GPS Recommendations

I was very excited about my Garmin Vist Hcx when I bought it. I wanted to use it for measuring distances and elevation changes. I found that when I went running it worked great and was pretty accurate. However, When I took it down into the Grand Canyon last year for a Rim2Rim2Rim I was disappointed.

It was terrible at keeping accurate distances. It was constantly telling me I was going farther than I was actually going. I could not understand it until I started looking at the Garmin every time I stopped. It seems that it would still be showing a slight MPH for somtimes up to a min after I had stopped. As it was pinpointing my location more accurately, it thought I was still moving. I thought I had pretty open skies for most of the trip so I could not see why it was having such a hard time "locating me".

Anyway I have never taken it on the AT because I always ditched it at the last min for a simple map and compass. I mean it IS the AT..:)

I still like the Garmin Vista Hcx and would even recommend it but I just wanted to post something about depending on it for accurate distances.

Adam

Adam, I have a theory about distance traveled and GPS's. IIRC there are 2 commons ways measure distance. The first is true straight line distance. The second is horizontal distance. When reading distance off a map we are using horizontal distance, but this distance does not account for elevation traveled so it is not true distance. I too have found my Garmin being significantly off the measured horizontal distance (map distance) when I travel across significant elevation changes (lets days 10K elevation change). I believe the Garmin is reporting true distance not horizontal distance. This would be consistent with the way your car measures miles.

When I download my data and view the elevation map it shows daily miles much lower than what the screen showed and is consistent with horizontal miles measured from a map.

I'm wondering if dropping into the Grand Canyon had you covered a lot of straight line miles which were not as far when only measured horizontally.

Maybe some GPS guru will chime in.

Jamie

My Garmin GPS 60CsX will show me travelling even when I'm stopped. This seems to be caused by errors in calculating my position. If I leave my GPS on for 8 or 10 hours in a single place (say on my kitchen table) it will show me upwards of 100 feet away from my true position on some fixes. Most fixes are within 5 or 6 feet but a few are way off

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Jamie,

Garmin recently announced the Foretrex 401, which I think is what you are looking for. It is a basic (non-mapping) GPS that has an altimeter, high-sensitivity GPS, and uses only 2 AAA batteries. I believe it is only 3oz with batteries. It is significantly smaller than the eTrex H, but uses the same screen resolution (although in a landscape orientation)

Until very recently, I exclusively used the Geko 301. It's got all the features you are looking for, is around $100 and is possibly the lightest option that offers those functions. My only problem with the unit was signal under thick canopies – it wasn't the best at that so my snowshoeing trips were problematic when I needed it for trail finding. Other than that, I used it for 4 years and found very few shortcomings.

Here is my question…can anyone recommend a lighter GPS that only shows cooridinates and will track distance/elevation traveled?

Yes, the Suunto X10

A colleague has this thing which is a bit lighter.

Probably one of the simplest and lightest option is this data logger The wintec wlp 1000

http://www.wintec.com.tw/en/product_detail.php?pro_id=77%20style=

its compact, simple, uses AAA batteries and has a small display.

hey Carlos, this one looks interesting. I wished for something like this for long. I'm not really after the market updates…

Do you have one, have you tried it? How's reception, is it equivalent to any recreational GPS we normally use? Can you select different map datums and grids? I mean, is it as useable as any other recreational GPS unit? Any drawbacks? I guess it doesn't have a "go to" function, just coordinate display

Actually, same questions for the other device mentioned above, that Holux thing… I've quickly checked the user manual but haven't found proper answers

Yes Im agree It looks promising

I find it looking for something smaller and lighter than my geck 201

Unfortunately I can´t buy everything. Several months ago I search looking for info but I can´t find a good review.

But, yesterday I discover one Spanish web shop that has this device in stock, and …… I discover that is placed in Vigo :-) (incredible)

I expect to go there this week to have a look. I asked about in its forum

http://www.impextrom.com/foro/viewtopic.php?p=2867#2867

I keep you informed :-)

There is two interesting reviews about data loggers here

Holux

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/6133

Genie

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/6138

Iñaki here there is the wintec software manual

http://wintec.com.tw/~download/support_manual/E_WinTool.pdf

Jamie: "I have a theory about distance traveled and GPS's. IIRC there are 2 commons ways measure distance. The first is true straight line distance. The second is horizontal distance. When reading distance off a map we are using horizontal distance, but this distance does not account for elevation traveled so it is not true distance. I too have found my Garmin being significantly off the measured horizontal distance (map distance) when I travel across significant elevation changes (lets days 10K elevation change). I believe the Garmin is reporting true distance not horizontal distance. This would be consistent with the way your car measures miles."

I don't believe this is the case. Someone I know contacted Garmin and supposedly their GPS's just measure 'horizontal distance' as you describe it. Supposedly the Garmin rep said if you step off a 5000 ft cliff with your GPS, the unit will read a velocity of zero even as you approach terminal velocity in the downward direction.

Doesn't look like you can change the datum unfortunately.