it any other way. Except for the discontinued Accunav Sport which had a larger screen, the hand helds pretty much all have smaller screens now. That being the case, higher resolution on a smaller screen will give you better detail and it will be much easier to read. Just some stuff to think about. I don't think you can go wrong with either Garmin or Lowrance/Eagle. Just make sure you get what is best for you.

[Goose]

Where did you find the Mapsource Canada CD?