Latest GPS Units:
Garmin
I have the 2610 as well as the new 60CS. Both have been great. I use the
60Cs while hiking on the trails. It is a great hand held unit and using
rechargeable AA batteries helps a lot with the batteries. The screen is
glass and is quite durable.
The 2610 comes with a 128MB CF card. I bought a 1GB card and it holds
almost half of the US. I use it to download the City Navigator 6 maps for
road routing and the 128MB for Topo maps. Just turn the unit off, switch
the cards and you are in business. The maps load very quickly but you will
need the external antenna with H1. Mine will take for ever to lock on to
the satellites without the antenna. Once I mounted the antenna on top of
the light bar it is almost instantaneous. The techie at Garmin told me
that a 2GB CF card will hold (almost) all the maps. It is easy to move the
2610 from car to car as many have pointed out. But it is not "person
portable" since it does not run on batteries. Be sure to keep a couple of
extra 1AMP fuses (for a couple of bucks from any auto parts store) as the
in line fuse in cigarette lighter adapter that has the speaker built in
tends to blow.
The garmin 2610 is a better unit for off-roading as it uses the memory compact
flash which is shockproof. The newer unit, the 2620, has a built in harddrive
which would be subjected to hard knocks and jolts. Anyone who knows computers
knows a harddrive cannot take shocks without catastrophic failure. Besides,
compact flash cards are really cheap and available up to 5gb.
I have heard nothing but praise for the Garmin 2610 durability and functionality wise.
01/10/2005 - You can get the 2620 now for around $940 and the 2610 now for around
$620. I got mine from Getfeetwet (http://www.getfeetwet.com) about a year
ago for $950. Very good company to deal with.
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This is the Garmin GPS 176C. IMHO this is the best unit for my use. I had a Garmin 3+ which is a great unit. I just couldn't see the screen while driving. The 176C has a nice big screen that is clear and readable in the bright sunlight and with sunglasses on. Because of the larger screen the menu system is even better then the 3+. The unit has WAAS which Garmins fancy autorouting unit doesn't have. This GPS accepts the Garmin memory cards which will allow you to load a ton of maps. I got the 64meg module. The 176 comes with a very good mounting bracket. With the 3+ you had to buy a mount.
Skymaster external GPS antenna - $99.00 Wolff's GPS accessories