Handheld gps

esteemedjuju · 25-01-2010, 18:32

Hubby wants one of these for his birthday has anyone used one or knows about them we do quite a lot of walking but not much good at map reading thought one of these might be helpful

mattylad · 25-01-2010, 18:54

Stuck for a new gadget is he? lol

Check on upgrade ability of it, ensure you get one that enables you to replace the maps next year etc, and check how much the maps cost too.

Gremlin · 25-01-2010, 19:48

I doubt if a GPS will have maps on it, the normal GPS shows the co-ordinates and you read a map to see where you are, allow for the magnetic variation otherwise you will be miles off course.

A sat nav system has maps loaded on so you can see where you are but they need updating for motor car navigation but not very often.

GPS for walking over hills and dales don't have roads or footpaths on but if you keep a record of your co-ordinates every mile or so you can retrace your steps if you get lost.

Another point to remember is that even if you know the co-ordinates of a place you want to visit and enter it into a GPS it will only point you in a straight line to it so you must enter waypoints around lakes and streams etc. They are not toys.
I spent many hours at Fleetwood nautical college before I got brave enough to use one at sea, I know it's a bit different but if you are on top of Pendle in a thick mist the results are the same.

Take care.

Gremlin R.T.

accyman · 26-01-2010, 06:45

you can get ordanence maps for things like tomtom and garmin im pretty sure iv seen them knocking around the internet

as for hand held satnav altough i have an origional tomtom unit i do have tomtom installed on my nokia n95 so if you have a mobile phone with built in gps liek mine it could be cheaper to install satnav and ordanance maps into your phone

Neil · 26-01-2010, 07:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by accyman

i do have tomtom installed on my nokia n95

I have Garmin on my N95. How recent are the tomtom maps?

Studio25 · 26-01-2010, 08:33

I have an old Garmin GPSIII in the glove box of my car - it's been there for about 4 years.

When I wanted to know my lat/long on Friday (doing map reading with the cubs) I just went to the status page on TomTom.

accyman · 26-01-2010, 09:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil

I have Garmin on my N95. How recent are the tomtom maps?

about 2 years , i have the latest pocket gps camera database which is 10000000000x more acurate than tomtoms

its only my phone tomtom so im not too bothered about maps but im sure if i dug deeper i could find newer ones.Now i have the 8gb n95 i may as well put the whole world on so i can sit planning trips to faraway countries i will never visit when im bored lol