If you’re looking for a portable GPS unit for your next deer hunting trip there are several features that you need to look for. You will also need to consider your own personal needs when out in the field and choose a unit whose features work best for your situation. So be sure to thoroughly research your choices and keep the following features in mind.
1. Long Battery Life – Whether you’re spending a weekend or a week in the woods deer hunting the last thing you need to worry about running out of power. Good portable GPS units will last between 15 to 25 hours on a set of batteries. Keep this in mind when deciding how many spare batteries to take on your hunting trip.
2. Internal Memory – GPS units keep track of specific spots as waypoints. These waypoints can be a bread crumb trail that leads to a good hunting spot or a collection of goof hunting areas. The more waypoints you store the more memory you will need so be sure to get a GPS with at least 14 to 25 megabytes of internal storage.
3. Weight and Portability – When you’re out in the wilderness you don’t want anything bulky weighing you down. A good portable GPS unit weighs less then 2 pounds and fits easily in a pocket.
4. WAAS Capability – You’ll definitely want a unit that has WAAS capability because this gives it an accuracy to within 3 meters. Pin pointing your location is important out in the woods because an inaccurate GPS position is a good way to losing your way.
5. Tough and Water/Weather Resistant – It’s a simple fact that any piece of outdoor equipment needs to be tough and able to withstand the rigors of getting banged around. It also needs to keep working in any and all weather conditions which can be bad during hunting season.
Using a portable GPS unit during your deer hunting trips is a great way to ensure that you stay safe in the woods and can easily find your way back to camp. Keep these important features in mind if you are considering buying such a unit and you’ll be sure to get one that does exactly what you need.
By: Andrew Bicknell
Posts Tagged ‘Capability’
Now GPS Golf
February 16th, 2010
At the time when GPS was developed, no one would have given a thought to the various areas where the system would be implemented. Even when President Reagan opened the system for public use, he would not have dreamed of a GPS golf system. The system is here and it is being accepted and increasingly used .
The complete GPS golf system provides maps and other information related to the golf course to the players. The system can also track balls which have small GPS trackers embedded in them. This means that lost balls may become history. GPS golf systems are available in various models. Digital caddies are gaining popularity. In fact in a number of courses where you can rent golf carts, you can also rent the GPS golf system.
For the people who want to purchase golf GPS system for themselves, there are a number of options. Most people would be happy with Sky Golf- Sky Caddy SG2 GPS system. The marked price of this device is just around $350. However is you know where to look and how to bargain, you can procure a new system for as low as $274 to $280. This device comes with a number of features. You get the rangefinder, charger, USB cable and a number of other odds and ends.
In case you already have a Windows Mobile based phone or Pocket PC, you are in luck. You can purchase GPS Golf Pro. This device comes with a Bluetooth equipped GPS receiver. It can interact with the phone and act as a complete GPS golf system. The marked price is $350 but the actual price is way lower. The main features include an electronic scorecard to keep track of your game, recommendations about clubs and courses and even the ability to email the scorecard.
In case you are not satisfied with either of the two products mentioned here, you should consider the Sonocaddie Golf GPS system. This is a very affordable device. Price is around $300 and you can look for discount and bargain options. The main feature of this device is its distance tracking capability. You can track the distance of water and other hazards, targets and even the distance to the green.
You can add these devices to your golf collection. A number of professional golfers are using them for their practice and training sessions. The Golf system can also be a great gift for your boss or the top brass of your company. It is highly recommended that you should check the screen so that it is easily visible outdoors. Purchase the GPS Golf System in bulk quantities and you can get discounts up to a hundred dollars per kit. Now GPS Golf.
By: Dan Compton
How to Choose the Right Bluetooth GPS Receiver
February 9th, 2010
When the first Bluetooth GPS receiver came out, honestly I thought that was something I didn’t need. Actually, I’m not one of those drivers who spends a lot of time talking on the phone. Later when I upgraded my GPS to a unit that had Bluetooth, I loved being able to talk “hands-free” so much I would never consider buying a unit without that capability.
Buying a GPS is sometimes difficult because there are so many manufacturers and they have so many products to choose from. If you’re focusing on a GPS that has Bluetooth, then you’re narrowing the field down some, but still, you have a ton of possibilities.
In this article I’m going to make the choice of the right Bluetooth GPS a little (how about a lot?) easier for you. Once you finish reading this, you’ll be ready to purchase the right unit for your needs and your budget.
One thing that helped me when I bought my unit was realizing there are three main manufacturers of GPS devices. Garmin is the industry leader with probably 70% of the market share. Tom Tom is fast catching up with great products and great prices. And Magellan certainly holds its own as one of the early pioneers with a lot of proprietary features.
I’m not going to tell you which unit I chose. I will tell you it was made by one of these three.
Let’s talk about each of these companies and their GPS’s that have Bluetooth capability.
Garmin
Garmin has a huge range of products. They have several GPS devices that have Bluetooth integration. Personally, I like their newer, sleeker nuvi line. The nuvis are replacing the StreetPilot as Garmin’s flagship line of GPS receivers.
There are several nuvis with Bluetooth. Their numbers are the 360, 370, 660, 670, 680, 760, 770, 780, and the recent arrivals the 880 and the 5000.
The 300s all have the smaller 3.5-inch screens. The main difference between the 300s and the 600s is the screen size. If you want a huge screen, try the 5000! It’s screen is a huge 5.2-inches along the diagonal.
The 600s also have what’s called FM transmission capability. That is, the sound from the GPS is routed through your car’s stereo system.
What the 700s offer above the 300s and the 600s is multi-destination routing. In other words, if you want to drive from New York to Calgary to Vancouver to San Francisco, you can enter all that information in your GPS at one time and it will calculate the best route to get you to all three places. (Unfortunately, it can’t make the drive shorter!)
Nuvis currently run from right around $200 for the 300s to $350 or so for the 700s. The 5000 is currently around $650, and the 880 runs about $1,000.
Magellan
I absolutely adore Magellan’s Maestro line! In that line, there are two GPS’s that support Bluetooth, the 3250 and the 4250. They are the same, except the 4250 has the larger 4.3-inch screen.
These devices are comparable to the Garmin nuvis. Magellan does have a proprietary thing with AAA, where they offer their Tour Book actually on the device. (You have to be a AAA member to access it.)
At the moment, the 3250 will set you back about $200. Believe me, that’s a lot of GPS for that amount of money. And the 4250 is about $250.
Tom Tom
Tom Tom is the newer kid on the block. And they have been aggressively gaining market share with great products and very aggressive pricing. The Tom Tom Go line supports Bluetooth. The Go 510 runs slightly less than $200 and the Go 920 runs between $300 and $350.
Unfortunately, no six hundred word article can tell you all you need to know about these great devices, even if you narrow it down to just the ones with Bluetooth. What you need to do now, is to get on an informative website where you can actually look at specific models and check their current prices.
By: Rick Cole
