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Originally Posted by mastertakana
...Handhelds are not always very accurate, from my eexperience. Expect deviation of 5-10 meters.
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Did someone actually type this? Not very accurate, due to an error of 5-10 metres?
Look: When map and compass are being used for navigation, a deviation of 100m is acceptable. You need lessons and a whole shit-load of experience to get better than that.
To have a little screen display your exact location on this earth down to a metre (or 5, or 10) is incredible. To call that "Not Very Accurate" is taking this technology for granted, IMHO.
I never go ANYWHERE without my GPS. And spare batteries. And spare spare batteries. I am a legend amongst my friends due to my horrible navigation skills, and thus was an early adopter of the GPS technology. I sucked using a map and compass.
GPS are incredible. I use the UTM data, not the degree method that others rely on. It was how I was taught, and I am confident.
I have never had a problem with weather conditions or sattelite position with my new one (Garmin 315, if I remember correctly). I used to have the first gen garmin 3000k, and it took about 10 minutes to lock the sattelites. The one I use gets the job done in 15 seconds.
Look for durability, waterproof buttons, and long battery life. You need one that can go about 10-12 hours on a set of batteries. Yeah, these things are heavy on batteries, but knowing your exact location is priceless.
Those GPS with the fancy colours are not my style. I dunno. Kinda like the colour of your car says a lot about the person.
No, you don't need one with a map display and all that crap. You need a proper map anyway, so don't rely on a GPS readout screen to navigate for you. A paper map no more than 10 years old (for outdoors stuff) is required. I get the feeling that the map displays on GPS are quite weak, and I get nervous when someone trusts their life to an electronic screen.
Remember, the GPS tells you where you ARE. The map will tell you where you are going and the best (safest) way to get there.