Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Backpacking Electronics

Richard Piotrowski wrote:

"I'd think it would be near impossible for them to not give you a fairly accurate altitude reading, because some of them would have to be out on the horizon rather than directly above you."

Richard P,

GPS gives good accuracy in the directions toward the satellites. GPS orbit heights make most of the visible satellites closer to the horizon than to the vertical, so accuracy is better in the horizontal plane than in altitude.

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com

Since this is an electronics thread, here's a question: I've noticed in this forum and another similar one that everyone when referring to handheld GPS, talks about their Garmin.

After some desert hiking a while back, I decided a GPS would be good insurance, so I got a Magellan Explorist 210, which I think is fantastic. It seems well-built, has everything I can use and more (compass, altimeter, gotos, routes, even shows you where the sun and moon are supposed to be when using a goto, 22 MB of free built-in memory beyond the overview map (which holds a lot of local detail maps), etc. and seems very accurate...in fact tells you how accurate the reading is). I got the version with the North America detailed topo map software, car adapter and case for about $160, though it lists for more. While I've only had it a while, it's never failed to do the job.

At that rate, I could buy two of those, including the redundant topo software, and pay way less than for one of the watches mentioned a few messages back, or probably 3-4 for what one of the Garmin GPS units cost. So what's the deal? Are Magellans considered substandard? Reason?

Of course, I use $10 Walmart trekking poles and like them, so maybe I'm missing something...8^)

Hi Gary Magellan led the herd for GPS long before most people knew what they could do ,but with the blocked orbit data and lack of storage very hard to market, so they faded out of the handheld market, Garmin spend more money on marketing and doing tradeshows and as handhelds could store more data and more tricks the signal was released so the GPS units could report less than 300' coor'd , I went to a meeting about 1972 when the GPS unit was in a tractor trailer and the clock was in another trailer and was offered an answer in about 6 months where the point was.Is life any better, ? and those $10 dollars poles may be made by the same people that make the $100 ones, one way to check ,see if they slip? Thanks Doug

The Solio solar charger is compact (palm sized), light, only 70 bucks and is great for small stuff like a camera, Ipod, or cell. The charge is pretty good, especially relative to its small size.

You have to be patient during charging, its not super quick. It has three wings that fold on a central axis ( http://www.solio.com/v2/ ). You run a pencil through the center and aim it perpendicular to the sun. You have to keep up with the Earth's rotation, midday working the best. It also comes with a bunch of adapters for different brands of phones, usb, etc.

I bought an Explorist 600. All the bells and whistles. It continues to work great, but my enthusiasm for using electronic gadgets while hiking has faded into oblivion. My advice: buy something cheap - so you won't feel bad when you stick it in a drawer.

I've used the Brunton 2.2 solar charger on a number of trips. As someone else mentioned, charging times can be slow. One work-around that I've used is to strap the thing to the top of my pack and run the wires inside to whatever needs charging. This doesn't put the panels in the optimal position, but over 8-10 hours of walking, the battery usually gets a full recharge anyway.

I pretty much agree...walking around the wilderness with a bunch of gadgets seems silly; I'm still in the learning process with my Explorist 210, but once I'm confident that I will know how to use it if needed, don't expect to use it a lot. I decided to buy it after a desert hike where remembering which way to go at which wash became too complicated. Once I'm used to it, I can't see using it for much other than marking starting points, camps, or finding hard to locate places.

Doug, thanks for the info as to why everyone refers to their 'Garmin', at least I know it's not because of some serious flaw in other GPS's.

And Mikey, the Wal-mart $10 trekking pole has a compass on the handle; works too! 8^) And it doesn't slip, at least none of the 6 we have do. No alarm clock though 8^(

Suunto Advizor Watch $162.50 at http://SteepandCheap.com.

Things don't usually last too long at the site.

I bought a Garmin GPS for $25 at the REI attic sale. Like any toy you obsess about it, then after a couple of weeks you forget all about it. After dealing with emails, text messages, and all the techie stuff, I wanna unplug in the wilderness. However, my Ipod still manages to sneak itself into my backpack.