GPS help

[stephendean]

Being an absolute beginner where GPS is concerned, and my Ministry of Finance wants to buy me a GPS for my birthday. We are wondering what to get. We have loknig around at the Navman PIN570 and the iCN 320 and some of the explorist models. What we want is maps of oz of course. The ability to add places we have visited, so that we can return. 4wd trackes etc marked on them, we have a tendancy to turn down a track because it might go somewhere interesting, so we want to be able to return from where we came. So all you forum members get you collective knowledge together and overwhelm me with info - which I will just pass on to the wife . Give me your suggestions and what they can or cannot do. Then we will decide if we can afford it.

Thanks in advance

[Chris_Rogers]

for OZ the navman units will ork- get the more expensive item as it holds the enitire map of oz . the smaller cheaper one doesn't. they do not list dirt tracks so for that you would need a garmin 'PROPER' gps unit as the navman will indicate a blank screen. both items will give you exact numerical co-ordinates as well.

look for one that will let you have an external antenna. reason for this being , they will get lost if they do not have a decent line of sight to the open sky.

I have two of the units in my vans and like them.( mine are Blaupunkt though.)

[Matt]

I have a Magellan Meridan Gold Travellers Pack. It doesn't have an external antenna. but the coverage is good (I have had it drop once on twice when going through thick rainforest). The maps included in the Travellers pack include many dirt tracks, topographic of australia and a heaps of other useful info. It also so supports SD cards so you have basically bottom less maps and track points. And it floats in water (haven't tested it yet). I have found pretty good all round unit. It is extremely useful on the motorbike to and very rugged. The travellers back is worth roughly $800 when i got it 3 or so months ago.
Hopefully this helps.
Matt

[subalex]

All Navigators use the same Sensis database but that doesn't mean they are a) water or dust resistant (palm pilot type things aren't), b) able to get map updates c) able to be used out of the car d) useful during holidays with the family in towns or in the sticks 4WDing.

A few months ago I got the Garmin Quest as it was the only GPS Navigator that:
- can run on its internal battery (up to 20hrs)
- can have all of Australia loaded into it (not really necessary but that meant that I could upload all the needed maps I could ever need where I'm going in the near future)
- has a colour screen ( so you can tell the difference between land or water feature
- can get good 4WDing maps and comprehensive support for it
- can record tracks as you travel and can navigate you back along the path you came
- can be used out of the car
- and it's waterproof too (yeah, it floats too).

Since it's a navigator as well it also has all the Points of interest you can search for too just like all the other Navigators - great for looking for an emergency fuel, toilet or food stop or just finding a good place to visit wherever you are. A dedicated GPS doesn't do this and a dedicated navigator can't do all the things in the above list either so it's a good compromise - doesn't compromise on anything I think.

The only thing against it is that Garmin doesn't yet have comprehensive forest maps available for Australia BUT there are other maps that you can get for free and upload them anyway. ie "Tracks4Australia". The Magellan maps are better I think BUT they don't have a product remotely like the Quest.

GPS OZ sells them for around $830 now and they were a good $350 cheaper than anywhere else when I bought mine for $880 three months ago. http://www.gpsoz.com.au

[stephendean]

Well I ended up with the Navman PiN 570 and it is pretty good at getting around the place. Plus you can run can run software like OziExplorer instead of the software that it comes with. So you can then us very detailed maps.